Cronan Creek Falls Track

Mt Barney National Park

From Yellow Pinch car park, a pleasant walk along the fire trail leads you past the base of South Ridge into green rainforest. (Note: the climb up South Ridge is rugged and steep and for experienced walkers only).

Waterfalls
Swimming
440m
Total Climb

Getting there

These fall's get their 'secret' name because Cronan Creek Track does not lead directly to the fall's. To get to the fall's you have to find nearly a hidden little entry way off the main track and make your way through a thicket for about 100m before coming out onto the creek and then a short rock hop to the fall's.

Take the trail from Yellow Pinch Carpark and go through the turn style and head right.
Follow this fire trail straight ahead until you reach a gate with a cattle grid. You will pass beautiful countryside, mountainous view's and an open field that would be just spectacular when the wild flower's are out 🌻

Once through the gate, just keep following the fire trail. There are up and down part's to get the old heart pumping but nothing overly strenuous.

You will have 6 creek crossings to go through that after some rain can be quite deep. We took our boot's off once we were through the gate and put our water shoe's on until we returned back through 👟

Go past two camp site's and when you come to a fork in the trail, vere left. The right trail clearly mark's the way to Mt Barney summit.

When you hit the 6km mark keep an eye out on your left for a green post that mark's the entryway into the fall's.

From here make your way through the jungle and you will come out along the side of the creek. From here rock hop over to the other side and make your way down to the fall's and the amazing swimming hole 🏞

On the way back we detoured up to Yellow Pinch Lookout that gives you spectacular view's of Mt Barney.

Maps

You can't really go wrong - but there are a few wikilocs with this hike 

Route/Trail notes

Keep hiking along the main track past South Ridge and you'll cross about 6 creeks and come to a small official sign on your left pointing towards the falls. It's 100m along a track to get to the creek and a small amount of rock hopping to the actual falls. Excellent swimming but the water is cool even in summer  

Permits/Costs

Do you need any permits? What's the cost?

Other References

Track notes: https://hikingtheworld.blog/2018/07/08/cronan-creek-falls-secret-falls/ 

 

Comments

Great and refreshing walk. Uploaded GPS track

ovel on 24 Sep, 2023

Great waterfall and swimming hole. The walk itself is mostly uphill for the track to the falls and then downhill on the return. Nice walk overall

Jaye on Aug, 2023

Absolutely loved this walk. The variety of scenery with the wide open spaces and the covering of rainforest is a treat for the senses. The multiple creek crossings are a lot of fun. The first one which is a flowing causeway is really the only one where you will get your boots wet up to the ankles - a good set of waterproof boots will keep you dry. All others have rocks to hop across if you have good balance. There was an abundance of water flowing through the creek and many magical photo opportunities along the way. We did 15kms in 4.5hrs with plenty of stops along the way for pics and included the Yellow Pinch Lookout on the way back. Amazing views of Mt Barney at the lookout and also at some points along the way.
Will definitely do this one again, and highly recommend it to all with moderate fitness due to the length not necessarily the difficulty.

Paul on 19 Mar, 2022

Cronan Creek Fall's (Secret Fall's) is nestled in some lush rainforest at the end of a picturesque boulder strewn creek 🏞

These fall's get their 'secret' name because Cronan Creek Track does not lead directly to the fall's. To get to the fall's you have to find nearly a hidden little entry way off the main track and make your way through a thicket for about 100m before coming out onto the creek and then a short rock hop to the fall's.

Take the trail from Yellow Pinch Carpark and go through the turn style and head right.
Follow this fire trail straight ahead until you reach a gate with a cattle grid. You will pass beautiful countryside, mountainous view's and an open field that would be just spectacular when the wild flower's are out 🌻

Once through the gate, just keep following the fire trail. There are up and down part's to get the old heart pumping but nothing overly strenuous.

You will have 6 creek crossings to go through that after some rain can be quite deep. We took our boot's off once we were through the gate and put our water shoe's on until we returned back through 👟

Go past two camp site's and when you come to a fork in the trail, vere left. The right trail clearly mark's the way to Mt Barney summit.

When you hit the 6km mark keep an eye out on your left for a green post that mark's the entryway into the fall's.

From here make your way through the jungle and you will come out along the side of the creek. From here rock hop over to the other side and make your way down to the fall's and the amazing swimming hole 🏞

On the way back we detoured up to Yellow Pinch Lookout that gives you spectacular view's of Mt Barney.

We hiked just over 14km taking 5 hour's all up. This was hiking for 3 and swimming and soaking up the beauty of the fall's all to ourselves for 2 🌈

We absolutely loved our hike and would personally rate this one as easy.

