Unless you’re in visiting in the Wet Season (or there’s been recent rain), Rainbow Falls – or Gudda Gumoo in the language of the Ghungalu people – is not particularly spectacular as a waterfall. The creek drops about 40m over a series of rock ledges, which are covered in ferns. When we visited there was a decent trickle of water plunging over the rocks (there had beeen some rain a couple of days prior), but the falls do dry up when there hasn’t been any rain for weeks.
The attraction is not so much the waterfall, but the gorge itself and the large waterhole below the falls, which is surrounded by greenery.
It’s a great place to cool off, with shaded place to sit around the pool, and the water is deep enough to swim.
Upstream of the waterfall are the spectacular Blackdown Tableland Rockpools, which have an informal but obvious track going to them,. You can also continue downstream from the waterfall along the creek, but there is no track and some scrambling is required. Note that to respect sites of significance to the Ghungalu people, and for your own safety, Parks Queensland asks that you do not venture to other waterholes in this area.
Getting to Rainbow Falls (Gudda Gumoo)
Rainbow Falls (Gudda Gumoo) is in Blackdown Tableland National Park in the Central Highlands of Queensland,. It’s about 180km (two hour drive) to the national park, and then another 20km to the start of the bushwalking trail, most of which is unsealed. The unsealed part of the road is rough, but should be possible in a 2WD if it’s dry; there’s a steep section just before the carpark at the end which may be challenging if you don’t have at least an AWD/SUV. If it’s raining, a 4WD is highly recommended.
From the carpark, the Gudda Gumoo (Rainbow Waters) bushwalk is about 5.2km return to both the waterfall and rockpools. There’s a short but steep descent to the waterfall, which includes 240 steps.
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