About Straw Falls
Straw Falls was a slender but tall waterfall in a seasonal creek feeding the Erskine River. Since it was on such a thin-flowing creek, I’d imagine that seeing this waterfall flow would require some serious timing. The picture you see at the top of this page was taken during a clearing storm immediately after a couple days of rains had hit Western Victoria, including the Great Ocean Road area. The falls might only last a few days (maybe a week or two after the last significant rainfall) before it would reduce to a trickle without any further replenishing rains. It’s this ephemeral or fleeting behavior that caused me to think of this falls as more of an optional side attraction to the more well-known and well-developed walk to Erskine Falls.
Given that the path to reach this waterfall almost bordered on scrambling while it was a bit of a detour from the main attraction, we made a separate writeup (i.e. this page) instead of integrating it with the Erskine Falls writeup. Julie and I actually didn’t bother to visit this falls on our first visit back in November 2006, but I did manage to do this side excursion on my own in November 2017.
Starting from the same car park and trailhead as that of Erskine Falls, we descended the nearly 220m path to get to the familiar lower lookout for the Erskine Falls. Just before the built-up track ended, there was a side track to the right that initially followed along the Erskine River before crossing it to get to the other side. Needless to say, while Straw Falls may be more attractive under higher flows, the river crossing may not be trivial (or downright dangerous) under such conditions. Some poles were set up right where the path deviated from the Erskine Falls Track to indicate how high the water level can be before giving up the attempt to cross.
Once on the other side of the river, the track continued along the slick bedrock flanking the Erskine River before the dirt track picked up and meandered amongst ferns and fallen logs. The path continued on like this for the next 500m or so as I found myself ducking under some of the overgrowth while climbing over some of the fallen logs and rocks along the way. Eventually, the path opened up right before the falls on the left, and there was a sign here indicating that I had finally made it to the Straw Falls. It took me about another 30 minutes or so to get here from the end of the Erskine Falls Track.
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