waterfall

GLOUCESTER

| flynny101

24/01/2026

Jason, Dave, Wisey, Kylie and Me

Dr Forster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain.

He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle

and never went there again.

Ah English, where Forster rhymes with Gloucester and neither sounds like how they are spelt.

Anyhoo

What better way to pop my Barrington cherry than with a run through the upper section of Gloucester canyon.

Jason and Kylie had done it numerous times before at much higher water levels so today was shaping up to be fairy chill.

We had met Jason and Dave at camp the night before.

H had rolled in sometime through the night and we were all up early and eager.

It’s a short walk in and in high spirits we suit up and make our way down to the first abseil.

Kylie sets the rope and H leads the first drop
Jasons opts to jump from a slippery stance
Kylie handling the rope duties ©Dave
The next one is fairly basic down beside a smaller fall

A short hop skip and a jump down stream and we arrive at what we are here for.

The Famous chock stone abseil.

But to get there requires a short abseil and traverse

On their previous trips the water levels had been too high to attempt this one and there is the option to scramble out and do a dry line from high up just down stream of the chock stones.

Conditions today however are perfect so Jason sets a line and I traverse out and set the main drop

Jason follows me out and leads the big one

There are two redirects in place on this drop. The first gets you out, away from a sloping ledge that forms just as the water funnels into a ferocious torrent, the second keeps you out of the hydraulic that form in high flow at the base. Jason sets them both for us to follow

Me at the second redirect ©Dave

it’s a stunningly beautiful waterfall.

And the view back up tp it from just downstream is iconic

There was a bit of horsing around

It was still early in the day. We were tossing up the idea of continuing downstream and completing the lower section. Jason had done it before and thought it was interesting.

The other option was to play around here.

It would be cool to get on top of the chock stone say Wisey.

There is the dry line option, said some one.

We scrmble up the start of the exit track and find our way across to the dry line.

It’s a bit down stream of the chock stones but I manage to swing across to the upper stone to help the following party with a stuck rope (Notes say to throw the pull cord over the chockstone. This lead to the stuck rope. If the flow isn’t too high just bring the pull strand down with you. it pulls fine.)

then drop in.

Jas, Wisey and Dave follow me. It’s a surprisingly fun abseil and we opt to run repeat son it for funzies.

©Jason

Then we head on out and enjoy a relaxing afternoon at Camp

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people: WC Fields

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Warrumbungles grand high tops walk in Summer

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After the heat of Waa Gorge and Mount Kaputar we decide our best plan would be to get up super early and get the bulk of the Grand High top walk down before the heat of the day.

But first we have to get there. There was another feature just out of Coonabarabran we wanted to check out.

We pull into Hickey Falls, never seen them this dry before. Says a local lady we bump into.

as dry as Uncle Geoff’s sense of humour

The side trip to Hickey Falls meant we’d enter the Warrumbungles from the eastern side and the drive in is spectacular.

View after view.

We pull into the visitor centre to book into our camp we are thinking they are going to say we are nuts but when we mentioned we we planning the Grand Hightop Walk in the morning they just smiled and said, Oh lovely. You’d be best to start early in this heat.

Oh yeah we are going to start about 5 and try and get up to the breadknife for sunrise.

Oh that would be awesome…

Ok so we aren’t nuts. Or not as nut as when thought.

We pull into camp. We had picked our site based around the morning view

All set for the view

It took about an hour, though for the shade to disappear and we begged a change of site to find afternoon shade.

The afternoon is spent having a short section of song echo over and over and over and over.

It was a bot weird, at first I thought the grounds keep really likes his teeny bop but I go for a walk and there’s a K-pop or TikTok or whatever the kiddies call themselves these day <Old man shakes fist at Cloud> perfecting their dance moves to the song.

We are pretty much the only ones in the entire camp ground so good on them say I.

Stil,l I do my best to get into their background and ape their moves. It’s how I roll.

