Berrara Creek Waterfall: a little visited waterfall near Jervis Bay

Berrara Creek Waterfall is a picturesque waterfall and set of cascades in a little visited part of the South Coast. Despite being so close to Jervis Bay, you’re highly likely to get the falls to yourself, particularly if you head a little off track to the hidden upper falls.

You can visit on a very short walk, or make a longer circuit, which covers the stunning Berrara Beach and its incredible natural rockpool, Mermaid Pool.

We’re covering both options in this guide.

Berrara Creek Waterfall Walk

The stats

Distance: 500m return, or 9.7km circuit
Elevation gain: Very minimal for the return walk, 100m for the circuit
Difficulty: Easy for both options
Short track trailhead: Walter Hood Walking Track
Circuit trailhead: Berrara Beach Car Park

Summary: The short version of the walk leaves from the Walter Hood car park and heads gently downhill to the falls on a well maintained path, returning the same way.

To reach the upper falls, you need to walk for an additional 300m each way, which is all off track and involves some rock hoping.

The longer loop takes in the beach and rockpool, which are well worth seeing, but the majority of the rest of the walk is on fire trail, or in the bush and it’s not a must do unless you want to do a long bushwalk.

You do get to see the lagoon, which is lovely, but to be honest, if you’re not a lover of bushwalking for bushwalking’s sake, I would do the beach and rockpool separately, which you can read about here and then do the shorter walk from the nearest car park to the falls.

The Berrara Creek Waterfall Walk: the short version

Distance: 500m return, or 1.1km return to also see the upper falls

From the gravel car park - located at the Walter Hood Walking Track at these coordinates -35.2024026, 150.5152527 - you head into the bush along the signposted walking track.

It’s a gradual descent on a dirt path in the shady bush with some intermittent wooden stairs. After 200m the path flattens and 50m later you’ll arrive at some stepping stones.

The stepping stones are even and wide, so very easy to cross.

This is the part of the waterfall that most people visit. It needs a decent amount of recent rainfall to be anything more than a trickle. Even with a bit of recent rain the falls were still very low on our visit.

Berrara Creek Waterfall

The lower part of the falls is really more like a cascade, so if you come expecting a proper waterfall you will be disappointed.

However, if you come knowing it’s a cascade and there’s hopefully been some good recent rainfall, you’ll be met with a very picturesque spot.

It was still pretty even without too much water when we visited, though I’d definitely like to go back after a lot more rain.

There is a shallow pool at the base of the falls you can laze around in, but nowhere you can actually swim. The water is clear and the setting, nice and bushy.

Despite being right on the main track beside the stepping stones, it’s generally very quiet, so you can definitely go for a paddle here.

The hidden upper falls

If you want to explore a little more you can walk for a further 300m (each way) to see the upper falls. Depending on water flow, you can either walk up along the rock shelf, climbing beside each little cascade, or take the worn dirt path to the left.

The path doesn’t take you the whole way, so there’s a bit of walking on the rock shelf either way. It’s grippy when dry, but watch for any wet rock which can be slippery.

After 250m bear right at the bend and from here you need to rock hop the final 50m to the falls. It’s easier if you cross the creek, which you can do at the point which looks easiest to you.

The upper falls is by no means big, but it is a proper waterfall and cascades over a little rock wall, which gives it a grotto like feel.

Whilst the pool at the base is quite deep at points, it’s small and has rocks in various spots, so it’s definitely not somewhere you can swim. On a hot day you can have a quick waterfall shower though!

It’s a pretty little spot and feels perfectly secluded. It’s a nice place to relax and maybe bring a picnic or a book!

Berrara Creek Waterfall: the longer loop

Starting the trail: the lagoon crossing

You can choose to park at the end of Lakeland Avenue by Berrara Creek Park, or in the small car park by Berrara Beach. We chose to park at the end of Lakeland Avenue, so that we could get the small amount of road walking done right at the start of the walk.

