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MOLE CREEK

Trowunna, Alum Cliff, Chudleigh, Solomons Cave, Lobster Falls

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Nearby: DELORAINE, QUAMBY BLUFF, SHEFFIELD, Mt ROLAND, WESTBURY, DEVONPORT, LATROBE, MEANDER FALLS

  • Trowunna WLP
  • MOLE CREEK
  • Alum Cliff
  • Chudleigh
  • Solomons Cave
  • Lobster Falls

 

Trowunna Wild life park

1/ The journey Wildlife Park is marked by this devil sculpture, which makes it easy to find.

Trowunna Wild life park

2/ The Tasmanian devil is a small carnivore about the size of a cat. Journey has a successful captive breeding program to help save them from the Devil Facial Tumour disease.

Trowunna Wild life park

3/ Devils feed by tearing a carcass to pieces. They are very aggressive to each other.

Trowunna Wild life park

4/ This ranger knew how to calm devils. You are strongly advised not to attempt to touch devils. They are aggressive and have a very powerful bite.

Trowunna Wild life park

5/ The kangaroo were friendly, but it is a mistake to try to touch them, as they have a vicious kick.

Trowunna Wild life park

6/ Kangaroos like to stay together as a mob, as this keeps them safe from predators.

Trowunna Wild life park

7/ The Tasmanian Quoll is a tree living carnivore about the size of a cat. Here you see one eating a rabbit. It has a powerful, bite so you should never attempt to touch one.

Trowunna Wild life park

8/ Quolls are inquisitive creatures, who are continuously sniffing the air for scents.

Trowunna Wild life park

9/ A quoll sniffing the ground. Quolls are also in danger through habitat destruction.

Trowunna Wild life park

10/ Quolls blend into the environment well. You generally only see them when they move.

Trowunna Wild life park

11/ The wombat is a large placid herbivore. It is native to both Tasmania and Australia.

Trowunna Wild life park

12/ Children often find wombats really cute.

Trowunna Wild life park

13/ The ranger really loved his wombats. This one really seemed to be reacting like a baby.

Trowunna Wild life park

14/ These are young wedge tail eagles on a Branch. Trowunna has a number in its Eagle Aviary.

Trowunna Wild life park

15/ Trowunna has a large number of Tasmanian birds like this Masked Owl.

Trowunna Wild life park

16/ This owl was so well camouflaged that I thought at first that it was part of a tree.

 

Western Bluff near Mole Creek

1/ Mole Creek is located in the beautiful Mersey River Valley. This valley is bounded on the southern side by the Great Western Tiers and on the northern side by the Gog Range. This photo looks to the south west at Western Bluff, which is the western end of the Tiers.

Nells Bluff near Mole Creek

2/ This image looks south at Nells Bluff, which is part of the Tiers. This winter scene shows the Tiers covered by a light covering of snow.

Mt Roland from near Mole Creek

3/ This image looks to the north west at Mt Roland on the left and the beginnings of the Gog Range on the right. The Mole Creek area is rich dairy country.

near Mole Creek

4/ This winter scene looks west from Mole Creek towards a distant Mt Vandyke covered in snow. The middle ground hill is Devils Hill. The Mersey River Valley frequently is laced by wisps of clouds.

Western Bluff

5/ This image looks east at the corner of Western Bluff. My journey this day was stopped by the road being blocked by snow.

Mole Creek Tasmania

6/ Mole Creek has a supermarket, some accommodation, plus a small number of shops.

Mole Creek Tasmania

7/ The primary school at Mole Creek looks south at the Great Western Tier mountains.

Mole Creek Tasmania

8/ Unfortunately, the train to Mole Creek ended 50 years ago and nature is taking over.

Mole Creek Tasmania

9/ The Mole Creek Guest House also includes a shop and a cafe.

Mole Creek Tasmania

10/ The hotel lounge at the Mole Creek Hotel is currently decorated in a Tasmanian Tiger theme. Tasmanian Tigers were once common in this area.

