The Franklin River in western Tasmania is graded moderate to challenging, is rafted over seven to eight days on the water from Collingwood Bridge to Sir John Falls, and has no road to it, no track beside it and no way out except by boat. 

Its difficulty is set by rainfall rather than by a fixed rapid class, because the river is undammed. World Expeditions ran the first commercial descent of the Franklin in 1978, and Tasmanian Expeditions, part of the same group, has run it every season since. 

This page answers the questions many travellers ask before they book a Franklin expedition: how hard it really is, what the water does, what happened here in 1983, and whether the 8-day or the 10-day trip is the one for you.

What is the rafting grade of the Franklin River?

Tasmanian Expeditions grades the Franklin River Rafting trip moderate to challenging - 6 on our 1–10 scale. The Franklin has no single fixed rapid class, because its difficulty rises and falls with rainfall: the same rapid can be a clean run one week and a portage the next. The grade describes the expedition, not the individual rapids.

In practice, moderate to challenging on the Franklin means 6 to 8 hours a day rafting - or walking while carrying the raft - in a remote area, with a lot of physical activity. 

You need to be confident swimming while wearing a buoyancy vest, in case you come out of the raft, and your guides brief you on exactly this before the first rapid. No rafting experience is required: your guide reads the river and calls the line, the crew supplies the effort.

The hardest water is in the Great Ravine, where the river drops through the Churn, Coruscades, Livingstone's Cut, Thunderush, the Masterpiece and the Cauldron to the Mousehole. Much of that section is portaged rather than run: rafts and gear are unloaded and carried over wet, unstable rock. Further downstream, Newlands Cascades is one of the longest rapids on the river.

Every crew member wears a buoyancy vest, a helmet and enclosed footwear on the water. Each raft carries three to four participants plus a professional river guide, and we run a minimum of two rafts on every expedition.

When is the best time to raft the Franklin River?

Our Franklin departures run from mid-November to late February, the window our 48 years of experience has shown us to be the most reliable combination of water level, daylight and settled weather. The Franklin is undammed, so it runs on rainfall alone - which is why the same trip in November and in February can feel like two different rivers.

• November to early December - rain is more regular and levels are usually higher. Fast-moving water, long rides, fewer portages, and more of the river simply carrying you. Longer daylight, cooler air, and the fewest other parties on the water.
• Mid-December to January - the most consistent window. Medium levels, warm days, and enough flow to move easily while still leaving time to walk into side creeks and waterfalls.
• February - typically the driest and the most technical. Lower water means more rock, more manoeuvring and more portaging, and days that ask more of you physically. The river runs clearer and you get to know it a boulder at a time.

The Franklin can rise several metres in a matter of hours after heavy rain and drop just as fast, and it can deliver cold, wind and rain in any month of the season. Your experienced river guides read the level daily and set the day's plan from it accordingly. 

Should I book the 8-day or the 10-day Franklin trip?

Book the 8-day Franklin River Rafting trip if the river is what you came for. 

Book the 10-day Franklin River and Frenchmans Cap trip if you also want to climb tuynti/Frenchmans Cap at 1,443 m (4,734 ft) - it adds a summit day plus a spare day for weather, and the climb is a serious undertaking in its own right rather than a scenic detour.

Both trips put in at Collingwood Bridge, both finish with the yacht to Strahan, and both start and end in Launceston. The river journey is the same. The difference is two days and a mountain.

	Franklin River Rafting	Franklin River and Frenchmans Cap
Trip length	8 days	10 days
Days rafting	7	8
Days walking	—	1 summit day, plus a spare day for weather
Nights camping	7	9
Grade	Moderate to challenging (6/10)	Moderate to challenging (6/10)
Hours a day	6–8 hours rafting or portaging	6–10 hours rafting or walking
Gear bag provided	65-litre waterproof	80-litre waterproof
Meals included	7 breakfasts, 8 lunches, 7 dinners	9 breakfasts, 10 lunches, 9 dinners

Where does the Franklin River trip start and finish?

Both Franklin trips start and finish in Launceston, where our operational base is. On our trips, you need to be in Launceston the day before departure for a compulsory 1:00 pm briefing, where gear is checked and sized and the safety procedures are covered in full. We collect you early the following morning, and the trip returns to Launceston in the late afternoon of the final day.

