Fairy and Featherstone July 2022

 Fairy Falls and Featherstone Cascades

Thursday 14 July 2022

The track to Fairy Falls is quite reasonable going.   From about 175m up the Lower Sawmill Track it goes uphill for about the half the way before contouring to the waterfall.    Quite a nice little fall.   

Featherstone Cascades is on a track that starts from the Betts Vale Track soon after O’Gradys Falls.   It is mostly distinct although a couple of times you have to go up around fallen trees.  The only obstacle is a large tree over the track, but is not hard to get over as it has a good foothold.    The main fall is easy enough to reach and there are further ones a short distance beyond, but are not hard to reach.

Fairy Falls

Featherstone Cascades

More photos here

 

From Placesnames Tas

Featherstone Cascades:
A secluded waterfall upstream of O'Grady's Falls, Featherstone Cascades was a long-forgotten waterfall, having been a popular attraction around the 1930's, that has recently been rediscovered and is quickly becoming a favourite spot for photographers once again.
Featherstone Cascades are well worth the effort required to reach them, cascading about 3 metres over a wide, mossy cascade before funnelling into a narrower plunge into a small pool below.
Named for Robert Featherstone who was employed as Mountain Ranger and was overseer to the Construction of the Mountain Rd to the Pinnacle in the Depression of the 1930's. He also spent a lot of his spare time and money improving Tracks. He was employed for 40 yrs by the HCC and the Featherstones Track was named after him and mapped in 1934 and acknowledged by the Lord Mayor.
The Wellington Park Management Trust's heritage database indicates the waterfall was originally known as "Featherstone Cascades" (not Falls) and first appeared on a Hobart Walking Club map in 1931.
The name is noted in the 'Wellington Park Historic Heritage Inventory', volume 2 (McConnell and Scripps, 2005) and in 'A Brief History of the Waterfalls of kunanyi/Mount Wellington', Hobart (Grist 2016).