Ralphs Falls in north-east Tasmania is promoted as one of Tasmania’s 60 Great Short Walks. The casual visitor would not be aware of the huge community effort spanning some 50 years that made Ralphs Falls such an iconic tourist attraction.

Ralphs Falls, photo taken from the reopened Norms LookoutChristine Booth

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The start of the walk to Ralphs Falls is a 30 minute drive from the Tasman Highway on the Link Road between the small towns of Ringarooma and Pyengana. The walk is 20 minute return or 50 minute circuit via Cashs Gorge loop. The four kilometre easy circuit passes though lush myrtle rain forest, tea tree and button-grass plains and features one of Australia’s tallest single-drop waterfall. Ralphs Falls plummets down 100 metres of vertical dolerite fault to the valley floor. There are clear views out through Cashs Gorge to the productive New River Valley and the show of spring or summer wild flowers makes this a truly great short walk. Facilities include picnic tables, a stone shelter and composting toilet.

The old timber-getters and miners had known about the falls since the early 1900s.

“Ralphs” was a local timber mill, so perhaps it was the owner who first described the falls. In 1916 the local paper recounts a day excursion made by a party of nine on horse-back to visit Mount Victoria for the enjoyment of the views. During the early 1920s the paper also records the Pyengana residents’ desire for a link road to access commercial markets at Ringarooma. A Federal Government unemployment project to construct the link road commenced in 1925 but halted in 1927 without completing the road. (Modern signage commemorates the hand-built dry stone wall.) In 1951 a petition by the Portland and Ringarooma Councils to the State Minister for Works and Land to build the link road failed. The proponents pointed out that the road would “be a valuable tourist asset, being a scenic road with new access to the magnificent

The Norms Lookout was reopened in late 2015

Ralphs Falls walk entrance

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St. Columba Falls - near Pyengana - and substantially shortening the distance between Launceston and St. Helens.”

In 1979 the Ringarooma Progress Development League became determined to complete the link road and to construct a walking track to Ralphs Falls. Norm Brown spear-headed the campaign. Despite local bureaucratic opposition, in 1983 the Mt Victoria Reserve was gazetted. Over the next 20 years many local farming and business families chipped in to work on the road and walking track. Trees had to removed land-slips and large holes repaired on the original abandoned road. A local resident remembers this being rather scary, a narrow track with precipitous drops. A local mining contractor donated his time and heavy machinery on the proviso that the community supplied the diesel. A new road was pushed across the mountain to meet up with the rough track coming up from Pyengana. Other volunteers then worked on constructing a walking track out to Ralphs Falls and a stone shelter. It was hard going as all the cement, sand and stone had to be carried along the track using wheelbarrows and buckets. Volunteers included whole families - in some cases three generations of the same family - and one Victorian family of three generations.

In Norm’s words the group, “fought petty-minded professional bureaucratic obstructionists” to eventually achieve the State Government support needed to complete the project. The State Government provided grant funding and encouraged Forestry Tasmania (FT) to approve the project, which included Norms Lookout. FT provided picnic tables, a composting toilet and ongoing maintenance.

The track, which includes Norms Lookout over the spectacular falls, was officially opened by the Deputy Premier John Beswick in 1989. The Parks and Wildlife Service now maintains this asset. Wild storms in 2013 destroyed the track to the falls and destablilised the lookout. New track work has been completed and the Norms Lookout was reopened in late 2015.