Gordon Splits is a notable section of the Gordon River

Gordon River

The Gordon River is one of the major rivers of Tasmania, Australia. It rises in the centre of the island at Lake Richmond and flows westward for about 193km where it empties into Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast of Tasmania. Major tributaries include the Serpentine River and the Franklin...

 in South West Tasmania

South West Tasmania

South West Tasmania is a region in Tasmania that has evolved over the fifty years between its consideration as a potential resource for development to its consideration as World Heritage wilderness...

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It is world heritage listed, and is part of the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers is a national park in Tasmania, Australia, 117 km west of Hobart. It is named after the two main river systems lying within the bounds of the park - the Franklin River and the Gordon River.- Location :...

. It has also been an important location of focus within the larger environmental campaign for wilderness preservation in South West Tasmania.

Described

The earlier works of Charles Whitham

Charles Whitham

Charles Whitham was the author of the oft reprinted Western Tasmania: A land of Riches and Beauty - which was a comprehensive study of the geographical features of West Coast, Tasmania and the conditions of the region in the 1920s...

 and others suggested that the river went underground at some point. It was not until in 1928 that three piners (J.Hadmar Sticht, G.W. Harrison and Charles Abel) were described as having passed through them in March of that year.

It was reported in the Mercury newspaper of 12 April 1928 under the title The Gordon River - Exploration of the Splits - Showplace of Tasmania - Sprent Falls alone worth the trip.

Later access

The section of river is very difficult to access and apart from Olegas Truchanas, Les Southwell and Peter Dombrovskis - few others are known to have successfully traversed the section in the time of European presence in Tasmania.

Following the initial journey by Truchanas in 1954 and the complete journey in 1958 through the splits, the photographs taken by Truchanas were destroyed in the 1967 Tasmanian fires

1967 Tasmanian fires

The 1967 Tasmanian fires were an Australian natural disaster which occurred on 7 February 1967, an event which became known as the Black Tuesday bushfires...

Les Southwell and others in the 1970s tended to lilo through the splits to alleviate some of the issues arising from using fixed structure boats travelling through.

Photographs

Photographs by Truchanas , Les Southwell , and Dombrovskis show the steep narrow nature of the splits dramatically in their photographs. More recent aerial photographs can be found like Joe Shemish's in the Huon Pine book of Kerr and McDermott.

Later description

Geraldine Brooks wrote a piece in the National Times of 24-30 May 1981 which Peter Thompson quoted in his Power in Tasmania as an evocative overview of the splits and their context.

The Splits are a geological phenomenon. Six hundred million years ago, the powerful waters of the Gordon River wore a deep erosion slot through a rugged spine of quartzite. The river runs across the grain of the countryside, instead of following it. The result is rare and spectacular.

From the air, the Splits seem to grasp the Gordon River like giant rocky pincers, squeezing its wide flow into narrow strips of deep water about 100 metres long.

From the river bank below them, they appear like pieces of a giant's unsolved jigsaw, crggy masses and voids of sparkling quartzite, frozen a few metres apart, never quite meshing in the first Split, the rock rises vertically for about 100 metres before it merges with the gentler mountainside

Films

• (1982) Gordon Splits [videorecording] produced for the Tasmanian Wilderness Society. Melbourne : The Wilderness Society. Director, photographer, editor, Michael Cordell ; photographers, Chris Noone, Peter Dombrovskis.