Waterfalls in the ACT

One thing most people don’t realise… the ACT has waterfalls!! And MULTIPLE. Now, 90% aren’t easy at all to reach, which may be why so few people know about them, even Canberrans.

Growing up in Canberra you only really know about the touristy Gibraltar Falls, but once my curiosity got the better of me and I starting digging and exploring further I found out there were many more! Either Canberra locals aren’t particularly energised waterfall chasers or ACT Parks are some of the best secret keepers, but there are some real gems hidden in the ACT bush.

Gibraltar Falls

Of course its only fitting to start with the most well known waterfalls in the ACT, the lovely Gibraltar Falls.

A beautiful cascading waterfall just off Corin Road in Namadgi National Park. There is a beautiful infinity pool at the top of the falls which has been a popular swimming spot for locals for many years however after a few accidents and injuries access is now prohibited and it looks like ACT Parks may be moving the access path to the viewing point of the falls to a different location to divert viewers away from the top of the falls.

Ginninderra Falls

Ginninderra Falls in the ACT is a hidden gem to Canberran locals. Access is via private property so be sure to ask for permission before going. To my knowledge this reserve, waterfall and gorge used to be open to the public until people had slipped and gotten badly hurt at the top of the waterfall and due to insurance issues it closed and never re-opened. There has been talks for years about the ACT Government re-opening this beautiful gem, so hopefully they do!

Cascade Falls

Another sweet gem of the ACT. Cascade falls is a wonderful small waterfall stream along The Cascades Trail within the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. It is a short 2.6km trail that goes through a beautiful shady forest to find this beautiful stream slowly excavating a hole into the granite boulder it falls upon.

Coree Falls

It is no surprise the beautiful mountain ranges of The Brindies are home to some spectacular waterfalls, and I imagine there are many more than we know. Some of the waterfalls along Coree Creek are technically in NSW, but as some are also in the ACT, we will count all of them by default!

The most spectacular of these falls is the stunning double drop fall, or the main Coree Falls.

The lower falls are also very worth a visit! And officially within the ACT 🙂

Upper Ginini Falls

I am not actually sure if Upper Ginini Falls is the official name for these falls, or if they even have an official name… but they are epic! Easily cascading for over 200m, two waterfall streams connect into one.

She’s scrubby, swampy and bushy. Perfectly Australian bush if you ask me. I am also pretty sure you can see me in these photos… just to show the sheer scale of this natural masterpiece!

It’s hard to imagine the top of these falls are just 1.5km from a road… hopefully one day ill make it back and visit the bottom! Or one of the many bottoms?!

Punch Bowl Creek Falls

Not too far from the well known Gibraltar Falls is Punch Bowl Creek Falls. A lot less romantic and scenic than its neighbouring waterfall, but an interesting waterfall in its own right.

As is the theme for a lot of ACT waterfalls, deliciously scrubby.

Swamp Creek Falls

Hidden within farmlands is a beautiful miniature gorge with small cascading waterfalls.

Cotter Falls

Again, I am not entirely sure if these falls actually have a name, but for this context and to not double up with Pierces Creek Falls, we will call them Cotter Falls!

Pierces Creek Falls

Now when i’ve mentioned many of these falls in the ACT are hard to get to, this one is up there! It requires a scrubby 3 hour bush bush through a creek, and it’s not even the worst one on this list! An impressive 25m waterfall.

Higher up on the creek there is another waterfall which has a secret cave behind the fall you can sneak into. I’ll have to track down some better photos to share from within the cave, best I have for now are screenshots of videos!

I can’t remember if we attended after a big rain event as it was back in 2021, but I imagine it would need some rain to be decent.

Elsies Falls

It seems that the location of Elsies Falls was forgotten for a time, likely due to a long drought where the waterfall had dried up for many years. Located in the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve there was a historical image of these falls with a lady on horseback standing at its base. Epic!

It’s hard to be 100% sure if these are those exact falls, but we have good reason to believe they are.

The walk along the fire trail to these falls is a beautiful one.

Rob Roy Falls

Another gem hidden on local farm lands, and to my knowledge only really flows after a decent amount of rain.

There are quite a few small falls and cascades as you follow the creek down, which for a Territory not well known for its waterfalls, is pretty spectacular in its own right.

But of course the main even is the beautiful 30(ish)m Rob Roy Falls.

There is another small fall at the top which is hard to see from the base, but it is very early to climb to the top and have a snack with an epic view.

Ginini Falls

The final waterfall on this list (for now) is the magnificent Ginini Falls!! What a HUGE endeavor it is to reach ACTs highest and most inaccessible waterfall. Thundering and cascading down between 190-220m this waterfall is very hard to view in all of its capacity aside from with a drone. From the bottom you can only see a small segment of the full waterfall, which is also the case from the hike down. Only glimpsing segments of this huge fall allows you to piece together its overall size.

To try and put its size into perspective, this waterfall starts from that cliff line you see in the image below.

To also put the hike to this waterfall into perspective… it takes a MINIMUM of 12 hours of complete bush bashing to complete! These photos are from my second attempt at accessing these falls. In our first attempt we followed a ridge down to the creek too far up, and ended up 500m from the top of the waterfall. The bush was so dense we were only moving 500m an hour so we decided it was time to call it quits and get back to the car before midnight.

Now when I say the bush was thick, that is no under statement. To get back up the mountain in any decent time we had to use fallen tree trunks which paved a path through the dense Aussie bush for us. Somehow we managed to follow our tree trunk path the entire way up the mountain! Sometimes the trunks were elevated 2-3m from the ground so at times this was quite scary!