MATHINNA FALLS

 

1/ The Mathinna Falls are in eastern Tasmania. The Falls are an easy, short walk from the car park.

2/ The approach to Mathinna Falls is through pine plantations and regrowth forests. The gravel road was in good condition in 2021.

3/ The approach to the falls is on a well maintained track.

4/ A fern lined creek greets you as you approach the falls.

5/ The falls are an impressive 15 metre drop.

6/ This large fallen tree near the Lower Falls created a natural bridge for intrepid bushwalkers.

7/ There was a plethora life sprouting up around the falls.

8/ You can rock climb to a point where you can view the Upper Falls.

9/ This is the view of the deceptive calm at the top of the Upper Falls.

10/ This is the view from the top of the Upper Falls. There is a much larger third fall, but it is on a very steep cliff that is very difficult to navigate.

 

1/ Mathinna township is near Mathinna Falls. It is a former mining town that was once much larger than it is today. It is named after an Aboriginal girl who was adopted by the Governor Franklin's wife. This is the Anglican church of Mathinna.

2/ This image shows the altar of the historic Anglican church of Mathinna.

3/ This is the main street of Mathinna. The monument tells of the Aboriginal girl "Mathinna". The two houses beyond look like former hotels.

4/ This image shows one of the former hotels that is now a home.

5/ This image shows a professional worker's house from about 1900.

6/ This is the cafe and post office of Mathinna. There was also an extant hotel and a petrol pump in Mathinna, when I visited it in 2018.

7/ This is the Catholic church of Mathinna. It is just beyond the Anglican church shown above. It was in the process of being repaired or altered in 2018.

8/ This is the altar of the Catholic church of Mathinna. It showed clever use of timber.

 

1/ The Evercreech Forest is north east of Mathinna in central eastern Tasmania. It is the home of the "White Knights". These are huge white eucalyptus trees that are over 300 years old and over 90 metres in height. This image shows the view from the base of a white knight.

2/ The car park has all the necessary, picnic facilities and the walking paths are well maintained and vary from easy to moderate in difficulty.

3/ This map shows the two walks. The tour of the white knights is very easy to do. The walk to Evercreech Falls is also quite easy, but a full circuit does involve fording a stream.

4/ This image shows the board walk that goes from the car park to the first white knight . You can even take a wheel chair on this section.

5/ This image shows a more typical path. The paths were well maintained and in every direction you could see a profusion of trees.

6/ These exotic, man ferns were about 4 metres high. Ferns dominate a large part of the park.

7/ Sadly much of this area was logged in recent times. However, these saplings in a regrowth area were growing well.

8/ This "white knight" stand out from the fern base. However, in many areas you can't see the tops of these giants through the dense undergrowth.

9/ The people on the left give you some idea of the size of these White Knights.

10/ This image shows you the plethora of colours and shapes that make up this rich forest.

11/ This lovely stream fed a profusion of ferns. The circuit walk from Evercreech Falls involves fording this stream.

12/ This image shows one of the white knights. It was in a relatively open area, which allowed me to fully appreciate the 90 metre height of this giant.

13/ This is the same white knight shown in image number 12. I photographed it from about one kilometre away through a fortunate break in the trees cover. Note how it towers above the canopy of the normal trees.

14/ Unfortunately, many other tall trees were destroyed by the loggers. Note the difference in size between this old stump and the sapling to the left. This stump is about 2 metres in diameter. It was once a very large tree. The indents were where the loggers mounted a platform.

15/ Some of the trees included hollows. This one is about one metre high and would be a preferred roost for a variety of animals.

16/ The forest also has many kinds of fungus. This large example is about the size of a large pizza.

17/ This strange yellow orange growth is another kind of fungus. It was one of many varieties that we saw in the forest.

18/ Ferns are profuse along the path to the Evercreech Falls.

19/ Finally you follow the Evercreech stream a short distance to the falls.

20/ This is another view of the stream leading to the Falls.

21/ Then you hear the crashing sound of the falls and finally you see it. The cascade was an impressive 15 metre drop.

22/ This image shows the Evercreech stream just before you reach the car park. It had a pebble base.

 

1/ Mt Saddleback is 1256 metres high and is located in north eastern Tasmania. It is located north of Mathinna and south of Ringarooma. This photo is looking at its north facing side and shows why this mountain is called 'saddleback'. The summit on the left really does look like the pommel of a saddle. This photo was taken in November 2015 and, unfortunately, the countryside was showing obvious signs of drought.

2/ This photo shows Mt Saddleback from about one kilometre away. Note how steep the sides of the mountain were. I was too busy keeping my balance to snap any photos, as I climbed up this steep mountain.

3/ This view shows the start of the walking track to Mt Saddleback. The first few hundred metres were on this good access fire road, but then it became a poorly marked trail though thick scrub. This trail then degenerated into a hard climb over boulders to reach the plateau above. Only experienced trekkers should attempt this journey.

4/ The trail involved climbing up rocks like these. I had to really exert myself to reach the summit.

5/ This is the view looking towards the north east. Mt Albert is on the horizon to the left.

6/ This view is looking towards the north east. The mountain on the left is Mt Victoria and the mountain on the right is Mt Albert. They are named after the 19th Century queen of the great British Empire, Queen Victoria and of her consort Prince Albert. A week after this climb, I did a driving tour past these mountains. You can see more photos of these mountains below.

7/ This view looks west towards Mt Ben Nevis, which is 1368 metres high. The terrain you can see here is typical of the terrain on the plateau of Mt Saddleback. Sadly the light green patch on Ben Nevis is an area that was recently logged.

