Yesterday a website designed to communicate the features of the improved Three Capes Track was launched, allowing visitors to begin booking their place ahead of the walking track’s official opening in December this year.
The ongoing upgrades and maintenance to the area has previously been hailed as the ‘largest and most ambitious track project’ that the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service has yet undertaken.
The resulting track is 46 kilometres long and includes Cape Pillar and Cape Hauy, a region that is home to the Australia’s tallest sea cliffs.
Opened officially yesterday, the track’s website has already taken some more than 270 bookings (at the time of writing).
“Not only will this walk deliver an unforgettable wilderness experience for visitors, it will deliver significant economic benefits for the state, including creating almost 280 jobs and generating more than $16 million in spending,” said Tasmania’s minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage, Matthew Groom. “On the Tasman Peninsula alone, the track will generate $1 million a year and create 44 jobs. This is in addition to the 40 jobs created throughout the track’s construction.”
Visitors to the track will begin their journey with a Pennicott Wilderness Journeys cruise departing from the World Heritage-listed Port Arthur Historic Site.
Meanwhile, the track and hut infrastructure that is now in its final stages of completion is said to be able to accommodate up to 48 walkers at any given time, hence the need for a regimented booking system.
While the improvements to the track has elicited mixed reactions, both Tourism Tasmania and Parks and Wildlife hope that the location of the site and its accommodating features means that it will quickly become equally, if not more popular than the Overland Track (which drew 8,000 walkers last year alone).