AtlasBarrington Tops

Gloucester Falls

verified Ungraded Unknown flood risk Gloucester, NSW
Gloucester Falls
Doug Beckers, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Most people exit after the upper section of Gloucester Falls, a 12 and an 8 metre drop plus a 35 metre slot rappel, but the full lower run adds five more large waterfalls and stretches the day to seven to ten hours car to car.

Rig the R4 slot with care: ropes can jam in a groove between the chockstone and the side wall on pull down, and sometimes the only fix is an abseil from a tree on the exit ridge to free them. Flow is read off the Gloucester River at Forbesdale gauge, an easy A3 under 100 ML a day and high water past 160. The full lower run can also be exited by walking down to the Gloucester River NSW NP campground, which turns the trip into an overnight.

Logistics

ManagerNSW NPWS Barrington Tops National Park
PermitRestricted
Technical6 rappels, longest 40m
SeasonOct-Apr
Vehicle accessPassenger
Coordinates-32.09858, 151.59999

Sources