Painted Cliffs Walk

Easy

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A 4.3km return, grade 3 coastal walk (1-2 hours) from Darlington to sandstone cliffs patterned by iron-oxide staining, per Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

0.25 km

Est. time

5 min

Elevation gain

13 m

Route type

Out & back

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Maria Island National Park, Darlington, Maria Island, TAS. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

Tracks & plans

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Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Tasmanian devil

Sarcophilus harrisii

IUCN Endangered; Vulnerable under Tasmania's Threatened Species Protection Act▾

IUCN Endangered; Vulnerable under Tasmania's Threatened Species Protection Act

The Tasmanian devil is a stocky carnivorous marsupial found in the wild only in Tasmania, and became the world's largest living carnivorous marsupial after the thylacine's extinction. Since the late 1990s, devil facial tumour disease has wiped out more than 80% of the wild population.

How to spot it

Black-furred, dog-sized, with a distinctively large head and (in most individuals) an irregular white patch across the chest or rump. Almost entirely nocturnal, so a daytime sighting is unlikely — listen instead for the harsh screeching and growling calls made around a carcass at night, audible well before any animal is seen.

Family Dasyuridae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: JJ Harrison (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Common wombat

Vombatus ursinus

IUCN Least Concern - common but iconic▾

IUCN Least Concern - common but iconic

A sturdy, ground-dwelling burrowing marsupial found across south-eastern Australia including Tasmania, with an isolated northernmost population in the granite country of the Queensland-NSW border. It digs extensive tunnel systems 2-20 metres long and is mostly active at dusk and night.

How to spot it

Low, heavy-set body up to 1.2m and 35kg on the mainland (smaller in Tasmania), small eyes and ears, large bare nose, and a rolling waddling gait. Look for large rectangular burrow entrances and cubed scat left as territory markers on rocks and logs - a reliable sign even when the animal itself is denned up during the day.

Family Vombatidae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: JJ Harrison (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Swift Parrot

Lathamus discolor

IUCN Critically Endangered; EPBC-listed Endangered▾

IUCN Critically Endangered; EPBC-listed Endangered

The swift parrot breeds only in Tasmania's blue gum forests over summer before migrating across Bass Strait to winter in mainland box-ironbark woodlands of Victoria and New South Wales. With an estimated 300-500 birds left, it is threatened both by loss of old-growth breeding forest and by predation from introduced sugar gliders on nesting females and chicks.

How to spot it

A small (25cm), fast-flying parrot with long swept-back wings and a long tapering tail - built for speed, not manoeuvring. Bright green overall with a red face, chin and shoulder patch and a blue-tinged crown. Told apart from lorikeets by its swift, direct flight (hence the name) and shrill, chattering in-flight calls. In Tasmania, look and listen for them high in flowering blue gum canopy from September to February.

Family Psittaculidae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: Charles J. Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons