Kayaking the Upper Barron - under the Tinaroo Dam Wall

Barron River under Tinaroo

On a quiet August day, our intrepid travellers decided to try new water. We had heard of a little play area underneath the dam wall where the rapids were Grade 2 to Grade 3 . This set of rapids were only about 3-4 kilometres in length, but the time that we had to check everything it took some considerable time.

However, the trip took us through some very pretty Tablelands area and it culminated in the last expanse of the Tinaroo Falls Rapid. Blakey had told me that this was a Cascade rather than waterfall . He should know.

Please note, on doing the car shuffle, it is wise and polite to contact the owners of the house above Tinaroo Falls and ask for permission to extract the boats from the river after the paddle over their land. Seemingly very nice people, it is by their generosity that we would end up having a good day. Don't forget to flag the exit area for your paddle arrival at the spot.

The intrepid team, namely Flounder (Myself); Tangles (Steve); Flick (Felicity); Bassy (Deb) and Tim-Me (Tim), worked through the early flows as a gun SWAT team travelling two by two to explore the various channels and lines.

The first major enounter of a decent grade 2 was what we called "Drop N Boil". Once picking your line, it was easy enough to get over the drop of a metre, and then have to paddle through the boil which swings you to your right and out into placid water. Tim-Me had a go first and rightly went swimming....but he seemed happy about it. All of the others managed ok.

The next noteworthy set are the "Cascade Rapids" which are a set of cascades that you have to pick your way through for about 200 metres. The set I think actually features Blakey in a YouTube video called "Barron River Beating" . Look it up. However, we did not face the water that he had at that time. On our trip, Flounder decided to slide down the middle rock and all of three centimetres of water flowing over it, and into the boil at the bottom. It is different to try turning in this rapid where you have to use a low brace to grind your paddle on the rock to hope it catches. Tim-Me had a go at a similar cascade but seemingly no turns.

Then it was onto Tinaroo Falls. A set of Cascades features the lead-up to these falls and the team had to pick it's way through flows into various eddies and ended up eddying out on river right and portaging. The final cascade drop was about 15 metres into a boil contained by a rock wall and the cascade, and then a hard left into the flow, a hard right, and a push through the fairly big standing waves through to flatwater at the bottom. On our skills (wished we had Blakey with us) , we made the wise decision to portage. The adventurous Tim-Me, Tangles, and Flounder again tried the bottom of the wash and entered mid flow in the standing waves to push through the final 20 metres.

The paddle ends with a wooded exit and carrying the boats over and through a culvert for 50 metres to the road.

An enjoyable day had by all.

Remember when paddling the fabulous natural watercourses of this great country, please do not leave anything except for footprints, and take nothing but photos and memories.