Illawarra Basin Falls, (Central Coast NSW)

The Illawarra rivers meet a relatively narrow coastal plain after plunging down the coastal escarpment. While most do not run in dry times, they can put on a spectacular display after heavy rain.

The features of the area were early studied by an impressive group of early European settlers and visitors (eg Rev Clarke and the United States Exploring Expedition in the Pacific under Commander Charles Wilkes, with the famous mineralogist, James Dwight Dana). Some of the waterfalls seen by the travelers have been submerged in dams.

Wentworth Falls

In 1836, in the early days of colonial settlement, Charles Darwin’s ship, the Beagle, reached Sydney Town. When Captain Robert Fitzroy (an impressive explorer in his own right) docked it for a couple of weeks, Darwin hired two men and some horses for an adventure. His impressions of the early colony are incisive.

Sisters

The Parma and Currambene Creeks meet in a large waterhole near the Pacific Ocean. The waterhole (about the size of a large playing field) offers the unusual perspective of two same-height overhang waterfalls, that can vacillate from a complete halt in summer heat to rage in flood at other times.

Parma

Currambene 

Last Knight, Short Stories

I crave of thee then, that thou obtain for me Olwen, the daughter of Yspaddaden Penkawr; and this boon I likewise seek at the hands of thy warriors.

After Atlantis sank and irrecoverably took European civilization to the bottom of the Atlantic, the White Book of Rhydderch tells us that Arthur gathered his knights for one last great stand against the darkness. 
You  have heard the bittersweet story of Camelot, Arthur, Guinevere and the problem child Lancelot. That is the wrong story. (I am not saying that Camelot and the cup didn't happen. But it is not going to happen here.)

The Welsh Chronicle tells what really happened.

Victoria Falls and Anglers Rest

Victoria Falls, Alpine Area, Victoria

The water flow from the alpine areas is fed from the high inaccessible mountains near the borders of New South Wales and Victoria. This stepped fall is only accessible because of a failed hydro scheme a century ago.

Alpine Victoria, near Mount Hotham

Five bells during the dog watch

Sometimes we forget the lessons hard-learned by our parents and their parents.

Lower Snowy Falls (Brodribb Tributaries)

The country around the Snowy River and its tributaries can be difficult to access, even nearer the coast. The fractured escarpments and deep rainforests of the Brodribb River, the risk of mosquitoes and sinkholes adds a whole new dimension of risk.

Youngs Creek Falls

Youngs Creek Falls (from basin)

Most bush towns have a couple of reserves for the local kids to go explore, trip over branches, swim at in summer heat, and learn to kiss their sweetheart at. Although Orbost is on the banks of the mighty Snowy River, it is no exception.

The Narregarang (shaky place): Bargo Canyon, Wollondilly (Mermaid Pool Falls, See Through Pool Falls, Heartbreak Falls, Pot Hole Falls)

Introduction

We use many words to describe the canyons, pools and falls of the Wollondilly.

The First People called this region "the Narregarang". It is a powerful word. When you say it aloud, the world shakes or, perhaps, your feel the murmur of the world's heart. Today we call it "the Wollondilly". The meaning is contested. Perhaps, it means water running on rocks. This may not be the case but the word has a soft, flowing sound.

Mermaid Pool and fall

Pooh Bear Falls, Buckenbowra Creek

"One day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle of the forest..." (Milne, Winnie The Pooh) The headwaters of the Buckenbowra Creek rise high on Clyde Mountain close to a small cave in the cliffs of the pass - which inland children call Pooh Corner.

Cann Basin Falls (East Gippsland)

The Cann River rises in the same forests and mountains as the Genoa. The wilderness is seldom visited. This is a remote part of Gippsland, which the First People of my part of the world, to the north, called Cabone Benel: the South Land.

Genoa River, Noorinbee North 

As it descends to the coast, the river drops through a red sandstone gorge. Unlike the Genoa, the gorge still serves as a path from highland to coast, and so the visitor can catch glimpses of the river as they travel.

Nearer the coast, the Cann River gives its name to a small farming community that clings to water’s edges before spilling into the intermittent coastal lagoon at Tamboon Inlet.

