Waratah Tasmania - Think! Be Prepared! Guaranteed To Teach Unwary!

The motto of the story is to be prepared! Our trip to Waratah Tasmania certainly taught us a lesson or two!

You see, we made a snap decision to go overnight camping! We hadn’t been camping for many a long year. Why? Because my husband always refused! Motels for him, he said.

But I loved camping and talked longingly of doing it again.

It turned out that my son had a fairly decent tent. A 4-person in the back section, a 2-person in the front section, with an added awning, packed away in the shed.

One day, not quite sure why, Selwyn changed his mind. He said he would be willing to go if we took that tent. Yay!

So off we went. Living in Tasmania, we were drawn to Waratah, so headed that way.

This very small town is home for somewhere between 200-300 people. The township itself is situated not that far from cliffs over which flows the Waratah Falls after leaving the Waratah Lake.

Historically important tin mining town

Waratah Falls Tasmania

The Waratah Falls. Looking out behind where this photo was taken is the tin mine.

This great source of water proved to be invaluable to them when working the tin mine. Lots of relics still hanging around.

A Water Wheel still working…

There was a walk down to the bottom of the falls. Not a lot of water, but still very pretty.

If you were there in the rain it would put on a really good show. They receive about 2 metres of rainfall per year!

Mt Bischoff Tin Mine

James “Philosopher” Smith discovered the world’s richest tin lode at Mt Bischoff in 1871.

Followed a walking track to see the tin mine, the colours were stunning.

The rocks along the way glowed as if they were made of gold.

I felt like we could simply pick up a nugget and take home our fortune!

Back at our camp

By the time we had completed the waterfall walk and the mine walk, it was time to go home and prepare our dinner. Fun to do and yummy to eat after all our exercise.

Then it was time to go for a wander around the lake in the middle of town. Platypus’ live here and can be seen at dawn and dusk. We didn’t see any that evening, but watched one playing the next morning.

Finally time to have a shower and off to bed.

This is where we really missed it! There was a cold snap passing through. The temperature fell to 2 degrees overnight, and I can tell you, in our rush to get away, we were ill prepared.

It’s February and still summertime… but we both shivered all night long!

Finally I heard a rooster crowing and decided enough was enough! Got up and headed for a nice warm shower.

The tent flap weighed down with the weight of the frost!

After breakfast, we packed up all our gear but left the tent to drip itself dry. After the frost it was a beautiful sunny day so it wouldn’t have taken too long.

Meanwhile, we wanted to go see another sight…

Philosopher Falls

About 10k further down the road were the Philosopher Falls. What a beautiful entrance!

The trek in was 1.5k ever sloping downwards. So that’s 3k return.

Everything, everywhere was covered in moss.

So much to see and appreciate. Around each corner was a new delight!

Back in the days of the working tin mine, a very long water race had been carved out of the side of the hill. What came out of the race was piled beside it to keep the water flowing.

Sometimes our track followed the actual race, and other times the track was up on the pile beside it.

Strange and interesting shapes to pass by.

Finally, down to the water. Spent some time looking for platypus but none to be sighted.

The tinkling of water could be heard for most of the way.

I’ve claimed this as my home! What a delightful place to live as a forest creature!

All different colours, shapes and sizes of fungi right beside the track.

Look at the variety of ferns/mosses covering this log.

We had been on a downhill grade the entire way… now this! 220 steps in all.

Finally down the very long staircase to the viewing platform which was still high up above the waterfall.

Once again, not a lot of water, but ever so pretty.

We had no idea of how much further the falls fell down before they reached the valley floor.

Now to make our way back!

Now it was time to make our way back… up, up, up! Most of it was pretty good, especially once you managed all those steps, with a few stops for a breather!

Overall, I fully recommend Waratah Tasmania as a wonderful place to visit. I loved that natural sights such as the waterfalls and lake, seeing the tin mine and all the other history around the township really rounded it off well. 10 out of 10 for the two days we spent there… 1 out of 10 for the night we spent. 🙁 The showers were good!