Obi Obi Creek and Kondalilla Falls

Home > Diaries > 2022 > 975

A BLANKET of rain hung heavy over Baroon Lake as I arrived in the early morning. From the day use area, I walked over the dam to the start of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great walk and set off along the track.

It only took a couple of minutes to find evidence of the destructive storms of earlier this year, with the bridge crossing the first creek wiped out and a temporary trail of sandbags leading across the creek beside the bridge which once spanned between two large boulders. A second bridge starting from the end of the far boulder crossing a larger stream remained intact.

Once across the creeks I followed the track a couple of hundred metres to a junction where a side track led down to Obi Obi Creek a short distance down from the dam. The creek was swollen with a torrent of muddy water roaring down the rocky gorge with the foliage of the trees on either side of it almost dragging in the swift water. Looking upstream I could see the spray from the water tumbling over the dam spillway. After a brief stay I quickly returned up the hill back to the main track.

Although very wet, the main track was intact as I followed it through the schlerophyll forest high above the creek unseen. The track was mostly dirt with a few short boardwalks crossing low gullies with water flowing down them. After about half an hour I reached another junction with a short track leading down to a view looking down The Narrows, where the creek tumbles down a very narrow gorge in between the rocky hillsides. Near the lookout was a waterfall descending from a side stream.

I reurned to the main track and followed it crossing a boardwalk over the waterfall stream as it doubled back over the rocky formation in the rainforest. Once across the creek, the track followed it upstream for a hundred metres before crossing it again and climbing along a spur where the dense forest thinned. The track rose moderately for some distance before I reached a lookout over The Narrows with the creek roaring a good eighty metres below at the bottom of the vertical cliff. Thankfully the lookout was well fenced with a good handrail. From the lookout I could see through the greyness of the rain to Baroon Lake, across to the cloud enshrouded hill on the other side, and also downstream a short distance towards where the creek would eventually flow into the Mary River.

From the lookout I continued along the track, with a sign advising experienced hikers only advance past here. The track descended the hill with numerous switchbacks between two cascading streams until it eventually reached the very wet rainforest next to Obi Obi Creek. Rain was falling steadily by now and getting heavy at times. The track followed above the roaring creek with crossing the occasional stream tumbling down the side of the hill. The main creek was flooding but several metres below the track.

I reached what I initially through would be a clearing, but it was the end of a large landslide that had come down the hill in the flooding earlier this year. The landslide had cleared a large clearing and the debris of large trees and all sorts of vegetation had crashed down to just short of the track. The moderate rain now falling could potentially set this landslide off again, so I hurried past it following the track quite muddy from the sediment filtering down from the end of the landslide.

A little past the landslide I reached one of the main viewpoints of Obi Obi Creek, where I had stopped and rested in previous hikes before returning to the dam. The rocks where I would have rested were under the flood waters so there wasn't anywhere to rest here, so I turned around and started heading back to the dam especially with the rain falling potentially causing the slip to come down more or the creeks I had crossed a short time ago flooding. Fortunately I got across those with ease and continued my way back to the start of the track as rain continued to fall.

Once back at Baroon Dam, I headed up to Montville and through Flaxton to park at the top of Kondalilla Falls.

Rain was still falling as I headed down the Kondalilla Falls track passing the swollen Picnic Creek with water tumbling down the waterfall upstream, and cascading over the rocks going downstream. From here I took the higher track up to the Obi Valley Lookout, where cloud lined the steep sides of the valley below where I could see along the length of the valley of Skene Creek to Obi Obi Creek a couple of kilometres below where I had turned around earlier.

From the lookout I continued around the circuit turning off at the next junction to head down the rocky track to the rock pool above Kondalilla Falls. The pool was fed by a small waterfall thundering into the muddy water, normally clear. The pool drained through a couple of channels between a few grassy bushes under a wooden bridge I crossed before tumbling down a short cascade and leaping over the edge of the ninety metre high cliff of Kondalilla Falls. Beyond were the steep slopes of the cloud hugged hills on either side of the valley. I couldn't see the waterfall from this angle, but knew I'd get some great views later.

From the pool I followed the track clinging to the side of the rocky hill before descending through the dense rainforest perpetually wet from the spray of the waterfall filling the valley. Rain continued to fall as I descended along the track, often crossing small stream tumbling over the moss covered boulders containing them.

Eventually the track reached a junction where the great walk crossed. I turned left heading downstream along the valley. The track continued to descend until eventually reaching just above the swollen Skene Creek. The rainforest here was very muggy as I continued heading down the track towards its mouth at Obi Obi Creek.

After another half an hour I reached the end of the valley where the rainforest gave way to lantana covered scrub close to farmland. From here the track turned to the left to head upstream along Obi Obi Creek towards where I had turned around earlier. I followed the track for a little while before turning back.

Heading back upstream along Skene Creek, the rain had stopped falling but drops were still dripping from the very dense rainforest foliage above. I continued up to the junction where I continued following the great walk trail before it descended a stairway under a huge overhang to a bridge crossing the bottom of the valley just short of the waterfall. The water cascaded over the boulders as I crossed the bridge. Once across the track started rising moderately along switchbacks heading up the waterfall.

Dense rainforest enclosed the track most of the time, but I there were a few small clearings where I had a spectacular view of the waterfall from different elevations. The main lookout had been largely washed away, but the other lookouts had great views. Small streams were flowing down the hill making small waterfalls on the track making for quite a wet hike.

The final section of the climb was over an exposed rock face where the track became a constructed steel stairway which I climbed up to the junction where I had earlier gone to the nearby rock pool. I had now completed the circuit, so I headed back up to the Obi Viewpoint before taking the lower track back up to the Kondalilla Carpark and head home to dry off. Amazingly the camera had survived all the rain and humidity being out in the very wet rainforest all day.