Seventeen Service Tasmania maps are needed to show the entire 215 kilometres or so length of the Derwent River.

These maps and Google Earth maps are all out of date (most of the ‘current’ Service Tasmania maps are dated in the 1980s – only 8 were published this century) and fail to show the tracks and roads that now exist. In addition, they fail to show more recent land use, such as plantation forests, which can impede or side track any walking excursion.  I am so grateful for my wonderful small plane flight along the Derwent River from the mouth to the source and return.  The photos taken during that trip were a great boon and have helped in the planning of my walking routes.

So what does the river look like from mouth to source? The following maps (created using the Listmap service) are ordered sequentially from the source to the mouth so you can run your eyes down the images and imagine the Derwent River flowing out to sea.  In moving through these maps, you will see how the river changes direction dramatically and therefore you may understand why, from time to time, I could refer to the east or south or north or west of the river.

The overview map below pinpoints the source of the Derwent River and pinpoints the two sides of the mouth where the River enters Storm Bay before the sea.  Long term blog readers know that I walked from eastern side of the mouth to the western side of the mouth via the Bridgewater Bridge before returning to the bridge and continuing the walk inland.

 

On my blog home page, between menu items HOME and USEFUL ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, I have created another page with these maps but including written information about each in terms of my walk. In this post, I simply wanted you to be able to visualise the Derwent River and my walk in the simplest way.

Be aware that, if you want to dig deeper for further information about the specifics of my walks in the different sections of the River, you can use the Search box on my blog’s Home page (on the right hand edge). Simply add in a location or idea, click enter and up should come all the blog posts about that place or idea.

Please note some information has not been posted and will never be posted because it relates to properties along the River between Gretna and Lake Repulse Dam – I have promised some landowners I will not provide information or photographs which indicate I have been on their properties.  I feel your frustration about these ‘gaps’ in my posts because I have some exceptional photos, information I could share and stories I would love to tell. But I am happy to honour my promises.  I feel privileged to have been given access.

For newer blog readers who feel like they might follow in my footsteps, please be aware there are no walking tracks between the Bridgewater Bridge and the source of the Derwent River at St Clair Lagoon. I do not recommend others follow me except around the Greater Hobart Area where, for most of the time, formal walking tracks have been built by local government. One of the reasons not to continue past Bridgewater Bridge is that walking on the main roads is extremely hazardous – I cannot recommend it. Also, please note that after New Norfolk few public roads are sufficiently close to the River.  In addition and perhaps most importantly, all the country between New Norfolk and the source of the River is owned privately, by corporations or by the Tasmanian government.  Determining who the landowners are, researching their contact details, and asking for permission to cross their land is a slow process and not all will grant access.

On this basis, I hope my photographs and stories (more still to be written) will be sufficient for you to enjoy the Derwent between New Norfolk and the source.  However, where you can use public roads to access specific points such as St Clair Lagoon, Derwent Bridge, Butlers Gorge and parts of Tarraleah Canal number 1, Wayatinah Power Station, Lake Repulse Power Station, Dawsons Road across Meadowbank Lake, and next to the Bushy Park sports oval, I recommend you make the journey. It will be worthwhile.