Toorongo Falls Circuit Walk, Toorongo Falls Reserve - January 2022

After some big rain yesterday the Toorongo River was flowing a banka this morning.

I tried to do this walk on a long weekend a year or so ago and arrived to find absolute chaos, monkey bikes everywhere, cars parked for miles on both sides of the road and a campsite that resembled a scene out of Mad Max (or Mt Panorama on race weekend), so needless to say I couldn't get out of there quick enough and I retreated back down to Noojee and did the Trestle Bridge Walk instead. On this attempt I was in no danger of being over run by my bogan brothers and sisters as I'd arrived before sun up - after night of serious rain. Any of the punters who had stuck it out in the campground overnight were well and truly still tucked up in their sleeping bags when I motored past this morning. 

No worries about crowds this morning.

My track crossed the Toorongo River on this substantial bridge.

Grabbing my umbrella I locked the ute and set off into the early morning gloom. This walk is a really short stroll that basically connects two waterfalls situated on different rivers, before returning back down to the car park and to start off I was climbing up to check out Toorongo Falls. With the light rain coming down I had the umbrella up straight away as I somewhat gingerly negotiated the slippery rocks and stairs, making my way up to the bridge over the Toorongo River. After crossing the river the track divided and I took the right fork, climbing up beside the gushing Little Toorongo River for 15 minutes before arriving at the beautiful Toorongo Falls. There is a nice lookout platform here, although with the amount of water hammering down the falls after last nights rain the platform was a fairly damp spot this morning. 

After I'd crossed over the Toorongo River I climbed towards Toorongo Falls beside the cascading Little Toorongo River.

Toorongo Falls have just come into view.

There are a lot of stairs on this walk - and they can be a little slippery.

Toorongo Falls.

Leaving Toorongo Falls I set off now to check out Amphitheatre Falls over on the Toorongo River (yep, Toorongo Falls are on the Little Toorongo River and Amphitheatre Falls are over on the Toorongo River!). The track had been washed clean of footprints here and I now pretty well contoured as I made my way north towards Amphitheatre Falls. Thankfully the rain had eased a bit by the time I arrived to the lookout platform below Amphitheatre Falls and I was able to spend a little more time here taking photos without having to juggle my DSLR in one hand and my umbrella in the other.

Heading across to Amphitheatre Falls the track levelled off a fair bit.

The rain also eased off a bit.

Toorongo Falls Reserve.

Amphitheatre Falls.

I'm looking pretty happy with life.

The Toorongo River near the falls.

It was still just after 7am when I started making my way back down towards the car park after leaving Amphitheatre Falls. The rain had more or less stopped by now and the low cloud was also lifting a bit which which allowed some nice views of the Mountain Ash covered slopes surrounding me. The walk from Amphitheatre Falls down to the car park follows the Toorongo River all the way and with the river absolutely hammering this morning there were countless opportunities for me to stop and try and do the scene justice, with limited success really - I can't bring myself to carry a tripod on these walks so taking any longer exposure shots requires some careful balancing on whatever is handy. After crossing the river for the last time I retraced my way back down the ute, the car park still as empty as when I'd left a little over an hour ago.

Heading back down to the ute the cloud started to lift a bit.

There were numerous opportunities to access the river on the walk back down to the ute.

Easy walking on my way back to the car park.

Toorongo River.

Toorongo River.

The Dirt.

According to my GPS I walked around 3.6 kilometres and climbed about 173 metres on this easy stroll, now I'd normally mention around now that those stats are a little optimistic as everything I read both online and in print has the walk coming in at around 2.5 kilometres, looking at my GPX track though I think that maybe the 3.6 kilometere figure is fairly accurate as I meandered around all over the place taking photos and exploring - my Alltrails App had me at around 3.6 kilometres as well. Both these waterfalls are well worth the small effort involved in walking to them I think, the tracks here are really good and while there is a bit of climbing on this easy walk there lots of stone steps to make things easier. The only slightly less than positive thing I've got to say about this walk is that it attracts big crowds of punters on weekends and public holidays so try and visit on a weekday or in less than ideal weather conditions if you enjoy peace and quiet. This walk is written up in the Woodslane book Best Walks East of Melbourne by Craig Sheather as well as being on Alltrails. I got by with my GPS topos this morning.

Relevant Posts.

Noojee Trestle Bridge Walk, 2020.

Ada Valley Walk, Yarra Ranges State Park, 2019.

Mountain Ash, Toorongo Falls Reserve.

Toorongo River above the bridge...

... and below the bridge.