The Wallaman Falls, a cascade and horsetail waterfall on the Stony Creek, is located in the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

listed Wet Tropics in the locality of Wallaman,

Shire of Hinchinbrook The Shire of Hinchinbrook is a local government area in North Queensland, Queensland, Australia. The shire, administered from the town of Ingham, covers an area of , and has existed since its creation on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions ...

in the

northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

region of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The waterfall is notable for its main drop of , which makes it the country's tallest single-drop waterfall. The pool at the bottom of the waterfall is deep. An estimated people visit the waterfall annually.

Location and features

The waterfall is situated in the

Girringun National Park Girringun National Park is a national park in Queensland, Australia, approximately southwest of Ingham, north of Townsville and northwest of Brisbane. The park is one of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area series of national parks, and is ...

as it descends from the

Atherton Tableland The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the Barron River. It was dammed to form an irrigation reservoir named Lake Tina ...

, where the Stony Creek, a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

Herbert River The Herbert River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The southernmost of Queensland's wet tropics river systems, it was named in 1864 by George Elphinstone Dalrymple explorer, after Robert George Wyndham Herbert, the first ...

, flows over an

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...

in the

Seaview Range The Seaview Range, part of the Great Dividing Range, is a mountain range located west of Ingham in North Queensland, Australia. Much of the range is covered by rainforest and parts of it are protected in the Girringun National Park and the We ...

. The falls initially descend over a small number of cascades before the horsetail drop. In total, the falls descend over . Based on the falls' single-drop descent, the World Waterfall Database places Wallaman Falls at 294 in its world rankings. The geological history of the formation may be traced back some 50 million years, when the uplift of the

continental margin A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margin ...

in the region created modern landforms. The Herbert River, which previously flowed west, began to cut through the terrain en route to its outflow in the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down the Australian northeast coast. Most of it is protected by the Fre ...

. The gorge produced by this erosive action gradually retreated inland along the Herbert River's course at a rate of per hundred years. The river's tributaries were eventually left suspended by this action, forming their own gorges.

References

External links

Wallaman Falls website
by the Queensland Government
Wallaman Falls
at the World Waterfall Database * {{North Queensland Waterfalls of Queensland North Queensland Plunge waterfalls

Location and features

See also

References

External links