Weld River Lilo Trip - South West Tasmania - January 1981

All images © David Noble. No image can be used for any purpose without permission

Party - Bob Sault, Dave Noble

We borrowed lilos for this trip. I think from Ian Cantle and Chris (Basil) Rathbone. The trip took about 4 days. We hitched along the Strathgordon Road to the Huon Dam turnoff at Frodshams Pass. Thne we followed along the old and indistinct Port Davey Track towards Mt Bowes. We then turned off the track and headed through scrub to the Weld River via Cotcase Creek. This turned out to be a quick and easy way to the River. There were patches of scrub - but most of the going was fairly open rainforest (which we had picked from air photos back in Hobart)



Above - Horizontal scrub - Cotcase Creek



Above - Cotcase Creek



Above - In limestone country. The Weld Arch, discovered a few years earlier by Martin Hawes. Martin had carried a rubber raft to the river on an attempt to go all the way down it. The raft proved to be too heavy and cumbersome and he had to turn back. Our lilos turned out to be a good choice.



Above - The Weld Arch



Above - The Weld Arch. The whole river goes through this limestone arch.



Above - small gorge



Above - The Weld River emerging from a small gorge



Above - The upper Weld - too early to blow up the lilos



Above - detail - the limestone river bed











Above - Sidecreek



Above - Small gorge



Above - The Weld River. This was the sort of section we liloed.



Above - The Weld River.



Above - The Weld River.

We would typically lilo for about two hours - then get too cold (we only had a wool singlet for warmth, no wetsuits) - then have to get out, light a fire and warm up. Then after a snack, we would set off again for a few more hours, then another fire while we had lunch, then another session after lunch. The river scenery was very beautiful and the forest magnificent.

Return to david-noble.net