Rinadena Falls - Little Fisher River

[walkinTas]

Thanks to heplittledoggie for the heads up on Rinadena Falls and Tastrekker's description of the Little Fisher walk (not sure if it has an official name).

This is an excellent walk, and one I would rate as family friendly. The car park is around 810 metres elevation, and the base of the falls are around 915 metres elevation, so it is a relatively flat walk. I took a two wheel drive vehicle. The drive in is on rough gravel roads as per Tastrekker's post. Heplittledoggie PM'd me these instructions: Mersey Forest Road, to the Dublin Road junction, about 2 km south of the Rowallan Dam, travel east on the Dublin Road to its junction with Little Fisher Road, turn right into Little Fisher Road and travel for 6 k's or so past the bridge over the Little Fisher River, turn right and then turn right again, past a sign for the Walls of Jerusalem National Park, continue until the car park. This proved to be spot on. The track narrows more and more as you head in, and you're left hoping that there will be somewhere you can turn around, otherwise you will have some fancy reversing to do. There is, the car park at the end.

The walk starts from the carpark across a little foot bridge.

You then walk about 650 metres to the river, and cross on an old log bridge.

. There was a reasonable flow of water down the Little Fisher River.

Across the bridge the track continues another 100 metres to an intersection and you will see a Cairn on the left fork. This old vehicle track continues on for another Kilometre. A short way up the track from the corner you will cross an old bridge over a stream.

Last edited by walkinTas on Wed 17 Dec, 2008 10:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.

[walkinTas]

There is plenty to see in this section including nice stream-scapes,

.
flowering Waratah,

and other wildflowers.

[walkinTas]

.

The Myrtle were loaded with Cyttaria gunnii.

and the road side ferns were attractive.

[walkinTas]

At the end of the 1.6 Kilometres of old road the track starts. The bush is Eucalyptus regrowth for the first 500 metres. Just into the bush is a registration book for walkers to complete.

Just as I entered the bush I met the local wild life - a couple of sizable snakes.

. This one in particular was not very keen to share her bush with me. I had to gently persuade her to move off the track. When I returned she was still there, less than a metre from the track. I was able to sneak by without disturbing her a second time.

Once in the myrtle forest you have about a 1.5 kilometre walk into the falls. The track is reasonable well formed and at different points you can see the loving care of the track builders.

Last edited by walkinTas on Wed 17 Dec, 2008 6:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[walkinTas]

The cascades in the river were particularly beautiful.

[walkinTas]

And of course, there is the waterfall.

Rinadena1.jpg (339.25 KiB) Viewed 16722 times

Rinadena2.jpg (330.23 KiB) Viewed 16722 times

All in all, this is a lovely little walk and well worth a dawdle.

The track continues up along the edge of the Little Fisher River to the plateau. I will return one day to walk the full length of the track.

Last edited by walkinTas on Sun 14 Jun, 2009 6:15 am, edited 2 times in total.

[flyfisher]

That walk description and the photos are just fantastic. Well done walkin Tas. Love it.

FF

[Robbo]

Have to agree...

Great photos and well worth a visit I'd say...

Tony Robinson

Oh yeah- what a sweet track. How would you go walking it either in or out in low-light, like a bit before sunrise or after sunset?

[walkinTas]

Thanks FF & Robbo.

How would you go walking it either in or out in low-light, like a bit before sunrise or after sunset?

CP, the track itself would be very suitable for low light walking. The river crossings being the most precarious parts of the track (and they hardly rate). I topped up the oil about 6:35 and left Devonport around 6:45. I started walking at 9:00. I went via Olivers Road. There were plenty for wallabies heading for cover both along the bitumen road sides and on the gravel roads. I have a couple of wildlife whistles under the front bumper so the wallabies tend to head bush 50 metres ahead of me. The hardest part of a low-light walk would be getting there safely and avoiding being responsible for road kill.

Could be good for an evening walk. Thanks!

[corvus]

Warning !!
After heavy rainfall like we have just experienced(80 to 100 mm) please be aware that none of this walk is very benign however the Falls are really spectacular after rain and if you are an experienced off track walker head up the Scarp to find the other falls and a really nice deep rock overhang.
In addition if it is forecast heavy rain on the Plateau don't cross the outlet creek for an overnight stay or you could be stuck for a day or so.
c

[flyfisher]

Not such a good photo but it will give you an idea of water volume we encountered.

Attachments

Rinadena falls

[Son of a Beach]

Wow... I hope you guys can post a trip report with some photos. Must have been a huge amount of water coming over the falls last weekend.

[Ent]

Flyfisher that is not how my camera recorded the Falls on the first day.

Falls on the way in

Oh right the second day, you mean where all this water went? Sorry for picture quality the lens wiper was not working.

Path finding

Yes it went here.

The attachment Falls.JPG is no longer available

Cheers

Attachments

Falls day two

[flyfisher]

Pomysi riding the log to freedom.

Last one over the log to cross the Rinadena falls creek on our way back from a trip to Daisy lakes .
Sorry Brett, didn't get vid of you as I was too busy readying myself for the crossing.
ff

[Nick S]

Epic river crossing!
Yeah it was pretty amazing how that stream turned into a raging torrent when we only just walked across it the day before.
I'd be interested in how soon the levels returned to normal, in other words, how long you might have had to wait..

[Ent]

Hi Flyfisher

No problems on the photographs. I was reluctant to take any having stowed my camera in the pack along with GPS to avoid it blazing a path for Corvus' walking pole. Also did not want to get the last shot of someone living. Know the feeling of getting ready Once Nik crossed I had but one focus, get across before I had too much time to think "hey is this really a good idea?".

Having long legs is good for wadding through water but when they drop into the torrent they almost swung me over the log. Thanks Nik for blazing the path and removing the pack so I could do that last little jump over that particularly friendly remains of a limb.

Also thanks to everyone for working as a great team to work on solutions and eliminate the other options that might have well resulted in the golden bushwalking rule been broken.

Cheers

[Thomas]

Geez....better you guys than me....

I've been into Rinadeena twice this year...but never seen it like that...!!!!!

Thomas