Lockwood River Falls

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Lockwood River Falls

Postby waterfallman » Fri 14 Dec, 2012 12:35 pm

Hi all. I'm a new member, and this my first post. I am an avid waterfall fan from Victoria and am working my way diligently through the 250 or so listed in the brilliant Barber & Wacey book "250 Victorian waterfalls. 32 bagged so far. A way to go. My new partner hails from Burnie & she is happily introducing me to the wonders of Tasmania! We are starting slowly, and have done Dip, Lilydale, Guide, Oldaker & Pencil Pine last time we came over. I was enquiring about the Cam valley falls, recently, and heard about Lockwood River Falls. I have no idea exactly where these are, or how one may get in to them. I suspect somewhere east of the Hellyer river, west of the Highway, & south of Lockwood River road, on the river itself. (Of course).
I have ransacked the web, google earth, tasmaps etc, to no avail.
Hoping one of you knowledgeable folks may be able to point me in the right direction.
Cheers.
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Re: Lockwood River Falls

Postby Davo1 » Sat 15 Dec, 2012 2:16 pm

First of all I am a new member as well and I must say thanks to all as this site has been a tremendous help on many an occasion.

The falls are on Lockwood Creek Rd off Talunah Rd.
S 41.26462, E 145.70015

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gfwk9figtwcvdax/f9I_IHDELJ

A gew pics you might enjoy.

Have fun and I hope this helps.

Cheers

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Re: Lockwood River Falls

Postby Davo1 » Sat 15 Dec, 2012 2:24 pm

I just posted a reply and I can't see it to edit it.
I hope they are the ones you was referring to.
I have heard them called many names so I am not sure of their real name, or even if there is one.
When you mentionted Lockwood and Cam valley falls I put 2 and 2 together and may have come with the wrong answer.
Hope I didn't though.
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Re: Lockwood River Falls

Postby tastrekker » Sun 16 Dec, 2012 2:31 pm

G'day Laurie & Waterfallman,

A large list of waterfalls has been compiled in the Wiki section of this site here.

There is also an excellent collection of Tassie waterfalls in the gallery section here.

I would agree with Laurie that Lockwood River Falls is likely to be referring to the ones pictured in the Drop Box collection. As they are on the East Cam River upstream from Cam Falls I have always known them as Upper Cam Falls. The waterfall I know as Owen Brook Falls is just across the paddock from Cam Falls. I was there yesterday.

As for Cam valley falls. I guess this could refer to all the falls in the Cam River valley. This would include: Guide, Serpent*, Upper Guide*, Sandersons*, St Georges**, St Josephs**, Cam*, Owen Brook*, Upper St Georges**, Upper Cam** and Mill Creek*. Just over the divide in the Emu River valley are some affectionately named falls, Pet*, Darling*, Dear* and Upper Pet* along with a reclusive waterfall hidden deep in the bush at Fern Glade.

20 years ago I had a 2 page feature on Burnie waterfalls in The Advocate. I was asking for help locating Mill Creek Falls. An old bloke got in touch with me and sadly I can't remember his name. Not only did he solve the Mill Creek mystery (Mill Creek is now Maldon Creek and the stream has been diverted away from the original waterfall) he also told me about all the 'Upper' falls I've listed above which I went and found exactly as per his description. The other fascinating source of info at that time was a video (VHS) done by Alderman Dr Paul Cains with help from the Burnie Camera Club. It featured the major Burnie waterfalls. That is where I learnt the name of Owen Brook Falls. In the video he shows Cam Falls which I had been to. I clearly remember my surprise when the video then showed people walking a short distance over the paddock to Owen Brook.

While I'm having a good old ramble I'll share a similar 'discovery.' In the early 1980s on my first trip to Lees Paddocks my dad and I visited Lewis Falls and then went looking for Oxley Falls. In those days there were no well-trodden pads like there are today. We only saw the small cascade upstream from Oxley. We had our back to the real falls. The river was full so we were unable to get right to the edge and therefore did not have a good view down the valley. Imagine my surprise next visit when I emerged from the myrtles slightly further downstream and feasted my eyes on the real thing!

Happy waterfall hunting!

P.S. I should point out that most of the Emu and Cam waterfalls above involve private property. ** Indicates Gunns land (good luck getting permission from the receivers) and * indicates other private land.
P.P.S. Given my immense pride in my home town of Burnie I should mention the two Burnie waterfalls which are not in the Cam or Emu valleys. They are Cooee* and Oldaker Falls.
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Re: Lockwood River Falls

Postby Davo1 » Sun 16 Dec, 2012 3:02 pm

Tastrekker,
Thanks for that.
It certainly makes more sense now.
Cheers
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Re: Lockwood River Falls

Postby waterfallman » Sun 16 Dec, 2012 7:38 pm

Hi all.
Thank you all for your very interesting contributions! I now have a goodly amount of leads to follow up!
I originally also enquired of a very helpful lady (xxxx) at ThinkTas.com who. while she didnt know herself, sort
out some additional info from another lady (yyyy) she said was a wealth of information on "all things Tasmanian".
I will post her reply here, but will omit the names involved..
--start of reply--
-----Original Message----- (Re access to Pet & Darling Falls)
From: xxxx [mailto:xxxx@think-tasmania.com]
Sent: Saturday, 1 December 2012 6:15 PM
To: zzzz@prostruc.com.au
Subject:

