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MacKenzie Falls is hands down the star attraction of the Grampians National Park. It is a rare Australian year-round waterfall and flowed well even in the face of a severe drought during our November 2006 trip. I haven't seen an official measure of the height of this waterfall but I reckon it to be at least 30m. We walked a couple of trails at this waterfall during our visit.The first one we did was a walk towards an overlook looking down at the falls from a distance. From this vantage point, we could see its full extent. We noticed that kangaroo tails were blossoming around the overlook of the falls as well as throughout the walk. We learned that kangaroo tails blossom after fires, and this was a result of some intense wildfires that plagued the Grampians National Park area prior to our visit. The other walk that we did descended along the MacKenzie River towards the MacKenzie Falls' base. Along the way down to the base of the falls, there was a spur track to Broken Falls, which I reckon was another waterfall on the MacKenzie River. However, it was closed due to fire damage so can't say anything more about it. Anyways, the descent afforded us different close-up views of the MacKenzie Falls, and eventually when we made it to the base, we got upclose frontal views of the falls (while trying to keep our camera lens dry). It looked like beyond the base of the falls, the track continued beyond the bridge and further downstream into the canyon. We saw a family continue further, but we were content to remain at the falls going as far as the bridge over the stream with another view looking back at the falls.
This waterfall is fed by Lake Wartook, which is a manmade lake in an apparently excellent drainage area that supplies Horsham's drinking water. It could very well be that the creation of the lake keeps this waterfall flowing reliably year round even in Australia's so-called worst drought in 1000 years. Directions: Look for this excellent attraction roughly 16km west northwest of Halls Gap (the main centre of Grampians National Park). It's well signed and a very popular tourist attraction.
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Julie on the walking path going to the base of the falls
Looking down over the top of MacKenzie Falls
Direct look at a pair of upper tiers of the waterfall
Sideways view of the falls as we near the bottom
View of the falls from a footbridge further downstream
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TRIP REPORTSFor more information about our experiences with this waterfall, check out the following travel stories.
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Mckenzie Falls, Australia
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I visited my brother and sister in law in Adelaide in 1996 and they took us to stay at Halls Gap in a log cabin,a Kookaburra was on the veranda to greet ...
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