Myrtle Gully Falls
Updated: Apr 6, 2022
On a lazy Sunday afternoon on a miserable grey day I decided to grab my camera gear and go exploring some of the walking tracks around Hobart. I ended up settling on an adventure to photograph the Myrtle Gully Falls. Watch the video below to join along as I shoot the falls.
The small waterfall is located on the Myrtle Gully Track. The start of the track is located around 10 minutes drive from Hobart’s city centre behind Australia's oldest continuously operating brewery, The Cascade Brewery, which was established in 1824.
Turn off the main road behind the Brewery onto Old Farm Road. This road is a narrow single lane road, which eventually leads to a small car park. From the carpark you will find multiple tracks to follow into the Wellington Park Reserve that are clearly signed. Simply follow the sign for the Myrtle Gully Track to reach the falls.
About 10 minutes along the track, is the first water fall, though it is very difficult to see, and is not signed. This small waterfall is aptly named, Secret Falls. On this occasion, and due to my lack of planning, I actually missed it myself, but I plan to go back and photograph it at some stage in the near future.
Around another 50 metres along the track, you will reach Myrtle Gully Falls. It is easy to spot as the track crosses the rivulet on a small bridge. The track continues past these falls, and eventually joins up with other tracks that criss-cross up the mountain.
It is easy to get off the track and get up close to the falls as I the day I went there was not much water flowing down the rivulet. Just be careful of the slippery rocks when stepping up the first tier.
To photograph the falls, I suggest you use a tripod as it will be reasonably dark due to the thick forest growth of tall eucalyptus trees and tree ferns. So unless you shoot at a high ISO (which results in a noisy grainy image), you will need to shoot with a slow shutter speed. Arguably, shooting with longer shutter speed gives a better result with waterfalls as it smooths out the water to give that dreamy look to the image. Using a polariser also helped reduce the glare in the image and cut through the water flowing over the rocks
I ended up settling for 2 different compositions. One from directly in front. The other from the left hand side as you look at the falls. Due to the lack of water, the composition relied heavily on the leading lines created by the fallen trees in the foreground that lead your eye to the thin stream of water cascading over the edge of the falls.
Of the two images taken, the second image (below) is my favourite from the day. All the lines from the fallen tree fern and rocks seem to come together to form a fantastic image. If only there was more water. Maybe next time.
