Gibraltar Falls

There’s not much to the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It’s one city of 400,000 people and a smallish hinterland, enough for a water and timber resource for the territory when it was established a hundred years ago. The ACT exists because neither Sydney nor Melbourne wanted the other to be Australia’s capital city, so Canberra ended up being the compromise, and it needed its own political autonomy.

Come on Russell, this is supposed to be about waterfalls. I said all that because I wanted to say the ACT only has one waterfall of note. Gibraltar Falls is about half an hour south of central Canberra, a decent enough waterfall in the foothills of the Brindabella Range. I’m not sure if it’s a permanent feature, but I’ve never not seen it flowing cheerfully and with rather more energy than you’d expect for a little Aussie waterfall.

It’s neither symmetrical not pretty, but it’s at least interesting and an enjoyable two-hour excursion from Canberra. I’d guess it to be about 30-40 metres tall, and unfortunately it’s difficult to get to the base without fording the stream a few times. There’s a well-maintained walk from the car park to the viewing platforms about halfway down the falls, and excellent pools to cool off in above the falls. Because of the limited viewpoints, most photos of the waterfall look similar. I took a few wide-angle shots and stitched them together to give as full a view of the falls as it’s possible to get from the lower viewpoint.