For The Love Of Waterfalls: 36 Hours in Wooroonooran National Park

Nestled in the rainforested foothills of Queensland’s highest mountain, Mt. Bartle Frere, is a creek that winds along the forest floor down through the mountain. As the sun shines through the canopy, deep vivid greens reflect off the crystal waters as it makes its way through the valleys towards its namesake.

Pushing fern leaves and vines aside we peered through the evergreen along the waters edge into the bright green pool. With a group of turtles swimming directly below me, I gazed down the creek, watching as it ebbed and flowed through a narrowing rock channel along the rainforest edge. Disappearing for a short while to explore wherever the track led us, scrambling beneath barriers to rock hop (or should I say boulder leap) down the creek, we soon returned to dive off boulders into the fresh, early morning water.

The Wooroonooran National Park is traditional land belonging to the Ma:Mu Aboriginal people in the heart of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of North Queensland. Surrounding the area known famously as the Atherton Tablelands it is high in biodiversity due to fertile soils and high rainfall during the wet season.

The result is lush tropical rainforest – alive with birdsong and dotted with an abundance of breathtaking waterfalls.

Thoroughly refreshed and vitalised from a morning dive within the crisp mountain water of Babinda Boulders I hung my towel over the seat, plugged in our banging playlist, and told Brad to put the truck in gear.

Having met only a few days prior on a 12 hour Atherton Tablelands tour we had decided to hit the road for two days armed with an esky, a slightly outdated map (Australia doesn’t change much right?) and two swags to explore the majestic waterfalls dotted throughout the tropical hills.

Gazing towards the Upper Section of Josephine Falls

Driving south along the Bruce Highway we were headed to the first waterfall on our Wooroonooran weekend list: Josephine Falls.

Following the boardwalk a short distance beneath lush rainforest canopy the flora was positively alive with birdsong and gentle rustlings. Morning sunlight filtered through the leafy canopy to reflect a deep turquoise, creating a majestic picture.

Better yet was the final tier of the falls in which the water flowed down a smooth rockface to form a natural, mossy green rockslide, a characteristic which sets Josephine apart from all other falls in the tablelands. Worn out after a couple of hours throwing our bodies down the rockslide in all positions imaginable before climbing up to the top tier of the cascading falls, we clambered back in the truck ready for our next destination.

Beginning to head West along the Palmerston Highway we were off to spend the afternoon completing two circuit walks which would take us past four more beautiful waterfalls amidst rainforest. Almost driving past the obscure trackhead off the Palmerston Highway we were next headed on a 2km Y-shaped route to the Tchupala and Wallicher Falls along Henrietta Creek.

Finding a gap in the flora we caught our first full view of Tchupala, taking my breath away a little bit. Perhaps it was the mellow moss-brown tinge that fell across as the bright sun rays hid behind a cloud floating by, but I suddenly felt as though I had stepped into a lost world. Wandering down to the base, and daintily tiptoeing across the mossy rocks we stood under the spray laughing like children and staring with wonder at the surrounding rainforest.

After embracing Tchupala in all its waterfall glory we returned to the trail junction to take the second divide to Wallicher Falls. Wider than it is high, Wallicher Falls flows across a segmented lower drop and into a large pool below. To those used to scrambling, it is relatively easy to climb up the rock face of the falls onto a middle prong – to then of course jump off with great abandon!

Tchupala Falls, tucked away in some of Earth's oldest rainforest!

Stomachs rumbling, bodies glistening and hair dripping we flopped onto a flat rock and pulled out our picnic lunch just as clouds crept over & the rain began to fall.

The journey into Nandroya Falls was a moderate 6 km circuit walk from the Henrietta Creek campsite. Having heard stories of excellent swimming spots along Douglas Creek we turned right at the early fork to take the longer 3.5km divide in the track, venturing onwards in the direction of Nandroya Falls. Passing by the Silver Creek Falls, the expected 10m flowing plunge turned out to be a mere trickle waiting for the wet season to return with full force.

Continuing on to our final waterfall for the day as clouds crept over we were met with Nandroya, a stunning 50m waterfall encapsulated by beautifully contrasting, lush vegetation. The upper plunging drop fed into a large swimming hole then flowed into a segmented, multi pronged lower drop where Douglas Creek twisted and altered direction.

Clearly a national talent of kiwi travellers we quickly spied another jutting basalt edge which promised fantastic jumping into the pool below. An hour later we emerged water laden and exhausted. Thankful to have taken the longer track divide into the falls, we had only a short 1.7km walk back to Henrietta Campsite, where we bunked down in swags on the truck bed, gazing up towards the starry sky, our eyes tracing the milky-way.