Mole Creek

11/ In the bar room of the Mole Creek Hotel is this impressive, life size statue of a Tasmanian Tiger. These tigers had a very wide and a very powerful bite, as shown in this statue.

Mole Creek

12/ At Mole Creek you can order a wall cast of this model of a Tasmanian Tiger.

Mole Creek

13/ Most interesting of all was this wall panel. It tells of many sightings and hunts for the Tasmanian Tiger in the Mole Creek area.

Mole Creek Tasmania

14/ This photo shows the main street. There are many 19th Century houses in Mole Creek.

Mole Creek Tasmania

15/ This is Mole Creek's interesting war memorial. Most Tasmanian towns have a war memorial.

Mole Creek

16/ Mole Creek boasts this lovely, Victorian era church.

Great Western Tiers near Mole Creek

17/ When you look south from the Mole Creek area, you are presented with many impressive views of the Great Western Tier mountains.

Caveside

18/ East of Mole Creek is the settlement of Caveside. It boasts this lovely, Victorian era church.

Caveside

19/ This is the old hall of Caveside. In the distance is the mighty peak of Mother Cummings.

Mother Cummings from Caveside

20/ This image shows the pastoral lands near Caveside. In the distance is the mighty peak of Mother Cummings. The photo was taken in the yellow colours of sunset.

Connorville church

21/ This is the lovely, old church of Connorville. It was funded by the nearby Connorville, historic, estate. In the distance is Millers Bluff.

 

Alum Cliff near Mole Creek

1/ The path to the Alum Cliff is through a regrowth forest.

Alum Cliff near Mole Creek

2/ The hills around the path are steep on all sides.

Alum Cliff near Mole Creek

3/ Quamby Bluff is dominant in the east in this view across a meadow.

Alum Cliff near Mole Creek

4/ The path is surrounded by steep hills and valleys in every direction.

Alum Cliff near Mole Creek

5/ This triangle sculpture points to three points: Alum Cliff, Quamby Bluff and Western Bluff.

Alum Cliff near Mole Creek

6/ The famous painted cliffs are to the lower right. You need to capture them in the right light.

Alum Cliff near Mole Creek

7/ This photo shows a close up of the Mersey River, which is 200 metres below the lookout.

Alum Cliff near Mole Creek

8/ This photo shows an orange cliff adjacent to the Cliff.

Alum Cliff near Mole Creek

9/ In this view Western Bluff is about 30 kilometres to the west.

 

Chudleigh Tasmania

1/ This photo shows a recently restored historic building with its fine wall and gate.

Chudleigh Tasmania

2/ The photo shows the building in profile. Note the green sign in the middle.

Chudleigh Tasmania

3/ The sign has an interesting story to tell about local politics.

Chudleigh Tasmania

4/ The gate shows good workmanship. Tasmanian heritage restorers are very skilled in their trade.

Chudleigh Tasmania

5/ This photo shows an interesting colonial style house near the large building.

Chudleigh Tasmania

6/ The general store at Chudleigh is a fine example Colonial architecture.

chudleigh

7/ Chudleigh's also has a historic hall.

chudleigh

8/ The silk shop at Chudleigh has fine gifts and great fudge.

chudleigh

9/ The honey shop at Chudleigh is well worth a visit.

Chudleigh Tasmania

10/ The shop has a very wide range of honeys and honey products, plus a tasting display.

Chudleigh Tasmania

11/ The shop includes an artistic flight of bees that take you to the honey making display.

Chudleigh Tasmania

12/ The display includes a live bee hive to the left, models in the middle and a video to the right.

