The absolute surprise package of our trip so far! We spent 3 days exploring Judbarra/Gregory NP initially from Victoria River Crossing, then from Timber Creek. Majestic sandstone escarpments and great walks. Most travellers flash past these centres with little awareness of the beauty of these areas and of the awesome opportunities to stop and explore. We were blown away.
20/22 May 2018
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Judburra /Gregory NP
This often overlooked park covers an area of about 13,000 sq km and features spectacular gorge scenery, rare wildlife species, and significant traces of Aboriginal culture, European exploration and pastoral history. It is divided into 2 sections – the Victoria River sector in the east and the Gregory sector in the west.
The Victoria River sector is near the Victoria River Crossing and winds through 250 metre high tablelands, crating dramatic red cliffs. The large Gregory sector lies just outside Timber Creek. In this sector, Limestone Gorge, some 45kms south of the Victoria Hwy on a dirt road, provides superb photographic opportunities. It also contains the old cattle property outstation, Bullita Homestead, with its traditional timber stockyards.
Facilities at both Bullita and Limestone gorge include camping areas with BBQ’s, picnic tables and pit toilets (note: the camp ground at Limestones Gorge was closed) at that time. There are lots of 4WD tracks.
Getting there
Katherine > Victoria River Crossing (194km) > Timber Creek (74) ~ Total of 268kms
Day 0 – To Victoria River Crossing
We left Katherine early and were quickly driving on a good road (the Victoria Hwy) through at times flat country with stunted scattered trees, but at other times through some wonderful sandstone escarpments making for a lovely drive. We stopped for a coffee break at a rest area which was quite crowded with vans. Fortunately we were quicker with our cuppa than the 2 vans we had been following for many kms doing only 80-85k/h and we got out before them.
The closer we got to Victoria River, the better the sandstone outcrops were. Lovely country. The pic of the river is at Victoria Crossing.
Victoria Crossing has an interesting history. In September 1819, Philip Parker King became the first European to discover the mouth of the Victoria River and, twenty years later, Captain J. C. Wickham arrived at the same spot in HMS Beagle and named the river after his Queen. Crew members of the Beagle followed the river upstream into the interior for more than 200 kilometres.
In 1847 Edmund Kennedy went on an expedition to trace the route of the “River Victoria” with a view to finding a practical route to the Gulf of Carpentaria. In August 1855, Augustus Gregory sailed from Moreton Bay and at the end of September reached the estuary of the Victoria River. He sailed up the river and carried out extensive exploration.
At the Victoria River Roadhouse we were told to pick any site. It is a very large area but many sites are not powered. We got a nice drive-through with shade and dried grass on the awning side, so we did not need to put down a groundsheet. A good site.
The park was large and the facilitates are pretty standard. And as the day wore on there was a steady stream of vans coming through the gate.
After lunch we went went to do the Escarpment Walk. This is situated on the Victoria Hwy, 2 km west of the Victoria River Roadhouse. This is a 3km walk to the top of the escarpment behind the Crossing and is rated as “Grade: 3 – moderate walk with some steep sections”.
We set off in the mid afternoon but it was still over 30C. The walk is steep to very steep in places and after a few weeks in the eastern states meeting friends and relatives, we were quite out of condition. Kerry stopped just past the Garrarnawun Lookout, which was not marked, and let me carry on. I had a lovely time sitting under a small tree which gave me a bit of shade on a very comfy rock – admiring the scenery and watching Des climb higher and higher.
The views were spectacular and obviously the higher I went the better they got. To my left was the Victoria River which is big, wide and handsome. All around me are various escarpments and sandstone outcrops. Magnificent scenery.
The walk is well set out with blue triangles to indicate directions. Plaques along the way tell the stories of the Nungali and Wardaman Aboriginal people. It is tough, harder and steeper than I expected, and I had many rest stops to take some water and slow the heart rate. But when I got to the top, marked by of all things a plaque saying “end of walk”, the views were brilliant, looking over the River with the escarpments as a dramatic backdrop. Well worth the effort.
On the way back I passed another walker on the way up – I assured him that he did not have far to go. On reflection I reckon the walk guide should have been more accurately rated as “difficult”, and for fit people.
