Top Ten Rivers in Tasmania - Upper Wilmot River

The Upper Wilmot is possibly the most brutal, difficult and most committing river in Tasmania (in my opinion). The only river that would match it might be the Dove Canyon, which I haven’t personally paddled.

This is an easily accessible river that has only ever been paddled twice, for very good reason.

Where the Lea and the Iris rivers meet at Lake Gairdner, the water is diverted by pipeline through the mountain into the dams of the Forth River. From the Wilmot dam the usually dewatered Wilmot River travels roughly 30km downstream to Spellman’s Bridge.

These 30 km feature numerous long, committing and extremely difficult rapids, most with serious consequences. The rock is very sharp and scratchy and the river is pushy and difficult. The vast majority of these rapids are walled in with extremely high cliffs and are impossible to portage and extremely difficult to scout.

That being said, the huge cliffs and the committing nature give this river a really awesome feel, if you can get onto it you should, it’s amazing.

You need approximately a foot of water going over the dam to paddle this river. From the start the river quickly hits the first gorge. Get through this and keep on pushing to the second gorge, because that’s where you’re going to spend most of the day. The very last rapid in the gorge has a massive boulder in the centre that you need to get to via a dodgy eddy to scout. Below this the river mellows somewhat, although there are still some very good grade 4 rapids and there starts to be a lot of trees starting to grow in the river (it rarely flows after all). The good thing is that there is almost no wood in the main gorge and everything is paddleable.

If you get to do this river, allocate AT LEAST 8 hours on the water, if you get in trouble out there it would be almost impossible to get out and often when you can it’s on the side of the river that is much further away from everything. Take a strong crew and have fun!

(If I’ve talked this river up a bit, it’s because you can’t afford to take it lightly, don’t get on the river at 3 in the afternoon and think you’ll get through, it’s never going to happen, we pushed REALLY hard and still took nearly 7 hours.)

http://www.loungefilms.com.au/kayaker/explore/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=13

The Loungekayaker website seems to have been replaced by some prick´s personal business website, but this used to be a link to some photos on there.

http://www.webspawner.com/users/billshep/wilmotriverwalk.html guide to walking into sections of the gorge

Cheers

Harry

Top ten rivers in Tasmania

Number 6 - Alum Cliffs

The Alum Cliffs section of the Mersey River features long, continuous rapids, big water and majestic, amazing scenery. Due to dams on the upper Mersey this section only flows after very heavy continuous rain forces the dams to spill.

Generally speaking this river is probably easy grade 4. The rapids are generally not that hard, except for one small section in the middle. That being said, a stuff up could see you in lots of trouble, I once paddled for probably half a kilometre or more with another paddler on the back of my boat, so don’t swim!

The crux section of this river is a grade 5 boof into a hole that feeds into an undercut cliff. Shortly after this is an S-bend rapid that feeds into one of the worst stoppers you’ve ever seen. At certain levels it’s a killer, there’s no doubt about that at all.

Most of the other rapids on this river are long, river wide sections, confronting you with hundreds of metres of nothing but white caps, and few discernable lines. Just go with it, the only rapid you can’t boat scout is the crux section and it should be obvious when you get to that, as the gradient makes it impossible to boat scout, the cliffs come right to the water on the right and the eddy on the left is very obvious.

And the scenery on this river is amazing. Enormous sandstone cliffs line the river, sometimes hundreds of metres high. There is one particular spot when the cliffs narrow to only a couple of metres, with the cliffs towering high above you. It’s like the Irenabyss on the Franklin, only far more spectacular.

The ideal level for this river is probably around 1.8 metres on the gauge at Kimberley. 1.6 is still good, below 1.5 it gets crap, due to the lack of gradient on this river. Above 2m is still alright, but it washes out a little. You could do this river as high as you want, it’s a big river bed and minimal gradient, so go for it.

cheers

Harry

Number 7

Gordon Gorge

This is a river that’s very hard to get to, but the flow isn’t a problem. Generally it gets run once a year, in the springtime, when a big crew can be organised. The reason it doesn’t get run often is basically remoteness. There is a ridiculously long shuffle (you definitely need a driver), there is an occasionally locked gate, there’s an hour long (or more) walk in with your boat and there’s a long stretch of flatwater at the beginning before you hit the gorge and at the end when you hit the lake.

This river is special because of the remoteness, the fun nature of the rapids and most importantly, the scenery. The river bed is made up of big boulders that have fallen out of the cliffs above, in several sections you can see the house sized and bigger boulders still resting by the water and the place where they came from evident in the cliffs above. The cliffs are a constant feature all the way through the gorge, with massive trees and boulders.

Overall this is a solid grade 4 river. At low flow sections of this river can be somewhat sketchy, with a few undercuts and sieves. At high flow sections of this river can be tricky, with big stoppers and linked moves. Both are still fun, and in between is very fun. The crux section of this drop features a sliding boof with a very serious stopper if you stuff it up, then immediately below that the river goes completely underground. It’s advised to walk that bit!

Once the river hits the lake you have about 5 km of water to paddle, which isn’t exactly fun, but on the positive side it is the most amazing scenery all around you. The drive out is also pretty stunning, with lots of cool things to see.

No photos sorry.

cheers

Harry

Number 8

The Lea (the home run)

This river could be a lot higher up or a lot further down the list, it all depends. This is the ultra-classic Tasmanian creek that gets run more than any other in the state. It features stunning scenery, clear water and fantastic rapids, with the best and biggest ones having smooth bed rock and soft pools to land in.