The Desolation of the Coopracambra

There are few places more inhospitable than the granite highlands of Coopracambra in Gippsland, Victoria. Neither the established nations of the First People nor the European colonials ever laid claim to this wilderness. Even today, few people venture here and, those that return, speak loudly of the silence of the place.

Upper Cann 

It is reported that the remote fire ravaged area once provided a refuge for those escaping the justice of the First People: the Biduelli. Here, it is said, the survivors fashioned a community of 'broken men' (Howitt) living next to open areas of creeks and riverland. Despite the bad press, the area boasts wildflowers and bees, but only after good rain.

Upper Cann, wildflowers 

Even the colonials avoided this place. Hopping Joe and his grey mare stayed to the north of the plateau. Today it is regarded as the most remote and least visited parts of Victoria. When one leaves behind memories of leeches, mosquitoes and flies (the unsung constants of the Australian bush) the isolation of the place leaves a pristine wilderness area. The streams are said to be a haven for rare frogs, the sooty owl and bats. We can only speak of the far-away howl of the dingoes from the fractured landscape.

The silence of the upper Cann is broken by creeks that also rise near Mount Coopracambra. From afar, the wilderness promises to be full of undiscovered wonders. Up closer, reality replaces romance. This is a silent rough place.

Winnots Cascades 

One stream is called Winnots on local signage, but Winnot in official records back in civilization. Perhaps it is the more lonely 'win not'.

Beehive Falls

The water in Beehive Creek is crystal clear; fizzing with air from its drop through the alpine forests of the Coopracambra.

Beehive Creek Falls

Beehive Creek rises in the fractured slopes of the mountains. The name of the creek may come from the native bees that swarm here or, perhaps, because of the strange patterns made by the water at the top of the fall.

Beehive Creek Falls 

I first ventured here a couple of years ago, but I fell into the ravine and was chased out by a couple of dingoes. Since then, I have played it very safe, avoiding the area when in flood (the road into the falls goes under in two places and only entering the park when the water over the first ford falls to safe levels. Floodwater may be spectacular, but adds layers of uncertainty to any adventure.

Beehive Creek Falls 

Beehive Creek falls through a long series of cascades in rough terrain. The reddish hue rocks have a number of high drops, but the beauty of this place is the remote untouched wilderness through which it falls. Still, this is not a friendly place.

Beehive Creek Falls 

Getting to vantage places to photograph the cascades involves climbing. If you do come here, be cautious of following paths that turn out to be dry watercourses. Below the falls, the creek consists of scores of dancing cascades connecting pools of still water. There is a rough path to the plunge pool at the base of the fall and, although part of the path has collapsed, it is still manageable if you tread slowly. The path itself may be thousands of years old.

I found access to the top of the falls is a little more challenging. Not because of the steep sides of the ravine, but because as I came closer to the top, a sense of unease overcame me. I am a rational person, but I have learnt to listen closely to the bush (when i may be hours from a settlement or hospital). There are the obvious dangers that can be smelt or seen. Then there are those disclosed by other eyes - the bird in a high tree screaming out a warning of something below or a mob of roos startled in a particular direction. Then there are the dangers that cannot be seen or smelt or felt or inferred, save from shiver that runs down your spine.

Unnamed falls, upstream Beehive Creek 

Fiddler’s Green Falls

An old diary I came upon suggest that near its meeting with the Genoa, Fiddler’s Green Creek is home to three high falls.

Today the track past the area is closed by a locked gate and the falls have slipped, like so many, from the memory of map makers.

unnamed falls, Coopracambra 

Neville Falls

To the north-east of the town of Cann River, on the Thurra River, a rural access road once crossed the top of a waterfall called Neville.

The road to Neville Falls 

Photos of the fall show that a rural road once crossed the top of the rock wall comprising the falls. One might imagine our own diary entry reading:

"On the 8th day the horses could not move for fatigue, so we left them in a tiny grassy clearing and pressed on towards this bridge in the faint hope that we might find some trace of civilization on the other side. As all the chocolate has been eaten, I am beginning to fear what might become of us."