After this walk we went to the Old Victoria River Crossing, which is a 4WD track of about 2kms. This takes you to the River, which at this point is a very rocky outcrop. Great views up and down the river.
From here we went to look at the Joe Creek Picnic Area and Nawulbinbin Walk, about 10kms west of the Crossing. I had thought of doing this walk as well but decided that after our excesses in the Eastern states, one rugged walk was enough for the day. It was rated as “Grade: 4 – moderate to difficult”, in fact harder than the Escarpment walk. I will tackle that in the morning on the way to Timber Creek. But we did some good drone work on the road to the Picnic Site to capture the stunning scenery.
Back at camp, the park is filling up rapidly. Most of the people we talk to are using the Roadhouse as just an overnight stop, pushing on to Kununurra the next day. They knew nothing of Judburra /Gregory NP, and did not show much interest as they had timetables to meet. Shame as they are missing out on one of the delights of the Territory. We had an easy dinner – take-away from the Roadhouse, hamburgers and chips. Delicious chips, but the hamburgers had no beetroot and they had added mayonnaise despite me asking for BBQ sauce…. still, it saved cooking.
Day 1 – To Timber Creek
We had an early start – away before 8 – as I was doing the Joe Creek Picnic Area and Nawulbinbin Walk. We did a bit more drone work on the way – to see the results in the video for this post, click here.
The drive in from the Hwy, only a couple of kms, provided a stunning landscape as the sun was highlighting the intense colours of the exposed sandstone. The road is dirt but good so there is no problem taking Mobi in. There is also ample parking and turning room – one reason we went there yesterday was to check this out.
Leaving Kerry getting the coffee out, I started the 1.7km loop walk doing the easy bit first – walking up beside the creek bed into the gorge. Then I walked up to the base of the sandstone cliffs, which was a climb but nowhere near as difficult as the Escarpment climb. It was not long before I was amongst the Livistona palms on the scree slopes, and looking up at the wonderful cliffs. Turning around, the cliffs on the opposite side of the gorge were bathed in sunshine – wonderful place.
The path took me along the base of the cliffs clambering over rock falls and other massive boulders. Half way along, there are a number of Aboriginal wall paintings – not many but they were excellent, quite clear.
At the end of this track I headed down the slope. Unfortunately there was no blue triangle to show the track down, the only little fault in the setting out of the track, which had been a feature at the NT Parks. It meant that I wasted a bit of time heading in the wrong direction before backtracking. But a really excellent walk, not at all as difficult as the grading suggested. Kerry could easily have done this but was put off by the description of the walk as being so difficult. It wasn’t! I had a lovely couple of cups of coffee and read a book.
We quickly got back to the Hwy and turned west.
Soon the landscape changed from the beautiful array of cliffs and ridges to a much flatter horizon with stunted trees. But closer to Timber Creek, we passed 2 cyclists going full bore as the sandstone re-emerged – topping off a pleasant drive. Such a lovely part of the world.
Timber Creek has a long history, and was named in 1855 when the explorer Augustus Gregory used timber from the banks of the creek to repair his expedition’s boat. The first inhabitants were the Nagaliwurra and Nangali Aboriginal people, descendants of whom still live in the small town. The township grew around the Police Station first built in 1898, not far from the the Victoria River Depot where supplies arrived by river and were distributed using donkey teams.
The first aeroplanes serviced the area from 1929. By 1971 the road between Kununurra and Katherine was sealed and a new bridge built across the River. In 1978 the Victoria Wayside Inn opened and boat tours started. Today, this small town relies almost solely on tourism.
At Timber Creek we are faced with 2 van parks almost side by side a couple of kms short of the town, each with a fuel station. One is a commercial operation and the other run by the local Aboriginal community. We came first to the commercial park and walked in to suss it out. There was an obvious colony of bats in a massive tree at the entrance, with the accompanying smell, and we though the main van area was a bit closed in. We had also read in Wiki that you are directed to a site rather than picking what best suited us.
So we checked out the next one and found it much more open and bright and with lots of grass. We quickly booked in, being told to choose any site. We quickly found a really good grassed site close to amenities.
We are getting really efficient in setting up the van – despite a few weeks away. We can now do a complete set-up in about 20 minutes…. not bad for a couple of amateurs.
