Apsley Falls

The Apsley Falls are two waterfalls on the Apsley River in the Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The falls are located about 20km east of Walcha, and 1 kilometre off the Oxley Highway in a deep gorge, that is part of the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park. They are the first falls in a succession of dramatic drops in an area that has some of the most remarkable scenery in Eastern Australia. The first drop of the falls is about 65m in depth, and the second, which is about 800m further on, plummets 58m metres to the bottom of the gorge.HistoryAboriginal people tell the story of how the Rainbow Serpent created the gorge at Apsley Falls in the Dreamtime. The Rainbow Serpent is said to travel underground from the base of the falls to reappear 20 km upstream at the Mill Hole on the Apsley River in Walcha. The site is now marked at the Mill Hole by the Rainbow Serpent mosaic made with the help of the local Aboriginal community.Apart from Aboriginal significance of the area as a meeting place, John Oxley passed by the falls on 13 September 1818 and he named them the Bathurst Falls. He described it as “one of the most magnificent waterfalls we have seen”.Oxley named the Apsley River and wrote in his journal that he was "lost in astonishment at the sight of this wonderful natural sublimity".