Tarkine Falls/Rainforest Track

[ashlee]

I've been reading a fair bit about Tarkine Falls and this 6 day rainforest track that goes from Farquhars bridge to Hilders bridge.
Think I've sussed it out pretty well but was wondering if anyone had done it? I was only thinking about going to Tarkine Falls at this stage but can't seem to find track notes anywhere?
Also, is this an exclusive TT track? Will I get in the proverbial for using this without paying?

[Taurë-rana]

TT get a bit upset when they find 4wdrives on the 4wd tracks they use for "remote" bushwalking, but who knows what they would think about other walkers using "their" tracks. Off topic a bit, we went down past Sandy Cape a couple of years ago and met up with a TT group going from the Pieman to the Arthur, including one fellow who wasn't very happy about TT's advertising - apparently they said something about you not being able to walk this route alone as it was too remote and too hard to find the way. Then he discovered that there was a 4WD track all the way...

[ashlee]

But I guess in the end it's all public land yeah..?
For some reason I've got it into my head that TT and the TNC both built that track together. Obviously TNC would have done this for the public, not so TT could make money from it...
But I guess I don't wanna step on anyone's toes, still would like to see Tarkine Falls though...

[the_camera_poser]

TT=?

TNC=?

[tas-man]

TT=?

Tarkine Trails = http://www.tarkinetrails.com.au/

TNC=?

Tarkine National Coalition = http://www.tarkine.org/

[dee_legg]

I say get out there! I doubt that TT even operates at this time of the year and if they did then it would be infrequent!
I really want to walk into Heaven, which is a waterhole somewhere near the end of the TT guided walk.

[ashlee]

Yeah I'm definately dying to go to Tarkine Falls! Does anyone have track notes on how to get there etc? Do you go from Hilder's Bridge or did I just make that up somewhere along the way lol..?

[MrCAMEL]

Yeah I'm definately dying to go to Tarkine Falls! Does anyone have track notes on how to get there etc? Do you go from Hilder's Bridge or did I just make that up somewhere along the way lol..?

Pick me.
I'm coming too.
I have wanted to go in there before they (may) build the road that will go somewhere near there, but have not, basically because I cannot find the same information you are looking for

[ashlee]

Yeah I'm definately dying to go to Tarkine Falls! Does anyone have track notes on how to get there etc? Do you go from Hilder's Bridge or did I just make that up somewhere along the way lol..?

Pick me.
I'm coming too.
I have wanted to go in there before they (may) build the road that will go somewhere near there, but have not, basically because I cannot find the same information you are looking for

I know! It wouldn't be the same if you could just park your car and walk to a lookout...
I'm about to ring Tarkine National Coalition and see if they have any info! Will keep you posted!

[tastrekker]

Check out my blog entries at http://www.blognow.com.au/tastrekker/91201/Tarkine_Falls.html and http://www.blognow.com.au/tastrekker/92466/Tarkine_Falls_again.html
The main navigation challenge was knowing where Folly Hill Road turns off from the road to Wynsmith Hills. It's not a big challenge if you have a map as the old roads are clearly marked. It's only tricky because the section of Folly Hill Road immediately after leaving the road to Wynsmith Hills is very overgrown. Once you leave the old roads, navigation is fairly easy thanks to copious amounts of tape strung by slightly overzealous (in the tape dept at least) TNC and TT people.

[tastrekker]

I say get out there! I doubt that TT even operates at this time of the year and if they did then it would be infrequent!
I really want to walk into Heaven, which is a waterhole somewhere near the end of the TT guided walk.

Given my faith, I find Heaven a slightly irreverent label. I'm quietly confident the real thing will be a heap better! In any case, photos of these cascades appear on my blog where I refer to them as Galladriels, another informal name for the same spot.

[ashlee]

Check out my blog entries at http://www.blognow.com.au/tastrekker/91201/Tarkine_Falls.html and http://www.blognow.com.au/tastrekker/92466/Tarkine_Falls_again.html
The main navigation challenge was knowing where Folly Hill Road turns off from the road to Wynsmith Hills. It's not a big challenge if you have a map as the old roads are clearly marked. It's only tricky because the section of Folly Hill Road immediately after leaving the road to Wynsmith Hills is very overgrown. Once you leave the old roads, navigation is fairly easy thanks to copious amounts of tape strung by slightly overzealous (in the tape dept at least) TNC and TT people.