From Berrara Creek Park, the first 750m are along the road, but it’s a quiet residential street and both times we visited all the gardens were teeming with kangaroos, making for a nice start to the walk.

After 450m you’ll need to turn right at the junction and you’ll then pass a small outdoor cafe (not open year round) and arrive at the paved path leading down to the beach 330m later.

After 150m you’ll come to a lagoon which you need to cross to reach the beach, we estimate it to be around 10m across.

We’ve crossed here at low and mid tide and it’s never been above knee height, but you may want to avoid high tide if you’re not wearing shorts!

Crossing Berrara Beach and the Mermaid Pool

You’ll arrive at the beach 900m into the walk and the next 1.2km are spent walking along the sand. The beach is gorgeous and was remarkably quiet, even in the school holidays.

The sand is compact, so it’s easy to walk on and it was nice to have a break from boots and go barefoot.

At the far end of the beach, tide and swell permitting, you could make the short (couple of minutes) detour to Mermaid Pool, a stunning natural rockpool.

You can read exactly what to expect from the pool in this guide.

Through the bush

As mentioned, the next section between the beach and Berrara Waterfall is all in the bush. Some of the track is badly eroded and not especially fun to walk on and some is on a good track and very pretty.

At the end of the beach look for the small signpost and sandy track leading into the bush.

It’s a narrow sandy track which almost immediately gives way to a leaf litter and branch strewn path. The dirt track heads into the scrub and many long gullies have been formed by erosion.

There are sections where the path is in better condition, either compact sand or stones, but the majority is gullies.

The path is pretty much flat though, so it’s easy, just a bit tedious at times.

Roughly 350m into this part of the track you need to bear right and then 900m later you’ll cross over a road (it’s a quiet dirt road).

After 150m you need to head right along the road and then you’ll see a bush track 100m later on the right (just over 3.6km into the walk, or 1.5km after leaving the beach.

From here the path gets a lot better and the bush much prettier.

Reaching Berrara Waterfall

After a couple of hundred metres on a dirt track you’ll reach a narrow metal boardwalk. It’s now much more picturesque and there was a good smattering of wildflowers when we visited.

The track is almost entirely flat, so it’s nice and leisurely, especially as all the eroded gullies are now behind you.

Roughly 1.8km after you left the road, or just over 5.4km into the walk you’ll reach a small car park and this marks where the short and long version of the track briefly converge.

The path to the falls is signposted and it’s now just 250m before you reach the stepping stones beside the cascades.

The path is downhill at first and then flattens for the last 50m to the stepping stones.

We’ve covered the falls and the upper falls in the notes above, so I won’t repeat it here, but you’ll walk another 600m return to see the whole waterfall including the upper falls.

Berrara Lagoon and completing the circuit

You’ll cross the stepping stones at the base of the waterfall and soon come to a second set of stepping stones, before heading uphill into the bush.

There are a couple of short sections of climbing before the path flattens again. Roughly 350m after the second set of stepping stones you’ll come to a junction and continue straight.

There are a couple more sections of metal boardwalk and you’ll also be able to hear the sound of the ocean, which always makes it more special.

Just over 1.7km from the junction or 8.7km into the walk you’ll come to the lagoon. The lagoon is huge and very pretty. There are various points you can get down to the water’s edge quite easily over the next few hundred metres.

You’ll follow the lagoon for a while before leaving it and continuing through the bush, along a little more boardwalk and then back to the car park again.

Parking for Berrara Creek Waterfall

If you want to do the short version of the walk you need to park at Walter Hood Walking Track Trailhead at these coordinates -35.2024026, 150.5152527, which is roughly 40km (40 mins) from Huskisson and 215km from Sydney (3 hours). The last 8km of the road to the car park is gravel.

For the longer route we recommend parking at the end of Lakeland Avenue near Berrara Creek Park, but you could also park at Berrara Beach. This is around 39km from Huskisson (35 mins) and 210km from Sydney (3 hours).

There are toilets located by the car park at the beach.