South Wolgan Canyoning – 11-12 January 2014

Dan organised a weekend of canyoning fun in the Northern Blue Mountains. A lot of us met up at Barcoo Swamp and then set off for our canyons.

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On Saturday, one party headed off to Surefire Canyon. I was in the other group – and we headed off to visit Twister and Rocky Creek Canyons.

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Twister is always good fun. Its like something from a water theme park with its jumps and slides. There are four main water jumps – with the last being the highlight. I have to admit that I avoid water jumps when I can – and it is quite easy to scramble down all the jumps in Twister Canyon.

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Then off to Rocky Creek Canyon. Its a short walk through pleasant rainforest.

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We went through the canyon fairly quickly. I want to go slower and get some photos. But I was not too concerned as I could always take my time when I went back up the canyon. We had lunch in a sunny area at the end of the canyon. The rest of the party wanted to do the loop walk – and take the downstream exit, thereby avoiding more swimming. Rocky Creek always seems a cold canyon so this is a good option.

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But I wanted to get more photos and it takes time to set up a tripod and unpack a camera from a waterproof bag. So I was happy to go back up the canyon by myself. I ended up not taking too long. The canyon was cold and the lighting was not particularly good.

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At the top of the canyon, I was pleased to meet up with Lowan and his party. They had visited a nearby canyon and exited up Rocky Creek.

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Back at the carpark, I met up with the others and we headed back to Barcoo Swamp to camp. We had a very pleasant evening around the fire.

On Sunday, I was in a party that visited Heart Attack Canyon. Checking my records, I had last visited the canyon in 2007. Since that time, there has been a lot of regrowth – particularly on the old fire roads that go out to Murrays Mount.

We walked from the barrier the two kilometres to the first turn off. Decision time. Do we take the left hand road – which is longer, but probably more open, or the right hand road which is more direct, but perhaps more scrubby? After some discussion, we took the right hand fire road. It was very overgrown! Some section were marked with red tape. Slow going…. We eventually arrived at the junction with the fire road coming in from the west. It was very overgrown too – but it was not too far to the better road and the old Surefire Canyon carpark. Perhaps we would go back that way? We continued on to Murrays Mount – a small basalt peak, that used to be a farm. It had been formerly occupied as a permissive occupancy. This was before I started visiting the area back in the mid 1970’s. It had been abandoned perhaps ten years earlier.

Not far past the basalt, we left the old road (not a fire road, but an old road to a drill site further down the ridge) – and headed off along a ridge.

There are many ways into Heart Attack Canyon. We chose a route that took us very close to the start of the canyon. We walked out along a rock ridge out towards a point. From here, you can do a short abseil down the cliff and from there its easy going to the creek, and then about ten minutes walk downstream to the canyon start.

Keith Maxwell abseiling into Heart Attack Canyon - 1976

Keith Maxwell abseiling into Heart Attack Canyon – 1976

Heart Attack Canyon is famous for its dramatic first abseil. It is right down the path of a spectacular waterfall. Or rather it used to be. The water used to shoot out in a parabolic spout and hit the wall on the other side of the canyon. But changes in the stream-bed mean this no longer happens. On this visit there was no waterfall. The water seemed to trickle down the back somehow.

With no waterfall, we decided to abseil down off the big chockstone a short way downstream. Its a nice log abseil down into the canyon – but it does not compare to the old waterfall abseil in its heyday.

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When everyone was down, we set off through the canyon. It is mainly easy going with no swims, a deep wade or two and a few tricky down climbs. The canyon finishes not far past a second short, but tricky abseil.

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I was keen to get a few photos – but the lighting was terrible! Far too contrasty to get anything reasonable.

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The walk out was long, hot and scrubby. When we reached the first road junction, we headed to towards the old Surefire carpark and the better fire road. We walked the old road at first (it too was very overgrown and hard to follow) – then cut cross country to the other road. Once on it – it was fast easy walking (about 40 minutes) back to the barrier and the cars.

On the way, we met another party of canyoners on their way back from Spiral Canyon. They showed us some remarkable photos recorded on one of their digital cameras of a battle they witnessed between a tiger snake and a yabbie. What was amazing was that the yabbie won the fight. It killed the tiger snake.

Thanks to Dan for organising tis great weekend. More photos canyon be found on my website. Twister and Rocky Creek here and Heart Attack Canyon here.

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One Response to South Wolgan Canyoning – 11-12 January 2014

  1. jamie johnston says:

    Awesome pictures. I really enjoyed the account of your trip. I’m looking at visiting Wolgen valley next year and would love to try canyoning. Would twister canyon be a good novice one and how do I go about finding it. Also we are keen to explore the garden of stone NP. As there are no marked tracks I was wondering if there were any online resources you could recommend.

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