Anyhoo

We up at sparrows fart and hit the trail at about 4.45am

It’s a lovely morning for a walk.

and the first of the pillars pops into view just as the sun lightens the sky and Kylie some how turns into Dicky Knee

Are you thinking what I am thinking?

yes, I just made a Hey Hey its Saturday reference…

I apologise.

and the views keep coming

It’s actually really shit at cutting bread
Sunrise and the Breadknife

We spend a bit of time here and a bit further up just watching the changing light and taking a gazillion photos

the light kept getting better
We are not sure how or why Kyle dressed as a school girl

We scramble up to the tops, the last 100m or so of trail is under construction so it’s still a bit of a scramble.

Topping out the wind is intense.

We take the short cut back down past Balors hut and get back to camp just after 9.

Another hot day poking around town and that brings a close to our epic first road trip in the Alucab

Girraween Underground Creek

| flynny101

Returning from The Sphinx as the heat began to ramp up a visit to the underground creek sounded ideal.

If nothing else the name was cool.

A short drive from our camp took us up into the surrounding hills. The car park is well signposted and gives access to both the Underground creek trail and Dr Roberts Waterhole.

The walk out to the underground section the creek is just over a 1km and fairly flat.

So what the hell is it?

This section of creek drops down through boulders into a a short section of old lava tube

If you find the top secret… I mean really obvious entry it’s such a cool feature
of course we spend no time scrambling down

It’s a short section but well worth exploring a bit.

Just upstream we scrambled up past this feature. Belatedly we found an easy trail that bypasses around the little cliff line up to a sunny platform that’s worth a look

iddy biddy baby canyon
iddy biddy baby water dragon

big dyke

On the way back we made the detour to Dr Roberts waterhole. It’s a nice spot for a dip.

We’d spend another night in Girraween before hitting the road and head towards Cranky Rock

Boonoo Boonoo

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It’s pronounced “Bunoo Boonoo” Thou tbh I had to ask Kylie how Bunoo was pronounced differenty to Boonoo.

One is “bun” and one is “boon”. She explains patiently to her favourite idiot.

Anyhoo

After a pleasant morning at Bald Rock the day has heated up and so we drive past the campsite and head to the main falls.

The road runs along the creek as it tumbles through a little granite gorge. It looks like it would have plenty of nooks and crannies to explore.

From the car park tourist trails lead to rock pools above the falls or down to a viewing platform over the main drop.

We head down to the lookout. It’s an easy 5min walk.

A 260m cascading waterfall tumbling into the steep sided gorge below.

Beyond the fenced path glimpses of old trails hint at adventure. If it wasn’t so hot or dry we may have been tempted.

Instead we make our way up to the rock pools intent on a dip.

The main pools at the end of the trail are beautiful, but why stop at there when there’s so much to explore.

We make our way upstream

A bit of rock hoping leads us past a series of cascades and semi hidden water holes

You can see just how low the water is by the waterline on the rocks. But still enough for a cool dip on a hot day.

And we choose a plunge pool below a little waterfall tucked into an alcove and play in the current of the falls wondering just how nasty the hydraulic would get in higher flows

From here its a short drive back to the camp ground where we set up for the night then explore the camp ground

The camp is upstream of the gorge and gives access to the river
We spend the twilight chilling out on the bench by the platypus pool. Unfortunately we didn’t catch a glimpse of any this time around.

An evening storm is our first real test in the Alucab in heavy rain. Lessons learnt: the make shift rain gutter works well but even with it on leaving the door open wasn’t a great idea…

Next morning we get up early and head to BasketSwamp Falls for sunrise.

Kylie below the lower falls
Even after last night storm the water level is low but at least there is some flow over the falls.

Kylie had gifted me a Potensic Atom 2 drone for Christmas and had been forward thinking enough to also apply for permits to fly it in various national parks we’d be visiting .

We were denied permission as the first couple because it was peak tourist time over the New Years long weekend but even then they encouraged us to apply again.

Most of our requests were granted though. There were a few conditions on the permits but they were easy enough to comply with

So if you are taking a drone it’s worth planning ahead and doing the right thing. There were also a few times where we had permission but opted not to put it up due to not wanting to disturb other visitors.

Can’t deny the awesome perspective you get with them though.

This was one of my first flights.

From here we’d be heading west into Queensland… sounds weird but the border does a little curve here. Bald Rock in NSW is North East of Girraween in Qld.

