Walls of Jerusalem

A glaciated alpine basin of dolerite peaks and pencil pines on Tasmania's Central Plateau

Two hikers with backpacks beside an alpine tarn below a pale dolerite peak, ringed by pencil pines and golden buttongrass in the Walls of Jerusalem

Region: Walls of Jerusalem National Park
Length: ~16 km return (base camp)
Duration: 2–3 days
High point: King Davids Peak 1,499 m
Daily departures: 36 max
Registration: Required (free, PWS)

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About the walk

The Walls of Jerusalem is a glaciated alpine basin high on Tasmania's Central Plateau, inside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Nineteenth-century visitors gave its dolerite ramparts and gateways biblical names that stuck: Herods Gate and Damascus Gate open the basin, Solomons Throne and King Davids Peak crown it, and the Pool of Bethesda and Lake Salome sit in the heart of the walls. It is the only true alpine national park in Tasmania with no public road running into it, so every visit is walked in.

Most parties base-camp inside the basin and day-walk the peaks and lakes, rather than carrying a full pack over the tops. Strong walkers manage the Walls in a long single day, but the forests of ancient pencil pine, the cushion-plant meadows and the light on the dolerite reward two or three days far more.

Permits and the booking situation

Overnight walkers must hold a free PWS walker registration for the night they start, on top of a Tasmanian Parks pass. The registration caps daily departures at 36, and on the busy summer and Easter dates that cap fills.

Full rarely means full for long. Plans change, parties shrink, and cancelled registrations quietly free places back up, often days out from the date you want. Spotbagger watches the PWS registration page for the Walls of Jerusalem often and alerts you the moment a start date opens up for your whole party, so you are not refreshing the booking site yourself.

Seasons and conditions

The basin sits around 1,200 to 1,500 metres, and the weather is alpine all year. December to April is the usual walking window, with the longest days and the best chance of settled spells. Even then, snow can fall in any month, the tarns hold cold long into summer, and the exposed climb onto the plateau ices up in the shoulder seasons. Carry for sudden wind, rain and cloud whatever the forecast says.

Camps and huts

Wild Dog Creek is the main campsite, about two and a half hours up from the car park, with timber tent platforms and a composting toilet. It makes the natural base for exploring the walls. Dixons Kingdom, deeper in among the pencil pines, has a historic trappers hut that is heritage-listed and kept for emergency shelter only, so camp nearby rather than in it. The whole park is fuel-stove only: there are no campfires, which protects the slow-growing pines that do not come back in a human lifetime once burnt.

Gear

Bring a free-standing tent that sits on a platform, warm layers and full waterproofs, a fuel stove, and the means to navigate in cloud. Treat or carry water, and add boot spikes for icy paths if you are walking the shoulder seasons when the climb in can be frozen.

Getting there

The Walls of Jerusalem car park is off Mersey Forest Road near Lake Rowallan, roughly an hour and a half to two hours by road from Launceston, Deloraine or Mole Creek. There is no public transport to the trailhead, so drive or arrange a shuttle. The walk opens with a steep climb past Trappers Hut and the Solomons Jewels before the country levels onto the plateau.

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