Located along the Little River in the Southern Highlands, the Aqua Pool (or Aquapool as it’s sometimes spelt) is a beautiful and fairly deep swimming hole. It’s reached by a fairly short access trail, making it a fairly popular spot on weekends.
While most of the large pool is fairly shallow, it’s deep enough to swim at the top of the pool. The water is very clear and fairly clean; the Little River has received a “B” rating for water quality over the last few years due to some agricultural run-off from the catchment area of the river.
A small waterfall cascades into the top of the pool.
Although this specific pool is called Aqua Pool, there are a few more equally picturesque pools downstream on the way to the Little River Cascades, which you’re likely to have to yourself even if there are people at the main pool.
Alternatively, upstream of the Aqua Pool and even closer to the trail down to the river is another long and wide section of Little River.
Getting to Aqua Pool and Little River Cascades
The relatively easy access to the Aqua Pool makes it a fairly popular spot for locals. A firetrail starts from a locked gate on Boundary Road, which has plenty of parking on the shoulder. The first 400m or so is fairly level and very easy walking.
The trail then descends quite steeply for about 400m along what seems to be an old firetrail, that would now be much too rocky and rutted even for 4WDs.
The trail reaches another gate, at which point you’re pretty much at Little River.
You can swim here, or continue along the track (which is very flat again) along the river for another 400m to the Aqua Pool.
The total distance is about 1.2km down to the Aqua Pool, and most people just do this walk, or 1.9km to the Little River Cascades. If you’ve got time, you can extend this bushwalk into a very pleasant 12km loop by continuing down Little River – which has many more pools and cascades – and coming back up the the Hermits Track (Little River Loop).
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