MickyB wrote:The walk starts near the corner of Forrest-Apollo Bay Rd and Old Coach Rd.
It can start at any of three locations actually.
But really, that is as much information that should be given because of the number of people going in there ill-equipped, no maps, no GPS, no water, unprepared for the terrain and trying to apportion blame on the Otway Ranges Walking Track Association, which does
not have anything to do with the Mousetrap Falls Complex and certainly does not organise walks there.
ORWTA does however have long involvement in extensively mapping and pushing for formal recognition of the Trans-Otway Waterfall Walk going way, way back in years, and more recently the Wild Dog Track/Highview Walk that is seeing some recognition and popular success. The only extant part of this long-fabled walk is the
Sabine Grand Circuit Walk, also vaguely known as the
"Four Falls Circuit" — a hard-hitting, filthy slog that has left many walkers exhausted — albeit with a great sense of achievement. This ordeal-of-a-walk on the wild side makes an eventual exit at reasonably scenic
Wild Dog Falls via a splashdown into frigid
Jack Phillips Cascade (JP was an early pioneer of ORWTA). Wet, cold, shivering and miserable in a dark, deep and gloomy gully... . Is that all...? Noooo! It is then followed by a gut-busting near-vertical climb out, exiting Hell & Filth at leafy green Turton's Track. So, that's all? Nooooo! Your Drill Major will then make you walk 7km back to the cars at Haines Junction.
But back to the meaty bits...
The route in to the Mousetrap Falls Complex (It is important to note here that there is no 'Mousetrap Falls'
per se) was surveyed extensively in 2001 by a senior co-founder of ORWTA (The Age carried an interesting article about this). He was reluctant to go back in there when initial enquiries were written out in 2013, so it was plotted, tracked and photographed by an independent (unrelated to ORWTA) GPS-guided party in the winter of 2013 (!), as far as
Zig Zag Falls. Progress was physical, slow, cold and tedious but at least dry (started at 9.35am, ended at 3.00pm in a downpour). There are several high cliffs dropping unseen because of thick scrub, and the most isolated, cold and bewitching of the falls is
Green Chasm Falls — there are 3 others, not necessarily accessible, and potentially a few more in deep, inaccessible terrain. Pretty and remote as it was in
Green Chasm, I'll be blunt: it was a relief to get out of the place!
The presence of a route or track marked on a map does not necessarily imply that a route or track exists on the ground, especially since originally-surveyed maps with such markings are many decades old and have not been ground-checked. FWIW, a private party in 2014 did not find any trace — cleared, marked, taped or otherwise, of
Sabine Contour Track, which is understood to have originally lead to
Tea House Junction.
Of the Mousetrap Falls Complex,
there are no signs, formed tracks, taped/flagged routes or in-situ ropes (but ropes, I can report from experience,
are essential).
EDIT: It's a pity that 2003
Age article [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/26/1067103266667.html] contains so many errors of fact and description that were not subsequently corrected. Quite apart from there
not being any Mousetrap Falls (which would have saved many exasperated people like me from telling it like it is over and over and over), the cataract showing John Piesse Tarzan-style is actually
Green Chasm Falls.
Our party is tentatively returning this year (winter) for large format photography and likely again in the Spring.
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Posted: Sun 06 Jul, 2014 12:35 am
bit of jungle warfare hehe im out that way fairly regularly, never new about that track at all im wondering is if from the apollo bay end does it start off a 4wd track?? and just a thought my directions maybe wrong way around but has the logging near sabine removed this contour track?? i might run threw some maps seeing as its a rainy day 
I am concerned about this. For all its scenic beauty and exciting remoteness, it is up to a small band of walking enthusiasts (whoever is here) to keep it alive rathe,r than bury it in obscurity. Just remember that anybody can go in there and enjoy the experience; the important thing is not to get lost!! 