Wallaman Falls
Encyclopedia
The Wallaman Falls are notable for their single-drop of 268 metres, which is Australia's highest permanent waterfall. The pool at the end of the waterfall is 20 metres deep.
The waterfall is formed by a tributary of the Herbert River
, Stony Creek, which plunges over an escarpment
in the Seaview Range
. The geological history of the formation may be traced back some 50 million years, when the uplift of the continental margin
in this region resulted in the ancestral Herbert River to change its course from westwards to eastwards. As a result it began to cut through the raised igneous substrata en-route to its outflow in the Coral Sea
. The gorge produced by this erosive
action gradually retreated inland along the Herbert River's
course, and in the process eventually causing tributaries such as Stony Creek to be suspended, forming the waterfall.
On 23 May 2010, a 49 year old basejumper
died during a base jumping accident.
The waterfall is formed by a tributary of the Herbert River
Herbert River
The Herbert River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The southernmost of Queensland's wet tropics river systems, it is named after Robert George Wyndham Herbert , the first Premier of Queensland...
, Stony Creek, which plunges over an escarpment
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...
in the Seaview Range
Seaview Range
The Seaview Range, part of the of Great Dividing Range, is a mountain range west of Ingham in North Queensland, Australia. Much of the range is covered by rainforest and parts of it are protected in the Girringun National Park and the Wet Tropics of Queensland world heritage area.The range is the...
. The geological history of the formation may be traced back some 50 million years, when the uplift of the continental margin
Continental margin
The continental margin is the zone of the ocean floor that separates the thin oceanic crust from thick continental crust. Continental margins constitute about 28% of the oceanic area....
in this region resulted in the ancestral Herbert River to change its course from westwards to eastwards. As a result it began to cut through the raised igneous substrata en-route to its outflow in the Coral Sea
Coral Sea
The Coral Sea is a marginal sea off the northeast coast of Australia. It is bounded in the west by the east coast of Queensland, thereby including the Great Barrier Reef, in the east by Vanuatu and by New Caledonia, and in the north approximately by the southern extremity of the Solomon Islands...
. The gorge produced by this erosive
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
action gradually retreated inland along the Herbert River's
Herbert River
The Herbert River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The southernmost of Queensland's wet tropics river systems, it is named after Robert George Wyndham Herbert , the first Premier of Queensland...
course, and in the process eventually causing tributaries such as Stony Creek to be suspended, forming the waterfall.
On 23 May 2010, a 49 year old basejumper
BASE jumping
BASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E jumping, is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects...
died during a base jumping accident.