Tamborine Mountain Waterfalls

| flynny101

Ash wanted to head to Surface Paradise so we thought it might be nice to drop him off for a day out and drive up to check out a couple of the touristy waterfalls on Tamborine Mountain.

We knew Jason was up visiting family in Brisbane so we threw him a shout out to meet us there.

Our first stop was Cedar Creek falls.

This is another popular swimming spot and it has limited parking. We needed to park way back at the turn off (Junction of Tambourine Mountain Road and Cedar Creek Falls Road.) which gave us an extra 800m walk each way.

Locals at the end of the road had set up a paid (donation) parking lot in their paddock and the kids had an esky set up sell cold drinks. Kylie half jokingly wondered if said locals rushed out of a morning on public holidays and filled the car park up with their own cars before the crowds appeared. Clever them if so as their paddock was just about full.

And to be fair, imagine having this place pretty much as your private back yard extension before the crowds discovered it and the tourists (like us) rolled in.

From the car park a boardwalk style trail leads you down past a nice picnic area beside the creek then down to a lookout above the main falls.

The trail then continues down to the base of a lower cascade and a nice swimming hole.

There are two main pools accessible from the trail.

A series of other cascades and pools are off limits due to safety concerns and rangers were on and to remind people of the need to comply.

We have a dip and laze about then head back up the mountain to check out Curtis Falls.

There’s a much bigger car park here but it’s equally full, luckily people are leaving and we get a park close to the trail head. Winning.

There is no swimming allowed in this one but is a lovely walk along a shaded creek and a very pretty waterfall.

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Killen Falls and BexHill Quarry

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Veering slightly south we thought we’d check out Killen falls as a spot of cool off

Killen Falls if a nice little waterfall in Tintenbar, near Ballina. It’s very touristy but worth a look.

It’s accessed from Friday Flat road and there is plenty of signage to get you to the car park.

From there it’s about a 400m walk to the base of the falls along a nice tourist trail.

There’s a large plunge pool at the base that is a popular swimming hole.

Being use to the crystal clear waters of Blue Mountains canyons it’s little brown and agricultural run offy but it’s a nice enough spot to cool off on a hot day if you are over the beach

On the drive back Kylie asks, Have I shown you the quarry

No, says I

Yeah I have, says she

No you haven’t, said I

Bexhill quarry is an old brick quarry that operated from the 1890s through to the 1940s. When operations ceased it filled up with water and became a popular swimming spot.

With no through flow the water became quite acidic and was found to have high levels of dissolved metals, such as Aluminium and magnesium, so in 2016 it was shut off due to “safety concerns”.

No sooner had the fence gone up than locals cut holes in it…

But nature seems to have found it equilibrium, subsequent testing found acidity levels returning to normal(ish) levels and plans were submitted 2021 to turn the area into a public reserve.

That hasn’t happened yet so in the mean time you’ll still need to climb through the holes in the fence. To be fair though, it’s more hole than fence.

The Quarry is accessed of Coleman Street (Bangalow Road) Bexhill. About 10km from Lismore

Not sure if the starling green water will give us superpowers or just melt the flesh from our bones..
But the Lilly Pads and Dragonflys seem to enjoy it
And Kylie isn’t scarred

Water was quite pleasant indeed.

It’s a great spot for photography and a nice dip though, I recommend proficient swimmers only because I have no idea how deep it is.

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Canyoning up north

| flynny101

01/01/2026

Kylie, Jason, Beck, Robin, Alex, Dane and meeeeeee

We were in northern NSW and it was too good an opportunity not to have a New Years Day play date with Jason and his QLD crew.

Every one else had done this one before but it had been on Kylie and my wish list for a while.

Pictures of it pumping in previous years had us frothing.

However, recent photos look like a trickle.

A storm the night before got our hopes up.

We meet at the top secret location (note: location may not be top secret) and skirt private property boundaries to access our canyon.

The storm had done nothing. Nothing !

The creek was dry as a nuns nipple.

Well not quite. There was water flowing, just

Jason wondering where the water went.
Alex on rope while Dane waits
Kylie thinking, well at least it’s a little wet
It might be a trickle but still pretty
Taking on Vecna
Robin wondering if he should avoid the pool or plunge in

There is a teeny tiny lathe you can unclip and jump from

Coming last I made an error. I didn’t unclip it just did the usual Empress release the brake hand and jump.