Just as we were finishing up, I heard a couple of small kids nearby talking loudly to an older man about “a big croc” – so I followed then down to see what was going on. We were quite close to a creek (the van park edges the creek) and there was a massive freshwater croc on the opposite bank having a sun-bath. Biggest freshwater croc I had ever seen.
Later, after the sun cooled off a bit, we drove out exploring. Policeman’s Point, a few kms out of town, provides a really lovely outlook over the Victoria River. Beautiful views in both directions. We saw a Jabaro stealthily stalking fish in the river.
We also went up to the lookout and this was well worth the trip up and then about a 5km drive back. Again great views over this lovely river, and then over the town of Timber Creek. From the ground we thought that the town was just the van parks and fuel stations, but there is an actual town further on, just well hidden.
About half way along the lookout road is an ANZAC memorial, especially featuring the “Nackeroos”. These were groups of “bush commandos” to watch the northern parts of Australia after the Japanese bombing of the Top End and North West during WWII. There was also a large area set aside for sunset viewing – even including tables and chairs.
We went on to the Big Horse Creek to have a look. It is right on the Victoria River and has a massive boat ramp. We pass a couple who had just landed a lovely looking barramundi caught with a lure. Nice place, but very busy. The barra was massive…. I may be inspired to try my hand.
We also looked at the Bradshaw Bridge, built primarily to give all weather access to the Australian Defence Force’s Bradshaw live-fire combat training facility. It has “Keep Out” signs all over it but we walked out a bit to view the River.
Day 2 – into Judbarra NP
Today we headed south into the NP. About 10 km east of Timber Creek, we stopped at the Durack monument, highlighting the cattle kings of the north. I had read Mary Durack’s book (years ago) “Kings in Grass Castles”…. will have to re-read it again because I found I couldn’t relate to anything in the book to what the monument said.
We let the tyres down as we were facing about 100+ kms on a dirt road. But doing this was a bit of guess work as the tyres are now hot. We wanted to reduce them to about 28psi cold but were not sure what this translated to for hot tyres. I put on the 4 Stenn gauges we had bought – little brass gauges that when preset to a desired psi would automatically deflate to that pressure when screwed into the valve. They proved extremely slow and 2 of them did not stop and took out far too much air before I noticed. So we took these off and have discarded to them to the bin for the moment, I got out the manual deflater and the compressor. There was a caravan and 4WD obviously camped overnight at this spot and the elderly lady came across to see if we were OK. I explained what we were doing and she handed me a leaflet before leaving…. I didn’t look at it till later, but it was religious, so we left it under a stone close to her van for her to keep.
Then we hit the unsealed Bullita Access Road heading for Limestone Gorge and Bullita Station Homestead. It is not a bad dirt road – 4WD with high clearance is recommended and access is stated as being unsuitable for caravans. We reckon an off-road van would have been ok as far as the Homestead on the day we drove it, but certainly not on the track up to Limestone Gorge. There is one river crossing on the Bullita Rd which was fine. On the way, a pair of beautifully coloured parrots flashed across our windscreen, then were gone. We had not seem much wildlife so far.
We turned off the road to take the 8 km track to Limestone Gorge. We went directly to the camping ground to satisfy a call of nature, leaving the other features to explore on the way back down. The track in had been pretty good but suddenly changed to extremely rough. We got to a section of about 100m where the track was over hard limestone rocks and bars. Horrible!
But after that it improved again and we were quickly at the campsite. This was empty but there we saw one of the biggest Boab Trees we have seen so far. The flies were appalling here and I very quickly put on my net hat… we had purchased these in Alice Springs last year but never used them until today.
The walk to the Gorge was pretty easy but initially disappointing. We had gone around the loop clockwise and found it difficult to work out where the Gorge was. We were in a low Gorge and wondered if this was it.
We then climbed to the top of an escarpment, where we started to see the Gorge proper and realised that we had been walking up a side gorge. It is an impressive gorge but much wider at the base than others we had been to. We walked along the top of one side of the gorge then descended and returned to the car.
At teh camping areas we saw the biggest boat tree we have seen so far – such a monster.
Going back down the track we firstly stopped at virtue pretty Limestone Billabong but did not linger as there were crocodile warnings about.
