Packrafting in Tasmania

Tasmania is the centre of gravity for Australian packrafting. The Western Lakes scatter thousands of tarns across the Central Plateau, linked by short carries, and a packraft that lives in a pack belongs there like nowhere else. Lake St Clair offers deep, cold, walk-in water at the end of the Overland Track. The lower Gordon moves slowly through World Heritage rainforest, stained the colour of black tea. Freycinet adds sheltered coastal corners on settled days. Then there is the Franklin, the most famous name in Australian packrafting and a committing wilderness run that a touring packraft is not built for. Cold water is the constant here. Carry a PFD, plan for weather, and tell someone where you are going. A Seeka fits the lakes, the slow rivers and the settled coast.

5 trip guides

TAS

Lake St Clair: walk-in paddling at the Overland’s end

Lake St Clair sits at the southern end of the Overland Track in Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. It is Australia's deepest lake, carved by glaciation, and it holds cold water year-round. Forested shores rise to mountain ridgelines. For walkers finishing the Overland Track, Cynthia Bay is the end. For paddlers, it is the start of a different kind of time on the water, time the lake gives slowly and on its own terms.

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TAS

Paddling Freycinet’s sheltered water

Freycinet National Park sits on Tasmania's east coast, a few hours' drive from Hobart. The Hazards define it: a wall of pink granite rising straight out of the Tasman Sea. Below them, Coles Bay is the gateway town, and beyond the peninsula lie Wineglass Bay, a string of smaller beaches and water that is clear in a way you do not expect from the sea. People come for the walking. The paddling is quieter and more conditional, and worth understanding before you put a packraft on the water.

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TAS

Paddling the lower Gordon River

The Gordon River moves slowly through western Tasmania in wide, dark sweeps, its water stained the colour of black tea by the buttongrass and rainforest catchment around it. It is broad, flat and cold, and the country around it is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, one of the largest temperate wilderness areas left in the Southern Hemisphere. Getting onto this water takes serious planning. Staying on it takes weather patience and a clear head about your own limits.

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TAS

The Franklin River and packrafts: read this first

The Franklin River is the most searched name in Australian packrafting. It is also the river a Seeka does not belong on. Better to say that at the start. If you came here looking for a packraft to run the Franklin, this guide points you somewhere better.

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TAS

The Western Lakes with a packraft

The Western Lakes sit high on Tasmania's Central Plateau, reached by unsealed roads and then on foot. Thousands of tarns scatter across open moor and dolerite country inside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, loosely grouped under names like the Nineteen Lagoons. Up there you find water in every direction, linked by short cross-country carries, with no fixed trails threading the whole of it. A packraft belongs here in a way few other craft do.

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