I knew my centre mark was just beyond the anchor.

I figure I jump out and when I reach the end it will pull the pull strand with me.

I’ve done that before, but I unclipeped first.

This time I’m sailing through the air, there’s “a bit” of a jolt snap the plastic lug it was tied to and the end of the rope recoils up And is now on a teeny tiny ledge 4metres above the pool.

Up I jug to retrieve it.

Lessen learned, double check your centre mark, especially when doing abseils exactly as long as half your rope. And keep an eye on your end of rope markers

I have marks at the 10 and 5m points to let me know I’m getting to the end. I didn’t even look for them. Dumb arse.

Anyhoo all good, no harm, rope retrieved. Let’s never speak of it again.

One more abseil and she’s all over.

Beck doing it in style
Only slightly rinsed but Happy canyoners

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boomerang and Hell Holes Falls

| flynny101

30-12-2025

Kylie, Jason, Jonathan and meeeeeeeeeee

We were up visiting Kylie’s cousin in northern NSW. Jason was visiting family in Southern Qld.

Seemed like a good opportunity to catch up to send some waterfalls.

Jonathan had fond memories of canyoning in the blue mountains back in the day but hadn’t been on rope for a while.

Wanna come. ask we

Absolutely, said he.

So we find ourselves heading up into the hills behind Mullumbimby.

First stop Boomerang Falls.

Kylie had abseiled them before with the Northern Rivers Bushwalking Club.

I first visited them with her a couple of years ago but we didn’t take ropes.

It a nice spot, not really canyoning, just a single drop of about 50m into a lovely plunge pool.

And with a quick walk in it was t to be a chill way to start the day.

Water levels are low, very low.

Everything is slippery.

We opt for natural anchors that would put us into the spray.

©Jonathan

We spend a bit of time making sure we get it right as the rock can be damn sharp in these parts. Canyon bags and rope bags are put to use as rope protecters, then I head on down.

Jonathan comes next.

It’s just like riding a bike. Only nothing like riding a bike ©Kylie
It’s a great pitch, slippery start to free hanging in the spray, finishing on a slab into the pool
the sun was in the wrong spot so these photos don’t show the amazing colours of this place.
and the water was warm!

As my old mate, Super Goose, likes to say “It’s like getting hit up the bum by a rainbow.”

Whatever the hell that means. He made it sound like it was good or lucky or sumfink.

Jason and Jonathan

What makes it even better is a quick and easy exit back up to the top. So Jason and I opted for a second run. TBH I could have done this one over and over

But we make our way back to the car and head across to the Hell Hole!!!

Apparently we missed Henrik and his mate by a day here which is a shame as it would have been great catching up with him.

Hell Holes is a little more canyon like, but still just 2 (or 3) pitches down a waterfall.

Again the water is super low so Kylie and Jonathan decide it’s not worth descending.

Probably a good choice.

But Jason and I think we may as well.

More of a questionable choice.

There wasn’t much in the way in natural anchors at this one.

Good Luck. It’s bolted.

Bad Luck. P1 is with carrots.

Good Luck. We have bolt plates.

Bad Luck. We didn’t bring them with us this trip.

Good Luck. The carrots stick out a bit and I’m able to hero loop a sling.

Bad Luck. They want me to be crash test dummy….

And again the rock is super sharp so we opt to do the first pitch on isolated double ropes.

the anchor for P2 is solid though the top nut is starting to show signs of corrosion
the start of P2 is, um awkward. It’s a tight wedge with the rope trying to pull you into the wedge. I could imagine in high-water this would be very tricky indeed.
The water is barely a trickle.

You can do P2 all the way to the bottom as a ~52m drop. But the notes say it has a habit of trapping ropes so we had planned to split it into 2 and rebelay off the large ledge 2/3 of the way down.

Turns out my 62m rope was enough to double rope to the ledge which removed the risk of getting a knot stuck the wedge.

Looking over the ledge at a slabby P3 we opted to forego going all the way to the not so impressive pool and walked off the ledge river left onto the exit track, saving ourselves an extra 20meters of vertical to climb back up.