It is worth booking your flights around that, because the last day is a long one: the yacht down the Gordon River, across paralungatik/Macquarie Harbour to Strahan, then the drive back across the state. Plan a night in Launceston at each end rather than flying in and out on the day.

What is portaging on the Franklin River?

Portaging means carrying or roping the raft and all its gear around a rapid that is too dangerous to run. On the Franklin it happens several times, most of it in the Great Ravine, and it is the hardest physical work of the trip. You unload the raft, carry loads over wet and unstable boulders, and repack on the far side.

How much portaging you do depends entirely on the water. High water can close a rapid that would otherwise go; low water exposes rock that has to be worked around. It is also the honest answer to what people find hardest about the Franklin - not the whitewater, but the lifting.

What was the issue with the Franklin River?

The Franklin was going to be dammed. In 1978 Tasmania's Hydro-Electric Commission proposed the Gordon-below-Franklin dam, which would have flooded the lower river. A blockade began at Warners Landing on 14 December 1982 and led to 1,217 arrests. 

On 1 July 1983 the High Court of Australia ruled 4–3 in Commonwealth v Tasmania that the federal government could stop the dam, using its power to give effect to Australia's World Heritage obligations. 

The river was saved, and the case remains one of the most significant constitutional decisions in Australian history.

Two things carried the campaign into the national vote. The Tasmanian Wilderness was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in December 1982, which gave the Commonwealth the constitutional hook it later used in court. And on 2 March 1983, three days before the federal election, the Wilderness Society ran Peter Dombrovskis's photograph Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend as a full-page newspaper advertisement under the line, "Could you vote for a party that will destroy this?"

You raft past Rock Island Bend on both Franklin trips.

 

What are some interesting facts about the Franklin River?

The Franklin is the river Australia chose to keep. It runs through the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park inside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, and the only way to travel it is to raft it end to end — there is no road to it and no track beside it.

• It was first commercially rafted in 1978, by World Expeditions, before the dam campaign and before the World Heritage listing.
• There are no huts and no built facilities anywhere on the river. You camp at long-established riverside sites: on beaches, under rock overhangs and beneath tarpaulins. There are no toilets and no showers for the length of the trip, and everything brought in is carried back out.
• There is no phone reception, no road access and, most days, nobody else on the water.
• The only way out is by sea. The trip ends at Sir John Falls, where a yacht collects the group and sails down the Gordon River and across paralungatik/Macquarie Harbour to Strahan.
• The itinerary passes Kutikina Cave, an Aboriginal site of profound significance in the lower Franklin valley.
• The place names read like a warning list: the Churn, Coruscades, Livingstone's Cut, Thunderush, the Masterpiece, the Cauldron, the Mousehole, Deliverance Reach, the Irenabyss, Verandah Cliffs and the Lost World - a rainforest amphitheatre with no road and no track to it.
• Groups are small: a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 12, across two to three rafts.

What are some interesting facts about Franklin?

In Tasmania, "Franklin" usually means one of three things: the Franklin River in the state's west, the 1982–83 campaign to stop it being dammed, or the township of Franklin in the Huon Valley in the south-east.

The short version: a wild river in a World Heritage wilderness was scheduled to be flooded for hydro-electricity, 1,217 people were arrested trying to stop it, the High Court of Australia ruled 4–3 on 1 July 1983 that it could not go ahead, and the river still runs. Rafting it end to end is the only way to see the part that would have gone under.

Where is the best white water rafting in Australia?

For a multi-day wilderness expedition, the Franklin River is the best whitewater rafting in Australia - it is the only trip in the country that runs for a week through a World Heritage wilderness with no road access and no way to walk out. 

For a half-day or full-day whitewater hit close to a city, the Franklin is the wrong trip entirely, and mainland rivers such as the Tully in Queensland or the Nymboida in New South Wales will suit you better.

What is the hardest river to whitewater raft?

No single river holds that title, and any operator who tells you otherwise is selling. 

Difficulty depends on the water level on the day - the same river changes character between one week and the next. The rivers most often named among the world's hardest commercially rafted whitewater include the Zambezi in Zambia and Zimbabwe, the North Fork of the Payette in Idaho, the Futaleufú in Chile and the upper Indus in Pakistan, and they earn that reputation on rapid class.

