The Horizontal Falls, or Horizontal Waterfalls, nicknamed the "Horries" and known as Garaanngaddim by the local

Indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, are an unusual natural phenomenon on the coast of the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, where

tidal flow Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

s cause waterfalls on the ebb and flow of each tide. The Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls Marine Park is a protected area covering the falls and wider area.

Description

The falls form when seawater rushes through two short and narrow

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

s which are about apart from each other. They are located in the coastal McLarty Ranges situated within Talbot Bay (Ganbadba) within the

Buccaneer Archipelago The Buccaneer Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of Western Australia near the town of Derby in the Kimberley region. The closest inhabited place is Bardi located about from the western end of the island group. , a new marine ...

. The seaward gap is about wide and the landward one is about . The natural phenomenon is caused by the changing local sea level due to

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

s of up to . The water builds up on one side or the other of the gaps faster than it can flow through them, creating a waterfall up to high. With each change of the tide, the direction of the falls reverses from inflow to outflow and back again. The Horizontal Falls have been described by naturalist

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

as "one of the greatest wonders of the natural world". Boats are able to travel through the gap, and thrill-seeking tourists are catered for by several tourism companies. On May 27 2022, the Falls Express was conducting a tour of the natural phenomena, about 250km north-east of Broome, when it ran into trouble with 26 passengers and two crew on board. The vessel appeared to have collided with a rock wall. More than a dozen tourists were left with critical injuries and required surgery. The safe rescue of passengers was made more difficult due to the falls remote location and accessibility only by sea and air. The presence of box jellyfish and estuarine crocodiles at the falls made rescue efforts more urgent.

Marine parks

The

Kimberley Marine Park The Kimberley Marine Park, formerly known as the Kimberley Commonwealth Marine Reserve and also known as the Great Kimberley Marine Park, is an Australian marine parks, Australian marine park offshore of Western Australia, near the Kimberley ( ...

is a Commonwealth government area covered by the national '' EPBC Act'', covering an expanse of ocean outside the limits of the Camden Sound and other state parks, stretching from south of

King Sound King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about long, and averages about in width. The port town ...

to nearly the top of the

North Kimberley Marine Park The North Kimberley Marine Park is the largest state-managed marine park in Western Australia and second largest in Australia. covering or about north-east of Derby. It is located in the Indian Ocean and the Timor Sea, extending from York Sou ...

. This area consists mostly of Multiple Use Zone (

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

VI), but also includes sections of national park (IUCN II) and Habitat Protection (IUCN IV) zones, the latter two mostly just outside the Camden Sound and King Sound areas.

Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls Marine Park

The Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls Marine Park is jointly managed by the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state de ...

(formerly the

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

(DPaW)) via its agency, the

Parks and Wildlife Service The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Western Australian government department responsible for managing lands and waters described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'', the ''Rottnest Island ...

and the traditional owners of the land and waters, the

Dambimangari The Worrorra, also written Worora, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley area of north-western Australia. The term is sometimes used to describe speakers of the (Western) Worrorra language, and sometimes groups whose traditional ...

(Worrorra) group. The Dambimangari people chose the name "Lalang-garram", being a Worrorra word meaning “the saltwater as a spiritual place as well as a place of natural abundance”, relating to the ocean in a general sense. The Horizontal Falls are known as Garaanngaddim by the Dambimangari, and the Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls and North Lalang-garram Marine Parks lie within their native title determination area. The two marine parks were declared by the

New marine park

An 2016 management plan saw this park, along with the Lalang-garram / Camden Sound Marine Park and the

make up part of what was to be named the Great Kimberley Marine Park, covering about of coastal waters from west of Ganbadba (Talbot Bay) to the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

border. In 2020, a new management plan was released, titled ''Lalang-gaddam Marine Park: Amended joint management plan for the Lalang-garram / Camden Sound, Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls and North Lalang-garram marine parks and indicative joint management plan for the proposed Maiyalam Marine Park''. It was published ahead of the

gazettal A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

of the proposed Maiyalam Marine Park under the ''CALM Act'' as a Class A reserve. Under the new arrangements, the zoning of the Camden Sound park would not change, but the plan is now to amalgamate the four marine parks (

Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls Marine Park The Horizontal Falls, or Horizontal Waterfalls, nicknamed the "Horries" and known as Garaanngaddim by the local Indigenous people, are an unusual natural phenomenon on the coast of the Kimberley region in Western Australia, where tidal flows ca ...

North Lalang-garram Marine Park North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

and the new Maiyalam Marine Park) to form the Lalang-gaddam Marine Park, all in the sea country of the Dambeemangarddee people. This plan will be amended by another 10-year final joint management plan. The new Maiyalam Marine Park will add to the Kimberley marine reserves. The larger plan is to create a total of of new

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

and marine reserves in Western Australia. The new spelling, "Lalang-gaddam", reflects the correct pronunciation of the word, and "Maiyalam" means "between islands", or "a gap through". The new Maiyalam Marine Park covers an area off the north-western coast of

and around

Macleay Island Macleay Island is an island in Moreton Bay, South East Queensland, Australia. The island constitutes a town and locality within the City of Redland. In the , the locality of Macleay Island had a population of 2,681 people. Geography Maclea ...

. The new Lalang-gaddam Marine Park borders the proposed

Mayala Marine Park The Buccaneer Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of Western Australia near the town of Derby in the Kimberley region. The closest inhabited place is Bardi located about from the western end of the island group. , a new marine ...

to the west (covering the

), and the

( Uunguu waters) to the north-east. The land and sea border to the south abut Bardi Jawi land and a proposed

Bardi Jawi Marine Park The Bardi people, also spelt Baada or Baardi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people, living north of Broome and inhabiting parts of the Dampier Peninsula in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They are ethnically clos ...

. Maps show the extent of the various marine parks, native title determinations, zones within the areas, etc. Details such as port areas are outlined in the plan. An Indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) already covers the Lalang-garram/ Camden Sound, Lalang-garram/ Horizontal Falls and North Lalang-garram marine parks, but an additional ILUA will be needed to allow the creation of the proposed Maiyalam Marine Park in accordance with the ''

Native Title Act 1993 The ''Native Title Act 1993'' (Cth) is a law passed by the Australian Parliament, the purpose of which is "to provide a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land managemen ...

''. Much of Collier Bay will remain a general use zone, but the

Walcott Inlet Walcott Inlet is an estuary located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It flows into Collier Bay, in the Indian Ocean, via a narrow gap known as Yule Entrance. The inlet was named on 19 June 1865 by Trevarton Charles Sholl after ...

will be zoned as sanctuary.

2022 tour boat incident

On 27 May 2022 at around 7.00am, the 'Falls Express' tourist boat, owned by Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures, crashed into a rock wall at the falls, with 28 people on board. The Royal Flying Doctor Service deployed six aircraft to the scene, with a triage zone established at the Koolan Island iron ore mine nearby. 18 patients were transported by the service, the majority to Perth. Injuries included broken bones and head injuries.

References

External links

*{{cite web , title=Horizontal Waterfalls , website=Western Australia , date=8 November 2020 , url=https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Attraction/Horizontal_Waterfalls/56b266b02cbcbe7073ae0606 Tides Tourist attractions in Western Australia Kimberley coastline of Western Australia