Waterfalls of Australia – #FriFotos

Where are the world’s greatest waterfalls? I’m sure if you had to name some great waterfalls you might mention the Niagara Falls in Canada, or the Iguaszu  in Brazil. I’ll admit Iguaszu is impressive, Niagara much less so, but Australian waterfalls? Hmm, right, can you name any? To be honest I don’t think I could either until we spent 6 months driving the Australian outback. So here are my pics of the great Australian waterfalls. First Australia is the driest continent on earth, and also one of the oldest, so its pretty flat.

Which Australia does not have the world’s most spectacular waterfalls. But that does mean that, unlike say Niagara, you can swim in them without risking your life. In fact as all of these are in northern Australia, and northern Australia is crocodile country, waterfalls are one of the safest places to swim – crocs don’t like them very much.

Fruit Bat Falls, Cape York, Queensland

On the way north from Cairns, we’d heard a lot about these falls for days. Unfortunately there were no nearby campsites, but we camped a couple of hours drive away, and returned the next day so we could have another swim!

Fruit Bat Falls, Cape York, Queensland

Butterfly Creek, Lawn Hill NP Queensland 

OK – sure its a bit pathetic dribble, rather than a real waterfall, but we would take anything having driven for days across northern Queensland. Lawn Hill is on the Northern Territory border and was actually the scene of our closest croc encounter. We just about ran over one in a kayak – fortunately it was a fresh-water one – so, mostly harmless! And the rocks are pretty – in the way that only Australia can do rocks.

Butterfly Spring, NT

Wangai Falls, Litchfield National Park, Northern Territory

This must be very impressive in the wet season, unfortunately that is when the crocs make it up the rivers – so no warm shower for the campers then! Had a great ledge behind the main waterfall where you could sit and watch. This was a camping ground where I didn’t care that there were no showers.

Wangai Falls, Litchfield NP, NT

Emma Gorge, El Questro, Western Australia

Only about 110km by road from Kununurra this is near the eastern end of the Gibb River Road. This spot is so pretty we decided to camp at the nearby camp ground so we could explore it. Its an easy quick walk up a narrow stream, which doesn’t really give away the big deep pool waiting around the corner until you get near. Quite a magical spot, which few tourists seem to bother with the 30 minute walk in to experience.

Emma Gorge, NT

Bell Gorge, Western Australia

Several days later we were much further along the Gibb River Road, and this charming spot we only just got to – arriving about 30 minutes before dark – which is early in northern Australia. It would have been a tough scramble down the waterfall – it was pretty high – fortunately the water was only a few inches deep so I could pretend to be doing something death-defying for the camera, and then stand up and walk away.

Bell Gorge, WA

Karajini National Park, Western Australia

After driving 100’s of kilometres over dusty, rough, red desert, you park in a dry dusty carpark, and walk about 45 minutes, including clambering around the side of a gorge, and then finally you see this – yes it was definitely worth the hike!

Karajini, WA

This post is written for twitter’s #Frifotos – a different topic each week and this week’s topic was Waterfalls!

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2 Comments

  1. Vi on May 25, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    I would say waterfalls on East coast of Australia are quite spectacular, especially Wallaman Falls.

  2. Elisabeth on May 29, 2012 at 11:15 am

    I don’t know Wallarman – where is that Vi?

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