formation

Barron Falls is situated within the Barron Gorge National Park west of Cairns and approximately 6 km east of Kuranda. Barron Falls is a Wet Tropics World Heritage site and occurs in the north east tableland section of Australia’s Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area (WTWHA), which extends from Cooktown southwards to Paluma, encompassing an area of 894,420 hectares. Indigenous culture has a long history in the Barron Gorge region. The Djabugay, Bulway, and Nyagali are representative of the rainforest people in the Barron Gorge area (DNRM, 2001). For these tribal groups, Barron Falls is a well-known story place and sacred site (Bottoms, 1992). It is a widely held Dreamtime story that the carpet snake (Budadji), which was ambushed, killed and chopped into pieces , and thrown into the bush by greedy birdmen, is the creator of all rivers and creeks of the Barron Gorge (Bottoms, 1999). In the early 1890s, gold was discovered up at Tinaroo creek, and as a consequence, Barron Gorge received the attention of hopeful prospectors (EPA, 1998, cited in DNRM, 2001). As a result of this, the population swelled and placed pressure on a number of indigenous communities due to limited access to water and strip mining (Bain & Draper, 1997; cited in DNRM, 2001). Source: rainforest-crc.jcu.edu.au/publications/site_report_barron...

Flowstone & knobstone (cave popcorn; coralloids), all composed of travertine (calcitic speleothem).

The Bloomfield River is one of striking beauty. Numerous rainforest creeks, including the mighty Roaring Meg Creek merge in the hills and cascade over the rock formation to form at the base of the beautiful Bloomfield River. This system is so named after Lt Blomfield of the 5th Regiment by Phillip Parker King whilst charting the inside passage of the Great Barrier Reef in 1817-18. Today, depending on the season, you might find it a raging torrent carrying monsoonal rainfall down from the mountains and out to sea, or a peaceful river that rises and falls with the turning tides. The river has special significance to the original peoples of this area, the Kuku Yalanji Aboriginal people, who still use the area for hunting, fishing and collecting. It passes over an old crossing and then under the new bridge at the local Aboriginal community of Wujal Wujal, which means ‘many falls’. Within the river is an island, which in the early 1900s was used as home base in the dry season for locals and others working on the boats in the pearling and trochus shell industries. Further downstream, Granite Creek runs in to increase the flow, adding more seeds and other debris from the rainforest. Source: www.bloomfieldescape.com.au/nature/bloomfield-river