The fall is surprisingly well-named. All of us once had an acquaintance called Neville: the distant friend who invites you to a party with the promise of great music and awesome drinks, but the directions are a bit vague and while looking for the place you run foul of the local policeman and get booked for not wearing a seatbelt. The waterfall of Neville is true to type. While marked optimistically on a flat map, the terrain turns out vertical, there are fallen trees (and black snakes) across the road at regular intervals, and you are finally stopped by an old bridge with the decking rotted out. To add injury to insult, the sharp road will pierce your tyres, and when you start to change them, the jack will gradually sink into the ground. Access to the falls is impossible from the west of Thurra river - good luck to anyone trying the east routes, but perhaps it would be better to hunt for a more reliable party.

Tonghi Falls

In an eerie repeat of Neville, to the west of Cann, forestry tracks will take you to Tonghi Falls. The tracks are difficult when the fall is dry, and impassable when the fall is running.

Cann River (town)

Cann River is a small service town along the Princes Highway connecting the southern Gippsland towns. Near town are a small number of farms, in far fewer numbers than the past. The remote farms have been swallowed whole by forestry plantations, and the old rural roads are gradually falling into disrepair as bridges rot and fall.

Noorinbee Locality, near Cann River Town 

Here, the Cann River constitutes an ancient natural cross road, leading from the sea to the lower alpine regions of the Australian alps. Secondary roads still follow the ancient path, taking you from the farming and forestry lands of far south NSW right to the southern coast.

Above the town, the River flows through the Croajingolong National Park encompassing coastal regions through to remote eucalypt forests with granite peaks. In normal times the river flows through town in a gentle flow on a white sandy bed. Below the town, the river again disappears into rough country.

Cann River Falls

Below the town, out of sight, the river descends down two sets of rough water. The upper falls sees the river drop 10m over a series of rocky cascades (Class III rapids). When the water level in the river is low, the cascades are accessible by a steep and rutted dry weather 4WD track (Bass Tk) off the Tamboon Inlet Road which will take you to a small campsite near the river. (This track is not recommended - it ate my tyres.)

Bass Tk 

The cascades are back upstream (30 minutes walk along the sandy bed of the river) from the camping spot. The river is hemmed in by dense scrub, so the cascades are inaccessible when the river is higher.

Genoa River: looking up to the end of the rapids 

Genoa River: Bass Tk Camp 

The lower falls are inaccessible save by experienced kayakers. About halfway from Bass Tk to Tamboon Inlet, the river enters the inaccessible Cann (Kruatungulong) Gorge. Kayakers report that it falls through a series of intense and powerful rapids (Class IV rapids).

Genoa River: above Kruatungulong Gorge 

Tamboon Inlet

The river comes back into sight at the intermittent coastal lagoon of Tamboon Inlet and the ocean.

Reflections

The Cann gives cause to reflect on the fraught relationship between maps and reality - maps are poor protection from the Nargun that reach from unmarked crevices to rip the tyres from your car, or the short squiggle that hides a 500 meter descent.

Perhaps the only reliable map is the thing itself, for all else is likely to be fictive approximations and imaginings of the map-maker. But, then again, a couple of words are sometimes all that is needed to map the real risks of an inaccessible path.

Tumbarumba - Falls

On the western fall of the Australian Alps is the little bush town of Tumbarumba where they still muster cattle on horses.

I grew up here exploring the mountains on Sam, my stock horse, and reading Tolkien.

From the top, this fall looks pretty, but unexceptional. Down below, the pillars supporting the back wall are intriguing, and the plunge pool a relief on summer days.

Here, i imagined i had found Tolkien's secret gate into the old dwarven Kingdom under the Mountain. Not at far Erebor, but closer. I dreamed that one day i would come back, and open the hidden gate.

A fall along Paddy's River

There are other falls nearby, some different from the normal water and rock variety.

Tumbarumba 2019

Genoa Basin Falls (East Gippsland)

The Genoa River rises in the Nungatta Mountain, home to the platypus and the black snake. A major tributary, the White Rock River rises a little to the east.

Names

While the name Genoa conjures up the Italian port, it is far older. Most of the names in East Gippsland (other than the major rivers) are derived from the names of the First People. Genoa is an Anglicization of "jin-oor" (water - trace/path) related to the Yuin/Kurnai word "purd-oo" (land/bush - trace/path, a modern 'footpath'). One of the major tributaries of the Genoa, White Rock River, can also be traced to the Yuin "Nalbaugh", a reference to the exposed rock base of the river bed. The other two major tributaries still have their first people names: Nungatta (? difficult - high place, perhaps a reference to the range); and Wallagaraugh. Both have unsettled meanings.

