The Barron Falls Waterfall Near Cairns Looks Absolutely Insane After The Cyclone Rains!

Hello Steemians!

I’ve been travelling up Australia’s East Coast and documenting it all in my Photos From The Road Series, and I've just made it to the tropical city of Cairns, gateway to the Barrier Reef and surrounded by the oldest rainforest in the world.

It’s a beautiful part of the world, but it’s also a wild part of the world, especially in the wet season.

Being the end of the wet season though right now I wasn’t expecting too much rain, how I was wrong... over the last few days Cairns was hit hard by rain from the nearby Cyclone Nora which ravaged the tropical north. Cairns received more rainfall in a single day than Sydney has in a year, and more rain than any wet season for twenty years!

It was unexpected but it soon passed, and while roads were blocked and fields were flooded the water poured over the Barron Falls, and it was absolutely insane. I went to have a look once the roads from Cairns were reopened this morning and I found a powerful display of nature...

The Barron Falls

The Barron Falls are found in Northern Queensland on the East Coast of Australia.

They are just north of the city of Cairns, in the mountainous plateau known as the Tablelands which rises away from the coast inland.

Barron Falls formed where the plateau drops sharply onto the coastline below, and at 125 metres tall it’s one of the largest water falls in Queensland.

It’s also one of the widest, with the Barron feeding its mighty width of 250 metres and creating a monster of a waterfall with multiple drops and levels on its way down.

Barron Falls can dry to an insignificant trickle at the end of long dry seasons, but the Tropical North of Queensland and eapecially Cairns was receiving an unprecedented level of rainfall.

The Falls were in full flow, and the power of the crashing water was incredible to witness.

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With more rainfall almost 600 mm rain falling in the region in just one night, things are certainly wet in this rainforest.

The river had burst its banks in places causing massive flooding below and dangerous rock slides the day before I visited, but testament to how quickly things change in Australia, the next days just after the rains have been beautiful and sunny, and while the Falls were powerful they were already subsiding slightly.

It was an incredible display of the awesome power of cyclones and storms in this tropical part of Australia.

And it was incredible display of the unusual and varied conditions that the locals who live here year round have to endure and embrace to survive.

Without heavy rainfall and long wet seasons though the rainforest here wouldn’t have formed and would never survive.

And the tourists would never be treated to a display of force at the Barron Falls!

All Photographs and words by Richard Collett!