Cradle Mountain

Cradle Mountain is a locality and mountain in the Central Highlands region of the Australian state of Tasmania. The mountain is situated in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park.

At 1,545 metres (5,069 ft) above sea level, it is the sixth-highest mountain in Tasmania.The locality of Cradle Mountain is a rural locality in the local government areas of Meander Valley, Kentish and West Coast in the Launceston and North-west and west local government regions of Tasmania. The locality is about 109 kilometres (68 mi) west of the town of Westbury. The 2016 census has a population of 66 for the state suburb of Cradle Mountain. Cradle Mountain was gazetted as a locality in 1966. Cradle Mountain (the mountain) occupies a small area in the north-west of the locality, which occupies the northern half of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. Route C132 (Cradle Mountain Road / Dove Lake Road) enters from the north and runs south to Dove Lake, where it ends.

Cradle Mountain sits between the Big River and Northern Tasmanian Aboriginal nations. Aboriginal Tasmanians were persecuted by the European settlers upon their arrival, and the last free Aboriginals in the area were seen just south of Cradle Mountain in 1836.

Cradle Mountain is formed by an igneous dolerite sill that intruded the Permian-Jurassic sedimentary layers, cooling to form a broad hard layer. Subsequent erosion from Pleistocene glaciation left caps of dolerite at Cradle Mountain, and surrounding peaks.

The area around the mountain has a large number of day walks, as well as being one terminus of the Overland Track. The Overland Track winds through a variety of landscapes to its opposite end—80.8 kilometres (50.2 mi) to the south—at Lake St Clair, Australia's deepest lake.The mountain is climbed by walkers virtually year round. It is a strenuous return hike from the Dove Lake car park with a recommended allotted time of six-and-a-half hours. The climb up the rocky part of the mountain involves scrambling over large boulders for several hundred metres. The entire climb is exposed to any bad weather that may arrive quickly, while climbing the upper slopes in winter can be dangerous due to slick ice on the rocks and heavy snow covering holes and other hazards. From the summit, there are views of Dove Lake, Barn Bluff and Mount Ossa

The area has a hemiboreal, subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc) with cool summers and cold, very snowy winters; with heavy precipitation throughout the year. Climate data are sourced from an altitude of 903 metres (2,963 ft) AMSL on the exposed western slopes. It receives an average of 47.9 snowy days annually.

The mountain rises above the glacially formed Dove Lake (934 metres [3,064 ft]), Lake Wilks and Crater Lake. The mountain has four named summits. In order of height they are Cradle Mountain (1,545 m [5,069 ft]), Smithies Peak (1,527 m [5,010 ft]), Weindorfers Tower (1,459 metres [4,787 ft]) and Little Horn (1,355 m [4,446 ft]).The mountain itself is named after its resemblance to a gold-mining cradle.