Head waters |
The head waters of this river form in the highlands of Walls of Jerusalem National Park, the Mersey River is first mapped as it flows out of Lake Meston, feed from the many small streams and tarns across the western rim of the central Plateau. The river drops down from the plateau through a series of waterfalls over dolerite and fossil rich mudstone, carved out by glaciers and tectonic movements from the very formation of the island.
The river forms the boundary between the Walls of Jerusalem National park and Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, running adjacent to The Overland Track for a stretch before meandering away to the upland pastures of Wadley's and Lee's paddocks and yet more waterfalls before it meets the first of the hydroelectric impoundment, Lake Rowallan. The river above Lake Rowallan, has very little human modification but evidence shows people have been living in this area since the last glacial retreat around eleven thousand years ago. |