Meetus Falls

Swansea / Lake Leake, Tasmania, Australia

About Meetus Falls


Hiking Distance: 450m round trip
Suggested Time: 30-45 minutes

Date first visited: 2006-11-24
Date last visited: 2017-11-26

Waterfall Latitude: -41.9503
Waterfall Longitude: 147.88309

Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Meetus Falls turned out to be a surprisingly pleasing and tall (I’m guessing 35m) waterfall on the Cygnet River.

It tended to have reliably good flow as the river drained the marshes of the Snow Hill Forest Reserve between Avoca and Lake Leake.

Meetus_Falls_17_036_11252017 - Meetus Falls
Meetus Falls

The river ultimately made its way to the Moulting Lagoon and Pelican Bay near the Freycinet Peninsula.

In fact, it was said that this waterfall flowed year-round.

This contrasted heavily with the nearby Lost Falls, which kind of pre-conditioned us into thinking the Meetus Falls would also be dry.

Just to give you an idea of how resilient this waterfall was, it actually performed pretty well when we were here for the first time in late November 2006.

Meetus_Falls_015_11232006 - How Meetus Falls looked when we first came here on a drought-stricken visit in November 2006
How Meetus Falls looked when we first came here on a drought-stricken visit in November 2006

It even produced a short rainbow during that visit, when most of Southeastern Australia was getting adversely impacted by severe and prolonged drought.

Even on a subsequent visit in November 2017, which happened to suffer through a rather dry Winter and Spring that year, the falls still exhibited a fairly satisfactory flow!

Experiencing Meetus Falls

In addition to its impressive size, the Meetus Falls experience also struck us as another one of those back-to-the-bush kind of excursions (like Mathinna Falls further to the north).

Despite the presence of recreational infrastructure like BBQ grills, picnic tables, shelters, and signage at the car park, it still felt remote and relatively untouched during our visits.

Meetus_Falls_17_010_11252017 - Julie on the track descending to the lookout for Meetus Falls
Julie on the track descending to the lookout for Meetus Falls

Indeed, the experience quickly became primitive as the track to get to the overlook was narrow, steep, and easily lost amongst the low-lying bush.

Even the road to access the car park was on the rough side.

So on both of our visits here, Julie and I were pretty much alone the entire time we were here, which further added to the wild and remote ambience.

From the wide open clearing at the car park, we took an established walking track where the signs had indicated that it would only require about 20 minutes return.

Meetus_Falls_17_016_11252017 - These were the pungent fruit-loop-like berries that were growing alongside the Meetus Falls Track
These were the pungent fruit-loop-like berries that were growing alongside the Meetus Falls Track

Initially, the track meandered amongst tall thin trees towering over the scene.

There was a certain smell here during our last visit in November 2017, which we figured out was coming from these “fruit-loop”-looking berries that were growing besides the narrow track.

It didn’t take long before the track descended in earnest with a few rocks hidden amongst the forest floor.

These rocks conspired to force a slip-and-fall or at least an ankle twist (especially in wet conditions).

Meetus_Falls_17_030_11252017 - Context of Julie descending to the lookout for Meetus Falls
Context of Julie descending to the lookout for Meetus Falls

At roughly over 150m from the car park, there was a trail junction where we kept right to continue downwards to the overlook.

The track on the left descended steeply to the Cygnet River.

For the final 80m or so, we descended steps to an overlook peering right down at the Meetus Falls as well as a panorama of the bushlands further downriver.

While the weather was kind to us on our most recent visit in November 2017, we decided not to push our luck as we managed to spend around 40 minutes away from the car.

Meetus_Falls_17_040_11252017 - The view looking downstream from the Meetus Falls Lookout
The view looking downstream from the Meetus Falls Lookout

This just so happened to coincide with a break in between spells of heavy rains.

Maybe next time, we might finish the excursion by going all the way down to the river, then seeing if it would be possible to get up to the very bottom of Meetus Falls.

Nevertheless, the short but steep uphill walk back to the car park ensured that we were a little on the sweaty side despite the cool, wet weather.

Authorities

Meetus Falls resided in the Meetus Falls Forest Reserve near Lake Leake, Tasmania. It is administered by the Northern Midlands Council. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.

