South Lawson Waterfalls

I walked down to the waterfalls today. Rain fell gently as I trudged along the soft paths and stumbled on the lichen covered rocks. Small birds chirped and rustled in the foliage, tiny flowers lit up the green along the way.

A slick of rain on the tree trunks glistened like varnish on the mottled bark – orange, ochre, green, grey. Moss like a miniature forest carpeted the rocks. Shy ferns fanned over gurgling water.

A little brown bird with a bronze fantail flew at the side of my path – I have only ever seen him twice before. A plump little fowl-like bird scratched in front of me, fluttering higher when I came closer.

Junction Falls, South Lawson

“It’s exquisite,” I cried as I burst through the tree ferns at Junction Falls. Sunlight was playing on the rivulets cascading over the brown rock like water on the ripples of a wash board. “Can I catch it,” I thought. Click, click, click, click went the camera but nothing in my inexpert hands evokes the gasp I felt when I was there.

The 2.5 km circular walking track at South Lawson is a pleasant and relatively easy walk which takes in five waterfalls:

• Adelina Falls
• Federal Falls
• Cateract Falls
• Junction Falls (a fall at each of the two creeks meeting at the junction)

According to the sign, construction on this track started in 1878 and was completed in 1900 so many people have trod this path as I have. It is near my home so I know it well and visit it often.

Words to Walk With:
From Bellbirds by Henry Kendall.
“By channels of coolness the echoes are calling,
And down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling:
It lives in the mountain where moss and the sedges
Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges.”