We had visited Mutawintji National Park in 1993 and we have wonderful memories. We especially remember walking through a gorge to a waterhole. We sat beside the the waterhole, and both of us felt, quite independently, that there were “spirits” with us. It was bewildering – we had never experienced that, nor have felt it again. But could we find that same waterhole this time around?
We visited Mutawintji National Park on 18 April 2021.
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Context
The ancient landscape of Mutawintji National Park is rich in Aboriginal history. The Park displays the classic outback landscape for which Australia is famous. Driving along red dirt roads among rugged gorges and desert, against the backdrop of the ever-changing colour of the Byngnano Ranges, it is a great place for people to discover the peace and space of the desert. Beyond the ridges, the saltbush and mulga plains stretch to the horizon.
The traditional home of the Malyankapa and Pandjikali people, Mutawintji NP has been a significant meeting place for local cultures for thousands of years. Communities have performed initiations, rainmaking and other ceremonies here in gatherings of up to 1,000 people. A short, easy walk, suitable for wheelchairs, will take you to the rocky overhang Thaaklatjika Mingkana. Here you’ll find paintings, stencils and engravings that depict pre and post colonial Aboriginal history, as well as the animals that live in the area.
In 1979, the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife purchased and fenced 100 square kilometres in the Coturaundee Ranges, now part of Mutawintji National Park, for the conservation and protection of the yellow-footed rock wallaby. Follow-up funding of fox eradication in the reserve ensured the survival of this last population of this species in NSW.
The park also protects Mutawintji Historic Site, containing one of the best collections of Aboriginal rock art.
Getting There
We were staying at Broken Hill and there is a seperate post for that. Click here.
Broken Hill > Barrier Hwy turnoff to NP (54kms) > start of gravel road (22kms) > arrive NP (60kms) ~ 136kms
The Drive to the NP
It was going to be a long day so we had a 7:30 start. Don’t forget that Broken Hill is on South Australian time and you will cross into NSW time on the road up, losing 30 minutes in the process.
The gravel roads were not so bad – good long stretches of quality gravel, to sections with major corrugations and surface blowouts across half the road. We were glad we did not take the caravan we were using on that road.
The Visitors Centre is just where you pay – not a lot of information there.
The Park is made up of 3 sections: Mutawintji Gorge in the south; a number of walks based on the Camping Area in the middle; and The Old Coach House drive and Split Rock to the north. The Historic Site can only be seen by an Aboriginal led tour.
Mutawintji Gorge
We went to this walk first as we hoped this was the gorge that had left such a marked impression on us so long ago. There was a short drive to the car park, where a shelter sat to one side. From that, a 2-wheeled track headed up on the cleared area between the rugged hills and the dry river bed. But there was another path that led to the creek bed and that is where we went.
It proved hard going in the soft sand and as we walked upriver. The river bed was carved deeper and deeper into the landscape and we were soon walking through mini cliffs of deep red river banks. This is nothing like we remembered from out first visit.
The surrounding hills looked like they has caves carved out of them in places.
We saw some unusual plants including lots of melons – about a cricket ball in size. And lots of beautiful small flowering plants… looking somewhat wilted in the heat.
After a while we clambered out of the river bed and found the 2-wheeled track which was running parallel to the creek. It proved much easier to walk on that.
But I was getting concerned that the hills were not getting any closer and I could not see where a gorge could possibly emerge. I was also aware that Kerry would soon be suffering from a painful foot. So we decided to abandon this track and go and tackle one of the other walks. So we trudged back to the car.
Walks around the Camping Area
We were heading for the Picnic Area but found that the road to that was closed. So we went into the camping area and found the main trail head to the left, at the far corner of the camping area. The NPWS brochure is confusing – a number of people we spoke to certainly agreed on that. The brochure shows 8 walks in the Park. In reality the Link, Thaaklatjika Mingkana and the Homestead Gorge walking trails are in effect one trail – one continuing after the other.
The Rockholes Loop is an adjunct to the Homestead Gorge walk. You take a track up on the left hand side – hard to find as there are no signs. You walk up to the top of the escarpment, loop around and return to the Homestead Gorge track. The stated distance for the Rockholes Loop track is 5.6km, but this is the distance if you start from the Picnic Area do the Loop and return to the Picnic Area. The distance for just the loop would only be a small part of that, albeit a very steep part.
The Bynguano Range walking trail branches off the Homestead Gorge trail towards the end of that walk. It then takes you along further rock pools before going up over the range – not for the unfit.
The best map of the walks is found on an information panel at the start of the Link Walk. That is the map that should be in the brochure.
Note also that the tracks are only well defined in places. Often you will be walking along the river bed. There are no signs that we saw, only an occasional marker.
On the information panels there is no mention of the Split Road walk to the North, even though it is on the brochure. Perhaps this has been closed as it leads to an important area for women and men are not allowed there.
We did not see the start to the Western Ridge track. The signage lets these walks down quite badly….
Our Walk
We did the Link, Thaaklatjika Mingkana and the Homestead Gorge walking trails, leaving from the camping area. The Link is short and is paved for wheelchair access. it runs through fairly open country.
The Thaaklatjika Mingkana trail is short along one side of the creek, rising up along the way so as to get to the overhanging rocks where the rock art is. The paintings are quite clear and information panels explain what they are.
The artwork is best seen in the video – click here
From there we made our way up Homestead Creek. As we went, the gorge closed in and we were increasingly walking the river bed. The reassuring markers were hard to find – not that this made a difference as there is only one way to go. The gorge sides are brilliant – high and sheer, a mix of red and black. We loved it all. And so many beautiful trees and flowers.
We did find the diversion to the Rockholes Loop, a ladder at the start of the climb . There was no sign and we could have easily walked past it. But Kerry was starting to feel her foot, and there was no way she could get up there. And if I went up it would have her waiting at least an hour or more, I reckon. So we walk on.
Then we got to a series of waterholes, as the gorge narrowed even further. A delightful area.
We decided that was far enough for us in this wonderful country. We did not think that this was the gorge that captivated us in 1993, but it was pretty special. So we walked back out of this gorge, as very happy people but Kerry with increasingly painful steps. Sure, I would love to have done the more challenging walks but that was just not possible. It was almost impossible for me to walk the last kilometre or so back to the car… its my hiking shoes, which are actually needed for this type of hike rather than normal walking shoes. But they do cause the pain.
Mutawintji Gorge 2
I couldn’t help thinking that if the Homestead Gorge was not the one we remembered so well, perhaps we should have continued up the Mutawintji Gorge. So after lunch at the camping area, we decided that I would go back out the Mutawintji Gorge to see if that invoked any memories from the past. So we went back, and I headed off on the 2-wheel track. It was a long walk in on a trail that remained on open grasslands – no trees or any shelter for the 3km or so walk. Given that there is a 2 wheel track, why can’t the entry track be extended to save a long walk through open, hot and unchanging landscapes.
Finally, I came to the end of the trail and the start of a gorge – it’s like being back on the Homestead trail. I walked down the gorge and came across a couple of rock pools – very pretty. These were larger that those on the Homestead trail. These must have been the special pools we found so very long ago. I did not feel any spirits that day.
We did not have time to do the Western Ridge Track. We did not do the Old Coach Road drive – the road was in poor shape when we were there. Sad really, as I could have walked again, having changed shoes, but it was a long enough day as it was.
To see photos related to this post, click here
To see video related to this post, click here