I found this series of posts some years ago when wondering about walking to the base of the falls.
After reading that it was possible (especially the more current post from Highcountry1) the walk was attempted 16/03/14.
I saved a gps path while walking (see here:
http://goo.gl/cNd9rl ).
Some info: We ran out of time (daylight - allowing for the return trip) and didn't get to the very base of the falls, when viewing the path in Google Earth note it took us 1hour and 45 mins to get to where the path finishes. So allow perhaps 2hrs 15mins.
The measured path is a distance of 2km - simply because one has to do a lot of weaving along the creek - the route taken is along the rocky bed of the creek and it is very
very easy to find slippery or moving rocks - travelling alone would be quite risky. On this particular trip the water was perhaps one or two feet deep on average, with plenty of dry rocks above the surface. There were however, sections where the only possible path was through knee deep puddles. There are several large trees to clamber over and under, as well as some large rocks to work around.
No snakes observed, in fact the only wildlife seen on the walk were lots of small trout (3cm) and several ducks. I'll put a few pics up in Google Earth.
All in all, a splendid walk, I shall return next year to get to the very base of the falls.
Peter Neaum