Galah
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| | Difficulty:3B (v3a2) Raps:7, max ↨92ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle: Vehicle:Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 7 Mar 2026
"Great Canyon, Conditions were favourable for us, but it rained slightly in the morning. The walk in was fairly overgrown would recommend gaiters or lo |
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| Best season: | Oct-Apr (avg for this region)
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-33.2518, 150.3023
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Waterflow
Introduction
A high quality canyon, albeit the slot is only 200m long and it's a scrubby approach. While many parties will consider this a long day objective, it's not uncommon for efficient parties to complete Galah in the morning then visit 1 or 2 canyons in the afternoon on the way out i.e. Closet, Breakfast Creek or Coachwood.
Very low flow A2 grade canyon.
Quality
- The canyon is rated 8 out of 10 on the Brennan Quality Scale.
- David Noble rates the canyon 3 out of 5 for quality and Medium/Hard for difficulty.
- 1 star (local significance) quality in the FFME grading system
Approach
Along the overgrown Mt Galah fire trail. Would recommend gaiters as the plants are quite spiky along the ridge.
Descent
The creek cuts through the upper cliff band (Banks Wall) via a shallow canyon with 6 short slippery down-climbs and ~4 waist-deep pools - make sure the stuff in the bottom of your pack is in a dry bag. The typical exit re-climbs these small waterfalls. There is another drop after ~100m of walking - this is the drop where guidebooks recommend you fix a rope to ascend on your return, although there is a bypass track on the left (looking down canyon) that ends with some mud climbing.
Walk ~800m to the lower cliff band (Burramoko).
- 1 - large tree on the left for a 25-30m abseil down 2 stages. At the mid-point there are slings on the right, possibly to re-direct the abseil in higher flow?
- 2 - walk 4m, threaded sling anchor in creek bed, ~5m abseil.
- 3 - walk 4m, threaded sling anchor on right, ~10m abseil to waist deep pool.
- 4 - walk 15m, slippery dip into knee-deep pool, or stretchy down-climb at right, or try to find an anchor.
- 5 - walk 10m, bolts high right above chockstone, this is the Rick Jamieson guidebook cover, abseil ~7m.
- Chest deep wade, walk ~20m.
- 6 - ridiculously slippery down-climb of ~4m, best to abseil, typically logs jammed here for anchor.
- 7 - bolts left, on the downstream side of a deep pothole. Very slippery ~7m abseil.
- Waist deep wade, walk out to Rocky Creek.
Exit
Follow the cliff around to the right for ~300m or so, looking for a crack and fault line that cuts back towards the canyon. Typically, a rope hangs down from a large gum tree that gets you up a 10m cliff. There are 3 bolts should you need to lead this climb. Above the rock climb, continue up the fault line crack, then follow the cliff-line around until you can walk above it. Contour back into the creek and return the way you came.
Red tape
This is in a designated wilderness area of Wollemi national park.
Beta sites
OzUltimate.com : Galah Canyon
Trip reports and media
- OzUltimate.com : 2004, Tom Brennan report & photos
- OzUltimate.com : 2006, Tom Brennan report & photos
- OzUltimate.com : 2009, Tom Brennan photos
- OzUltimate.com : 2016, Tom Brennan photos
- David Noble : David Noble, Galah Canyon - 21 October 2012
- Sleeep when we're dead : Craig Flynn, Galah Canyon 2018
Background
David Noble says: visited on a joint SUBW - NPA trip in early 77. The party was Chris Cosgrove and Ted Daniels. Named after its close proximity to Galah Mt. (Kameruka Magazine Vol 15 No 1 - Sept 77).