Mt Farrell and Lake Mackintosh

On Sunday the 22nd of May 2022, I set out to climb Mt Farrell, near Tullah on Tasmania’s west coast. I’d been impressed by the amazing view of Lake Mackintosh from the track as shown on the Tracks Less Travelled blog, and the forecast was for sunny skies, however on the day we we ended up with a cloudy / foggy morning.

All up, I took 4 hours to do the (approx 8km) return trip to the summit, although this included lots of breaks for photos, etc. We didn’t do the side trip to Lake Herbert, so I’m not sure how much time would be required to add this on.

Location

The hike starts from the main road through Tullah—the Murchisson Highway—at the northern end of the town, and is clearly signposted. AllTrails has a good map of the route.

The Track

There is a small car park on the side of the Murchisson Highway at the start of the track. From the car park, a shelter and sign marks the start of the track, which is briefly open, before entering forest.

After about 2km you leave the forest for button grass, with an initial bit of a climb up to the ridge line.

Once up on the ridge, there are intermittent climbs leading to the summit.

The final push up to the summit is marked by an arrow nailed into the rock.

After climbing this, and a short scramble along the ridge, the summit trig point is reached.

Thankfully, after we reached the summit, the cloud did start to lift, and we finally got some views of Lake Mackintosh, which had been hidden from us on the way up.