Attraction No published rule Community reported, dog friendly

Mount Paris Dam

Derby, TAS

A breached 1930s tin mining dam wall standing in wet forest on the Cascade River, a hundred metres or so below a small gravel car park, with no land manager rule published about dogs.

The Guide's rating

Directions

The rules, in short

Before you go

One north east Tasmanian walking blog counts this among four dog friendly short walks in the region and describes stopping here with their dog, which is the only public account found that addresses dogs at the site at all. Other visitor write ups and public trail listings treat it as an ordinary open bush site and do not raise the question either way. No land manager has published a position, so dogs here are something visitors report doing, not something any authority has authorised.

No page or reported sign sets a rule. The site is unfenced above a breached concrete wall with drops and fast water below, and Tasmanian law expects effective control in a public place, so a lead is the obvious choice whatever is or is not posted. Nobody has reported signage about dogs at the car park.

When: Any time
Cost: Free
The walk: Easy, about 100 metres down to the wall, then rough informal riverside paths

Worth knowing before you arrive

Access is several kilometres of gravel road and parking is reported to fit only a few cars.
The wall is an unfenced concrete structure with blasted openings, drops and fast water below.
Concrete and rock go slick with moss after rain.
Informal crossings include a plank that one track notes writer called easy with a walking stick and not so easy without.
Channels that look dry can carry water after rain.
No toilets, bins or drinking water, so carry dog waste out.
Snakes are active in the warmer months in this rainforest country.
The site is remote enough that mobile coverage should not be relied on.

About Mount Paris Dam

The wall is a pillar and slab concrete structure around 250 metres long and up to sixteen metres high, built largely by hand in the mid 1930s to hold water for the Mount Paris tin mine. The mine closed in 1970 and in 1985 slots were blasted through the wall so the Cascade River could run freely again, leaving a long grey rampart in rainforest with water pouring through the gaps. From the car park it is a short descent to the wall, after which the paths spread into a loose network along the river rather than a single marked route. Moss, ferns and small cascades make this a place to potter about rather than a walk with a destination.

Which dogs it suits

Small Medium Large Giant

A genuinely striking place, short enough to suit almost any dog, shaded and cool in summer, and unusual enough to be worth the detour. Held back by a long gravel approach, very limited parking, an unfenced structure with drops and fast water that demands a lead and attention, no facilities at all, and dog evidence resting on a single walking blog.

What is there

Parking
Information board

Best for

short stops on a drive photography history minded visitors cool shaded summer stops

What members say

out of 5 from No member reviews yet Loading reviews

Welcome

Space

Amenities

Safety

Members visited with

How dog friendly was it? required

Anything more specific? optional

Welcome

Did staff and other visitors make you feel your dog belonged there?

Space

Was there room for a dog without being underfoot?

Amenities

Water, shade, somewhere to tie up, bins for bags.

Safety

Traffic, fencing, other dogs, hazards underfoot.

Which size dogs did you bring?

What should other people know? When did you visit?

Nobody has reviewed this yet

If you have been here with your dog, you know something the official page does not say. Be the first to write it down.

See it on the big map

The details

Address: Mount Paris Dam Road, Derby TAS 7264. The road leaves the Tasman Highway near Weldborough and runs several kilometres of gravel to a small car park above the dam.
Coordinates: -41.219, 147.854

Community reported, dog friendly

This one rests on 5 community reports. We also read 4 official pages covering this place, and none of them mentions dogs here either way. It may well be right, but nobody official has confirmed it. Check before you travel.

5 sources

Community Four Dog-Friendly Walks in North East Tasmania, Dodgy Knees Confirms: A walking blog that includes Mount Paris Dam among four walks it recommends for dogs in the north east and describes the visit with the writers' own dog, and gives the distances from Branxholm and Weldborough and the yellow painted trees marking the turn. It cites no authority and states no official policy.
Community Walking around Mount Paris Dam, Cowirrie Commentary Confirms: Independent notes on the small car park at the end of Mount Paris Dam Road, the short easy descent to the wall, the loose network of paths rather than one route, the sixteen metre wall with four slots cut through it, the plank river crossing and seasonal flooding of dry channels. It says nothing about dogs.
Community A Paris Hidden In The Rainforest, Tassie4Kids Confirms: Family visitor account giving the gravel access route and its length, the parking point beyond which the track is four wheel drive only, the short walk to the structure, the swimming hole downstream and the presence of wallabies, wombats and snakes in warmer months. It contains no mention of dogs or pets.
Community Mount Paris Dam Walk, AllTrails Confirms: Public user contributed listing recording a short easy route of roughly half a kilometre at the site with reviews from visitors, which supports that the site is open and regularly visited. The page returned a 403 to direct fetching during this check, so it is cited only for existence and rough length as shown in search listings, not for any dog tag.
Community OpenStreetMap, Mount Paris Dam Confirms: Named mapping of the dam itself at -41.21895, 147.85403 in the locality of Derby, which is how the pin was placed.

Also checked, and silent on dogs

Tracks and Trails, Dorset Council Nothing about dogs. Read in full as a silence check. Its list of fourteen municipal tracks does not include Mount Paris Dam, and the page does not mention dogs, pets or leads anywhere.
Visiting land we manage, Sustainable Timber Tasmania Nothing about dogs. This is the land manager's visitor rules page for Permanent Timber Production Zone Land, the tenure this site sits on. It covers fires, vehicles, gates, horse riding, waste and safety and never mentions dogs or pets.
Dogs in parks, Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania Does not cover this site. It states dogs are generally not allowed in Tasmania's national parks and reserves and names the reserve exceptions. Mount Paris Dam is not on reserved land, so the page neither permits nor prohibits anything here. Cited to show the ban was checked.
LIST Land Tenure layer, Land Tasmania Land tenure only, not a dog rule. Queried at two points at the dam, it returns Permanent Timber Production Zone Land under the Forest Management Act, establishing that the site is state forest and not a national park or a Parks and Wildlife reserve.

What we could not confirm

No authority addresses dogs here at all. The Dorset Council tracks and trails page does not list the site and mentions dogs nowhere on it. The council's declared dog areas are at Bridport, Legerwood, Scottsdale and council cemeteries, not here. The land is Permanent Timber Production Zone Land, which makes Sustainable Timber Tasmania the manager, and its visiting land we manage page covers vehicles, fires, gates, horses, waste and safety without mentioning dogs or pets. The Parks and Wildlife dogs in parks page does not reach the site because it is not reserved land. The community evidence is thinner here than at Branxholm and I want to be plain about it. I found one walking blog that explicitly brought a dog, and no forum thread, club report or readable review that mentions dogs, and I could not open the AllTrails or TripAdvisor listings to see whether reviewers mention them. I also could not confirm whether the information board at the dam says anything about dogs, or whether the informal riverside paths beyond the first descent are manageable with a dog on a lead.

Last checked 20 September 2026. Rules change, and seasonal beach rules change twice a year, so check with the land manager or the venue before you travel.

Know better?

Rules change and pages go stale. If you have been, tell us and the next person benefits.

Corrections need an account, so we can come back to you if the detail is unclear.

Thank you, that is with us.

We check corrections against the source before changing anything, so it may take a few days.

Mount Paris Dam

Before you go

Worth knowing before you arrive

About Mount Paris Dam

Which dogs it suits

What is there

Best for

What members say

Nobody has reviewed this yet

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