Search Dingo Gap

Map:  LPI Yerranderie 89294N

GR:  291 304

Track Notes:

19/9/2008 

Comments:

Johnston Falls on Wheengee Whungee Creek plunges into a sheer sided amphitheatre in Shamash Deep.

Large boulders are strewn everywhere, a hint of the devastating forces at work when the creek is in flood.

Johnston Falls is a beautiful waterfall.

A number of researchers have concluded that Francis Barrallier's 1802 Expedition was turned back by Johnston Falls rather than by Barralliers Falls on Christys Creek.

The cliffs can't be climbed easily.  For walkers, the only way round the falls are some very steep scrambles further downstream.  Even there, the surface can be treacherous consisting of small flat stones that move underfoot with every step and larger rocks that crumble when touched.  Animal pads provide the safest routes across this steep, rugged landscape.

Views upstream from high on the western slope show glimpes of Wheengee Whungee Falls and the cliffs on its eastern wall.  For someone trying to walk upstream the barriers would seem immense.

If Barrallier had followed the ridges rather than the valleys when confronted by the waterfalls, he could have won through to Boyd Plateau and his would have been the first expedition to have crossed the mountains.