Next, after going very slowly over the extremely rocky section of track, we stopped at the Calcite Flow Walk, a distance of only 600 m return. The rocks there are rugged, fractured and battleship grey – it’s a dramatic dolomite karst landscape. In places, this reminded me of The Burren near where I was born on the West Coast of Ireland. So different from the sandstone we were used to.
At the end of the track we could see across to the calcite flow – looking like a white waterfall on the opposite side of the gorge. To the local Aboriginal community this is a sacred site and there is no access to the actual flow. The flows form when calcium carbonate-rich water flows vigorously down a slope. This creates a turbulence that forces carbon oxide out of the water resulting in a chemical reaction which caused the release of solid carbon carbonate from the water.
There also were some Stromatolites (fossilised prehistoric life forms). One of the earliest forms of life – cabbage like growths which can be clearly seen as raised dome-like mounds in the rocks. Quite beautiful to look at.
A few kms further on we go to the Tufa Dams – Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of ambient temperature water (bet you didn’t know that). Or in plain english, calcium deposits are left as the river flows, thickening every season, leaving hard, rock-like formations. We had seen some similar formations at Lawn Hill NP. Unfortunately the interpretative panels had faded in the sun and were unreadable.
From here we went to the original Bullita homestead, at the core of the National Park. Bullita was an outstation for the Durack family; they were firmly linked with cattle and the opening up of interior Australia in the 1880s. The old homestead still stands and the name of one of the Duracks is carved into a nearby boab tree. Cattle were taken from Bullita and Humbert River stations along the road that runs through the NP today. The stockyards were made and are still maintained with local lancewood and bloodwood trees – such an important historic relic.
The homestead is still intact and we were surprised to see how small the main home was – 2 rooms at the front, and a kitchen/dining across the width of the home at the rear. Out the back is a covered paved area.
The homestead is well presented and has good quality information boards on display. There are also two letters sent from people at the homestead that really make you appreciate the tough conditions experienced in such remote and isolated areas.
The first letter was by one of the stockmen, Tom, in 1929 to his mother, telling of a freak accident to the station manager during a mustering. He was really badly injured and Tom had to get him back to the station and then ride overnight on 2 horses to get help – one horse went for 25 miles and the other 35. Finally, he found the owner and with his car he the injured man to a doctor 200 miles away. He lived but was not good. Tom took over as the station manager “…nothing great as jobs go. The country is reckoned to be amongst the roughest in the north and that’s going some. The cattle are wild as Marckkares and machine guns and aeroplanes are needed to muster the horses. However I’m getting £250 per annum and keep, so I s’pose its something to be earning a crust. I am going for my life mustering and branding. I branded 70 calves today, so am pretty tired”
The second letter was written by the wife of one of the pastoralists that lived here in 1977 describing when the river completely flooded the homestead and the outbuildings, almost taking her life. She was alone at the homestead for several weeks as her husband was away mustering. The letter she wrote to a friend describes how she was woken up in the night by a huge King Brown snake in the kitchen, she shot at it but wasn’t sure if she’d killed it so she sat up all night watching and waiting with her gun.
It was then that she realised the river next to the homestead was rising, so she moved her chickens, her dog and new puppies and other animals up to an outbuilding on higher ground. As she was doing that the waters rose rapidly and she was washed into the river. The story goes that she was wedged in to the fork of a tree throughout the rest of the day and night and only when the floodwaters receded could she scramble back to safety. She then found that all her cattle and her dogs had been washed away and all their possessions were completely destroyed. She had no dry clothes or food or even clean water for many days until her husband returned. It was such a well written letter and made you realise what a hard life some of the people of the outback live, even as recently as 1977. The adult dog came back and she found the runt of the litter still alive though, so not a totally bad ending.
We had lunch at the homestead and headed back to our park.
On the way, rounding a corner, there was a magnificent jet black horse standing at the roadside looking lazily at us as we slowly approached. With a toss of its mane, it wheeled around and dashed off into the bush where 5 or 6 others were already galloping away.
At the Park, we began to prepare for our exit next day. First and foremost we pumped the tyres back up to 33psi – after they cooled down of course. We had a good evening, talking to our neighbours and cooking up a storm and enjoying a wine. Exactly what going around is all about.
To see photos for this post, click here.
To see a video for the post, click here.