Steep Drop Falls - two hundred years of wonder

Everything is gone. The forest of stringybarks, manna gum and she-oak ends abruptly. The very ground drops away at a cliff.  A hole, more than 200m deep, opens up before me and I step to the edge of nature's open cut. It is all air and shadow ahead. 

In 1818, the colonial explorer John Oxley, travelling east from Macquarie Marshes and over the Peel and MacDonald Rivers, stood in awe near this exact spot on the edge of the New England tablelands. Nearly two hundred years apart he and I equally impressed by the view. 

He wrote in his journal: "It is impossible to form a correct idea of the wild magnificence of the scenery without the pencil of a Salvator." 

I have only a pencil from the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). I shall to do my best with it; hopefully drawing with words the spectacle of Steep Drop Falls in Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, NSW.

Firstly, I will say this gorge country is worth the many explorer superlatives it has drawn. The way the land simply drops away is magnificent. Any creek or river or tiny stream that drains east off the New England Tablelands is, at some point, thrown from the high country down a sudden cliff and into a deep pit, a ravine, a gorge, gulch or a chasm. The eastern length of this land is broken with fallings. 

As we wandered around the rim of Steep Drop Falls what also struck me was its freedom. I mean from this, that both the land and I were free of fences, of warning signs; the disrespect of over-imagined safety. 

Seems appropriate to put this quote here: “When all the dangerous cliffs are fenced off, all the trees that might fall on people are cut down, all of the insects that bite are poisoned… and all of the grizzlies are dead because they are occasionally dangerous, the wilderness will not be made safe. Rather, the safety will have destroyed the wilderness.” 

–  Yorke Edwards (1924-2011), Canadian biologist & former director of Royal BC Museum. Found on: Walk GPS blogpage.

Directions for access to Steep Drop Falls can also be found online at the fantastic resource: Walk New England. In summary, it is about 78km from Armidale or 33km from Walcha. It is accessed by parking beside a dirt road between two farms and walking an easement that gives right of entry to the National Park boundary and forest.

Once through the easement gate, and into National Parks land, there is a confusing array of choices – old forest roads radiate out in four directions. To reach the falls there are two options, you can follow the fence line to the right and eventually take a left hand forest road that leads straight across to the head of the falls. Alternatively, take the road straight ahead (not the one that disappears behind the shipping container) and then take the first right. These paths eventually meet, but the forest is a maze of old trails and a topographical map is a must (Rowleys Creek 1:25000).

The forest itself hides kangaroos and wallabies and when we visited, a plethora of astounding fungi including some fine examples of Australia's largest mushroom species Phlebopus marginatus. These we found near farmland as we walked the boundary fence towards Steep Drop Falls. Also, every 50m or so, the fence provided a perfect perch and lookout for male Flame Robins. Each time I glanced up from walking, I was delighted by their dazzling flash of colour.

When we arrived at Steep Drop Falls there was the 'steep drop' but no 'falls'. Although, faintly, near the edge, I could hear a trickle of water. It was falling and splashing, some way down but the edge of the gorge was lined with crumbling rocks so peering over was tricky and dangerous. We explored along both sides of the gorge and followed a narrow ridge that we thought would "go", that would lead to the bottom of the valley should we ever have time to come back and explore further. 

Steep Drop Falls is at the head of a side tributary of the equally, impressively rugged Rowleys Creek. A small rise on the southern side of the falls provided wonderful views down the length of Rowleys, spur after spur concertinaed along the gorge until intersecting with the large valley of the Apsley River, further east. 

In the NPWS Plan of Management for Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, it states in regard to Steep Drop Falls that:  "There are a broad range of management considerations including legal access, public safety, recreational opportunities and demand that need to be investigated prior to any decision to formally open the area for public use." I imagine the fences they would feel necessary, at this vertiginous spot. However, if they do decide to formalise access, Steep Drop Falls will be another incredible scenic feather in the New England region's tourism cap.

It is only about a two hour walk to the Falls and so we enjoyed a peaceful, lazy afternoon soaking in the sounds of the landscape: currawongs calling, the chatter of small birds feeding along the edge of the cliffs, a peregrine hunting, wind roaring through its feathers as it skimmed the treetops in a terrifyingly fast swoop. 

To return to the car we decided to follow the rim of Rowleys Gorge south to the even bigger cliffs above Spring Creek. Again we were following in Oxley's footsteps, just two hundred years behind. As with Oxley, we found the forest open and easy walking (although he on horseback and us on shank's pony). Regular sheer cliff lines provided great views. Wedgetail Eagles drifted over the deep valley. Oxley also wrote: "Kangaroos abounded on it, and the tracks of emus were also seen." 

And like Oxley: "Scarcely a quarter of a mile elapsed without a spring from the top of the ridge crossing our track, forming at its entrance into the main glen a vast ravine." In a letter to the Governor, summarising his journey, Oxley also wrote how the lofty mountains and rugged land "considerably embarrassed and impeded" them. My only embarrassment, standing above 158r and 154r, is that Oxley and I ever imagined a Salvator, or a pencil from GOMA, could do as impressive a job as nature itself. 

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