Thanks heaps TasTrekker!!
I checked out your blog, will check out other stuff you've written in a minute too! I was looking on my maps last night (Folly 1:25 000) but couldn't find a waterfall sign on there at all, not even sure which waterway Tarkine Falls is on... I've driven a little up Keith River Road from Meunna before, but only made it a short way before turning back as I drive a 2wd and it was getting rough. Can you drive all the way to Hilders Bridge in a 4wd?
Just a couple of questions; after you cross Hilders Bridge do you keep following Keith River Road, and where do you go from there?
This Heaven or Galadriels Cascades, is this far into the forest or could I rech this spot doing a day walk? Where does the forest turn into real forest lol, meaning not regrowth or plantation..

[MrCAMEL]

I checked out your blog, will check out other stuff you've written in a minute too! I was looking on my maps last night (Folly 1:25 000) but couldn't find a waterfall sign on there at all, not even sure which waterway Tarkine Falls is on... I've driven a little up Keith River Road from Meunna before, but only made it a short way before turning back as I drive a 2wd and it was getting rough. Can you drive all the way to Hilders Bridge in a 4wd?
Just a couple of questions; after you cross Hilders Bridge do you keep following Keith River Road, and where do you go from there?
This Heaven or Galadriels Cascades, is this far into the forest or could I rech this spot doing a day walk? Where does the forest turn into real forest lol, meaning not regrowth or plantation..

I think the Folly map is quite old (from memory), and I suppose, it was before so many people showed such a keen interest in walking in the area.
I drove around Keith's River Road early this year in my 2wd Commo, and you can get all but about 300-400m from where Hilders bridge used to stand. It is a fairly peacful spot by itself anyways.

Does anyone know if there is tracked way in from the Pipeline road area? Obviously it is not as pretty that way, but it looks to be only a few km, on the map.

[ashlee]

I checked out your blog, will check out other stuff you've written in a minute too! I was looking on my maps last night (Folly 1:25 000) but couldn't find a waterfall sign on there at all, not even sure which waterway Tarkine Falls is on... I've driven a little up Keith River Road from Meunna before, but only made it a short way before turning back as I drive a 2wd and it was getting rough. Can you drive all the way to Hilders Bridge in a 4wd?
Just a couple of questions; after you cross Hilders Bridge do you keep following Keith River Road, and where do you go from there?
This Heaven or Galadriels Cascades, is this far into the forest or could I rech this spot doing a day walk? Where does the forest turn into real forest lol, meaning not regrowth or plantation..

I think the Folly map is quite old (from memory), and I suppose, it was before so many people showed such a keen interest in walking in the area.
I drove around Keith's River Road early this year in my 2wd Commo, and you can get all but about 300-400m from where Hilders bridge used to stand. It is a fairly peacful spot by itself anyways.

Does anyone know if there is tracked way in from the Pipeline road area? Obviously it is not as pretty that way, but it looks to be only a few km, on the map.

I have no idea when the map is from, will check it out tonight.. Yeah I get what you mean about landmarks not being marked on the map though, perhaps they should update it?
Think I have worked out the route though - will let you know when I know for sure!

[tastrekker]

Can you drive all the way to Hilders Bridge in a 4wd?

Yes but there is a damaged culvert on Keith River Road where it crosses Brandy Creek not far out of Meunna. Also, the section through the Cann Creek valley can be a tad sloshy. The best road access to Hilders Crossing is via Pruana Road and Bird Road. You then only have 500m of narrow rutted Keith River Road to drive down to the small car park at an intersection approx 200m from the river. The left branch crosses Bird Creek on a broken bridge and leads 300m to the site of the old bridge. The right branch leads down to the ford.

after you cross Hilders Bridge do you keep following Keith River Road, and where do you go from there?

You do not cross the bridge. As you have hopefully gathered by now, the bridge has been gone for several decades. You wade the river at the ford which is only possible at low river levels. This is not to be trifled with after rain! On the other side of the ford, you soon pickup the Keith River Road just above the old bridge site. After climbing out of the Arthur Valley, the Keith River Road turns off to the left and you are now on Folly Hill Road and soon heading downhill to another wade, this time over the Lyons River. Once you have climbed out of the Lyons River Valley, Folly Hill Road turns off to the left and is almost completely choked by bauera. The clear road which continues on goes to Wynsmith Hills and will be the route of the new tourist road if it goes ahead. If you reach the crest of the hill on the gravel road, you have gone too far and you need to go back and find the old Folly Hill Road where it heads south.

