About Pepina Falls
Pepina Falls (I’ve also seen it referred to as Papina Falls) was one of the more obscure waterfalls in the Atherton Tablelands area east of Ravenshoe (that’s “ravens hoe” not “raven shoe”). Julie and I visited this waterfall to kill some time between visits to Millaa Millaa Falls as we were waiting for the right lighting conditions. And we were glad to have been able to witness this small (maybe 5m or so) but quaint hidden waterfall. In order to attain the view you see at the top of this page, we had to descend a short and steep 90m overgrown trail that was more like a minor scramble. The path eventually led us towards the bed of Middlebrook Creek with partial views of the diminutive falls. However, we had to edge out onto the creek a little bit in order to get cleaner looks like the photo you see at the top of this page.
During the short scramble bridging the car park and the base of the falls, I was concerned about the overgrowth that I had to brush up against because I was afraid of plants that were known to have neurotoxic hairs (definitely worse than poison ivy or poison oak). Since I couldn’t tell which leaves or plants had this property, Julie and I were cautious in wearing long sleeves (despite the humidity) while traversing this stretch. Finally, we could have gotten more direct views of the falls, but that required wading in the stream, and we were willing to get that wet so we didn’t do it.
Finally, there was a little bit of confusion between this waterfall and Souita Falls. That was because a sign at Millaa Millaa Falls had the two falls mixed up. As you can see from the signage shown in this page, we definitely had the correct falls identified.
From the town of Millaa Millaa, the Palmerston Hwy stopped becoming Hwy 25 as it turned left from the centre of town. Note that Hwy 25 would then continue as the Millaa Millaa-Malanda Rd. We then went south from this junction for about 8.3km until we reached a bridge over a creek signposted as Middlebrook Creek. There was also a Pepina Falls sign here adjacent to a small pullout. This was where we parked the car.
The Palmerston Hwy continuation in Millaa Millaa was about 55km west of the Bruce Hwy (A1) in Innisfail.
For geographical context, Innisfail was 88km (over an hour drive) south of Cairns and 260km (3 hours drive) north of Townsville.
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Pepina Falls, Palmerston Hwy, Nov 2009 November 24, 2009 8:16 am - Just returned to USA after a week in Australia. Used your waterfall listings and maps to make a nice day driving tour. We loved the Palmerston Hwy drive. We saw some wild peacocks on the side of the road too. I notice your location for Pepina Falls is not quite right. Yours matches the one… ...Read MoreNearest Waterfalls
