Gordon Bend

[Marky]

Hi all!
First time poster... Marky you can call me, Went to the Gordon bend monday the 8th September. River looked too high to cross. so a bit dissapointigly i went back to the car was a long day for nothing..except some rather superb views of the thumbs and Denison Range in the distance Does anyone know and what level the gordon is considered safe to cross? is it always as deep as it appeared?? it would have been a swim as it was over head height. was hoping to go to Gordonvale.
Track was more overgrown than i had expected but was rather over tagged. Along the Gordon Plains up to 30 tags in advance could be seen
Do many ppl get across at this time of year?????

[wello]

Hi Marky,

I assume you walked down from the Tiger Range car park to get to the Gordon? If so, I did the same thing about this time last year and walked across at no deeper than knee depth. from the log book at the start of the track, it appears many others aren't so lucky. There were many more entries describing a flooded river and a quick retreat.

I queried the National Parks people, but they had little to add. The Gordon is difficult to predict and can rise quickly.

Once over the other side, its a pretty spectacular walk up the vale of rasselas.

Wello.

[Marky]

I went along Timbs track from camp florentine. The Florentine itself was easy to cross (over a submerged log) then was easy walking thru the burnt out forest then across gordon plains. There were tags on a couple of small trees growing in the river that i presume must at times be on dry land (i dont think trees can grow underwater) so it did seem quite high! Parks treat the area as pure wilderness i sont think they even really like people going into the area.
Hmmm I think next time i will add an extra day and camp at the river. Knee high??

[wello]

I believe the Timbs track way leads to a much less reliable crossing of the Gordon than the one from the Tiger Range. To get to the Tiger Range start point, you follow turn off just past Maydena and follow the Florentine road, then a series of smaller logging tracks. Someone else has posted some notes elsewhere on this site I think, but I also got a copy from the Mt Field visitor centre one time.

Anyway, once you reach the end of the road, is only about an hour down hill to the river.

Wello.

[Marky]

An Hour? wow!! I met a guy along the way who told me he re-tagged the Tiger road track last winter and the scrub had grown quite considerably!!
Logging roads were all locked on the way up, seems to be alot of smoke coming from that area today. Forestry having their fun again!!
Did you go to lake Rhona Wello????

[wello]

Did you go to lake Rhona Wello????

That was the plan. I had some things to do in Hobart that morning, so did not get to the start of the track till around 2:30. Crossed the river OK, and headed along the track to Gordonvale, the site of an old homestead. Just ruins now, but a good sheltered camp. I arrived on dusk, so I stayed the night, waking to persistent rain in the morning. Being paranoid about getting stuck on the wrong side of the Gordon, I bolted only to find that the river level hadn't changed. The waterfalls coming off the side of Mt Wright were a great site.

I climbed back to the car park in sun, and to avoid wasting the day, did a quick day walk to mt field east. Most of that walk was done in driving snow. I certainly had all four seasons that day, and didn;t regret my decision to bail out of Gordonvale.

Lake Rhona's most definitely still on the to do list - photos I've seen look quite beautiful.

Wello.

[Marky]

Yes. it looks as lovely a place as ive seen anywhere and im quite determined to get there. I have time off in early october and am debating trying again then or waiting til summer.
Thats interesting that the level hadnt changed after rain. I had snow on the gordon plains in the morning i set out so was a fair bit of snow melt i'd imagine.
The Denison range is still burnt into my memory. it was far more majestic and mighty looking than I'd ever imagined!

[norts]

Once had to spend 7 days waiting for the Gordon to go down. In the end it didnt, had to be rescued, inflatable canoe. We used the Tiger track.
We walked to Gordonvalke the first day and it rained all night. Next morning all the creeks were up so we dashed back to cross back but were too late. Water was way over my head height.
Stayed on the banks of the Gordon but in the end had to retreat inland, then it snowed. Denison Range looked fabulous.

Roger

[Marky]

7 Days? I bet you lost a few kilo's that week! lol
Seriously though, food supplies must have been stretched?

[olblackbilly]

Last time I went to Lake Rhona was about 1980. We crossed The Gordon on the old flying fox, had agreat trip, Lake Rhona was spectacular.....is there still any evidence of the old flying fox? .............olblackbilly

[Marky]

YES!! well besides still being on the map. I was aware they had been removed...but one walks in hope of finding a way across somehow..

The old cableway is rolled up and left under a tree in the camp site at the gordon bend. If i wasnt so tired id of tried slinging it across somehow... that and the fact it was MASSIVE and heavy!!!!!

[norts]

Food was a major consideration. We had 4 days of food. Once we realised that we could be there for a while we rationed it and decided we had better not do too much ie continue our walk to Rhona. Boredom was the biggest factor. No books or cards, was meant to be a quick walk in and out.
Having to go all day with only one coffee was a bummer, I had brought only a half full gas bottle. One meal was a mixture of deb and surprise peas.

Roger

[Marky]

Hahaha well I know where your coming from.. but as my wife eats DEB as a meal........,yes thats right, cooks it up in our kitchen and eats it as a normal meal...........

[Geevesy]

Just bumping this thread as I’m thinking of heading into this area next week. Has anyone crossed the Gordon at the bend recently? I’d be interested to hear about the track, approximate times if it has degraded that much, and any camping would be great.

Cheers!

[vagrom]

So how did it go Geevesy? A rare track these days.

[FLICKIT]

I was out here yesterday poking around looking for the remains of the flying fox, I found a few badly burnt and rotting logs, quite a few long log bolts and spikes, and some fencing wire, I'm not sure if they were the remains of the flying fox structure or the old bridge..

Does anyone know if the flying fox was at the location indicated on the old 1:25k maps? ...

Everyone seems to mention Gordon Bend which is a few hundred meters away, it got me wondering if the flying fox may have been further east of where I was looking..

Thanks.

[tastrax]

Correct location - It was decommissioned in 1996

https://parks.tas.gov.au/Documents/Stat ... 202004.pdf - Page 81

GordonBend.JPG (39.5 KiB) Viewed 8873 times

[FLICKIT]

Thanks for that, I didn't have high hopes but wishful thinking I thought it might be partially intact like the Florentine flying fox, or there might be a some obvious ruins, I like quirky old infrastructure like that...

It's interesting to see a photo of that end of it, it looks quite agricultural,

For the next person that comes along looking into it... This is the only photo I could find, I assume it's the other end:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... oramio.jpg

This is the bridge that was there from 1936-1950 I believe, according to Wikipedia it was destroyed by fire in February 1950

Gordon River, Bridge and Hut at Gordon Bend - K. Lancaster 1947
http://dveltkamp.customer.netspace.net. ... onVale.htm

Gordon bridge and hut at Gordon Bend 1947.jpg (31 KiB) Viewed 8812 times

[Graham51]

Here are a couple of pictures of the flying fox from the late 1960s.

Attachments

Flying fox at Gordon Bend

Flying fox at Gordon Bend

[FLICKIT]

Here are a couple of pictures of the flying fox from the late 1960s.

Thank you, they're great

It's nice to see what was there back in the day..