This Heaven or Galadriels Cascades, is this far into the forest or could I rech this spot doing a day walk?

I would say this is about 3 to 4 hours walk one way from Hilders Crossing. Only the last hour is in 'real forest' (see next comment). It would be a solid day walk to go there and back.

Where does the forest turn into real forest lol, meaning not regrowth or plantation..

Both Galladriels Cascades and Tarkine Falls are on Eastons Creek. On your map, you will see that Folly Hill Road sidles the Lyons River Valley before descending to cross Eastons Creek. The 'road' then climbs steeply and heads south along the ridge-top. The map then shows the road doubling back to the north. There is no sign of this double-back. This is the point where the selectively logged eucalypt forest ends and the relatively undisturbed myrtle forest starts. As long as the tapes have not been removed, the track is fairly easy to follow south along the ridge to where it eventually descends (after a few ups and downs) to Galladiels Cascades. The track crosses Eastons Creek just above Galladriels and climbs quite steeply before crossing Eastons Creek again further upstream. A sizeable tributary is crossed before a well signposted junction is reached indicating the side-track to Tarkine Falls.

The single drop of Tarkine Falls and the double drop of Galladriels are all visible as white flecks on maps.google.com north-east of some quaries on the Pipeline Road. In fact, Tarkine Falls are a mere 800m from one of these quarries.

Does anyone know if there is tracked way in from the Pipeline road area? Obviously it is not as pretty that way, but it looks to be only a few km, on the map.

In one of my blog entries, I muse about this option. I do not believe there is a direct route and I know the mine people are VERY dubious about public access in the vicinity of their pipeline and I expect their agreement with the government gives them the ability to enforce an exclusion zone. That having been said, the government appears happy to take on the mining people and this is essentially the route of their proposed 45 minTarkine Falls nature walk.

[ashlee]

Thanks so much TT!!!
Will be planning a trip there soon, if you read in the paper about someone getting lost that's me lol!! Just jokin..!

[dookanooka]

Hi all,
I thought i'd restart this thread with a question over how to get to the Pinner Creek from Farquhars bridge? It looks spectacular but can't find any details about how to get there.

Ashlee, did you end up going to the area?

cheers,
Dookanooka

[rphhpr]

HI there

I know this is an old thread, but planning on doing a loop from Hilders Croccing via Trakine falls later this week. I note that tastrekker supplied some very useful infomration but I have been able to go to the links set out below on the blog. If anybody could help access these links (below) would be much appreciated.

tastrekker wrote:
Check out my blog entries at http://www.blognow.com.au/tastrekker/91 ... Falls.html and http://www.blognow.com.au/tastrekker/92 ... again.html
The main navigation challenge was knowing where Folly Hill Road turns off from the road to Wynsmith Hills. It's not a big challenge if you have a map as the old roads are clearly marked. It's only tricky because the section of Folly Hill Road immediately after leaving the road to Wynsmith Hills is very overgrown. Once you leave the old roads, navigation is fairly easy thanks to copious amounts of tape strung by slightly overzealous (in the tape dept at least) TNC and TT people.

[tastrekker]

G'day rphhpr,

Don't worry too much about the missing links. They were mostly photos with very little track description. The blognow website vanished a while ago and I didn't have a backup of my posts. Oops! (http://tastrekker.blogspot.com/2011/01/ ... -dead.html)

The entry above contains as much as I can contribute regarding the route as I have only done the bit from Hilders Crossing to Tarkine Falls.

It's interesting to see that no one appears to have answered dookanooka's question from 18 months ago. I think Farquhars Bridge has been replaced with some kind of temporary structure to facilitate further mining preparations. I vaguely recall seeing a picture in the paper. Can anyone confirm that? Has anyone used the replacement bridge to access walking in the area? Is it still there or was it a short-term temporary thing?

[tida]

The new Farquars Bridge across Arthur River has locked gates, but it can be walked over according to advice from Tasmanian Magnesite, the road then traverses their mining lease area. After crossing Keith River and walking up Prospect Ridge we plan to walk NW along Keith River Rd for about 1.5 km and then head SW for about 3 km along unnamed road on Keith topomap to Pinner Creek.