The Franklin earns its reputation differently. The hard part is usually not the whitewater - it is that there is no road, no track, no phone reception and no way to walk out. When the river runs high, the Great Ravine is not paddled at all; it is portaged, which means unloading the rafts and carrying them and everything in them over wet rock. 

That is why we grade the Franklin on the expedition rather than on a rapid class.

What happens if someone is injured on the Franklin River?

Your guides carry emergency communications and a group first aid kit, and hold wilderness first aid training. There is no phone reception and no road, so a serious injury means a helicopter - and bad weather can delay that by hours or longer. That is why travel insurance covering rafting and emergency evacuation is a condition of booking, and why we ask you to be honest on the medical form.

It is also why there is no way to leave the trip once it starts. From the put-in at Collingwood Bridge the only exits are downstream with the group, or by air in an emergency.

Do you run this trip yourselves, or subcontract it?

We run it ourselves. Tasmanian Expeditions is a self-operated brand - our own guides, our own rafts, our own safety equipment, and no third-party operator between you and the river. World Expeditions ran the first commercial descent of the Franklin in 1978 and the group has run it every season since.

Who is this trip not for?

It is not suitable for people with limited mobility, for anyone under 14, or for anyone who is not confident swimming while wearing a buoyancy vest. It is also not for travellers who want a comfortable base each night — there are no huts, no built facilities, no toilets and no showers on the river. If you want Tasmanian World Heritage wilderness without the water, the South Coast Track is the walk to look at instead.

How fit do I need to be to raft the Franklin River?

Fit enough for 6 to 8 hours a day of paddling and, at times, carrying a raft and its gear over wet rock. Rafting itself is something any reasonably fit person can do. Swimming and upper-body work in the months before you travel is the preparation that matters most, along with day walking over steep, uneven ground.

What happens if I fall out of the raft?

You swim, and your guide gets you back in — which is exactly why we ask that everyone is confident swimming in a buoyancy vest. Your guides run the group through what to do before the first rapid, and every crew member wears a buoyancy vest, a helmet and enclosed footwear whenever the raft is on the water.

What if it rains for the whole week?

It very likely will rain, and the trip runs anyway. Tasmania's west coast is one of the wettest parts of the country, and the Franklin is rafted in it. Rain raises the river, which changes what gets paddled and what gets portaged. Your guides set the day's destination by the conditions rather than by the itinerary.

Where do I sleep on the Franklin River?

At established riverside campsites — on beaches, under rock overhangs where the river offers them, and beneath tarpaulins where it does not. Our camps include Coruscades in the Great Ravine, Rafter's Basin, Newlands Cascades, Blackman's Bend and Sir John Falls on the Gordon. You bring a sleeping bag rated to −5°C (23°F) and a self-inflating mat; we provide the group camping and cooking equipment.

What is not included?

Travel to and from Launceston, accommodation before and after the trip, travel insurance, and personal items such as alcoholic beverages and car parking. Everything on the river is included: your guides, all rafting and safety equipment, wetsuit, paddling jacket and helmet, a waterproof gear bag, all group camping and cooking equipment, and every meal from lunch on day one.

When can I raft the Franklin River?

Departures run through the Tasmanian summer, from November to February. The 8-day Franklin River Rafting trip has eight departures in the 2026–27 season, between 20 November 2026 and 26 February 2027. The 10-day Franklin River and Frenchmans Cap trip has eight departures, between 17 November 2026 and 23 February 2027. Outside that window the days are shorter and the weather less settled, and we do not run the river.

Do I need rafting experience to join?

No. Your guide teaches you the paddling technique and reads the river; the crew supplies the effort. What we ask is that you are reasonably fit and confident swimming while wearing a buoyancy vest. There is a compulsory pre-trip briefing in Launceston at 1:00 pm the day before departure, where gear is checked and sized and the safety procedures are covered in full.

Choosing your Franklin trip

The Franklin runs eight times a season and takes twelve people at a time, so dates go early. If the river is what you came for, the 8-day trip is the one. If you want the summit of tuynti/Frenchmans Cap as well, take the 10 days. And if you are still weighing it up, speak to someone who has been down the river — the honest answer to "is this trip for me" is usually one conversation away.