Wellington Falls

With a good forecast for today, and the weather likely to get worse as we head into winter, I convinced my brother that we should cycle along the Pipeline Track beyond the Dragon’s Lair to see what we could see, and maybe head around to Wellington Falls. I can’t remember when I last made it right to the end of the track; I suspect it’s 20 years or more. On our way in we took a detour into St Crispin’s Well (the first photo), which is a little cascade and water catchment about two-thirds of the way along the track, and one of my favourite “pretty places” on the mountain.

As it happens, you can’t get to the end of the Pipeline Track anymore, owing to a landslip, and so we didn’t get to see the weir and the upper reaches of the North-West Bay River. What I hadn’t realised, however, is that there is a “new” walking track to Wellington Falls (by “new” I mean it’s been built in the last 20 years, although it has such a great design that it looks like it’s been there forever). We parked our bikes and made our way along the well-formed track, and were rewarded with a great view of the falls at the lookout (the second photo). The falls face south, which means that the sun is rarely at a good angle for viewing them, but they still looked impressive. (I’ve had trouble finding any height information but one site suggests 80m or so for the full drop, although you can only see the top section here.)

What was striking was how different the place appeared compared to my recollections of my last visit: back then we’d been able to get much closer to the falls, and the area was much more open with the tumbled boulders and outcrops more obvious. Of course, there has been 20 years’ worth of growth since then, and what were once young eucalypt saplings making their recovery after the 1967 bushfire are now quite sizeable gum trees.

It’s dramatic countryside with the dolerite cliffs and well worth the visit (and it’s much nicer to cycle most of the way instead of doing it as a long pretty-but-tedious walk).