Rivers

The history of Bradys is pretty simple. The Hydro had two lakes (Bronte Lagoon and Bradys Lake) and wanted to be able to move water from one to the other. They could have done the normal thing and just built a slipway - but where's the fun in that? No, some bright spark decided to build a kayaking slalom course for international competition instead. With lots of water to move over a high gradient, and water throughout the year it was perfect for the job. But I think the young design engineer got a bit too carried away, with the international kayaking community deeming the course too difficult and dangerous for competition shortly after construction.

For all of the same reasons, however, Bradys is the perfect rafting course. Big stoppers, a waterfall and very fast water makes the course extremely fun and wonderfully scary. If you don't come back injured…

The club rafted the Cam on the last day of the 2004 winter trip. Like much of Tasmania the river was in flood with brown water, The put in is after a steep kilometre long walk in from a forestry track. The top 4 klms of the section is dangerously willow choked, with some portages, after a bad start the river opens up into a 10-12k long gorge with some stunning rainforest and some pretty wicked avoidable log jams. As far as rapids go most of the river is fast moving gr 1-2 but there where a couple of gr 2-3 rapids near the guide river confluence. In paddle about tas the recommended get out is a weir, The weir was shot but the k or so below the weir is horribly willow choked and also had a major log jam, our get out was the ocean.

Most Tasmanians know about Cataract Gorge. It’s in Launceston and is a really nice picnic spot, with some nice short walks. It has a chairlift (largest single span in the world apparently), an Olympic sized swimming pool, and is often swamped by tourists in the warmer weather. It also has a series of f*@king big rapids flowing through it. Some of you may remember that a number of years ago a rafting company used to operate on it, offering big water – with a big dollar sign attached. This was (a) because unless in flood you have to BUY water from the Hydro which is very expensive and (b) because the water was so big that they frequently put people in hospital with broken limbs, etc. The company no longer operates – but the people who ran it have since founded the Australian Rafting Federation and are responsible for running…

I have got in at bills crk once, but from there to usual get in is narrow and flat for 2k. The river is generally a g2/3 similar in rapid size to a low picton, even in flood the collingwood doesn't get too hairy. Min level around 0.8 (4+ hour trip) and the higher it is the faster the water.

and it is also quite pretty with franklin-esque rainforest overhanging the river.