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 . Southwell and others in the 1970s tended to free float on an inflatable water mattress through the splits to alleviate some of the issues arising from using fixed structure boats travelling through
1967 Tasmanian fires
1967 Tasmanian fires
Gordon Splits