Mitchell Falls: When it did not have a name

by Anonymous

I was lucky enough to visit the Mitchell Falls on a number of times, first being in 1975 when working on the prawn trawlers out of Darwin. We would fish what we called the west coast which main catch area was from Admiralty Gulf down to York Sound. On spring tides in this area even the prawns dug into the mud. We would drop the pick and have a piss up with some other boats and do a bit of exploring in the dingies.

On one spring tide we entered the Mitchell River and steamed up until we saw a large rock, from there we used the dingies to explore the area. No one had heard of or seen the falls with us, so you can imagine how happy we were to find such a lovely place above the tidal flow.

Couple of things we learnt over the years 1975 to 1983: the last set of falls drops into a tidal section of the river, we often saw lots of crocs on low tide baking in the sun next to where we had left our dingies. We would often camp over night as to arrive and leave on a full tide, some great times were had camped out.

If you look at the falls, the largest pond is deep enough to jump of from the right hand side from the falls above, this we would often do, the more beers the easier it got. On the left hand side of the same pond be careful diving in on the down stream side of where you see the rock that looks like a big arrow on the ledge, one of my deckies crack his nut on a submerged rock.

Swimming at the very top of the falls can be fun, sliding on the slippery rocks. Be warned, these rocks are covered in blood sucking large leeches that seem to want to attach themselves to every private part of your body.

The whole area is such a special place, to those that go there: enjoy it and look after it.