Steavenson Falls, a waterfall on the Steavenson River, is located 4 kilometres southeast of Marysville, Victoria, Australia. The falls are one of the tallest in Victoria, with five cascades, a total descent of 122 metres (400 ft), the last having a clear drop of more than 21 metres (69 ft)
Residents cut a track to the falls in 1866. The falls and the river were named after John Steavenson, Assistant Commissioner of Roads and Bridges, who first visited the site of what is now Marysville in 1862. He was carrying out a survey of the area to try to find a new alignment for the road to the gold fields at Woods Point.
The 190 hectares (470 acres) Steavenson Falls Scenic Reserve was proclaimed in 1959 to protect the falls and their surroundings. The Reserve is jointly administered by the Department of Primary Industry and a Voluntary Committee of Management.
There are a number of walks in the reserve varying from easy to the more difficult. A turbine driven by water drawn from the weir at the base of the falls generates power for the floodlights and the lights along the paths which switch off at 11pm each night.
Dense forest covers the entire Steavenson Falls Reserve in the steep-sided valley. Pure stands of Mountain Ash which regenerated after the 1939 bushfires grow in sheltered places.
Another major bushfire passed through the area on 7 February 2009, destroying almost all of the man made infrastructure and causing extensive damage to the forest in the area. The only recoverable piece of infrastructure was the hydro-electric generator which had been used to light the falls at night. After the fire major works were undertaken to restore the road and visitor facilities and to remove dead trees because of the danger they presented. Extensive natural regeneration of the native forest has also occurred.
Elsewhere the forest contains a mixture of eucalyptus species, notably Mountain Grey Gum, Messmate and Narrow-leafed Peppermint, Soft and Rough Tree-ferns and Lyrebirds are often seen in the morning and after rain searching for insects and worms. It's easy to see where they have been by the prominent scratch marks in the leaves and twigs on the ground.
Lyrebird
The Late Devonian (374 Ma) Cerberean Cauldron forms the northern part of the Marysville Igneous Complex including the Steavenson River, which is filled with around 900 km3 of intra-caldera ignimbrites. The basal volcanic formation is the rhyolitic high-Al Rubicon Ignimbrite, overlain by a larger volume of crystal-rich rhyolitic low-Al Rubicon Ignimbrite, which grades upward into the voluminous, Lake Mountain Ignimbrite. The formations in this region appear to have been produced by partial melting of slightly contrasting greywackes in a protolith with spatial variations in its chemistry and mineralogy, with the magma delivered in batches to a high-level chamber.
Ignimbrite
An ignimbrite (which help make up the waterfall) is the deposit of a pyroclastic density current, or pyroclastic flow, which is a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano driven by having a greater density than the surrounding atmosphere.
Ignimbrites are made of a very poorly sorted mixture of volcanic ash (or tuff when lithified) and pumice lapilli, commonly with scattered lithic fragments. The ash is composed of glass shards and crystal fragments. Ignimbrites may be loose and unconsolidated or lithified (solidified) rock called lapilli-tuff. Proximal to the volcanic source, ignimbrites commonly contain thick accumulations of lithic blocks, and distally, many show meter thick accumulations of rounded cobbles of pumice. Ignimbrites may be white, grey, pink, beige, brown or black depending on their composition and density. Many pale ignimbrites are dacitic or rhyolitic. Darker coloured ignimbrites may be densely welded volcanic glass or, less commonly, mafic in composition.
Questions
Q1 How much of a drop is Steavensons Falls? And it has a catchment of around how many sq kms?
Q2 Does the falls enjoy a year round flow and if yes why?
Q3 At WP2, describe the rocks including the colour and texture either side of the waterfall.
Q4 At WP3 (weir), How is the water sent down to the hydroelectric turbine?
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References ~ Victorian Resources Online & Wikipedia