Ralphs & St Columba Falls Sat. 19th May 2018

By later in May, we are hoping the rivers in the north-east will be flowing strongly, to make the most of the 3 waterfalls we should be able to visit on this trip. Each is quite different, surrounded by varied and stunning bushland - Ralphs Falls are very tall and slender, with a viewing platform a little below the top of the cliff over which they fall. St Columba Falls are much grander, and a beautiful sight in full flow, but always pretty. Halls Falls are in the old tin mining area, also close to Pyengana with its cheese factory, and different again, with two cascades side by side. The walks for each are quite short, easy-medium and the tracks are all good and not muddy and well maintained. Suitable for less experienced walkers, including younger children. Itinerary would include a cafe for coffee on the way home either at Derby or Scottsdale ECO centre. A full day because of the driving, but hopefully back in town by about 5:30 pm.

Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone Peter Davies on 03 6344 8235 . The departure time is 7:30 am from Door of Hope car park. If you wish to meet with the group at any other place, please arrange with the leader.  The leader should be notified of any other people you intend to bring along. Please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of departure time.

To access this area from northern Tasmania: There is more than one way to get to Ringarooma, but perhaps the most comfortable is to proceed from Launceston via Northern Outlet, turning off at University Connector to head for Lilydale Rd. Follow through Lilydale and continue through Lebrina, Golconda, Nabowla and Lietinna to Scottsdale (70 km from Launceston via this route).
Alternatively, the Tasman Highway can be followed through Waverley, crossing the Sideling to reach Scottsdale. Please advise the leader if travelling independently.
Follow the Tasman Highway SE through Tonganah and over the Billycock Hill to the Ledgerwood junction, just over 20 km from Scottsdale. Turn right and follow a further 8 km through Ledgerwood to Ringarooma. (Mostly gravel roads from here to St Columba Falls but ok for cars and 2WD vehicles) Follow New River Rd. SE from Ringarooma, keeping on that road for 5.8 km to reach Mt. Victoria Rd. Turn right, and follow for 10 km to reach the car park for Ralphs Falls, just north of the prominent Mt. Victoria.
From Ralphs Falls to St Columba Falls is 12 km. We won't give a detailed course. Follow the leader!
From St Columba Falls, just over 11 km of sealed road takes us through Pyengana to the Tasman Highway. Turning right towards St Helens, about 4 km further on, turn left into the access road for Halls Falls.
From here, it is about 65 km back to Scottsdale following the Tasman Hwy through Weldborough, Derby and Branxholm.

Warnings:
  The following codes [from our 2018 walks calendar] apply:
    D    Drive distance requires early departure
    S    Steep incline for at least part of the way (but only very short stretches on this trip!)
Walkers should carry warm clothing and a raincoat. Solid shoes or sneakers should be fine, and gaiters are not needed.     
Winter bushwalking can be dangerous in poor weather if not adequately equipped; see http://bootsnall.sutas.org.au/Pages/Equipment_Safety.htm for some guidelines.


Map details:

Ralphs, St Columba and Halls Falls area: 1:100000 map is Forester (Tasmap 8415) and 1:25000 maps are is Blue Tier (Tasmap 5843) and Victoria (Tasmap 5642)
Short ref. n/a
Zone      Easting        Northing    Latitude      Longitude
n/a
No peakbagger points will be visited during this trip. For listing of peakbagger points, see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger's Guide (2000 revision) which can be downloaded (Excel) from http://tastracks.webs.com/peakbaggers.htm  The same web page contains several other listings of Tasmanian peaks.
(only waypoints - no tracks - in the files for this walk)
GPX version of the track: Click here to download. Google Earth version of the track: Click here to download.
Right-click on the file and save target as to a location of your choice. (Suggest you click the Last modified at top to sort by date to get the most recent at top to find the file for the next walk).