[tida]

We have just walked along the route above, crossing the old Keith River log bridge was easy, balancing on one log across Lyons River required a bit of nerve, from there the old road was very overgrown, so it was easier to follow the taped route along Pinner Creek and more scenic with the small gorge. From the Pinner Creek bridge we followed the taped route to Tarkine Falls in one day and then explored Galadriels Cascades and the Tarkine lookout the following day. Some good old Myrtle forest, but also a lot of storm damage along the ridge and plateau.

[tastrekker]

Any photos to share with us? Did you get picked up at Hilders Crossing or did you do the long slog along the Keith River Road to complete the circuit back to Farquhars?

[photohiker]

I've put some photos here

Tough going with all the treefall, but worth the effort.

[geoskid]

Lovely, Michael - The Tarkine is an area I hav'nt seen any of yet. How did you find the guided walk experience?, and any particular reason for choosing that option over self guided?

Tastrekker, given my lack of Faith, I too find Heaven a slightly irreverent label, but for opposite reasons. But all is forgiven when I realize I need to travel Folly Hill Rd to get there.
Take Care.

[gayet]

How did you find the guided walk experience?, and any particular reason for choosing that option over self guided?

Hi

I was on this trip as well and can give some background as well as my answer to the above. A sojourn in the Tarkine is a sort of regular trip for a group of photographers with an interest in the natural world. TT have organised a trip for the last 5-6 yrs in October in, obviously, different parts of the Tarkine. This year was the rainforest. Why a guided trip?? because someone else does all the organisation of transport and route, and can carry the food and other gear essential to a pleasant trip and the photographers can carry what they want. We might even be able to offload some of the heavy camera gear onto the guides if there are enough to share the load.

This years trip was a little different to the previous 2 I have been on, in that there was more walking than usual, less base camp activity.

The self guided is an option but when you start adding on food and cooking gear and everything else required, it becomes more difficult to lift the pack with 5 - 10kg of camera gear added in. OK, 4kg or so in Michaels case, something closer to 8 in mine. I am not answering for Michael in this, just mtself and I may be lazy.......

[photohiker]

Yep, that's fair.

With a dedicated photo trip you get space to do your thing, no hassle if you're off up the hill or down at the creek at dinnertime, and if there is a photo guide, someone to bounce ideas off and watch how they operate. Having someone to manage the route, organise, haul food and cook is icing on the cake, I'd probably be eating cold food at midnight otherwise (or missing opportunities because I would be fussing around at camp)... The advantage of doing several trips with the same crew is that you know them, and they know you and your capabilities, so there is some room for self reliance that doesn't creep into a normal trip until well into the trip when the guides have sussed out the 'clients'.

I do as much walking as I can in a year. Basically 5+km every day and then a bunch of day trips 20-30km. I try and get away for 2-4 weeks in 1 week or more excursions. That might be the Heysen Trail, the TGO or the Flinders etc. They are all self-guided and self-supplied except when I go on a Tarkine Trails photo trip. Bottom line is TT are a great bunch of people and I've gotten to know them pretty well, don't mind paying for the convenience of an organised, catered photo trip once a year but couldn't do that for every trip (nor would I want to). Doing a trip like this carrying food and camera gear would limit the number of days I could go for - basically I place limits on the amount I'm willing to carry. On a self catered trip, my photo gear is about 1kg or maybe less.

I've also done the Overland guided with TasEx. It was good. I was the only photo nut on that trip, so it was a bit of a trial for the guides having various issues with newbie walkers and a mad photo guy hanging back or running ahead mucking about with cameras when they would rather I was putting up the tent or waiting in line for dinner

Gaye, I just weighed it all: ~6Kg with tripod. I accept that my baseweight has significant economies over yours, but remember that I was also carrying a tent kit and a hammock kit this trip. You still win the heaviest pack competition though

[gayet]

You still win the heaviest pack competition though

Actually, Grant's was estimated at the same or more than mine. I wasn't trying to win anything! And I have lowered the weight of the 'luxury' sleep system. I was impressed that you carried both tent and hammock.

[geoskid]

Thanks Gaye & Michael, Does seem like a fun and relaxed way to focus on your photography - nice results.

[vichiker]

Hi there,

I am planning a Tarkine Trip this summer, was doing a little research.

Can anyone point me in the right direction as to which maps I need to cover the walk from Farquhars bridge to Hilders bridge?
And any further track notes or info would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

[frenchy_84]

The 1:25000 Tasmap series... https://www.tasmap.tas.gov.au/do/category/25000TOPO
You can view them on TheLIST to make sure you have the area you want.