26/10/2007 - MGowans Falls (Tarkine)

Last Sunday, a Tupperware Party invitation took my family and I to the splendid location of Mount Hicks.  Yes, hicksville itself.  After dropping the girls at the party, my 2 boys and I headed into the 'Tarkine' to visit McGowans Falls and Farqhuars Bridge over the Arthur River.

The Tarkine is an area of magnificent wilderness on Tasmania's west coast.  To the north and south, it is bounded by the Arthur and Pieman River systems.  To the east, it extends roughly to the Murchison Highway and beyond.  Despite forestry, mining and hydro-electric activities intruding deeply into this area, there are still huge unspoilt areas of magnificent rainforest, rugged coastline, windswept plains and remote mountain ranges.

Our first stop was a quarry beside a pine plantation at the far western extremity of West Takone.  From the quarry you get a great view over the upper Arthur Valley towards the Savage River National Park.  Judging from the amount of moss, the quarry has been disused for some time.  It was a delight to see healthy myrtle seedlings popping up between the rocks.

Next, we drove down the narrow hairpin bends of Farqhuars Road to the Arthur River near Victory Springs.  The bridge has been swept away, possibly in the floods of August this year.  The main girder can be seen a few metres downstream.  I have heard that Tayetea Bridge near Trowutta was also swept away,  That is an amazing thought as the river is very wide at that point and the bridge is normally a long way above the swirling torrent.

Our final stop and main purpose of the trip was McGowans Falls.  A short walk from Relapse Creek Road leads to the top of the falls.  From here a steep scrable is needed to reach the bottom of the falls.  The track to the bottom is very steep and slippery and care must be taken to ensure further erosion is avoided.

An unexpected bonus came when we returned to the Tupperware Party.  In the creek that runs beside our friend's home, a couple of giant freshwater lobsters have taken up residence.  This was the first time I have seen one of these reclusive creatures 'in the wild.'  While the little one we looked at was not huge, it was certainly not tiny and would have been around 25 centimetres in length.