Posted by Harman Falls, on the West Coast of Tasmania, is a tantalisingly short distance (1.4kms in a straight line) from the junction with the Wilson River, and if you stare at a map long enough, you could convince yourself that it will be a doddle to get there.
At least, that’s what I did.
So when my planned paddle up Lake Mackintosh was scuttled by high water levels preventing me from even getting to the launch point, I instead drove out to the Wilson river bridge (about 26kms along Pieman Road from the Murchison Highway turnoff) and instead pointed my kayak upstream to see just how much of a doddle this would be …
First surprise (noting I did no actual preparation for this trip other than gaze at maps) was that the river above the bridge is still part of lake pieman, and hence flooded, so there were lots of tree stumps sticking out of the water and (quite a few more just under the surface) so it wasn’t the easy paddle upstream that I thought it would be. Kind of glad I had the plastic sea kayak rather than the packraft for this one.
Allowing for a bit of tree stump dodging on the way up, it was a 1.6km paddle up to the junction with the Harman River which is conveniently just below the base of a small class 1 rapid.
I had hoped from the map that the Harman river might be large enough to paddle up for quite some distance, but it wasn’t even close, and so I changed out of the kayaking gear into my hiking hear and set off on the next leg of this adventure, sorry doddle.
The fires that came through this area in the beginning of 2025 have really left their impact around here, and so I was easily able to head straight north /north west and cut out the first bend of the river and then continue to follow the river westwards staying on the burnt out spur above the river. However, soon enough the forest started getting thicker and I made the decision, about 700 metres from the kayak, to cut down (probably at the worst spot possible) and join the river to see if I could make better progress there.
Initial impressions weren’t great as I found myself having to bash and contort my way through some thick scrub to get to the creek edge, then scramble down a chest high wash-out only to find myself then wading nearly waist deep through a pool to make any progress upstream. I confess I took a moment at this point, and seriously considered just turning back (wasn’t this meant to be a doddle?), but decided to at least push on upstream for a bit more and was pleased to find the going got easier as I made my way upstream.
I do stress the word easier, not easy. There was plenty of loose, slippery rocks underfoot, a couple of small cascades to work my way around, a tree jam or two and I was walking in the water almost as much as I was on the side of it. I was very glad I had my walking poles for extra balance on more than one occasion.
It took me about 30 minutes to make it 800 metres upstream to the junction with a small creek shown on the maps coming in from the left, and if anything my progress was getting quicker and I actually started to become pretty confident of making it to the falls.
20 minutes later, confidence high, I jumped onto what looked to be a nice stable rock only to have it roll forward with my weight and, completely off balance, I found myself hurtling forwards and crashing ungracefully into athe pile of rocks in front of me. If you’ve ever experienced that feeling of this sudden pain that makes you go all light headed and sort of whiteout for a second, then you know what I experienced right then.
To avoid crashing head first into a rock, I must have tried to kick out with my leg, which instead resulted in me smashed my shin against a rock. While that stopped me whacking my head, it did take me a few minutes of just lying there to assure myself that I was in fact OK, my leg was still working, and that I wouldn’t need to be pressing my SOS button to get out of there.
I spent another 5 minutes getting a sugar hit and contemplating my situation and deciding if I wanted to continue on knowing that there was still another 700 metres to the falls, and the topogrophy on the map showed it getting steeper from this point. Looking up stream all I could see was hundreds more possible loose rocks waiting to send me for a second fall …
In the end, I decided to see if I could fly my new drone up the creek to the next corner to see what was just around the bend, but I quickly learned that drones (at least the drone I had) won’t launch without enough satellites, and there wasn’t enough satellites in the valley I was in.
So, prudence over success, I opted to turn around and slowly made my way back out pretty much the same way I came in. I did try pushing on further downstream than the way I had come in to avoid the worst of the scrub and high creek banks, but the creek section below where I came in was pretty tough as well, and I only ended up getting a further 50 metres downstream, before opting to head up into the bush.
So, about four hours after leave the car, I pulled back up where I started. I didn’t make it this time, but gee I enjoyed trying!
Plus, in trying this route, I also started to think about the old four wheel drive track that heads into this area and, looking at the updated ListMap satellite image which shows where the fire reached, it looks like you could follow the burnt out area and get within 500 metres of the falls before needing to bush bash down into the gully to see them …
I am already dreaming of my next trip.