JoelWhere and How to Get There
Far North Queensland, roughly 30 minutes south of Cooktown.
How to Get There: From the Mulligan Highway (40), take Mt Amos Road (gravel) for just shy of 10km until you reach a homemade sign pointing right towards the falls. Keep following this road over a couple of small river beds. If you have a 4WD you can reach the final cark park, otherwise in low clearance vehicles, park before you see the road narrow and get a bit more hectic. Its a short walk to the falls up a goat track.
What to Expect
Swimming, rope swing, rough slope trails, rock hopping.
Extras: If you’re really game, bushbash around the main falls to the left until you reach the top. There will be another waterfall and swimming hole. Be careful – it is only for the sure footed.
Ultimate Aussie Bucketlist Experience
We didn’t know what to expect with this waterfall since we intially were going to skip the Cooktown vicinity. But we are 100% glad we decided to head up that way! Trevethan Falls was our first stop on the way out of Cooktown as we headed south.
As always, we are a bit skeptical when heading down a dirt road, looking for hand made signs to a waterfall we have never heard about – understandable, right? But that is what makes the adventure! The road had just been graded and we actually drove past machinery that was improving the conditions.
At this stage of our trip, we were waiting for our 4WD to be repaired in Cairns and didn’t want to do any damage to our temporary vehicle, so we stopped at the initial car park and walked the extra 300m or so that a 4WD could handle. The actual track to the falls required some mountain goat action (what a laugh it was). But it was very short and manageable.
We arrived to the falls and had it to ourselves – how amazing! The falls dropped roughly 15 metres or so onto some large boudlers. Off to the right was a rope swing with some pipe nearby to grab it. We found it best to sit on a boudler at the section where the creek and swimming hole met.
Unexpectedly – this waterfall impressed us tremendously!
Relucantly, we began the bush bash to inspect the top of the falls and see what hidden gems were waiting. Full of ants and the anticipation of snakes – we finally made it and WOW – another waterfall and a place to swim. Do yourself a favour – if you’re confident and not too perturbed by snakes and animals – get up there and most likely you’ll have it all to yourself even if locals and tourists start arriving as the day warms up.
Score: 8.5 / 10
So you know, we score the waterfalls based on many factors that are important to us. How fun/enjoyable/challenging is the hike to get there, how impressive is it, can we swim safely, does anything man made around it actually detract, and other factors like the amount of tourists.
Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments – we’d love to know how it was for you!
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