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Somersby Falls is actually a pair of attractive cascades situated near Gosford on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
This was the first waterfall north of Sydney that we saw as we made our way towards Port Macquarie. Given the rather long drive, this falls was a very pleasant stop to stretch and enjoy the cool, crisp Autumn morning scenery.
This is the kind of waterfall where you could bring out your tripod, put your DSLR in shutter priority mode, and let Nature do the rest as the waters of Floods Creek ripples over the stair-stepping bedrock.
Not knowing how the precipitation patterns are prior to the Autumn season, it seemed like Somersby Falls had pretty satisfactory flow on our May 2008 visit. I'm not sure it's a year-round waterfall, but I did read in the literature that this is best seen after heavy rain, which implies that it has a short season, and we just got lucky. In any case, it did feel cool and moist on the morning we visited despite the weather being sunny, which suggests to me that perhaps this drainage and forest sees its share of moisture.
The first falls is down some steps near the car park and is quite pretty as it tumbles in several steps towards the smooth bedrock below. The shorter lower falls is a short distance further downstream reachable by more descending steps. Soon the steps end, and in order to get good photos of the lower falls, we had to do a little bit of scrambling and crossing the stream. Do watch your step as you go down to the lower falls as the mossy path can get a little slippery in spots.
Directions: Somersby Falls is in Brisbane Water National Park on the Central Coast of New South Wales some 70km or so north of Sydney. On our visit, we headed north from Sydney (it took a while to get to the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway [Hwy 1] in the rush hour) and exited the freeway at Wisemans Ferry Road (the GPS told us to do this; I don't recall the falls being signposted). But as we proceeded north on Wisemans Ferry Road, I think that's when we found a sign (though I'm not totally sure) and then followed it to the car park (there is a parking fee).
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Getting Lost
I enjoyed watching the waterfall , though there was not much water on the day I went there.
It took me almost four hours to drive there from Sydney,...
Sommersby Falls
As a local to the Gosford area, I have been to these falls a few times and seen them with different amounts of water flowing through them.
It bode ill. "I can't remember the last time it rained," the man in Devonport had said. And there I was looking forward to photographing waterfalls. Things change though;...[more]
King George Falls Are Awesome
I'm a cameraman for a fishing show and on a charter through the Kimberly we stopped over at King George Falls during the dry season...[more]
Cedar Creek Falls Jan 2008
Hi, my name is Phil and I just wanted to share a photo of Cedar Creek Falls in full flow. Had you been there a few months earlier you would have seen it too. We had been staying in Proserpine...[more]
Hopkins Falls at full flow
We visited this falls in August 2010. The recent wet weather had the falls at a very high flow, and the spectacle was bringing in many of the locals to come and gawk...[more]
Hindmarsh Falls in full flow
We went to Hindmarsh Falls today (13/7/09) and it was in full flow. The past couple of weeks we have had consistent rain, especially in the past 4 days which...[more]
Dangars Falls - Great When Wet
I've been to Dangars Falls many times but I've never seen it totally dry. Once I was there just after a peak flood and it was spectacular. Sadly...[more]
Mongrel Bastards Mountain Bike Club
As a Queenslander in 'enemy territory' I was lucky enough to be allowed to tag along on a 75km mountain bike ride that started at Eltham to the South, took in Minyon Falls and looped back...[more]
Going Cuckoo
Whoever penned the last sentence hadn't been there for some time. Signs on the most important intersection aren't apparent which cost me about 10 minutes, and another sign was overgrown with foxglove...[more]