Russell Falls

Russell Falls is easiliy the best known and most popular waterfall in

Given its scenic allure, there's no wonder why it's the centerpiece of Mt Field National Park, which also happens to be the state's first national park. It is also part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. So given all its accolades, it didn't surprise me to see plenty of people sharing the well-developed tracks and overlooks with us.

From the well-signed car park, the easy and well-developed walking track goes right to the base of the falls before continuing on an ascent leading past the top of the waterfall and eventually towards a smaller waterfall but in a more serene setting. This smaller waterfall is called Horseshoe Falls. I reckon it's well worth the extra half hour or so return walk to check it out.

In order to reach the upper main tier of Russell Falls, there was an unsigned spur trail branching off the ascending track (as we were heading to Horseshoe Falls). It looked like that spur track wasn't open to the public, but the tracks were well-defined enough that I proceeded to go down the path, cross a couple of smaller streams and get right in front of the upper tier like you see on the photo below.

Because we wanted to take long exposure photographs of the falls, we had to be patient and wait until the end of the day (since it was sunny). That was so the shadows wouldn't be as much of a problem as earlier in the afternoon. So we ended up visiting this waterfall twice (once at midday and the other time much later in the afternoon) with the second one yielding the photographs we wanted. It was late enough in the arvo that we even saw a little wallabie.

As if that wasn't enough, it would've been possible to extend the excursion here and continue walking beyond Horseshoe Falls towards the Tall Trees area. The track would've eventually joined up with the unsealed Lake Dobson Road where there's another trailhead leading to the Lady Barron Falls. However, that connecting track was closed in our November 2006 visit, and even if it was open, we probably wouldn't have done it anyways since it's possible to drive up there and save a lot more time.

Directions: The way we took (and recommend) was to leave the Lyell Hwy (A10) at Gordon River Rd. Then follow the Gordon River Rd westbound for about 23km to the Lake Dobson Rd (might have to cross a few railroad tracks near the turnoff). Once on Lake Dobson Rd, it's a short drive to the car park for Russell Falls.

The Gordon River Rd exit from the Lyell Hwy is about 50km northwest of Hobart.

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Julie on the track at midday

Horseshoe Falls

Too early in the day to photograph the upper tier of Russell Falls

Looking over the top of the falls to the scenery beyond

Another wallabie we saw earlier in the day

Much better time of day to photograph the upper tier of the falls

Another look at Russell Falls from the official lookout

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Fixated on the upper part of Russell Falls

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TRIP REPORTS

• November 29, 2006

GUIDEBOOKS / OTHER RESOURCES

NEARBY WATERFALLS

• Lady Barron Falls

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