8/ This is the cairn at the summit of Mt Saddleback. I was very tired and sweat covered, when this photo was taken. I was very glad to have reached it, as the views in all directions were spectacular. Shortly afterwards I had to put on my jacket, as the wind on the summit was very cold.

9/ A week later I made a driving tour down to Mt Saddleback to snap the long distant photos of this mountain that you can see above. Along the way I snapped this photo of Mt Victoria on the left and Mt Albert on the right. These photos were taken from C423 Road north of Mt Saddleback. A low lying cloud was partially covering Mt Victoria at the time.

10/ This photo of Mt Victoria was taken from a few kilometres further south on C423 Road. The cloud had now lifted to show the rugged peaks of Mt Victoria. Mt Victoria is approached by driving east on Mt Albert Road, which diverges east from C423 north of Mt Saddleback. On this tour I discovered that Mt Albert Road would make a great car touring route, if only it was upgraded and some look out points were added.

11/ This photo of Mt Victoria was taken from near the start of the walking trail to Mt Victoria. This trail begins about 3 kilometres south of the mountain on Mt Albert Road. I have heard that there is an area of pristine forest near this mountain, which I am very interested in seeing. This remnant forest is one of the few areas in north eastern Tasmania that was never logged.

12/ This view shows Mt Albert, as we approached it from the west on Mt Albert Road. I noticed that Mt Albert looks very differed from the different directions that you can view it from. I thought that it was appropriate that the smaller mountain, next to Mt Victoria, was named after her consort.

13/ This view shows Mt Albert from about one kilometre away. Note how different it looks from the photo above. In the foreground is Mt Albert Road. This road was good in this section in 2015, but further east it degenerated into a track suitable for only rough terrain vehicles.

14/ This photo shows the spectacular sight of Mt Young, as we approached it from the west on Mt Albert Road. Mt Young is about 900 metres high and its steep walls and towers reminded me of a medieval castle. There was a large variety of trees in this area, which also added to the ambience of the scene.

15/ This is another view of Mt Young snapped from about one kilometre away. Mt Young is truly one of the great undiscovered tourist sights of Tasmania.

16/ We ended our journey by turning north from Mt Albert Road to approach the beautiful valley of Penghana from the south west. This view shows our first sight of Penghana. I love this valley, because every time of have visited, it has been lit up by lovely sunshine.

 

1/ Mt Victoria is a rugged mountain in north eastern Tasmania. There is a grand vista from the summit, while the approach has a remnant of the ancient forests that once covered this area. A short but difficult climb takes you to the summit, which is the triple, jagged peak in the centre. This image shows Mt Victoria looking from the western side.

2/ This image shows the start of the Mt Victoria Track. This track wends its way towards the peak on the left before diverging to the summit, which is the jagged peak on the right. The summit is 1213 metres high and it sits about 400 metres above the surrounding plain.

3/ This image shows the approach to the north eastern summit from the south. It was taken just before we entered the forest zone, which is in the middle ground of the image.

4/ The first part of the forest zone had been logged in recent years. These trees were mere saplings.

5/ However, as we ascended deeper into the forest, we met more and more ancient trees.

6/ This image shows the thick layer of moss that grows on these ancient trees.

7/ This image shows the summit we passed, as we were climbing towards the left of this image.

8/ This image shows the north eastern peak. The last part of the walk was quite steep.

9/ This image shows the a closer view of the north eastern peak. We walked in September, which is spring in Tasmania, but there was still plenty of snow on the peaks.

10/ Finally, we reached the north eastern peak and a vast panoramic view was before us. Note how the snow is only on the south side of the peak.

11/ From this north eastern peak we could look south east towards the summit of Mt Victoria and beyond it to Mt Albert. The distant peak left of Mount Albert is Mount Young.

12/ The final approach to the summit required us to scramble over a large scree field.

13/ Finally, we reached the summit and we could enjoy the view. This image shows the view to the north east.

14/ This image shows the view towards the north west. The closer mountain on the right is Mt Paris, while the distant snow capped plateau is the Ben Lomond Plateau.

15/ This image shows the view to the north west. The distant mountain on the left is Mt Barrow.

16/ This image shows the view to the west. It was taken at the trig marker. The mountain to the left is Olivers Hill and the more distant mountain to the right is Mt Paris. The gravel road is the C423 Mathinna Plains Road.

17/ This is the trig marker on Mt Victoria. It was the aim of the group to reach it. After eating our lunches, we proceeded down the mountain to our bus.

 

1/ Tower Hill is in eastern Tasmania south of Mathinna. It consists of 2 peaks: West Tower and East Tower. This gallery shows photos taken on a trip to the West Tower in 2013. This image shows the summit of West Tower, which was the final objective of the walk. It is 1100 metres high and 300 metres above the surrounding plain.

2/ The track to West Tower is on the northern face. It is accessed from a gravel road that diverges west from C429 Tower Hill Road. The track to the summit of West Tower is just a "designated route" rather than a real track. It is only suitable for experience trekkers, as you can see in image number 7. This image shows a regrowth forest near the start of the walk.

3/ As we ascended West Tower, we met more of the ancient trees. I love the feeling of an ancient serenity that they give the visitor.

4/ There was also interesting things to see on the forest floor like these lovely flowers.

5/ This clump of fungus, also caught my attention. You should note that eating fungus is strictly for those who know, which species are not poisonous.

6/ It was very lucky to capture this enchanting combination of due drops on a spider's web.

7/ Much of the ascend involved climbing over boulders on the designated route.

8/ The panoramic view from the summit was spectacular. This view looks towards the north west.

9/ This view looks towards the south east at the East Tower.

10/ This view looks south to the mountains beyond East Tower.

11/ This view looks beyond the north eastern side of East Tower.