Waking up on the bed of a truck with the morning sun shining down is always a favourite way of mine to begin the day, and the dawn of day two in Wooroonooran National Park was no exception. It would be a lie to say our legs didn’t ache slightly from our first day chasing waterfalls, or that my dreadlocks didn’t smell of a unique mixture of moss, damp rainforest, and bush water (is that even a thing?) – but oh how wonderful we felt!

The Mungalli Creek Dairy ‘out of the whey’ was our first stop of our final day in Wooroonooran National Park. Deciding to take ourselves out for breakfast at the Tea House, famous for its Devonshire Tea and biodynamic dairy products it sits perched on a peak of green farmland, looking out over the rolling paddocks below, and off into the dark rainforest that embodies the hills beyond. We sit on the verandah, with our fresh scones and jam and devonshire tea, watching as the morning sun rays flitted across the grass and danced with the dew.

Back in the truck and heading North West we were on finally our way to the popular Millaa Millaa Falls, home to the herbal essences shampoo advertisement and the slightly tragic Mysterious Girl music video by one hit wonder Peter André. While certainly picturesque, and providing a great deal of entertainment re-enacting the famous Millaa Millaa hair flick, it was in all honesty my least favourite waterfall of our expedition.

Scrambling, tripping, slipping and kicking the sharp rocks below the murky surface, we struggled to get deep enough to unceremoniously flop into the crisp water to avoid further injury. All the same, we scrambled, tripped, slipped and kicked out way through an adventure behind the falls and some fabulous hair flicks #eatyourheartoutPeterAndré

Part of the Waterfall Circuit along with Millaa Millaa and Ellinjaa Falls, the Zillie Falls are about 7.5 km from Millaa Millaa. Quite similar to Millaa Millaa in appearance, Zillie is very picturesque as it falls directly below, forming a section of rapid water. Unfortunately there is not swimming access at the base of the falls, and it remains the one waterfall of our tour where we were unable to swim beneath cascading sprays in the pool below.

Looking up through the sun rays that fell across Zillie Falls

Moving on just 3km from Zillie Falls and off the looping Theresa Road, Ellinjaa Falls is a beautiful waterfall that spills down over a series of ancient lava columns. We followed the worn walking track to the falls before zig-zagging our way down to the base of these stunning cascading falls. More hair flicks and tragic dance moves may or may not have taken place underneath this fresh spray, but these memories float away with the stream.

We couldn’t resist grabbing lunch at the famed quintessential Malanda Hotel, reputed as the largest timber pub in Australia. Serving hearty pub meals and cheap cold beer on tap we rested at ease in an old time, back-in-the-hay-day, Australian country pub atmosphere. The name Malanda is widely accepted here in North Queensland as the aboriginal translation of waterfall, and is the final town we will be passing through before returning to Cairns on dusk.

Now for the the beautiful, bittersweet ending to our magical 36 hours deliberately (mostly) losing ourselves within Wooroonooran National Park.

It has all culminated to this; 1 starry night beneath the milkyway, 9 waterfalls and 4 lengthy bush walks across the rainforest floors beneath the birdsong and whispers of the flora and fauna that exist within the World Heritage Wet Tropics Area.

The local Ngadjon-jii people name this beautiful place Wiinggina, but it is known widely within aboriginal language as Yidyam.

Lake Eacham. Okay, I was only here a few days ago – but my soul has been longing to return since. Here the fresh water turtles swim along the lake edge while the crystal surface glistens bright in the late afternoon sunshine. That there are no streams that flow into or out of the lake makes it particularly special – water is lost only through soakage and evaporation and replenished only through rainfall.

A 3km circuit track circumventing the waters edge makes for a pleasant afternoon wander as the sun slowly sinks lower, while birds fly above our head in abundance, with over 180 identified bird species within Wooroonooran alone.

Their song filters mystically throughout the trees, the figs and the strangler ferns. The sounds dance along the water, calling us in to make our own ripples. First scrambling up a trunk then wobbling our way to the tip of the overhanging branch (with as much grace as elephants on tightropes), we laugh and shout widely – dancing, twirling and diving off the end.

As the sun continues to sink beyond the highest trees we lay quietly amidst our own gentle ripples, perfectly positioned within the last shining rays shimmering across us.

Warmth in our souls, laughter in our eyes, turtles paddling around us, and the evening calls of the birds, we had met the soulfully abundant end of our 36 hours chasing waterfalls in Wooroonooran National Park.