Meetus_Falls_17_009_11252017 - Looking around some of the tall trees surrounding the car park and picnic area during our Meetus Falls visit in November 2017
Meetus_Falls_17_012_11252017 - The primitive Meetus Falls Track as we descended towards its lookout during our November 2017 visit
Meetus_Falls_17_019_11252017 - Julie on the Meetus Falls Track as it started descending while also becoming easier to lose it amongst the similar-looking terrain on our November 2017 visit
Meetus_Falls_17_022_11252017 - Julie was carefully choosing her steps as the track became steeper and rockier, especially given the wet conditions on the day of our second visit in November 2017
Meetus_Falls_17_027_11252017 - Julie still being careful on the increasingly steep descent to the Meetus Falls Lookout during our November 2017 visit
Meetus_Falls_17_028_11252017 - Julie descending the steps leading to the lookout for Meetus Falls during our visit in November 2017
Meetus_Falls_17_034_11252017 - View of Meetus Falls from the lookout during our visit in November 2017
Meetus_Falls_17_043_11252017 - Contextual look at Meetus Falls as seen from the lookout deck during our visit in November 2017. Notice the ledge on the left side, which suggested that there might not have been this fencing in the past
Meetus_Falls_17_052_11252017 - Another look at Meetus Falls from its sanctioned lookout as seen in November 2017
Meetus_Falls_17_059_11252017 - Context of Julie at the Meetus Falls Lookout checking out the waterfall itself during our November 2017 visit
Meetus_Falls_17_067_11252017 - After having our fill of the Meetus Falls during our November 2017 visit, we had to start climbing back up to the car park
Meetus_Falls_17_071_11252017 - Ascending the rocky part of the Meetus Falls Track, which kind of illustrates how steep of a descent we were faced with earlier on during our November 2017 visit
Meetus_Falls_17_073_11252017 - Almost near the top of the climb on the return hike back to the car park for Meetus Falls in November 2017
Meetus_Falls_17_076_11252017 - Approaching our lone rental car at the Meetus Falls car park towards the end of our November 2017 visit
Meetus_Falls_004_11232006 - A big eagle (a wedge-tailed eagle?) we saw on the unsealed MacKays Rd on the way to Meetus Falls during our first visit in November 2006.  Funny we hardly noticed these birds at all on our most recent trip to the area in November 2017
Meetus_Falls_006_11232006 - The Meetus Falls Trailhead as seen during our visit in November 2006
Meetus_Falls_022_11232006 - Descending towards the Meetus Falls Lookout (taken back on our first visit in November 2006)
Meetus_Falls_012_11232006 - Looking down at the context of Meetus Falls with slight rainbow during our November 2006 visit
Meetus_Falls_019_11232006 - Another look at Meetus Falls with faint rainbow back in November 2006
Meetus_Falls_021_11232006 - Last look at Meetus Falls before heading back up to the car park during our November 2006 visit


Since we drove to Meetus Falls from two different directions (one from Launceston and the other from Hobart), I’ll describe our route for each of those options.

I’ll start with the Launceston approach first since that city was closer to the falls.

Driving from Launceston to Meetus Falls

From the Launceston CBD, we headed south towards the Midland Hwy (Hwy 1), and then we kept going south in the direction of Hobart to remain on the Midland Hwy.

At around 66km south of Launceston (or 12km south of the Esk Highway [A4] turnoff), we then left the Midland Hwy and turned left onto the Lake Leake Hwy (B34) in Campbell Town.

After about 36km (or nearly 7km east of the town of Lake Leake), we reached a four-way intersection with a signpost pointing the way to our left for Meetus Falls.

At this point, we left the highway and headed north on the unsealed McKays Rd.

Meetus_Falls_17_078_11252017 - The fork in the forest road on the way to Meetus Falls
The fork in the forest road on the way to Meetus Falls

We continued north on McKays Rd for roughly 10.5km as we saw a sign for the falls suggesting we take the turnoff on our right.

Although the McKays Rd was wide, we had to be careful due to the presence of some deep potholes.

Once we left McKays Rd, we then drove the narrower forest service road for about 700m towards a fork.

Turning right at this fork, we then drove the remaining 900m to the dead-end at the Meetus Falls car park.

Meetus_Falls_17_005_11252017 - The car park for the Meetus Falls trailhead and picnic area
The car park for the Meetus Falls trailhead and picnic area

That last stretch of road had some fairly bad sections with ruts and gullies in addition to potholes, but our 2wd passenger vehicle was able to do it with care.

Overall, this drive took us under 2 hours.

Driving from Hobart to Meetus Falls

From the Hobart CBD, we headed east on the Tasman Highway (A3) towards Sorell (after 24km) and then towards the Lake Leake Highway (B34) (about 142km from Hobart or 10km north of Swansea).

Once on the Lake Leake Highway, we then drove about 20km to the familiar four-way intersection where the unsealed McKays Rd was on the right.

Meetus_Falls_17_004_11252017 - Looking back at the rough road leading to the car park for Meetus Falls
Looking back at the rough road leading to the car park for Meetus Falls

Then, we’d follow the directions as given above.

That drive took us on the order of 2.5 hours.

For some geographical context, Launceston was about 103km (over an hour drive) east of Devonport, 138km (under 2 hours drive) northwest of Swansea, 167km (over 2 hours drive) west of St Helens, and 201km (nearly 2.5 hours drive) north of Hobart.

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Sweep from the downstream view to the right leading to the falls and the surrounding cliffs

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Tagged with: glamorgan spring bay, swansea, leake, northeast, tasmania, australia, waterfall, bicheno, cygnet river, snow hill, northern midlands



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Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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