"A place where there is no time and nothing matters". That's the way an Austrian immigrant named Gustav Weindorfer described the almost unworldly beauty of the place he chose to live out the rest of his life, the dark myrtle forests and soaring peaks of Tasmania's Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park.

Today this place that Weindorfer said "must be a national park for the people of all time" is the jewel in Tasmania's wilderness crown, one of the island's most visited attractions. And thanks to the work of the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, many of its most thrilling features are easily accessible without having to walk for days through its 161,000 hectare expanse.

Located about 85 kilometres south of Devonport, the park is easy to get to by car or coach. Your first stop should be the new Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre, where innovative displays and helpful rangers will help you learn more about this World Heritage Area wilderness.

Open every day of the year, the Centre is home to a unique gallery that regularly presents exhibitions on wilderness themes by some of Tasmania's most celebrated artists and photographers.

Just behind the Centre is the ultimate in easy rainforest experiences; a 10 minute, fully duckboarded walk through damp myrtles, delicate mosses and the odd grazing pademelon. This stroll finishes at Pencil Pine Falls, a thundering and eminently photographic cascade. Another very easy walk begins just across the road. Called Enchanted Walk, this short trek reveals a world of lichens and sassafras alongside a gentle stream.

For splendour of a more majestic kind, drive 6 kilometres along the good but unsealed road until you arrive at Dove Lake and a million dollar view of Cradle Mountain across the water. From here, trails branch out towards the south and west.

Perhaps the best leads you along an easy, well maintained track that makes a two hour circuit of the lake and takes in the eerie beauty of the Ballroom Forest.

Like something out of a Steven Spielberg fantasy, Ballroom Forest is full of twisted gnarled tree trunks and pandani plants that resemble something dinosaurs probably nibbled for lunch. Shafts of light filter gently through the canopy overhead, while at your feet little streams flow past smooth moss-encrusted rocks. It's a place of magic.

Another rewarding and fairly easy walk begins near the old Weindorfer chalet called Waldheim (enhanced with a fascinating diorama that brings the pioneer world of 1910 to life). The track to the summit of Crater Peak involves a bit of climbing, but anyone with an average fitness can manage it in about an hour. The view from the top is inspiring. Below you are Crater Lake, Dove Lake and the rugged expanse of the park's eastern tracts.

The landscape is windswept and bleak, and in winter you'll be surrounded by metre deep snow. No matter when you're here, dress warmly and let a ranger know where you are going. This walk is, in fact, the start of the celebrated Overland Track, an 80 kilometre hike through soaring peaks and wet valleys that eventually arrives at Lake St Clair in the state's centre. You can make the 5-6 day walk independently, staying in basic huts along the way, or you can pamper yourself a bit and go with a guide from Cradle Mountain Huts.

The vast majority of the park's visitors, though, never get much past the walks around the Dove Lake carpark. But even at that, Cradle Mountain still weaves a magic spell. It would be hard to imagine another place on Australia that combines the larger than life splendour of jagged peaks and dramatic vistas with the delicate intimacy of a cool rainforest. And with so many walks requiring only an hour or less, the park is an ideal day visit for interstate visitors eager to sample the rest of Tasmania's delights too.

Lake St Clair

If you are looking for a spot in Tasmania's World Heritage Area that is ideal for some fairly easy one and two day walks, why not come to Lake St Clair ? It is very close to the State's major east - west highway, yet just ten minutes walk from the car park you are immersed in a lovely wilderness and surrounded by nature's richness.

The lake, at around 200 metres, is Australia's deepest. This year the area around the car park is being upgraded to provide visitors with better facilities, parking, a new lakeside walking track and tea rooms. Gathered about this day visitor area are plenty of wallabies just waiting for a handout (only vegetable matter like carrots and celery please). There is also a kiosk with food and souvenirs. Powered and unpowered campsites as well as cabin and bunkhouse accommodation is available within the park. For bookings phone (002) 89 1137.

Out from Lake St Clair are several top walks that anyone can do. The shortest trek begins near the ranger's office and takes you up the first 1.7 kilometres of the Overland Walking Track. Available is a free interpretative brochure telling you about the lush forest of tea trees, stringy barks and banksia. After about 25 minutes walk you arrive at the confluence of the Hugel and Cuvier Rivers.

From here you can press on to Shadow and Forgotten Lakes, both glistening glacial tarns ringed by eucalypts. Along the way you pass through a variety of landforms including rainforest patches, dry hillsides and buttongrass plains. For the first half hour of the walk you are "accompanied" by the roaring Hugel River on your left. There is a gradual climb through wet forest before you reach the plains.

Allow about 4 hours return, including some time to explore around the lakes. The camping sites at Shadow Lake, neatly tucked into the forest and boasting fabulous views of the water, must be amongst Australia's most desirable.

If you are feeling really energetic, there is a circuit track beyond the two lakes that takes you over the top of Mt Rufus, the views from which are superb. This walk will take at least seven hours and you'll need to be moderately fit to handle the steep track heading for the summit. Don't attempt this walk in bad weather - the winds will be icy and the snow impenetrable.

The other trek is more relaxing. It begins with a pleasant boat trip to Narcissus Hut at the lake's top end. From there you will walk up the Overland Track, diverting after about 90 minutes to Pine Valley. Flat all the way, the track gets a little muddy near the end, but the reward is a fine rainforest, great scenery and the impressive Cephissus Falls. In all, it should take you under 4 hours to reach Pine Valley, even with a stop or two for photos on the way.

A hint to photographers : Bring a tripod and a cable release. The shadows are always deep in this forest.

You can stay overnight at the Pine Valley Hut (fairly basic, take a sleeping bag), or turn around and come back the same day. Most people stay overnight, or make it an even longer but more rewarding outing by rejoining the Overland Track and pressing on to Harnett Falls.

If you have chosen not to take the boat to get to Narcissus Hut, you can walk there instead up the Overland Track past Watersmeet. One highlight of this five hour trek is Echo Point, which has a basic hut and some lovely views of the lake framed in dense rainforest. It is possible to make this trek into a circuit walk by returning to the car park via the Cuvier Valley Track, a fairly easy route that boasts a frontage along Lake Petrarch.

Whichever track you choose, one of your many rewards will be the majestic scenery that helped to give this place its World Heritage significance.

Unless the clouds are down very low, you'll gaze out upon the splendour of the Acropolis, Mt Gould and the Traveller Range. The lake itself has many moods from sunsplashed and tranquil to white capped, brooding and angry.

The rainforest found in such profusion here offers a myriad of pleasures; a touch of yellow coral fungus, the deep green of the ferns, the brilliant reds and oranges in the fagus as it changes colour in late April and early May. Like most forests, this one is best appreciated on overcast or drizzly days. Too much sunshine will ruin your pictures of it and destroy the enchanting atmosphere of dampness and mystery.

But a brilliant cloudless day is ideal if you want to relax along the shores of the lakes and tarns watching the sunlight sparkle on the water. At dawn and dusk on such days, it is a pleasure to sit quietly and watch the wallabies and wombats come out to graze, utterly oblivious to your presence.

For further information contact the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre on (004) 92 1133.

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