Bowens Creek South Canyon - track notes

Entry

If you want to avoid a 3km road walk, park a car near the start of the fire trail at Range Hill on the Bells Line of Road. The best spot is the open area on the side of the road about 200m E of start of the fire trail. Then drive to Pierces Pass and park the other car at the top parking area. Walk N along the road to the top of the hill and then NE along the ridge. Some vague tracks exist. After a little over 1km the ridge starts to drop. At the pagodas there are a number of spots you can scramble to the right down into the creek. One is just before you reach the first rock pagoda, getting into the creek at about AMG542840. Some creek walking and a bit of scrambling follows to a 10m drop. This can easily be traversed to the right, or abseiled if you like. The canyon proper is reached shortly after.

Notes

The first drop is about 8m from tapes from one of a number of trees on the right. However, it can be easily slid in two stages by climbing down under the chockstone. The anchor for the next drop is from tapes around a tree about 8m back, which makes the drop about 20m all up. The canyon narrows immediately. The junction with another canyon (Corkscrew Canyon according to Jamieson) coming in from the left is then reached. This is well worth a side trip to explore.

Continuing on there is a reasonable section of canyon, until it opens out into a lovely coachwood and sassafras forest. The creek meanders for some way before dropping through boulders and then into the bottom canyon section.

There are quite a few tricky scrambles and drops in this section, including a few down logs. A rope may come in handy. This section of canyon ends at the junction with Range Ck (Hobnail Canyon according to Jamieson). It is a good side trip to see the bottom section of Hobnail Canyon.

Exit

Continue down the creek until you reach the second tributary coming in from the left. Opposite this you will see a steep bank, but climbable. There are logs at the bottom to help with the first section. Follow this up to the next cliffline. Follow the cliffline around to the right to a point where it bends sharply left into small gully. This can be climbed through a narrow hole (or over the top - somewhat exposed). Go up to the next line of cliffs and right on a track. Scramble up the cliffs at an obvious point (the track stops traversing under the cliffs) and follow the track up to the fire trail. Follow the fire trail back to where you left the car, or walk back along Bells Line of Road..

Comments

Canyon trips can be done in a number of sections of the creek. These notes describe one of the more commonly done sections.

A very good canyon. The bottom section is reasonably sustained, but not particularly deep or dark. The canyons coming in from the side are also very nice and are worth the side trips.

There may be a couple of very short swims, but mostly you can avoid swimming - it's largely creek walking.

Time

The trip took about 6.5h from car to car, including lunch. It is really not a long day as Jamieson indicates. We took our time and explored up the side canyons. A fast moving party could complete the entire canyon in around 4h. 4 people, 1 experienced, 2 moderately experienced, 1 inexperienced.

Tom Brennan : website@ozultimate.com: updated 2006-02-10