Coachwood Canyon - track notes

Entry

See Newnes Plateau & South Wolgan Fire Trails for information on how to drive to the starting point.

From the Rocky Creek carpark, follow a very faint track N, then NE, before it swings E along the ridge towards the 973 point. Head NE down into the creek, trying to avoid cliff lines. Many entry points exist - we have managed to scramble as far downstream as AMG480139 - but higher up it will be easier to get down to the creek.

Notes

Depending on how high up in the creek you arrive, you may need to abseil. There is a 35m abseil which can be done in two parts. The first drop is 25m to a ledge, and then the next drop of 10m can be abseiled or scrambled to the left. Follow the attractive creek for some way. This involves a couple of scrambles after the creek drops through boulders.

Eventually you hit the canyon proper. From an anchor above a pool, you can scramble around the 4m drop to the right if desired, to an 8m drop with a tricky start due to the angle of the rope. This requires about 40m of rope. Then scramble through a hole, and from inside there is a 6m drop down a waterfall into a shallow pool. Alternative anchors exist that don't go down the falls, but you can avoid getting wet if your technique is good. Finally a 12m drop from a thread on the right, or tree on the left, gets you to Rocky Creek.

Exit

Downstream to the normal Rocky Creek exit, or upstream to the Rocky Creek climbing exit, or through Rocky Creek. Upstream is highly recommended, but you should bring wetsuits or warm clothing as you will almost certainly have a few cold swims.

Comments

Our route in seemed to bring us in above the entrance point recommended in the guidebook. However, it is probably worth doing unless you are in a hurry. We passed what looked like a likely entrance gully a couple of hundred metres down the creek from the very first abseil, just below the junction noted in the guidebook. No swims, as long as you scramble the first bit of the two part abseil in the canyon proper, but you can get quite wet in one of the waterfalls. Going upstream on Rocky Creek entails a cold swim. A nice trip, but it's not much of a canyon, and is definitely worth combining with Rocky Creek.

Rating: 2/5

Time

Trip 1: Left the cars at 11am, back at 6:30pm. Seven people, all reasonably fit, one experienced, three moderately experienced, three relatively inexperienced. The first abseil took a long time.

Trip 2: Left the cars at 2pm, back at about 5:30pm. Two people, both experienced, avoided the first abseil and took the climbing exit.

Tom Brennan : website@ozultimate.com: updated 20050104