Bushwalk Australia

Heading down to Tassie, arriving in Devonport on 1 Jan 2023, and we have to be in Hobart on 3rd Jan for prior booking.

Was looking for a great spot to chill out for that couple of nights. I was intially thinking of heading over the Highland Lakes Way ( A5) as last time we went through there we really just stopped at pine lake and lookouts - passing through. However there seems to be very limited info on anything in the area (Central Plateau conservation area) so thinking it might not be the nicest place to spend this time? Lake Augusta looks accessible but finding it hard to find info on campsites there or walks that woudl be worthwhile in that region.

We'll have our hiking gear but not really looking for a long hike, more interested in remote, quiet campsites close to the car and daywalks around 10-15km. We don't have a 4WD so ned to be accessible by foot or 2WD.
Hoping you might have some suggestions - even if somewhere completely different! I was avoiding the more popular areas ( Cradle, WoJ, Meander, Liffey) as I expect they'll be nuts that time of year. but open to any comments!

Note that we are heading off to do 8 days frankin river from hobart, and once back we are hoping to head down south to Cockle Creek maybe walk the last/first section of SCT, before spending a week meandering around from there, Hastings Caves (Adamsons falls, Duckhole crreek)and Hartz NP so saving south for afterwards - weather depending. I have heaps of ideas for that section already but if there is somtehing you reckon is unmissable down there I'd take suggestions there too

Thansk in advance!

If the weather is good, you could try the campsites at Trial Harbour.
Mix of walks within a short drive.
Explore the north coastline or the start of Ocean Beach to the south.
Mt Amos, Lake Cumberland along the old 4WD road, Mt Murchison or Mt Tyndall, Montezuma Falls, Mt Farrell plus.....

See Stepscape for a comprehensive list of day walks in Tasmania
https://www.cowirrie.com/stepscape/

Zoom in on an area you want to go through. The pins indicate car parks that you can walk form. Click on the pin to see a list of walks from there.

The website does not replace guidebooks, but tells you where to find more information (book or website), and usually has a brief comment to let you know what you might find.

Use the search option to find the type of features you are interested in. And in Attributes you can set a distance limiter to only see walks within the range you want.

Augusta is a great area but there are limited facilities. While there are some small camping areas, the only toilet is at the Augusta Dam boat ramp; elsewhere is cathole country. But there are some good tracked and untracked walks, including Wild Dog, Rats Castle, Split Rock (all untracked), Lakes Fanny and/or Antimony (from Lake Ada), Lakes Flora and O'Dell, Tin Hut and Blue Lagoon. The walk across the dry part of the lake bed via Pillans Track is worth doing if it's open - you can go as far as Lake Pillans or Lake Field and there's an easy off-track walk up Little Split from Allisons Hut.
All of that can also be done from a basecamp on the shores of yingina/Great Lake.

But finding a quiet car camp area at New Years is mostly a lot of wishful thinking. People will be out everywhere.

If you're driving through areas that have been logged in the past, you can often drive up some of those spur roads and find places to car camp and have it to yourself. Obviously there'll be no facilities or water, etc, but it could be an option for you. Although as I write this comment, I can't think of many plantations in that Highland Lakes area, so my suggestion might not even be possible. Maybe on some of the spur roads around Liffey Falls? Or potentially the road into Waddamana (C178), but there's also a lot of privately owned land in that area which you'd want to avoid camping on without permission.

Thanks NNW - some great ideas there. Checking out Stepscape too has given me some extra leads.

Now that I have some names and sites to research, I'll do some more research on those areas as it looks like there are def. some interesting walks around Central Plateau. I'm sure we could find somewhere to pop up a tent for a night or 2