The rivers wander into Victoria through long gorges in the high wilderness area of the Coopracambra NP before sweeping through farmland to the extensive Mallacoota Inlet (Mallacoota derives from 'white clay' once mined from the river bed near the sea and traded to fire into pipes).

'Just Add Water', wet water yacht, on the Genoa River at Mallacoota Inlet

Rockton Falls

The Genoa River once marked the border between the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria. The border has now been shifted further to the south. The river rises in the mountains nearby. On the Victorian coast, in the tidal stretches, the river is a couple of hundred meters across. But up here, near the headwaters, the river most usually takes the form of a long series of pools connected by a slight stream.

  

In the headwaters of the river is Rockton, a once a vibrant frontier farming community in the rocky headwaters of the Genoa. Today, the casual traveller might be forgiven for thinking that the area has faded from living memory into the plantation forests that now dominate. Some may remember that the area is troubled by an unsolved death.

Rockton Falls was once a popular local swimming hole. Today, it sits unsigned along a 4WD forest track. In is best to come to this fall with lightning from an afternoon thunderstorm crashing around, hugging the side of a deep gorge, through a dark forest.

In the old days, water was diverted from the top of Rockton Falls to a waterwheel to cut logs and mill grain for the small Irish community. In the old days, girls from the coast would spend a full day riding up from the coast to attend the local dances.

The pool, like some of the other granite waterholes nearby, is deep and pleasant to swim in. The falls enliven the place, and make it special. It is still visited by the young to cool off and laugh with friends, or foresters taking respite from a long day’s work.

Tom, a young local, laughed off the water’s chill and resting with his friends on the warm granite rocks fronting the fall’s broad plunge pool. He grew up in the district and works with in the forests. He said, sometimes, the falls stop running altogether (although the pool does not completely empty) but other times it can be a dangerous torrent. The coastal beaches have their allure, but it is nice to relax near home.

Despite appearances, the Rockton community is still very much alive and the locals describe this place and its’ workings with pride.

Nalbaugh Falls

The Nalbaugh Falls cascade down the granite slope through a series of pools on White Rock River, part of the Genoa system.

After a thunderstorm, this (and the forestry tracks that join it) can become raging torrents. These falls are seldom visited: many set out looking for them, but few find them in the maze of forestry tracks in the area (for this reason they are sometimes called the Secret Falls). Thunderstorms here are preceded by a zephyr (sweet west wind) cooling warming days. Hundreds of birds take to the air to catch the rise of insects that seek out the humidity. But the zephyr heralds thunderstorms; insects and birds can find themselves blown far by the chaos to come.

The high eastern escarpment is an impenetrable barrier between the eastern Australian coast and inland. This is one of the few exceptions, although the gentle fall is much steeper than it looks. Still, if this seems a little like a pathway, you are right.

These falls are located on the White Rock River (Nalbaugh being the ancient Yuin language group word for White Rock). Before it joins the Genoa, the White Rock River is is part of the Yuin Trace, here the 365km Bundian Way, the Yuin path from the east coast to the Australian Alps. It is one of the oldest recognizable world 'highways', being in continuous use for more than 30,000+ years (periods of glaciation, perhaps, excepted). We know the history of the Bundian Way from Robinson's account of the travel of Al mil gong in 1844 and reports of the surveyor Clarke in 1852.

I found an account of women riding from the sea port far below here to a dance at the top of the river more than 100 years ago. They rode all day, and changed into dresses at the hall. Like the first people before them, they used this waterfall as a road.

Close to the town of Bombala, it is only starting to appear on map. The forestry road system in the area is a potential risk to the casual visitor. Most visitors to this location will first travel to Myanba Gorge (which is signposted from the Monaro Highway). The roads here are dirt and will be challenging in wet conditions. From the Gorge, travel south on the Coolangubra Forest Way for about 8km and turn left onto Pines Road. Pines Road intersects with Quartzite Road after 2.5kms. Take the left fork of Quartzite for about 1km until you see a clearing on the right. Inside the clearing is a picnic table. You will hear the falls from the clearing - look for pink tape tied to bushes indicating a track to the fall. Exercise great care (snakes and slippery surfaces) - the angle of the fall changes slowly and you may get into difficulty on sloping ground.

