Gunlom Falls

This waterfall made an appearance on the movie "Crocodile Dundee". Julie and I saw a re-run of the movie on Spike TV, and we definitely recognized the swimming hole and the curving white-barked trees where Paul Hogan speared a fish with the female American journalist looking on shortly before they nearly shared a kiss. However, the falls wasn't flowing as they probably filmed it well into the Dry Season.

As you can see from the photos, we showed up at a time when the lighting wasn't so great for photographing the waterfall (i.e. we're practically looking against the sun). It was midday when we were there, but I believe that since this is a west-facing waterfall, the afternoons should yield a better photographing experience.

There's a coarse sandy beach fringing the plunge pool of the 30m waterfall. I don't remember if they allowed swimming or not, but if so, then I reckon it's a good place for a swim, especially if it's hot and humid (usually the case). So for these reasons, you could find it hard to leave, especially in light of the amount of unsealed driving necessary to even get here (see below).

I'm sure conditions change year after year as the Wet Season monsoons dump heavy rains and floods the track thereby beating it up and creating new obstacles. So you'll have to check on conditions or just get out there and see for yourself whether you ought to go the full distance or not.

As for navigating, the signposted turnoff for Gunlom Falls leaves the Kakadu Highway (Hwy 21) about 100km south of Cooinda and about 70km north of the junction with the Stuart Highway (Hwy 1) at Pine Creek. Once on the unsealed road leading to the falls, you drive about 30km or so to a T-intersection before turning left and following the unsealed road to its end at the car park for the falls.

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Sign indicating that there's more to do around here like walking to the top of the escarpment (which we didn't do)

Coarse beach on the fringes of the plunge pool

Direct view of Gunlom Falls against the midday sun

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TRIP REPORTS

• June 6, 2006

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