Cradle MountainCanyons

Anthony O'Hern and Tim Trevaskis, both working river guides, started Cradle Mountain Canyons together in 2010, and both still run it. It remains Tasmania's first and only canyoning and packrafting company, taking clients into Dove Canyon, Lost World Canyon, Phoenix Gorge and Machinery Canyon inside the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, plus packrafting at Alum Cliffs and kayak trips on Dove Lake in handcrafted King Billy pine kayaks. The season runs November through April, when the water and weather allow it. O'Hern and Trevaskis describe their guides as "the backbone of our little enterprise," a small team of qualified outdoor professionals rather than a large operation, and market the trips explicitly as small-group tours. The company also runs a Swift Water Canyoning course for people wanting to build the skills themselves rather than only follow a guide. More than a decade after two river guides waded into a gap in the market, Cradle Mountain Canyons is still the only operator running commercial canyoning in this pocket of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area — a genuine first, not a marketing claim.