Waitui Falls is a glorious wild swimming hole located deep in the Comboyne State Forest. Getting there requires a fairly long drive on bumpy forestry roads, but the walk down to the pool takes just a few minutes. It’s a beautiful spot with a small waterfall, and swimming to be had both on top of, and underneath the falls.
It’s not hard to see why this little gem has become such a popular spot, especially as it’s just an hour’s drive from both Port Macquarie and Taree.
We’re sharing all our tips for visiting, including how to beat the crowds.
Visiting Waitui Falls
The access road
Getting to Waitui Falls requires driving along roughly 10 kilometres of gravel road. The condition of the road does vary over time and with weather conditions.
The first 8.5km is maintained by the council and is in reasonable condition: there are bumps and potholes but nothing too nasty. The final 1.5km are not maintained at all and are a little worse for wear. Nothing treacherous (at least when we visited) but there are some ruts and one short section which gets quite muddy after rain.
We were very comfortable with the road in a SUV, but would have been more apprehensive in a 2WD. However, we’re not experienced, or big fans of dirt roads. 2WD cars were at the parking area when we visited, so if you’re confident and it hasn’t been extremely rainy, you will probably be absolutely fine.
Where to park
The falls aren’t signposted and nor is the car park. You’ll want to save these coordinates (-31.6618072, 152.5274846) before you go to reach the parking area, and note there is no phone signal near the falls (we didn’t have any as soon as we hit the forestry roads).
There is no official car park, but there is plenty of room for quite a few cars to pull fully off the road.
How to find the falls
Once you are in the right parking area you won’t miss the falls. There’s an obvious trail leading into the bush directly from the right-hand side of the road. It’s well beaten down and an easy dirt path. After less than a minute you’ll see that you can turn right to go to the top of the falls and left down to the bottom.
The top of the falls are just 50m from the road and the base just 100m.
The top of Waitui Falls
The top of the falls offers the chance to take a dip in the creek that feeds the pool below. It’s relatively shallow but a great spot to lay back and relax.
It’s very popular with picnickers too as there is plenty of space along the rock platform to lay out a blanket.
It’s also a favourite with cliff jumpers. We didn’t jump but lots of people were, although as always you should check the depth of the pool first as the water levels can change quite a bit.
The bottom of Waitui Falls
The bottom of the falls is just 100m from the road and follows the dirt track downhill and to the left.
The last minute or so to the falls is on a rocky track with tree roots, but it’s by no means difficult and held up well under the onslaught of rain in the preceding week.
Once you’re at the bottom you’ll see a rope swing to the right and then the main ‘beachy’ area to the left. From here entering the water is really easy.
It’s not particularly rocky, so you can basically just walk straight in. The water is quite shallow at first and then gets deep enough for a swim as you get closer to the falls.
The water doesn’t seem to get that much sun so it’s quite cold, but really refreshing and definitely not as cold as many spots we often swim at in the Blue Mountains.
It’s a really gorgeous place for a dip and hard to believe how easy it is to access.
As well as the main rope swing there is also a rope tied to the cliff edge to help cliff jumpers get back up to the top of the falls more quickly.
Lots of people were using it, but I did see one person’s feet slip off and he was holding on just by the rope so definitely use caution - personally I thought it looked way too scary, but then I’m not a cliff jumper!
The best time to visit Waitui Falls
Waitui Falls is no longer a hidden gem. On sunny weekends and during the holidays this place is raucously popular.
Normally we visit these kind of spots super early in the morning to avoid the crowds, but this time we were on route back to Sydney and caught it in the middle of the day on a Sunday.
It was extremely busy and if that’s not your thing you’ll want to come early or late in the day on a weekend, or even better, come mid week.
Facilities at Waitui Falls
There basically aren’t any facilities at the falls at the moment. Please take all rubbish with you and note there are no bathrooms. Let’s keep this place wild and beautiful for future generations to enjoy.
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