The exit back to the top of the falls was steep with lots of loose rock to be wary of, but it’s reasonably quick.

Back at the top we cool off in the pools and head on out.

All in all a pleasant day. Hell Holes isn’t somewhere I’d rush back to, but it was worth a look.

to top it off Jonathan made this awesome video of our day

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Morong Falls

| flynny101

13-12-2025

Kent, Pete, Joel, Tam, Cotter, David and meeeeee

I’m walking out of Butterbox and I get a missed call from Kent

I hadn’t heard from him for a while so called back straight away in case something was wrong.

Nothing is wrong he’s just been thinking about an abseil trip in one of his favourite places at Kanangra Boyd.

And so a trip down Morong falls is set up

Morong falls is a bit like big brother of Box Creek Falls.

But Having a much larger catchment it can be a disappointing trickle or a wall of white water death.

We got it almost perfect.

We meet up and waste no time walking to the end of the fire trail and making our way down to the upper falls.

We bypass the first cascade and its inviting plunge pool.

Kent leads us pass an anchor set mid river left to find another just to the left of the main flow.

All abseils except the big one have easy escape routes back to the exit trail so you can pretty much choose your own adventure with doing a part or the whole.

Our first 3 slabby abseils are between 8 and 15m high. They are a bit of fun and nothing technical.

It’s a beautiful series of falls interspaced with plunge pools

Joel and I have the long ropes and get sent ahead to set the big drop.

From Kent’s description I’m nervously looking for a narrow ledge I need to traverse across which may or may not be slippery.

I’m standing on the edge of a wide slopping platform with heaps of grip looking for something below.

Bolts are behind you. Says Joel

I look at the wall behind me.

On the ground.says Joel.

Oh

I know this particular drop was pioneered by members of one of the caving clubs a few years ago.

2 odd looking bolts are set on the ground 7 or 8m back from the edge. 1 is a 8mm cap screw. The other a type I’ve not seen before….

A nice shiney new glue in has been added and all 3 equalised using D shackles.

We set up and Joel leads the way down. We have about 76m of rope out and by the time he gets to the next big ledge and traverses across to the rebelay there is maybe 3m of tail left.

As Kent heads down the rope snags behind a nub of rock which gets dislodged as he traverses at the bottom. He calls up a warning over the two way.

Dave about to descend

The rest of us get down no drama but Kent is reluctant to pull rope from directly below.

Joel devises a plan which will allow us to descend the next 12m abseil on a biner block, tie the pull cord for the previous ropes to the biner and pull rope from both pitches together from a safe spot on the far side of the plunge pool

We all head down. Most swim across the pool. Joel does a nice traverse climb to avoid the swim.

Pete follows Joel but does not avoid the swim…

I stay dry, just

The main falls. Around 90m

We start to pull and the system works perfectly

1 rope down.

2 two ropes down

3rd rope clears the anchor the end tumbles down and lands in a ledge. I start to pull.

It comes.

It comes .

It does not come.

Joel and I spend a bit of time trying different angles and stuff and it’s stuck good and proper on the only ledge not accessible from the exit track.

Next time we think we’d set this drop, leave the rope there and collect it on the way out. Not only would it avoid a stuck rope but it would avoid the need for 2 x 76m+ ropes and carrying it out the bottom half of the exit.

Joel looking further down as storm clouds begin to roll in.
Kent on the next one which passes under big boulder halfway down
Looking back up the main series of drop. Can you spot Dave, Cotter and Joel?

Finally we get to the wetter part of the trip. We are not quite 3/4 of the way down, still 150m or so above the Kowmung.

Below a series of falls and plunge pools

Above thou, the sky is cranky.

Dark clouds, thunder and a spattering of rain.

Big storms were predicted for later in the day. It looks like they arrived early. Standing on exposed granite in a lightning storm probably isn’t the best idea so we opt to abort the trip and scramble out to the exit track.

The storm doesn’t really hit in full, thou I later learn it hit the mountain with a good smash of hail. While disappointed not to complete the trip to the bottom we are comfortable with the call.

Besides, it gives us a good excuse to comeback and finish the journey.

“A river cuts through a rock, not because of its power but because of its persistence.” – Jim Watkins

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