After another walk was cancelled due to floods, Bob and myself decided to visit some waterfalls in the northern part of Sydney. We had a very good day visiting some nice waterfalls, ones that are well worth visiting after good rain.
Our first waterfall was on Hunts Creek at Carlingford.
Balaka Falls
With good flow this waterfall is well worth a visit. It can be reached by tracks from the both sides of Hunts Creek. We entered from Balaka Drive at Carlingford and it was a walk of about 150 m.
Possibly, it would be better to get photos from the other side of Hunts Creek. But at the time of our visit, you would be shooting into the Sun a lot more than from this side, and we would have had to wade across deep fast moving water (or drive around). There are a series of tracks that go down to Lake Parramatta.
When I visited Lake Parramatta in 2015, a comment was left on my blog recommending a visit to this waterfall.
Excelsior Creek – Cascade
I had seen this interesting feature on Excelsior Creek, in Bidjigal Reserve on a fungi walk last year. I had remarked then that it would be worth returning to see this in high water. Now we had the chance. We walked down from Eric Mobbs Reserve via a good track. We soon reached the creek then followed it downstream towards Darling Mills Creek.
And on the walk back, I took a few more photos of Excelsior Creek.
Here is Bob ob one of the two creek crossing we had to do to reach the cascade. It was quite safe to cross – but we did get wet shoes.
This crossing is on artificial “stepping stones” that are on top of a sewer line that follows the creek.
And another view further upstream.
If you look on the far side of the creek you can see a sewer vent. These are found in much of Sydney’s remnant bushland.
Eastwood Falls
I often walk past this waterfall on Terrys Creek on my bird and fungi walks. I have long wanted to see it with a good flow. It can be reached by a 15 minute walk down the track from Vimiera Park.
We then headed to Macquarie Park and had lunch at a park. From there we could walk to our next waterfall.
Blaxlands Falls
These falls are also known as Buckham Falls. They are on Shrimptons Creek between Talavera Road and the Lane Cove River. We visited from Leisure Close, walking through a private property (blocks of flats car park) to the Lane Cove National Park entrance and then along an old fire road that goes to the top of the falls – a nice rocky area.
To get a view of the waterfall, we had to walk back along the fire trail and then followed a very rough pad down a small cliff and then through boulders to the pool at the base of the falls.
This is an attractive waterfall, but it is marred somewhat by the amount of rubbish caught in the trees and boulders nearby.
Shrimptons Creek has the most developed catchments of any of the tributaries of the Lane Cove River.
St Johns Falls
This is another attractive waterfall that is good to visit after rain. It is on Falls Creek at Gordon and can be reached by a very short walk from both side of the creek. A walkway runs behind the Gordon Golf Course from St Johns Avenue to Spencer St at Gordon. There is a footbridge over the creek just above the waterfall. On the west side, a track leaves the walkway and goes down to a fire road at Blackbutt Creek. A short side track leads to the base of the falls. A home made sign calls them Rays Falls.
This site has some nice photos and more information on the falls.
I had assumed that the waterfall name would be pronounced as “Sinjin Falls” in the posh British tradition that is used to pronounce the British surname “St John”. In this suburb, a lot of street names seem to be upper class British names – like Buckingham, Spencer, Norfolk, Cecil etc. But asking a resident on St Johns Avenue who was out walking, she assured my that the locals use the “Saint John” pronunciation.
After visiting the waterfall we decided to walk around the loop – along the Blackbutt Creek Track (Fire trail) and then follow it up Blackbutt Creek and up to St Johns Avenue via another walkway between houses.
On the way we passed this interesting water feature –
There was a natural arch at water level here. The flow disappeared down a hole.
As we walked up Blackbutt Creek, the trail is well above the creek, and we looked out for a waterfall marked on the STEP map. At the spot we could hear a waterfall, but it would be quite awkward to get to it in the wet conditions and it didn’t look to much from what we could see between the trees. But further upstream, we found a very attractive waterfall, a short way from the trail. This was worth some photos.
Blackbutt Creek Falls
With the water conditions we had, this was a very pretty waterfall. I have not found it marked on maps or any name for it, so for want of a proper name, I will simply call it “Blackbutt Creek Falls”.
Returning to the trail, we spotted one Greenhood Orchid.
Further upstream, where the walkway crosses the fire road, we followed it down to the creek. There is small waterfall here, but it is rather unusual. There is large groove in the creekbed, that crosses the creek. It is perhaps a place where a sewer pipe once followed? Anyway, some of the creek is captured by this and a lot of the the creek water is diverted to the true left.
we then went the other way on the walkway, and up some old steps to St John Avenue. From there is was a short walk back to the walkway near the Golf Course and to Spencer St where Bob had parked.
The last site we visited on the day was an Aboriginal Engraving site in Lane Cove National Park not very far away. Bob had visited this spot before. I was new to me. It was quite impressive with a large engraved Kangaroo, a boomerang and some other shapes (mundoes?).
This Visit Sydney Waterfalls North site was useful for a good source of waterfalls to visit in this part of Sydney.