Machinery Creek

| flynny101

9/1/2024

Gadget and meeeeee

The plan was to do Dove today but big dump of rain had spiked the water levels and our local contacts suggested we wait a day for the levels to drop a bit. We were pretty sure they were being cautious with a couple of randoms asking questions but we were happy to take the advice and opted to do Machinery creek instead.

After parking at the bottom it took me a bit to work out the big obvious bridge wasn’t our bridge. The amount water flowing at speed under the big bridge had me a bit 😳

But the correct creek was a lot more enticing. The water was about 15mm off what we were told was the high level (interesting by the time we got back here it had dropped at least 70mm)

Our advice was if we didn’t have a second car to hitch a ride up the hill but there didn’t seem to be too many cars heading our way so we hoofed it up. While there wasn’t much verge at times the we had plenty of warning to get out of the way of the few cars that did pass us.

40 or 50min (or forever ) later we reach the Round Hill Cafe at the top of the hill. Surprisingly there was a little camp area there. Talking to the care taker we discover it had shower, toilet and kitchen area and was only $25 for a powered site! I know where we are staying tonight. Winning!!!

Anyhoo we follow the trail down past some old mine Adits to the start of the canyon.

Enticing. Not.

And soon we were suiting up in a little gorge.

After the slipfest in Urumbilum it took us a bit to trust our footing but the rocks here offered heaps of grip. And soon we were making reasonable time

It threaten to but never really canyoned up.

Still there were some very cool abseils in flow. It reminded me of the better of the Bungonia canyons with good water in it, though the abseils tended to be shorter .

The second abseil is the crux. It lands in an enclosed pool that in high water forms a powerful hydraulic with strainers in the outflow
Even at this level there’s a small recirc and once out of that the water is a bit pushy into those gaps .🎥©️Kylie

It is pretty but
The next few are fairly straightforward
It tries ever so hard to canyon up
The final abseil is the largest at about 30m and is a good finish to the “canyon” section
🎥©️Kylie

We grab a bit to eat in the sun then we’ve got a bit of a walk down stream to finish.

Again, after Urumbilum we are a tad nervous of what this will entail but it’s easy going all the way back to the bridge

Every song has a you that the singer sings to and you’re it this time: Ani

Big thanks to the locals legends who gave us tips and advice.

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