Bushwalk Australia

Arrived in Tassie on Monday for ~3 weeks. Staying at St Helens for a few days now. It's bucketed down since we got here . Not too much walking yet but we managed a trip to the Blue Tier yesterday and completed the Wellington Ck circuit (in the rain). Today just to St Columba Falls and Halls Falls, again in a downpour, but both were roaring and spectacular. Apparently it hasn't rained like this for a long time here (don't blame me ). Hopefully look around Binalong/Bay Bay of Fires tomorrow then to LSC Friday for a day or so. I'll try and check in again if I can get web access.

Bringing rain to the east of tassie is a good trick. It's been dry out that way for a long time.

I've just spent 5 hours controlling traffic on the Esk Main Rd because of water over the road. St Marys Pass is closed.
You picked a good time to be in St Helens. I tried to stay in the office all day today.

Roger

Hopefully it will revive the fishing somewhat in the Break O Day

FF

The BOD is very wide at the moment

Good thing that you got to St Columba Falls yesterday because St Columba Falls Rd is now closed at the first bridge off the Tasman Hwy!

You can hear your way to Ferntree falls now.

norts wrote:I've just spent 5 hours controlling traffic on the Esk Main Rd because of water over the road. St Marys Pass is closed.
You picked a good time to be in St Helens. I tried to stay in the office all day today.

Roger

Apparently it is still closed and probably for another 48 hrs. Off to LSC in the morning via Elephant Pass then Campbell Town (hopefully).

Phil wrote:Good thing that you got to St Columba Falls yesterday because St Columba Falls Rd is now closed at the first bridge off the Tasman Hwy!

Agreed . We were at the Pyengana Cheese factory afterward and they warned everyone the road may go under. We only stayed long enough to buy some cheddar...

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Thursday at St Columba Falls

That's a lovely photo, GD.

Few too many pics from the Gorge yesterday

Hey Crum, they are a fantastic set of shots of a fairly rare event.
Thanks for sharing.
ff

Great shots!

I went for a walk myself yesterday down to Duck Reach Power Station (I live a couple of minutes from there) and then along the river down into the Gorge......what a sight......and the sound is amazing!

Awesome! I've only seen the water in the 1st basing higher than that just once before.

It appears that Launceston may have averted the 40 year flood which is due this year (every 40 years since 1849, or something like that, apparently).

Wow - that will certainly flush out lots of debris that may have been laying around for a while. I will bet there is lots of floating debris in the Tamar.

tastrax wrote:Wow - that will certainly flush out lots of debris that may have been laying around for a while. I will bet there is lots of floating debris in the Tamar.

At high tide early on Saturday morning, I was stunned at the amount of debris floating past our house. At first I noticed quite a few large logs, but the more I looked, the more I noticed smaller items, and eventually it appeared that the entire surface of the river was dotted with flotsam and jetsam. It was all pretty clear this morning.

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I went there today, but the water level has dropped a lot by now. Still it is a nice place to take some photos now with the fast flowing water

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The Meander River, taken from the Westwood road.

Not as dramatic as the Gorge, but still impressive compared to its usual flow.

We were told at the start of this year by an old bloke that there would be floods this year - "always on a 9 year".

Beautiful image there, clownfish.

Thanks, scavenger - it was worth losing the quick-release from my tripod for

(fumbling around in the dark, then plunk! Damn ... )

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Well I'm still here. Have we had some weather in the past few weeks . Was going to try and walk somewhere again today after getting most of the way to Meander falls yesterday, in the snow, before deep flooding across the track stopped us a few hundred metres short . Forecast of damaging winds today so we've driven into Launceston from Deloraine for a while. Maybe a short wander up the Gorge if not too windy .

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johnw wrote:... getting most of the way to Meander falls yesterday, in the snow, before deep flooding across the track stopped us a few hundred metres short.

*snigger*
My first assault on Meander almost ended at that spot, but I managed to tree-walk across about fifteen to the side of the track. Was most disappointed next time to find the track bone dry at that point.

Love the photos from everyone.

And the good news is that it's still raining! With one of the longest lists of flood warnings on the Bureau of Meterology site that I have seen.

If you can get near a waterfall then it should be good.

Brett wrote:

johnw wrote:Well I'm still here. Have we had some weather in the past few weeks . Was going to try and walk somewhere again today after getting most of the way to Meander falls yesterday, in the snow, before deep flooding across the track stopped us a few hundred metres short . Forecast of damaging winds today so we've driven into Launceston from Deloraine for a while. Maybe a short wander up the Gorge if not too windy .

Hi John

I was there on Sunday and the snow was almost washout. Did the snow look like new stuff? You did not attempt the tree shuffle over that section or was the tree not there Falls were big and the usual huge refrigerator to suck heat out of the air near them.

Hi Brett. The snow was new and still falling quite heavily at times while we were up there. First time we've been on that track so wasn't familiar with alternate access and snow was covering virtually everything. Even the track was difficult to follow in places as snow laden branches had fallen across, obscuring it. I did look for other ways around and even considered crossing the boulder field to the left, but decided against it as I'm sure I'd end up slipping on an icy one . In any case there appeared to be wall to wall scrub ahead of it. I also thought about simply stomping through the "river" along the track but it looked at least knee deep (I'm not tall) for a considerable distance and very cold. If it was summer I would have done that. I know it's not usually considered a difficult walk but conditions prevailed on this occasion, both snow/ice and heavy rain lower down. We did get close enough to get a look at the falls, just not up close and personal. Next time .