Majors Creek State Conservation Area

Majors Creek runs through a rain forest of vine covered gums and casuarina. I came to the Conservation Area to recce two large waterfalls.Nearest the town of Majors Creek, at little downstream from where Wilson Street intersects Majors Creek, are cascades and a 10m chute which the locals call Major Creek Falls (call into the pub for directions, or better still, ask a local to walk with you - you will need to park your car well before the intersection). To the east, along Sawyers Ridge Road is the inaccessible and dangerous 120m Bell Creek Falls, a long cascade fall which should be avoided.Running through one of the richest gold fields ever found, the cascades and falls of Majors Creek escaped the old mine field through a precipitous drop into the Araluen Valley. As the creek runs through mining country, the water should be treated cautiously.The pretty cascades above the chute are a fractal of the falls. For millennia the people living on the edge of the world have come to watch Majors Creek race down a precipitous drop into the Araluen Valley. In total the creek's falls dance 240 m (790 feet) to the valley floor below. Only 15-20 meters of the main race from a chute fall is visible from adjoining cliff edges.While this fall was once well known, the lookout for the fall is in ruins and the area is quietly fading back into the wilderness.At the chute exit, beyond the reach of human hand, are an intriguing set of images. Are these carvings, or is this just happenstance? The place from which i took the picture is on the edge of a second waterfall, dry at the time the photo was taken, but it is the only close place from which a view of the waterfall can be safely had. Here, coincidentally are also a couple of flat rocks on which you can sit and watch the chute. I wondered if the strange markings were made by a gun shot, but it seems too far away for that. So the sensible conclusion is probably that this is just the effect of natural exfoliation. The location is beyond human reach unless perhaps a tree has become wedged in place, affording a brief opportunity to send a message into the distant future. I guess there are lots of possibilities. i came back here to ponder those, and in different light saw different shapes and structures. These are unlike the stone tool scrapings or carving on the Tuross River. I came away perplexed.Some distance downstream, the creek reaches Araluen valley. It is once again possible to wander along the creek and there is a park closer to Araluen.

Please fix and open the road from Majors Creek to Araluen