“Hi, I'm Shannon, during the summer of 2011 as a bursary student with Forestry Tasmania, I took the challenge to visit Forestry Tamania's 52 visitor sites.
Hardings Falls is located along McKay’s Track (or the ‘M’ road) past Meetus Falls in the Lake Leake area. I personally wouldn’t take a car in, but a 4WD as the road gets quite rough in places due to the recent heavy rains. It takes an hour to get here, and you will go past a t-section which you just continue straight through until you see the sign indicating Hardings Falls, and you turn right here.
There are toilets and picnic facilities located at the car park; however I would recommend that you bring your own toilet paper. This is a lovely spot, and a walk will take you through the dry forest to the waterfall. The forest here is predominantly eucalyptus however; this area is home to two threatened flora species, the yellow flowered bush pea and Apsley heath which are dotted along the walk. You can get to the base of the waterfall, but the path is very rocky and slippery in areas so I would definitely wear decent walking shoes with good grip. There are also different platforms in the forms of rocks which will give you a look out to the falls.
To get back, you can either go the way you came, or follow the river loop track which walks down alongside Swan River (I think it’s called) which is the start of Hardings Falls. This track is quite narrow and some trees have fallen in spots so you have to manoeuver your way around them. This track eventually joins up with the track down to the falls and then guides you back out to the car park.
To get back out, you can either head back toward Lake Leake on the gravel road, or there is another road which is 28km long and leads back to the Tasman Highway. I chose to go back the way I came, despite being the longer option at about 40km because I have no 4WD experience and didn’t want to risk getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere for the night.
If you turn right when you get back to McKay’s Road it does eventually leave to Fingal and Mt Puzzler Forest Reserve, however, unlucky for me I drove and was sure I was only about 3km from Mt Puzzler when the road comes to a dead end because it has been closed due to maintenance from damage due to the heavy rains. Oh well, back to Lake Leake it was and then a stop in Campbell Town for a snack before shooting back down the Midlands Highway and back to Hobart.
GPS Coordinates :
LAT : 41°50'56.80"S
LON : 148° 5'56.38"E
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52 Places to Visit
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