Australia
Walls of Jerusalem
An alpine plateau of pencil pines and glacial tarns named by trappers who found paradise.
The track ends at a plateau of pencil pines and glacial tarns ringed by dolerite columns that someone — trapper, dreamer, or both — named after the Holy City. Lake Salome reflects perfectly on still mornings. The pencil pines grow one centimetre per year. Some trunks are over a thousand years old.
Walls of Jerusalem National Park in Tasmania's Central Highlands is an alpine wilderness of glacial tarns, pencil-pine forests, and dolerite peaks. The park is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area — one of the last temperate wilderness zones on Earth. Pencil pines (Athrotaxis cupressoides) are endemic to Tasmania, and the specimens here are among the oldest — some trees growing today germinated before the Norman Conquest. The park has no huts, no bridges, and minimal signage beyond the trailhead — walkers carry all supplies and navigate by map and compass. Lake Salome, Jerusalem Lake, and the Pool of Bethesda are glacial tarns named by the fur trappers who first visited the plateau in the 1830s.
Solo
Self-sufficient alpine walking among thousand-year-old pencil pines — the Walls of Jerusalem is Tasmania's most demanding and rewarding solo bushwalk.
Friends
Multi-day alpine camping with no infrastructure — the Walls demand self-reliance and reward groups that navigate, carry, and endure together.
- An alpine plateau of glacial tarns and pencil pines named by trappers who compared it to the Holy City.
- The pencil pines here grow only one centimetre per year — some trunks are over a thousand years old.
- No huts, no bridges, no signs beyond the trailhead — the park demands self-sufficiency.
- Lake Salome sits in a cirque of dolerite columns that reflect perfectly on still mornings.
Dehydrated trail meals that taste like Michelin stars after eight hours of walking through alpine wilderness.
Mole Creek on the way out — Tasmanian honey ice cream and leatherwood-flavoured everything.
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