Western Arthurs booking and registration guide

There's no release day. Registration runs on a rolling calendar and PWS opens dates up to one year in advance, so each date becomes available about a year out and stays open until its 12 places are gone. PWS doesn't set a registration season for the range: if you're camping overnight, you register, whenever you go.

Twelve places a day doesn't take long to fill, and PWS's own advice is blunt: "register early to avoid missing out". The range also asks for a weather window, so the dates people want tend to cluster in the same few summer weeks.

A greyed-out date isn't always a full one. PWS says dates can be unavailable because of track closures, because departures are limited to certain days, or because the date isn't open yet. Check the PWS alerts page before you write a date off.

1. Make a walker registration account. It's separate from any parks pass account, and your parks pass login won't work. Sign up with email (verify the link, set a password) or with Google or Facebook. Email logins also need a verification code sent to your inbox each time.
2. Open the Western Arthur Range Traverse calendar. Log in, choose "Register your walk", pick the Western Arthur Range Traverse and click "Register now". The calendar shows how many places are left each day, flagged as many, few or none.
3. Pick a start date for the whole party. Choose the day, select the number of walkers from the drop-down, and enter contact details (name, email, phone and postcode). PWS recommends groups of 6 and caps them at 8, and asks bigger parties to stagger departures by 15 minutes. Larger groups, clubs, schools and commercial operators go through the group registration enquiry form instead.
4. Register the trip you'll actually walk. Partial trips need registering too. PWS puts the full traverse at 5 to 7 days and an out-and-back to Lake Cygnus or Lake Oberon at 3 to 4. The maximum stay is 12 nights, which leaves room for the weather days the range is famous for.
5. Buy your parks pass and sign the logbook. PWS wants the logbook at the trailhead filled in as well as the online registration, and you sign out at the end.

PWS's suggested itinerary runs from the Huon Campground at Scotts Peak across the Arthur Plains to Junction Creek, up Alpha Moraine onto the range, then along the crest via Lake Cygnus, Lake Oberon, High Moor and Haven Lake, down Kappa Moraine and back across the plains. The section after Lake Oberon is where it gets "significantly harder and more dangerous", with pack-hauling, intermittent cairns and scarce water, and PWS says you may need 20 m of rope to haul packs. The Huon Campground is 81 km west of Mount Field on the Scotts Peak Road via Maydena, with no fuel past Maydena and no public transport.

Registration itself is free. You do need a valid parks pass for Southwest National Park. Prices are in AUD as listed by PWS at the time of writing (November 2026); they're reviewed annually by CPI, so check the parks pass page before you buy.

A week on the range outlasts a Daily Pass, so a one-off trip usually means the Holiday Pass. Children under 5 are free.

Changing your date. Log in, go to "view my registrations" and click "edit". You can move to a new date if it has space, and update walker numbers and details. Going from a party of four to a party of six only works if the date has two more places.

Cancelling. Click "cancel" in "view my registrations" and confirm. PWS asks walkers not to sit on registrations they won't use, and if you cancel by mistake you'll need to register again, if there's still room.

Weather. PWS's advice is that if a severe weather warning or bushwalker weather alert is out before you start, you should cancel and register for another time. On a range where the crest is "very exposed to the weather" and the hardest sections should "only be completed in fair weather", that advice gets taken, and every cancelled party hands its places back.

PWS doesn't run a waitlist. Cancelled or moved registrations go straight back onto the calendar, and with only 12 places a day, one party of four dropping out can be a third of a date. Western Arthurs plans are fragile: a forecast turns, someone in the group isn't ready, the trip gets pushed to next summer. Each of those frees places with no announcement.

The catch is that someone has to be looking at the right moment. Spotbagger does the looking. Set a watch on the Western Arthurs for your start date and party size, and we check the PWS registration calendar often and tell you the moment the date has room for your whole group. You register yourself on the PWS site, while the places are still there.

If you can be flexible, widen the watch to a few start dates around your preferred one. And if the range is full right through your window, the neighbouring Mount Anne circuit and the Eastern Arthurs sit on the same registration system. Our guide to Tasmania's capped wilderness walks covers how they compare.

Do you need to book the Western Arthurs?

Yes, if you're camping overnight. Every walker needs a PWS walker registration for their start date, including parties doing only part of the traverse, and each date is capped at 12 departures. You also need a parks pass.

How many people can start the Western Arthurs each day?

Twelve independent walkers. Within that, PWS recommends groups of 6 and caps them at 8, so two full-size groups can take a date almost on their own.

How much does the Western Arthurs cost?

Registration is free, so the main cost is park entry. At the time of writing a Holiday Pass, covering up to two months, is $98.35 per vehicle or $49.20 per person on foot or by bus. Food, gear, a PLB and the TASMAP Western Arthur map PWS recommends are extra.

Which direction do you walk the Western Arthurs?

PWS's suggested itinerary climbs Alpha Moraine first and comes down Kappa Moraine, passing Lake Cygnus, Lake Oberon, High Moor and Haven Lake in that order. Registration is for a start date, not a direction, and the walk notes call it a suggestion rather than a rule.

Is there a waitlist for the Western Arthurs?

No. Cancelled places go straight back on the calendar for whoever's looking, which is why a watch on your date is the most reliable way to catch one.