 

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

1/ King Solomon's Cave is an interesting, easy to access cave west of Mole Creek. It is just west of the Marakoopa Cave. There are 452 known caves in the Mole Creek area, but only King Solomon's and Marakoopa have easy access for the public. It is only 9 degrees in the cave, so dress to be warm. King Solomon's Cave also only accepts credit cards, as they have had trouble with thieves. This is contrary to the normal rule in Tasmania, where you may often be expected to pay in cash. My other cave photo galleries include: Gunns Plains Cave on the LEVEN CANYON Page and Hastings Cave on the SOUTHPORT Page.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

2/ Accessing King Solomon's Cave includes some stairs and some narrow passages. However, these should be no real problem to a person with normal mobility. The passage shown above is fairly typical.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

3/ In this passage you walk between two enormous mineral flow formations. The visitors below should give you some idea as to their actual size.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

4/ You can only see the rock formations, because they are artificially lit up. This photo gives you some idea of the darkness that surrounds you. One highlight of our trip was that the guide turned off the lights, at one point, and we were able to eventually see a very soft light coming down from the world above us.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

5/ This is a flash photo of the ceiling. Hanging down above us was a forest of stalactites.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

6/ Beside the stalactite infested ceiling in this cave were these huge shawl formations.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

7/ In this photo you can see a wafer thin shawl formation to the left and a huge column stalagmite to the right.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

8/ This huge stalagmite is called a column. It was about a metre wide and about 20 metres high. It was too high for my flash to reach the top. Columns like this take tens of thousands of years to grow to this size. It was one of the special features of King Solomon's Cave.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

9/ You can judge the height of this cave from the fence of the path below. The passage opening is about 2 metres high. Note the vast number of features that your eyes try to assess. Entering a cave is truly going into another world. I started to realize why cavers get addicted to their sport of exploring unknown caves.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

10/ The ceiling of this cave was noteworthy for its huge stalactites. I estimate that the large stalactites in the centre are about 3 metres in length.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

11/ This cave was noteworthy for its huge mineral flows. The device at the bottom measures radiation, which is a slight problem in King Solomon's Cave.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

12/ These stalagmites were very large and growing into columns. The one furtherest away is about 4 metres in height. The plethora of shapes that you see in caves makes them very interesting to visit. They are also a special feature of King Solomon's Cave.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

13/ This stalactite has become a mineral flow and has grown to be quite large. It was about 5 metres in length and about half a metre wide.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

14/ What is intriguing about caves is the large numbers of colors and shapes that you can see in every direction.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

15/ I included this photo to show you what the King Solomon's Cave looks like without a flash. There is just blackness punctuated with lit up formations.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

16/ This low ceiling included a large number of strange shawl formations.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

17/ This photo shows the huge colour range of colours that you see amongst the shawl formations.

Solomon's Cave west of Mole Creek Tasmania

18/ There is life in these dark caves. This is a Tasmanian cave spider. The body is about the size of your full thumb and the spread of the legs is larger than the palm of your hand. I did not want to get too close to this monster. The guide at King Solomon's Cave treated him as a pet.

 

Lobster Falls

1/ Lobster Falls are in central, northern Tasmania near Mole Creek. Access is from the Mole Creek Road near Chudleigh. The walk is a relatively easy 5 kilometre return with only the last kilometer being rough. The track follows the Lobster Rivulet and passes 3 cascades. This gallery shows the first 2 cascades, as the last is very difficult to reach. This image shows the second cascade.

Lobster Falls

2/ This image shows the lovely Lobster Rivulet, as it wends its way towards the cascades. The rivulet is named after the giant Tasmanian river lobster that can grow to half a metre in length. The track is mostly in the valley of this rivulet.

Lobster Falls

3/ On the opposite side of the Lobster Rivulet was this strange formation of rock columns.

Lobster Falls

4/ This image shows the first cascade. The drop is about 6 metres.

Lobster Falls

5/ This view looks down on the first cascade.

Lobster Falls

6/ This image shows the Lobster Rivulet flowing rapidly towards the second cascade.

Lobster Falls

7/ The rocks on the bank presented some very interesting colours and textures.

Lobster Falls

8/ This image shows the Lobster Rivulet flowing over the second cascade.

Lobster Falls

9/ This image shows the mighty roar of the second cascade.

To MOLE CREEK Small Photo & Information Page.