The Wallaman Falls is formed by a tributary of the Herbert River, Stony Creek, plunging over an escarpment in the Seaview Range. The geological history of the formation can be traced back some 50 million years. An uplift of the continental margin in this region occurred resulting in the ancestral Herbert River to change its course from westwards to eastwards.
Wallaman Falls Water Fall
Located in Girringun National Park, also known as Lumholtz National Park, Wallaman Falls is often cited as having one of Australia’s largest single drop waterfalls. The Wallaman Falls are notable for their single-drop of 268 meters, which is Australia's highest permanent waterfall. With the addition of additional related minor drops the overall height of the falls is approximately 340 metres. The pool at the end of the waterfall is 20 meters deep. The waterfall with an impressive height is a tiered waterfall made up of several drops but there are only two main drops on the way down to a 32 foot deep and 65 foot wide lagoon.
From such incident, it began to cut through the raised igneous substrata en-route to its outflow in the Coral Sea. The gorge produced by this erosive action gradually retreated inland along the Herbert River's course eventually causing the formation of the waterfall.
Wallaman Falls is part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area created in 1989. Spanning 5586 square miles of land, the world heritage site is an area that is considered to have outstanding cultural or natural importance to the heritage of humankind making Wallaman Falls along with some of the oldest surviving rainforest in the world quite special.
A variety of unusual creatures reside in the park. They have the Platypus, one of the few marsupial species on the planet. Also, they have the Eastern Water Dragon which is a lizard with strong forearms and tails designed for swimming which in addition can live equally well both in and out of the water. The Saw-Shelled Turtle also inhabit in the Herbert River and tributaries including Stony Creek. Having serrated edge along its shell the Saw-Shelled Turtle can only be found in the Eastern portion of Australia. More inhabitants are the Casuarinas, Eucalypts and Grass Tree which can be found by the rim of the falls. Casuarinas are also known as She Oaks, Beefwood or Australian Pines and they are found in tropical areas where the soil is nutrient poor. More lush vegetation of the typical rainforest can be found deeper in the gorge. Eucalypts are also Eucalyptus trees, of which there are nearly 700 species and quite a number of these can be found around Wallaman Falls. Grass trees refers to several different species of a unique tree with a ring of leaves typically at the top of a trunk or branches that looks like grass or a grass skirt. A wide range of mosses, lichens and epiphytes are also found in the park.
The Warrgamaygan Aboriginal People who lived originally in the Wallaman maintained a spiritual connection to the land from which their ancestors once gathered food and resources as well as being where they used to live.
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