Hobart Waterfalls
I was recently lucky enough to find myself in the situation where I had a day or two of otherwise horrible weather while in town to visit all the nearby Hobart Waterfalls – which meant it was the perfect weather for photographing them! Hobart as a capital city is very luck to have the incredible Mt Wellington park within only 10-15 minutes drive from the center of the city, with all the best waterfalls within a short walking distance from easy to access parking spots. My plan was to visit all 7 waterfalls within the park, however I only managed to get to 5 of them – omitting Wellington Falls which were on the other side of the park, and Myrtle Gully Falls and I diddn’t know they exist. I took some cracker photos though and the video I made of me wanddering about makes for relaxing viewing. I havent added New Town falls to the blog post as I don’t feel as though I took a great photo of them – wrong time of year to visit I think.
Strickland Falls
Starting off with perhaps my favorite of the Hobart Waterfalls I visited, the Strickland falls were the shortest walk away from the carpark, and yet in some ways were the most difficult to get to. The path up to the falls has eroded over the years, meaning any hiker heading to the falls will have to wear their hiking boots, and be prepared for some occasional hairy situations clambering over slipper rocks – but the trek is short lived. Like many of the waterfalls in the Wellington park, in bygone years they have been used as a source of water for settlements around Hobart, so there are remnants of old pipelines scattered about the place – in Strickland Falls’ case there’s a big pipe leading right into the falls themselves, which is a little disappointing, but they are so old that it doesn’t draw too much away from the natural scene.
The falls themselves are around 3 meters tall, with a large fallen tree just off to one side witch makes for a nice point of interest to the scene. It’s plunge pool is shallow and able to be waded about quite easily for those of you wanting to get wet, or closer for a nice photo 🙂
Secret Falls
Secret Falls had always been on my bucket list to visit ever since I first learn of their existence a little while ago, last time I was in Hobart but never had enough time in the city to visit – while looking for Hobart Waterfalls I was always directed up to Mt Field National Park instead of looking more local. Their name is very apt as there are no signs or documentation saying where the tiny streaming waterfall is located, but its’ on the path way towards the Myrtle Gully Falls, just up behind the famed Cascade Brewery building. Funnily enough, I only learnt about the Myrtle Gully Falls while researching this blog post, so that’ll be the first place I was to photograph next time i’m in town 🙂 It’s not a long walk away from the carpark so it’s quite simple to get to, but if you’re not on the lookout you may walk straight past it, as it’s hidden a bit behind foliage and the level of the walking trail. The Secret Falls were up there on my list of waterfalls to visit due to it’s beautiful location, situated within a lovely canopy of rock. I visited early in the morning before the sun rose above the canopy of tree, allowing for a lovely even colour scale.
O’Grady Falls
I was really not prepared for O’Grady Falls, I parked in the wrong spot to hike up, as the route I took was via the nearby fire track which was quite a steep climb – where as there’s a much easier walk to the falls up and around the corner on the actual walking trail 🙂 The O’Grady Falls are quite tall, easily making around 8-10m in height, and a footbridge has been built right in front of it. I found the best vantage point was under the footbridge within the gorge itself. I was lucky enough to head up there on a misty, miserable day which added so much to the ambiance.
Silver Falls
Silver Falls are an interesting place to visit, no so much for the falls themselves, but also because of the ruins and old infrastructure lying about in ruins – all to do with the waterworks put in place during the early days of settlement. There are signposted descriptions of what each ruin used to be, and a nice easy walk directly to the falls. Probably the most educational of all the Hobart waterfalls 🙂
The falls themselves, as I mentioned aren’t the most spectacular, not in the least because there is a man made plunge pool barrier located right as the foot of the falls which takes away from it’s natural beauty a bit. It’s also tricky to get the falls all in shot due to the trees growing fairly close to the plunge pool, but if you’re creative and keen on climbing over things you can get a clean shot 🙂
Here’s Gallery of all the shots I took on my walks to the Mt Wellington Waterfalls.
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