Ironbark Falls, Nevada Creek Falls and Constable Creek Falls. Apr 2018.
Ironbark Falls
After my huge waterfall bagging spree of Friday, it seemed rather greedy to be back at it again on Sunday, but Craig and I had agreed to go a-bagging again this weekend: the question was, where? We had our goal all worked out, but the weather was so utterly appalling there that I suggested we do the dry thing and explore falls on the east coast instead (Ironbark Falls, Nevada Creek Falls and Constable Falls). Craig seemed to be perfectly content with the idea of getting muddy and saturated, possibly freezing, and having continual droplets on his lens, but, in deference to my wussiness and weakness, agreed to forego these pleasures and travel to where the sun was. I hope he didn’t regret this consent too much. While everyone else was huddling from snow squalls by the fire, we were calling on clouds to come to our aid and cover the sun for a moment or two. While others were worried about hypothermia this weekend, we got sunburnt.
To add to the pleasure of the day, Bec (Craig’s wife) and Tessa (the faithful and fancy dog waterfall bagger) were going to join us. Waterfalls, here we come. The first on our list was Ironbark Falls, that being the only one of the three to be given the glory of an official name. I drove down Argonaut Rd, forked left onto Trafalgar, and continued along it past its official end onto what is then called Transit Rd. We had no idea how this road would be, but were all prepared to walk the whole way if necessary. There were a few ruts to negotiate, but nothing to overly tax my Subaru Forester, and we arrived safely at the spot we wanted.
The walk from the car to the falls was sheer delight, the forest being as open as could possibly be, with attractive tors piled on top of each other adding heaps of interest. This type of coastal granite has been the site of many orienteering competitions in my past life, and just being there made me very happy. The walk to the falls did not take long, but was long enough to be pleasing (a bit under twenty minutes). On the list map, the creek looks like a lake at this point, so I was curious to see what it would look like. There is a very wide area of rock, with gently flowing water over it. It was lovely, and had a real “northern territory” feel to it. If you can’t afford the NT, then just go to St Helens. After photographing, we had lunch on the rocks (hoping for a cloud or two to come our way). Tessa had multiple swims, and made up for the lack of rain on the coast by shaking herself regularly near Craig and Bec.
Nevada Creek Falls
The next item on the agenda was a nameless fall marked on the maps, situated on a neighbouring creek, which Craig thus dubbed Nevada Creek Falls. We took less than ten minutes to go up over the spur and down to these beauties. These falls had a kind of cascade above, and then a bigger fall below. Both cascade and fall had a pool at the base of the most magnificent green, and perfect clarity. These pools were very inviting for a swim.
Our final goal was another nameless falls on the map, which, again using a practical, descriptive name, we called Constable Creek Falls. These were also attractive, and had a quite fascinating mini-gorge above the falls.
Constable Creek Falls
On the way home, we once more found an excellent place to have coffee (in St Helens) – a tiny little place opposite Banjos. It was too late for caffein: I tested them out with a small but strong decaf cappuccino with almond milk, and they came to the full party. Delicious. The raspberry muffins were moist and delicious. I’ll be back.
Our route. We parked at the mine workings far west (which was as far as I was comfy taking the car). We went directly to Ironbark, then to the falls east of there on neighbouring Nevada Creek. From there, we followed the spur back southish, then west along the road until it was time to head bush and proceed to the third and final falls on Constable creek, the most westerly ones there, NE of the mine workings where the car was. It was then a short amble SW back to the car. This is a gorgeous circuit: highly recommended.