Local Guide
Local Guide
Located within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area inside Girringun National Park, Wallaman Falls is Australia’s highest, permanent, single-drop waterfall. Measuring 268 metres from Stony Creek down into the Herbert River Valley, suffice to say that it is certainly worth the winding uphill drive and the blistering trek to the bottom of the falls.
Ingham to Wallaman Falls
Ingham is the closest town to Wallaman Falls. Driving from Ingham will take just under an hour. The road to Wallaman Falls leaves from the town centre. You’ll make your way through farmland, most likely passing by cows wandering along the roadside before entering Girringun National Park. Once inside the park, you’ll ascend a single paved road that makes its way towards the lookout and campground at the top of Wallaman Falls.
Townsville to Wallaman Falls
If you are looking to fly to Wallaman Falls, then Townville has the closest domestic airport with regular services from major cities across Australia. Driving from Townsville to Wallaman Falls is 162km and will take you just over 2 hours via Ingham.
Cairns to Wallaman Falls
The gateway to tropical north Queensland is via Cairns and is where most visitors fly into. Driving from Cairns to Wallaman Falls is around 4 hours and is better suited (and feasible) to an overnight itinerary rather than a day trip. When we planned to visit Wallaman Falls on our epic 5 day tropical north Queensland road trip, we stopped overnight at Mission Beach, approximately halfway, to break up the driving and then overnighted at Wallaman Falls campground.
The Wallaman Falls hike to the base begins at the top from the lookout. The steep descent is 1.6km one way as you weave your way to the bottom.
You’ll pass through various viewpoints as the vegetation changes from forest into rainforest the closer you get to the mist escaping from the waterfall. There are a lot of boulders to clamber over from the end of the trail to the edge of the swimming hole. You can swim at Wallaman Falls and we did see other visitors taking a dip. There are warning signs not to jump into the water. We did not swim ourselves as we were unfortunately running out of time with the fading light.
Allow 2 hours time to complete the loop, significantly more for the uphill return.
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We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
