Majors Creek Falls
Majors Creek Falls can be found in the Majors Creek State Conservation Area.
This area is not signposted and should be approached with a great deal of care.
The Majors Creek fall is a short walk from the town of Majors Creek. It races down a precipitous drop into the Araluen Valley. In total the creek's falls dance 240 m (790 feet) to the valley floor below. Only 15-20 meters of the main race from a chute fall is visible from adjoining cliff edges. Above the fall are a series of pretty pools and cascades.
While this fall was once well known (and is still well loved by the locals), the lookout for the fall is in ruins and the area is quietly fading back into the wilderness.
Do not come here after rain. Call in at the Elrington Hotel at Majors Creek for directions to the fall (there are no sign posts).
The fall is accessed from Wilson Street, which is not so much a street as a rough track impassable after any rain. Park your car on the reserve, and walk down the road to Majors Creek. From Majors Creek, walk to the creek (which passes over the road, and then follow it down stream to see the top cascades. Be very careful, the rocks move and are slippery. Do not climb stuff. Do not come into the area if rain threatens, or if the creek is high.
I found good views of the fall on the way back up the track by very carefully following the edge of the escarpment. Do not climb onto any structures you might find here. Unlike most other falls, the below map shows the fall because it is not vertical.
In the soft pink granite of the gorge, a creek cascades through a series of falls and pools. To the left of the top fall is a curious structure, almost as though someone has carved a rising eagle or hawk (Mullin or Munyunga in the Yuin language) into the wall of the fall.
This area is not signposted and should be approached with a great deal of care.
The Majors Creek fall is a short walk from the town of Majors Creek. It races down a precipitous drop into the Araluen Valley. In total the creek's falls dance 240 m (790 feet) to the valley floor below. Only 15-20 meters of the main race from a chute fall is visible from adjoining cliff edges. Above the fall are a series of pretty pools and cascades.
While this fall was once well known (and is still well loved by the locals), the lookout for the fall is in ruins and the area is quietly fading back into the wilderness.
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| Majors Creek Falls |
Do not come here after rain. Call in at the Elrington Hotel at Majors Creek for directions to the fall (there are no sign posts).
The fall is accessed from Wilson Street, which is not so much a street as a rough track impassable after any rain. Park your car on the reserve, and walk down the road to Majors Creek. From Majors Creek, walk to the creek (which passes over the road, and then follow it down stream to see the top cascades. Be very careful, the rocks move and are slippery. Do not climb stuff. Do not come into the area if rain threatens, or if the creek is high.
I found good views of the fall on the way back up the track by very carefully following the edge of the escarpment. Do not climb onto any structures you might find here. Unlike most other falls, the below map shows the fall because it is not vertical.
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| Wilsons Road |
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| Majors Creek at Wilsons Road intersection |
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| Top cascades |
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| Majors Creek Falls |
Mumbulla Sacred Pool - Biamanga National Park
As tempting as the water looked, as a sign of respect to the elders, i resisted the urge to swim here.
The structure on the side of the waterfall (perhaps an eagle or hawk known to attack humans) brings to mind a Yuin dream-time story from this part of Australia.
The story tells how a pair of young women were abducted from a waterfall gorge by a giant. They were rescued by a young man who led them away from the giant.
"At last they broke out into clear country and then they rested. The few trees there were laden with birds. There were probably millions, just as if all the birds of Australia had assembled in this one place to perform the work. The young man was of a bird totem. He was a "karrakal," or magpie, man, and his affinity was the hawk. One there was his pet.
By-and-bye the giant broke through the bush, and when he saw the three sitting down he raised his spear. The young man called, and immediately the birds rose in an enormous flock. They obscured the sunlight. They enveloped the giant. Then the magpie darted at him, followed by the other named. They jabbed holes in his head and face and shoulders. First he tried to shield himself by raising his arms before his face. They he turned and ran roaring from whence he came. The young man returned to their home. " (CW Peck,1928)
I romanticize the stone here as soft - but i can assure you it is as hard as ordinary rock (or perhaps harder if you slip incautiously on its shiny smooth surface).
Buckenbowra Creek Falls (Pooh Bear Falls)
"One day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle of the forest..."
(Milne, Winnie The Pooh)
Near the summit of Clyde Mountain, the Buckenbowra Creek starts its plunge down to the sea below. Inland children have named this fall after Pooh Bear.
