About JC Slaughter Falls
JC Slaughter Falls was supposed to be one of those rare waterfalls situated within the urban sprawl of a big time city. In this case, that urban city was Brisbane, and with all the people picnicking and hiking the trails in the Mt Coot-tha Reserve (which was the pocket of nature within the city’s boundaries), we would’ve never guessed that the falls would be dry. But alas, that was the state that we saw the waterfall in as Ithaca Creek hadn’t been flowing at all. I understand that the city had gone through some water restrictions due to drought during our May 2008 visit to Brissie, and apparently the area didn’t quite fully bounce back despite the flooding and heavy rains from the recent summer monsoons. I guess it was either that or the falls would only flow immediately after heavy rains.
Apparently, the real claim to fame of this place wasn’t so much the waterfall. Instead, it was the Mt Coot-tha Reserve where the top of the mountain itself would yield expansive views over the city of Brisbane as well as some of the nearby harbours. This reserve was literally a few minutes from the CBD of Brissie and thus it would be understandable why most locals would come here for a barbie (BBQ) or just to hang out or even for a little exercise run.
From the Brisbane CBD where the M3 ends and becomes Hwy 33 (Coronation Dr), we took the Boomerang St exit and took it towards Milton Rd (Route 32) west. We followed Milton Rd for about 3km to the roundabout with Frederick St. Taking the second exit to continue going straight, we then took the exit going right (the second exit) at the next roundabout to go onto Mt Coot-tha Rd. After another kilometre, we then turned right to go onto Sir Samuel Griffith Dr. Shortly thereafter, we took the next left onto a small paved road, and it was on this narrow road that we started to look for parking, which was not easy on the day we showed up.
The walk we took to JC Slaughter Falls continued along this road further west once we had found parking.
Just to give you a sense of the distances between the towns that we had stayed at before and after our visit here, Brisbane was 78km (about an hour drive) north of the Gold Coast, 166km (2 hours drive) north of Byron Bay, and 617km (7 hours drive) south of Rockhampton.
Fixated on the falls from a suboptimal viewing area on the track
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