Upper Kalimna Falls

Here, water tumbles in a series of cascades rather than one uninterrupted plunge. Tall eucalypts and tree ferns crowd the route beside Sheoak Creek, making this a shaded, close-up forest walk as much as a waterfall stop. For a photo, include the wet rock shelves and ferny banks so the separate steps of the falls read together.

The return route can pass an old tramway cutting, a reminder that timber once moved through this valley to Lorne Pier. Local tramways carried timber from the Otways from the 1890s until logging ceased in the 1920s; historical markers explain that past. Some large old trees survived among the younger growth, and the forest can bring seasonal flowers, fungi on logs and trunks, and birdsong overhead.

Use Sheoak Picnic Ground as your starting point; the waterfall pin is not a road destination. The picnic ground has toilets, picnic tables, an information board and gas barbecues, so it is a handy place to pause before or after the walk. Bring your own picnic if you want to eat here.