After the war, the military removed explosives kept in an artificial cave near the falls (and which would have destroyed the pass if required). The cave was repurposed as a shrine for the little bear. Parents driving to the coast by the pass distract small children from the cliffs by pointing to the waterfall and cave. Generations of parents have keep the cave well-stocked with retired stuffed teddy bears for this purpose.
Sadly, many of the bears have been washed over the 150m plunge to the Corn Trail far below this point (so that the name has become more literally correct), but the fall and its cargo of lost bears goes unseen, as there is no vantage from which to see the chaos
The Pooh Bear shrine
The road was once a horror, today it is a little better.
The falls plunge 150m from this point to the Corn Trail far below (you can access the creek by following the Misty Mountain Trail), but the fall of bears goes unseen, as there is no vantage from above from which to see it.
Beyond help, a bear below
Far below, at the base of the plunge, the Buckenbowra Creek makes its way through the Misty Mountains. This mountain stream cuts one of the few permanent passes from the coast into the interior of Australia, through the Clyde mountain.
In the wet rainforests at the top of the mountain, this small stream drops 300m in 300m through a series of falls in a deep canyon, ending close to the intersection with an ancient First People trace. I took this photo a little downstream where the stream settles into sparkling cascades. The water was crystal clear and tasted sweet.
The road from Majors Creek to Araluen via Mount Araluen Is one of the more difficult public vehicular assents in Australia. Restricted to four wheel driving in fine weather, it is one drive many people only do once: precipitous cliffs, a single lane dirt road with a series of switch backs that require 3 point turns.
Nevertheless, the views are superb, and the climbing interesting.
Once the only inland exit from the Araluen Valley, this point of the road saw an unsuccessful attempt by Ben Hall and the Clarke gang to hold up an armed coach bringing gold out of the valley.
The vegetation at the top of the mountain is lush.
The point chosen by the gang for the ambush has command views of the road below.
I have spent a couple of lazy afternoons in the village and, for a little while, Elrington's Pub - researching a story about the Clark Brothers and the Long Tailor. In this place, an old mining town, the usual boundaries between the past and the present flicker.
A little way from the town - absolute solitude. The clouds came down to the mountains.
I spent a little time talking to the locals about their town. Sounds a sweet place to live, or visit.
All around are signs of the rush. The hotel is glorious in its age: patterned tin ceilings, a sign advising that guns need to be left with the bar keep, and a sign advertising the arrival of dancing girls from Sydney, and locals reminiscing about how the internal structure has morphed over time.
Here is a different compass: Braidwood close to the north, Cooma further away to the South, the fertile Araluen valley close by and the coast just over to the East. And suddenly to hear those magic names spoken by people who use them everyday: Jinden, Ballalaba, Krawaree, Mourya, Jillamtong, Nithdale and Jerrabat Gully. The accounts of the Clarke Brothers are still real here.
Majors Creek
Majors Creek may look fairly flat, but it is poised on the edge of a precipitous fall into the Araluen Valley.The road from Majors Creek to Araluen via Mount Araluen Is one of the more difficult public vehicular assents in Australia. Restricted to four wheel driving in fine weather, it is one drive many people only do once: precipitous cliffs, a single lane dirt road with a series of switch backs that require 3 point turns.
Nevertheless, the views are superb, and the climbing interesting.
Once the only inland exit from the Araluen Valley, this point of the road saw an unsuccessful attempt by Ben Hall and the Clarke gang to hold up an armed coach bringing gold out of the valley.
The vegetation at the top of the mountain is lush.
The point chosen by the gang for the ambush has command views of the road below.
I have spent a couple of lazy afternoons in the village and, for a little while, Elrington's Pub - researching a story about the Clark Brothers and the Long Tailor. In this place, an old mining town, the usual boundaries between the past and the present flicker.
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| Majors Creek cemetery |
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| Near Nithdale, on the track between Majors Creek and Ballalaba |
All around are signs of the rush. The hotel is glorious in its age: patterned tin ceilings, a sign advising that guns need to be left with the bar keep, and a sign advertising the arrival of dancing girls from Sydney, and locals reminiscing about how the internal structure has morphed over time.
Here is a different compass: Braidwood close to the north, Cooma further away to the South, the fertile Araluen valley close by and the coast just over to the East. And suddenly to hear those magic names spoken by people who use them everyday: Jinden, Ballalaba, Krawaree, Mourya, Jillamtong, Nithdale and Jerrabat Gully. The accounts of the Clarke Brothers are still real here.
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