About Minyon Falls
Minyon Falls was a tall and wispy 100m waterfall in the lush Nightcap National Park near Lismore.
We managed to visit this falls while doing a fairly extensive out-and-back half-day trip from Byron Bay.
I guess the light-flowing state of this falls performed better than much of the photographs we had seen in the literature prior to our visit in May 2008.
Thus, I believe that the falls would flow best during the monsoonal rains of the Wet Season and would quickly diminish after a few weeks without rain given its apparent short season.
We tried to time our visit for that transition period from the Wet to the Dry, and that resulted in the photo you see at the top of this page.
Julie and I experienced the falls from a lookout at its very top while also from a lookout platform further downstream at the Minyon Grass.
We accessed both lookouts from separate car parks (see directions below).
So we didn’t do the three-hour, 4km one-way hike to the base of the falls.
That would have involved a 200m bouldery stream scramble as well as a rapid descent into the rainforest.
However, the lookout at the top of the falls did feature a panorama of the Bangalow Palm rainforest below.
We also noticed another one-hour, 2km one-way hike from the other lookout at the Minyon Grass to the base of the falls.
To illustrate how easily that we accessed these lookouts, we spent about 15 minutes away from the car at the top of the falls.
Then, we spent another 5 minutes away from the car at the Minyon Grass Lookout.
Had the falls flowed better, we might have decided to try the longer loop walk said to require five hours or 7.5km overall.
Authorities
Minyon Falls resides in the Nightcap National Park near Byron Bay in New South Wales. It is administered by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
Since we used Byron Bay as the base of our visit to Minyon Falls, we’ll start the driving directions from there.
Note that given how convoluted the unsealed roads were in the area, the route we’re describing below may not be the most straightforward.
Admittedly, the directions below may seem convoluted because we had the aid of the Garmin City Navigator Australia
So from Byron Bay, we first drove south then west on Bangalow Rd for about 13km towards the intersection of Granuaille St and Bangalow Rd in the town of Bangalow (about 1.1km west of the Bangalow Rd exit off the Pacific Hwy [Hwy 1]).
Then, we continued driving west on Bangalow Rd for another 9.3km towards the Springvale Rd on the right.
We then turned right onto Springvale Rd and followed it for the next 2km before turning right onto Eureka Rd.
We followed Eureka Rd for about 8.5km towards Rosebank Rd, where we then turned right.
After 1.5km on Rosebank Rd, we then kept right onto Dunoon Rd and followed this road for the next 5km (keeping left at the junctions where Dunoon Rd became Upper Coopers Creek Rd) ultimately joining up with the Minyon Falls Rd on the left.
After taking Minyon Falls Rd, we followed it for 1.3km to a T-intersection.
The short access road on the left would go to Minyon Grass (there was a gate here that opened later in the morning of our arrival).
The access road on the right continued for the next 700m or so to the small car park for the upper lookout of Minyon Falls.
For context, Byron Bay was 166km (under 2 hours drive) south of Brisbane and 770km (9 hours drive) north of Sydney.
Find A Place To Stay
Related Trip Reports
Related Top 10 Lists
No Posts Found
Related Itineraries
Trip Planning Resources
Nearby Accommodations
Featured Images and Nearby Attractions
Visitor Comments:
Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...No users have replied to the content on this page
Visitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...
Mongrel Bastards Mountain Bike Club April 27, 2011 2:26 am - 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. It's an annual event hosted by the affectionately named "Mongrel Bastards Mountain Bike Club" in Lismore. Don't let the… ...Read MoreNearest Waterfalls