Pet Falls and Darling Falls
Hi Steve & Gwen
I've asked about access to the Pet & Darling waterfalls for you, and here's the verdict...
(from yyyy)..
--Those falls are inaccessible at the moment due to public liability issuesre sale of land, (trespassers are being prosecuted), but we are in a position to let them know later if public access is granted...But some other great falls up here that are accessible include Guide Falls, Upper Guide Falls, Saunderson Falls (magic, and not many have seen it), Lockwood Falls (MAGIC, MAGIC, MAGIC! so isolated, hidden beneath a canopy of rainforest, and hardly anyone knows of it… this is my most favourite waterfall ever, makes one believe in fairies, truly!), St. Joseph Falls, St. Georges Falls, Serpent Falls, East Cam Falls, Oldaker Falls and McGowans Falls, all are within 30 minutes of Ridgley.
...So it sounds like the two falls you were interested in aren't accessible to the public for now at least, but there's plenty of other possibilities instead.
I hope this has been helpful.
Kind Regards...
xxxxx
Think Tasmania
www.think-tasmania.com
www.facebook.com/ThinkTasmania.
--end of reply--

So folks.. That's how I got interested in the mysterious "Lockwood Falls".
All the others mentioned are on our "to do" list, and we'll get there as time permits etc.
After reading Tastrekker's & Walkintas's replies, yes, I concur. I do suspect now, that Lockwood Falls are indeed Upper Cam Falls. All the research I've done, including the fine replies so far, tend to indicate this. In any case, the Upper Cam falls are on my hit list, and will be visited in due course.
If and when I hear back from yyyy, with more definitive info, (Still waiting) I will update this thread.
Thanks also to Davo1.. the Owen Brook Falls pics are stunning!
Cheers all..
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Re: Lockwood River Falls

Postby waterfallman » Sun 16 Dec, 2012 7:50 pm

Oh.. I just remembered.. to tastrekker..
When my partner & I were in Burnie last year, I said I'd try and find Oldaker Falls for her, seeing as it was in her home town. It appears that she'd lived there for years, and never ever seen of heard about them!
We visited the park, and walked up the path she'd seen, but never reached the end of, and behold.. there were Oldaker falls, pouring out from under the edge of the road in all their glory. We laughed and laughed and laughed. She reckons she's driven on the road over the top of the falls hundreds of times, but never noticed them!
Pays to keep your eyes open doesn't it!
And yes, Cooee Falls are on our list as well. I've got to decide whether to try access down along the fenceline and edge of creek, or to go into an adjacent property and ask for permission to try alternative access from there. (bush trekking is ok for me, but the ladies prefer something a bit easier..lol).
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Re: cooee falls

Postby pwebblo » Fri 31 Mar, 2017 6:46 pm

hi- I have just read some of the posts regarding the Ridgley waterfalls with great interest. IN the eighties and early nineties I was lucky enough to work on several Tasmanian walk books and got to go to many locations I never would have gone to otherwise. We found Sanderson's,st George's and st josephs falls easily and later walked into Pet falls and the great Darling falls. I was intrigued when I heard of Cooee Falls as I had walked that area many times and had never heard of them. I was wondering if anyone knew if they still existed and also if people are able to walk into Darling Falls again.
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Re: Lockwood River Falls

Postby tastrekker » Fri 31 Mar, 2017 8:04 pm

Yes Cooee and Darling Falls are still there and, yes, you can walk to them but they're both on private property. Tassie doesn't have automatic riparian reserves so you need to engage the land owners.
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Re: Lockwood River Falls

Postby bonn_94 » Sun 25 Jun, 2017 10:15 pm

Can someone give any information on Owen Brook Falls... good directions if they are still accessible? I went to 'Cam Falls' I think that's the name!? (Just out of Tewkesbury)' a few weeks back, from reading this I'm taking they are near there?
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Re: Lockwood River Falls

Postby waterfallman » Tue 27 Jun, 2017 10:51 pm

Hello Bonn.. I'm not entirely certain, but I've got a fair idea that the falls we know as "Owen Brook" Falls are about 100m North West of Cam Falls. They are on the Owen Brook, which runs under Oonah Rd, about 130m West of where Dunhams Rd comes out onto Oonah Rd as a tee intersection, from the south.
They are on private property, and there is indeed a house on the north of Oonah rd in this location. This is visible for all to see on the google earth overhead images, and also on street view. Owen brook runs up and around to the rear of this house and small property, where it falls over a good drop, similar to Cam Falls. The word is that the property owner is quite happy to show people the falls himself! So it's worth popping in and enquiring. I haven't got back there myself, but will do in the not too distant future. The Cam Falls are on the East cam river, so technically should be named the "East Cam Falls", but what's in a name.
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