Rosewood Canyon
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| | Raps:8, max ↨131ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle: Vehicle:Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 6 Jan 2026
"Exit track is open again, P1 sling is missing (no anchor left), P5 bolts closest to flow are corroded, P8a top bolt also corroded. |
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| Best season: | Oct-Apr
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-30.3613, 152.7988
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Weather forecast
Waterflow
Introduction
An excellent aquatic canyon with some advanced features. Easy access and exit on constructed tourist trails.
About 6h car to car, walk in and out on tourist trails. Or go direct to P2 down a couple of short cuts for a 4hr speed-run.
The water flow for Rosewood is calculated by combining gauges:
Rosewood Discharge = (Bellinger at Fosters) - (Bellinger @ Thora) - (Never Never @ Old XG)
- <100 = a3, easy
- 100 to 200 = a4
- 200 to 300 = a4+
- >300 = a5, advanced skills required
When Bellinger gauges are >1000 assume that high flow irrespective of formula. Formula may even show 'negative' flow in such cases.
Approach
From the Never Never picnic area follow the Rosewood Creek tourist track (clockwise on the loop track, i.e. initially northward from the car park) to Coachwood Falls. Abundant leeches after rain.
Or go anticlockwise, directly down the exit track to an old signpost ( -30.36692, 152.79622 ). Then shortcut the dogleg and regain the track ( -30.36802, 152.79719 ).
It is then possible to bypass the initial creekwalk below P1 by dropping directly down towards the jump at P2 (-30.37010, 152.79944) from further along the tourist track (eg. roughly -30.36876, 152.79973).
Descent
The abseil table is authoritative, and is updated more regularly than the Topo.
| Rap | M | L/R | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| At Coachwood Falls, decide if you will abseil the falls (suit up above) or just walk around (suit up below) | |||
| P1 | 19 | TL | Slings. Optional |
| Long-ish but easy creek walking section with a few jumps. It is possible to drop directly down to P2 (see GPX) from further along the tourist track. | |||
| P2 | 12 | TL | XX Up left |
| P3 | 5 | TL | XX On the cliff edge of a rock platform. Or just walk around river left. |
| P4 | 30 | TR | XX On the lip on the left side of the pool. Useful to have extra length on the pull strand to pull from the other side of the pool. |
| P5 | 23 | TL | XX |
| P6 | 17 | TL | XX. In high water: need enough rope to get to next anchor, about 30m. Undercut forms in bottom pool on TL in high flow. Send person down with rope and they do guided rappel off bolt for next drop. Rigger must know how to manage a swimmer on rope. |
| P7 | 16 | TL | XX. Beware the foot-jam crack in the flow. High water: create a guided abseil, mono bolt on rock on right of bottom pool |
| P8 | 35 | TR | XX Climb out of pool TR and find dry anchor on rock nose. There is also a wet line anchor a little below the spillover from the pool. High flow: redirect about 20m down. |
| P9 | 40 | XX. Anchors TL (wet) and TR (dry). The wet line is usually fun as the waterfall is cascading rather than pounding down. TL has sharp edges just below the anchor. TR has lots of sharp rocks further down. Bleed your rope! Last person double rope or bottom releasable. |
Topo:
Exit
Follow tourist track up back to car
Red tape
Beta sites
Trip reports and media
- Wild Elly : Rosewood Canyon med/high flow 20 March 2023
YouTube.com : Craving Karst, Rosewood Canyon
- Sleep When We Are Dead : Rosewood April 2025