Enjoy 🙏💕


Instagram:- misslissy79

Mel on 3 Mar, 2021

Nice walk - plenty of water. Lots and lots of creek crossings quite deep so be prepared with footwear. Easy to find marker on the left of track.
Excellent swimming but freezing even on a hot day.

Juiced Pixels on 28 Feb, 2021

Beautiful area, cold water but nice after the walk.

Kieran Wiggins on 2021

Nice walk with a refreshing dip.

ozsailor on 29 Dec, 2020

She's gushy! Last weekend's rain made for some marvellous swimming 🌊 Really easy track though management roads. Every creek crossing is fullll azzz, like 7-8 crossings, so expect to get your shoes wet! Glad they added a little sign on the left of the track for the last 100m to the falls through some scrub. Water be freezing tho 🥶❄️🥶

rb on 20 Dec, 2020

Nice low intensity walk. Beautiful scenery and some great creek crossings. The walk took us 2.5hrs.

Andrew on 20 Dec, 2020

Good campsites at Burbank & Forestry with trees, sandy ground, logs to sit on and creek nearby. Walk is mostly along firebreak road, so easy to follow. Waterfall and swimming hole at the end was a pleasant surprise, very nice tho water freezing!

Pendinghiker on 25 Oct, 2020

A great little walk!

The falls are tucked away halfway up an incline along the management track / fire road.
Water was flowing as of September 2020

We had the falls to ourself for a few hours before some others found us. There was a little bit of rubbish at some of the remote bush camping sites which was a shame to see.

All in all a fun walk

Wandering Brauns on 23 Sep, 2020

walk is enjoyable....started from the Yellow Pinch car park,,,note its a dirt road for about 10 mins before you arrive....the walk starts with a fairly steep incline for about 600 metres and then flattens out to an easy walk..the creek doesn't look much but the jewel is the swimming hole with the fall at the end....took me about 3 hours 20 mins return at a moderate pace....Boonah is a nice place for a bite to eat as well...

Greg Brady on 4 Jun, 2020

There is nothing past the falls, just a hill and a dead end, the target is the falls

Tyler Fraser on 28 Jul, 2019

Enjoyed this walk, got a good look at Mt Barney...on the to do list.
Lovely waterspot for a swim.

LadySim on 24 Nov, 2018

Great short walk, nice swimming hole at the end

Sally on 10 Nov, 2018

Great walk, lovely waterfall at the end. 3.5 hours return at a medium pace

Megan and Allan on 11 May, 2018

Decent 3-4 hour round trip walk with beautiful Secret Falls at the end. Thoroughly enjoyed the falls & swimming here & we had them all to ourselves. Saw a few people heading here on the way back, so the earlier the better. Better to do this one for warmer weather so you can cool off & have lunch at the falls. You may think you have gone too far & haven't reached the falls yet, but there is now a small sign on the left of the track once you hit them & you just work your way through about 5-10m of scrub to get to them.

Angie Nicole on 25 Apr, 2018

Decent walk, bit hard to locate the secret falls but they were absolutely stunning. Would love to go back in summer the water was icy

Ang on 25 Apr, 2018

I absolutely love this walk! I came to Mt Barney last year and did this walk and it was so rewarding with a magnificent waterfall and waterhole at the end, that I decided to come back and do it again. Plenty of wildlife, butterflies, wallabies, snakes, lace monitors and other reptiles. The walk is fairly easy, but long. It is not a very steep track, however in order to access the track itself, you need to go up the start of the Yellow Pinch Trail Lookout until you reach the gate, which is pretty steep. The track is very defined until the last 100m or so when you have to watch out for a cairn (rock stack). Do not go past the steep hill with the fallen tree or you will miss it! When you reach the cairn, you will have to go through the bush for about 100m and then you will come out at the stream then waterfall and waterhole. I would allow about 6-8 hours for this walk to get back to the Yellow Pinch carpark as we tend to spend about 2 hours at the waterfall and waterhole itself and it takes about 2-3 hours to walk to the waterfall from the carpark and vice versa. Overall this is one of my favourite walks and I would definitely recommend it!

Water...falls on 17 Jan, 2018

Good wildlife, wallabies, lace monitors, rainforest birds.
Rock hopping and creek crossing. Relatively easy walk but long and hot. You'll reach the first swimming hole which is lovely for a dip but keep going to get to the waterfall. Keep an eye out for the rock stack to indicate where to enter to get to the waterfall. Do not walk up the steep hill!

flashsam on 29 Jan, 2017

Where

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