The Lea is easily accessible, has a dependable flow, fun grade 3+ and 4 rapids and is open to a wide variety of paddlers. You can scrape down with barely any flow, or survive your way down the solid class 5 at super high flows and everything in between. Plus, you can get from the first solid drop to the lake in a bit over 10 minutes if you’re participating in the Lea Race!

Nothing more to be said really.

Harry

Top Ten Rivers in Tasmania - Number 9

The Ouse River (Marlborough Highway to Waddamana)

This is probably a bit out of left field, but this is an amazing river. It flows after heavy rain and snow, up near the Great Lake, which means that when it flows it is FREEZING ARSE cold. The first part of this river, from the highway down is good, with some nice rapids (one rather sketchy one) and lots of brush growing in the river. Soon after Deep Creek you hit a small weir (maybe 4 metres high) and the river is dewatered, all the flow being diverted by pipeline. You need water to be flowing over the weir so that you’ve got something to paddle in downstream until the flow picks up again with water coming in from side streams. Once those side streams do their thing, this river gets really fun.

The rapids are not particularly hard, mostly grade 4, but everything is boat scoutable except for one rapid. And the rapids are linked so that you have sequences of what feels like kilometres at a time when you’re bouncing down the river, taking eddies, dodging rocks, punching holes, and just having a blast. The one rapid you need to scout is just more of the same, only a little bit bigger.

This river doesn’t get run much, because it’s hard to get to and needs lots of rain, but it’s very, very, very, very fun and not too difficult.

Get on it!

Harry

The Apple Isle

You know, living in the Kimberleys I regularly see stunning and spectacular scenery. Colours you don't see anywhere else, amazing sunsets, rugged mountain ranges, massive cliffs, beautiful rock formations and beautiful rivers.

But then I was perusing the internet researching waterfalls when I found this bushwalking site that features photos of Tasmanian wilderness from a variety of contributors. Seeing these photos reminds me of just how beautiful and spectacular Tasmania can be and why it really is the prettiest state.






I would highly recommend going through the posts on the forum and having a look at some of the photos. Even if you're not keen on bushwalking yourself there are still some amazing locations you can check out and remind yourself that you're living in the Kimberleys so that you DON'T have to go around walking in the snow :)

cheers

Harry

Number Ten

Forth Falls Creek

Very few people have run this creek. It has a tiny catchment, massive drops and it drops into a lake with a very, very hard landing off an enormous waterfall.

This creek flows through farmland, before it suddenly starts dropping. It’s not particularly pretty, but it is spectacular, with big bed rock drops that are cliffed out and very difficulty to scout and portage. In fact there are only 5 drops on this creek.

The first waterfall drops onto rocks and needs to be portaged on the left.




After this you have a cool boof onto a long slide, in fact probably the biggest paddleable slide in Tassie, it’s quite fun.

After this you have a very sketchy exit from your boat on the left to scout the next drop, with the cliffs stopping you from portaging or getting close to the drop. This first drop is a little bit rocky, and drops into a small pool which immediately then drops off a very large waterfall with a massive tree inside it. It’s a bit intimidating dropping into the pool on this one!

The big waterfall needs a rope and some dodgy climbing amongst trees to get around it, and then you’re into the pool and ready for the last drop, the big one. This drop is almost impossible to scout and has a long, fast, sliding, curving entrance that then drops into a big vertical drop, probably 15 metres, with a very, very hard landing into Lake Barrington. It’s a hard hit!

This creek is short and serious, probably needing three days of continuous, heavy rain to get it high enough. The more water the better. Get on it, but take it easy, and you HAVE to paddle some of these drops, a walk out would be a nightmare and portaging is not really an option.





Incidentally, if anyone here has watched the classic video X-Tas, Extreme Kayaking in Tasmania, the sequence on Forth Falls Creek is easily the best segment of the movie, with great shots and perfect music. Jimmy launches off the log drop in spectacular fashion, a shot that just blows you away. Try and find a copy and check it out.

cheers


Harry


btw, sorry for the lack of kayaking shots, I don't have access to any of my pictures at the moment and I don't have any of this river anyway. Similar story to a few of the other top ten as well :(

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

The top ten rivers in Tasmania

Tassie is blessed with lots of rivers, big and small, all contained within a reasonably small geographic area. We don't have the aweseome bedrock creeks that you find in many classic whitewater destinations, similarly a lack of big water rivers means we don’t get the massive waves and amazing play spots that other places enjoy.

A lack of snow pack means we’re usually heavily dependent on rainfall, apart from those golden times when there’s been so much rain that the run off keeps the classic creeks running, or the rare occasions when a late dump of snow melts into the rivers, keeping them up for two or three weeks at a time.

But what Tassie does have is a huge variety of classic rivers, from easy grade 2 through to solid grade 4, with even some legitimate grade 5 rapids and rivers to be found. We have big volume rivers through to super steep, low volume creeks, great surf and even some good play runs when the rain really pours down!

Any list must necessarily take into account personal preferences. For me, I like wild places, steep creeks and beautiful scenery. I like running rivers rather than just stopping on a wave and the more gradient the better (within reason).

So with all that taken into account, over the next few days I'll be posting my top ten list of the best rivers in Tasmania.

cheers

Harry