Slide Scans: White Waters at Morawa (circa 1973)
After a long break I have started scanning some more of my thousands of slides.
These scans are of pictures taken around 1973. I forget exactly which camera I would have owned at the time, but it would have been some model of Pentax camera as all my film-based cameras were Pentax. The slide film used here, for those that like to know these things, is Fujichrome.
Unlike Kodak slides, where each cardboard slide mount is stamped with the date it was processed, Fuji did not provide this vital bit of information on their green plastic slide mounts. However I am reasonably sure that this set of shots was taken just before I left Morawa and moved to Perth, which puts the year at around 1973.
I have no idea what this location might be known as now in 2023, but back in my day it was known as White Waters. Interestingly, when I did Google and Bing searches for White Waters near Morawa no useful search hits came up. I was sure that someone would have posted something about this location before. But it seems not.
This first shot is on the low-lands as you start the walk into the White Waters gorge or valley. Seems that even 50 years ago I liked taking pictures of ‘interesting’ trees.
Going on my 50 year old memories, this is as you start the walk into the gorge going towards the White Waters falls. At this point you can go right or left as there are two waterways you can follow.
On the walk into the gorge there are some interesting patterns on the walls and the ground. The first shot below shows the pattens on the walls. The second shot shows the ground.
The following two shots are walking through the gorge towards the falls.
Going on my memory of 50 years ago, I would estimate that the walk into the White Waters falls from where you park is about 1.5 kilometres. At the ‘end’ of the gorge you come to these falls. These falls are the only falls I have seen at White Waters, but I am reliably informed there is another set of falls at the same location. The falls in the shot below are the falls you come across if you take the right fork in the gorge. I understand there are also falls if you take the left fork. However, the person who took me to see these falls, being my wife’s father Mr. Bob McQuillan, did not, at the time, mention a second set of falls.
While most pictures posted on this site are either 1,400 or 1,600 pixels on the long side, this picture is slightly bigger at 1,800 pixels and the compression is lower as well. Just to make it a bit better quality, even though it is a scan from a slide which is a ‘bad’ starting point to begin with.
I would love to get back to this location some wet winter and take much better pictures with better dynamic range using my digital camera. And maybe with much more water coming over the falls. But I am 70 now and time is getting away from me. It is unlikely I will ever make it back here now.
As you would expect in the Morawa area, for about 300 days of the year there is no water at all coming over these falls.
I would be interested in any comments about the left fork falls if anyone has seen them.
Update Edit: Add Google Earth clips
After a couple of requests for the location of White Waters I have added the following Google Earth clips. Note that while back in my days in Morawa this was a more-or-less general place that people sometimes went for a picnic and access was permitted, this may no longer be the case. Note that there is a house in the bottom right of the first Google Earth picture. I would STRONGLY recommend that anyone planning to visit White Waters call into that house and check that the owners of the property know you are planning to venture onto their land.
It is possible that they may now also have a better route to the falls and they may be able to advise if the falls are running or not.
This first Google Earth clip shows the road in off the Pintharuka West road. This point is about 19 miles from Pintharuka.
The red line indicates how I remember the road in went back in 1973, basically tracing along the perimeter of the paddocks. The red X shows more-or-less where we would then park and maybe have some sandwiches and a cup of tea.
There is (was) a fence at this location. After getting carefully through the fence, the blue line then indicates the walk up the right fork in the gorge to the falls.
The following clip from Google Earth provides an enlargement indicating in blue the walk up the right fork in the gorge to the White Water falls—if the ‘river’ is running.
I assume, but have not been there myself, that the yellow line shows the left fork in the gorge and where I think that the left fork falls might be located.
Just a reminder that unless you go to White Waters on one of the 50 or so days when water is running in this ‘river’ then you will not experience any water falls.
