Currambene Creek Falls and Parma Creek Falls, The Falls Picnic Reserve

Currambene and Parma Creeks meet by falling into a waterhole which drains into a tidal estuary close to the Pacific Ocean. Here, the sisters have crafted an amphitheater of waterfalls, potholes and overhang caves.

When Currambene Creek Falls, light flow

The creeks have different catchments, so it is not unusual to arrive to find one set of falls dancing while the other dreams. Different catchments and topography mean that the creeks flow at different rates. When both falls are in operation, complex standing wave patterns form on the waterhole surface.

Currambene Creek Falls, waves

The overhang caves around the pool are quite high.

Currumbene Creek Falls, dreaming. Note overhang caves.

These are ancient camping places (they remind me of the Dance Floor Cave Veil). When young, i would often camp under the overhang caves at the Borenore Karst with a fire and billy for tea. There is a raw smell in these places - sharp and pungent but not unpleasant. A house that has been lived in for 50 thousand years. It was there that i first heard the music of the Irish band Clannad. It was on a rainy day in an overhand cave that I listened to there haunting song "I Will Find You". An old friend and i used to listen to this as the flame danced a hundred years ago. It still brings tears to my eyes. I once read that Clannad was asked to provide Gaelic words for this part of the lyrics, but turned to Mohican and Cherroche speakers instead. I have never been able to find a translation but perhaps the meaning does not matter when you are crying for the lost.

(mohican)
Nachgochema
Anetaha
Anachemowagan

(cherokee)
Hale wú yu ga I sv
Do na dio sv i
Wi ja lo sv
Ha le wú yu
Do na dlo sv

Here, I found Currambene Falls flowing and her sister waterfall (Parma Falls) still asleep in the heat. Sometimes, while Currambene is flowing, Parma is slowly waking after heavy rain.

The drop from the edge is a little more than meets the eye, and is not the sort of place to go wandering at night or day without great care.

Thunderstorms from coastal lows and cyclones will fill the creeks up fast.  Parma Creek at the point of starting to run again, and in the business of making a couple of new potholes on the creek surface.

The Summer of 2018 left many waterfalls bone dry.

In the heat, Parma Creek is dreaming, revealing its pitted and cratered surface, and the cave under the waterfall overhang. After rain, the creek fills and this becomes a broad waterfall obscuring these details.

I knew that Parma Creek had some falls further up the river from a confusing environmental Plan of Management, but which focused on generalities of the Parma Nature Park rather than this part of the area. When i first came here i expected to see a waterhole, not a complex of falls. It is a stunning area when the falls are running.


Location

This location has no signage save for a single worn sign pointing to the the Falls Picnic Reserve. The reserve itself, behind The Falls Public School, is at the intersection with Currambene Creek which has a similar fall on the other side of the pool.

The drop from the edge is a little more than meets the eye, and is not the sort of place to go wandering at night or day without great care.

Do not expect the local Tourist Information Center to direct you to this place. I suspect people coming down this way are heading to the bay, to surf or watch the whales.

For reasons that are unclear, the maps incorrectly refer to the waterhole as Paddle Creek.