Hopping Joe Cascades

Further south, the Genoa River meets a number of tributaries, including Hopping Joe Creek.

After rain or snow melt, the creek swells into a torrent of small falls and rapids capable of carrying whole trees away. In summer heat, it disappears into interconnected pools.

Some say Hopping Joe was an old Scot adrift from his homeland. Others say he was a prospector left behind by the 1859 alpine gold-rush. He wandered the lonely highlands along the old colonial border between Victoria and New South Wales. It is not known whether he took his name from the creek (the first people custom), or gave his name to this lively tributary of the Cann. A superb horseman, in later years, he lived in a bush tent along the creek with an old grey mare.

He is remembered imperfectly for providing hospitality once to a royal party travelling by horseback from Rockton to the Cann River. He is said to have prepared tea for a visiting Duke by first boiling creek water in an old billy can, blackened from long usage over fires. He then threw in a good handful of tea leaves, before removing the can from the fire. The creek still retells the story: how with a mighty circular swinging of the billy, Hopping Joe air-cooled the contents for drinking, telling the Duke that this was the 'Real Mackie' and it 'wouldn't curl a hair of any man's head'.

Hopping Joe’s voice can still be heard when the creek swells to a torrent and swirls through blue granite. You invoke his spirit when you boil water in your billy in the bush, and swing it in a circle before pouring tea.

Genoa Gorge

Downstream, the river enters two long gorges that are difficult to access. After rain in the highlands, the two gorges become 50kms of rapids (experienced kayakers have classified this as a Class III-IV waterway, making it a dangerous place for those with insufficient experience of wild river kayaking).

The First People at this place had myths about a stone being that detached itself from the rocks and would trap unwary travelers: a Nargun. The myth is not without evidence. In the Genoa Gorge are fossilized footprints of an alarmingly large crocodile-like reptile. The fossils, 350 million years old, probably only survive because of the remote location and the lack of any systematic human occupation. The tetrapod footprints (flat-bodied, lizard-like creatures up 2-3m (8-10') long with stout legs) can still be found here are believed to be the oldest record of any land-dwelling vertebrate.

Geona Falls

Downstream of the gorges, near the rural village of Genoa with a campground a tributary of the River, the Genoa Creek joins the river near the old town of Genoa,which is slowly disappearing back into the countryside.

 

These falls, while close to the coast, cut a pretty sight flowing over and among granite rocks. The falls are a little hard to find, but are fairly easy to access down a dirt track and a well formed path.

  

We walked here and sat, wondering how to capture the span of falls, runs and hidden glens, until a passing dragon stopped and regarded us for a while.

Close by you can climb the coastal range, and look back over the fractured mountainous landscape of the inland mountains. Here you may come across one of those rare gifts of the bush, much prized by the first people, a tailfeather of the lyrebird.

Mallacoota Inlet

With 10kms left to flow, the Genoa River enters a series of coastal lakes, bounded by dense natural forests but tamed by navigation markers and occasional wharfs.

 

When the wind drops, the tidal waters of the lakes become mirror still. In the early morning mist rises and rainbows form at the end of this fossil pathway, sea eagles nest in dead trees along the inlet and patrol the waterways. All is not quite what it seems. This is a wilderness without the edge, where the sea eagles dive from the sky for fish thrown by a local tourist operator, for the benefit of city photographers who cluster for the shot.

 

Perhaps, once, the ancient tetrapods stalked here, watching rainbows in the mist. Long gone, today water dragons catch the first rays of the sun, and goannas wait in ambush for the houseboats that ply the network of moorings along the lakes. Lake edges suffer the gentle wash marking the passage of tinnies (small outboard boats) and wet yachts cutting their way from the coast to Gypsy’s Point. The point was named after a reprovisioning schooner that serviced the coastal towns, but which lies in some unknown grave offshore after a fierce gale.

 

At the base of the inlet, a small tourist town clusters on the western side of the river. Visitors swim at small beaches along the coast, among twisted rocks and mountain sides decorated by the past.

c PQuinton 2014-19