Bowens Creek North Canyon - track notes

Entry

Leave a car near the start of the fire trail on the left as you drive out along Wynnes Lookout Rd, at Mt Wilson at AMG558881. Drive the other car to the bottom of the main hill before Mt Wilson, at about AMG550883. Head ESE into the creek. The creek slowly becomes canyoniferous before you finally reach a section of canyon.

Notes

There are about 5 sections of canyon in the creek before you reach the junction with the South Branch. Three of these are in the first couple of kilometres. The creek walking between these sections is pleasant and relatively easy. There are a couple of drops in these sections where a 10m hand line is useful, and there are a reasonable number of other scrambles and climb downs. If you are prepared to swim there is a bit less scrambling. There are a number of deep wades, but the swims can largely be avoided.

The creek then opens out into a scrubby section, before another short section of canyon. Then there is a considerable walk to get to the final section of canyon. The creek begins to drop more sharply and there are quite a number of scrambles down bouldery sections, which takes additional time.

There is a drop at the start of the final section that can be avoided by traversing right and climbing down a tree, although there are a couple of sets of tapes. The first actual abseil is from ropes around a bollard on a slippery ledge up to the right. This is about 12m into the water, or about 8m to a ledge from where you could jump. Alternatively, abseil about 8m directly down the waterfall. The second abseil is about 11m from tapes around a tree up to the right, into a pool. Some further climb downs and swims follow before you reach the junction with Bowens Creek South Branch.

Exit

From the junction with the South Branch, you can see a tributary coming in from the left about 50m downstream. Climb out here and follow a rough track up the gully. There may be a couple of fixed lines here on difficult sections, otherwise someone may need to scramble up and drop one down. At the bottom cliff line head left until you reach a break in the cliffs. Scramble up here. A track largely follows the ridge up to the fire trail at AMG579883. From here it is a 2.5km walk back to the car.

Comments

The top section is a nice canyon, but not especially spectacular. There are a few quite narrow sections, and a couple of fun slides. The very bottom section is very good, deep, although not particularly dark or narrow, and very green. As Jamieson describes, you can just do one section or the other depending on how you are going for time.

To just do the bottom section, head along the exit fire trail above, keeping right where it forks after about 800m. Pass a hill on your right, and as the next gully starts to appear, turn right at a large anthill (AMG575882) and head down into the gully. There are a couple of sizeable drops in the gully that need to be skirted or sidled. Turn left at Bowens Creek and walk down the creek to the start of the canyon.

Jamieson's abseil lengths are misleading and possibly dangerous. Taking just a 20m rope is asking for trouble.

There are several swims up to 20m or so and some deep wades.

Rating: 4/5

Time

About 8.5h, car to car, including lunch. This is a reasonably long day, and we were moving fairly steadily the entire time. 3 people, 1 experienced, 2 moderately experienced.

The lower section could be done in about 5h with a smallish party.

Tom Brennan : website@ozultimate.com: updated 2005-11-18