windjana gorge national park

Windjana gorge is unique.It is one of the best gorges we have enjoyed, not just in the Kimberley's, but in all of our travels within the country.A fantastic variety of wildlife abounds, sheer cliffs, great sunsets and camping, water and hot showers, make Windjana a great stop for a few days.there are entry and camping fee's, but they are minimal.You can also visit the ruins of Lillimooloora Homestead, which later became the police outpost-it is located nearby, only a few kilometres away towards Tunnel Creek.Visit the site below for full details:http://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/windjana-gorge

Windjana Gorge is "el primo" on the list of amazing gorges on the south west end of the great Gibb River Road adventure, especially if you're coming from the Derby end of the track.Windjana's stark escarpment along the Napier Range juts ominously out of the vast grasslands plain that stretches as far as the eye can see to the south, making it look surreal in the late afternoon shadowy light. This almost threatening mountainous presence has at the same time a wonderfully calming and almost sublime aura that can lull one into flights of serene fancy.Windjana Gorge is, at face value, famous for it's tumultuous recent history of the tragic confluence of two diametrically opposed civilisations. The vast grasslands whispered of economic bonanzas to the european newcomers but whispered at the same time of dreamings, of great epochs of animistic histories and of religious significances going back deep into time immemorial for the Aboriginal custodians and landholders.The escapades of Jandamarra, known to the invaders as 'Pigeon the Outlaw' are well documented for visitors to the area.The tragedy of the killing of one policeman at the Lillimilura outpost near to Windjana Gorge sparked the slaughters of numerous, people, mostly Aboriginal, in the Kimberley region in the 1890s. Resistance against the might and inevitable march of europeanization was, of course, headed for only one conclusion!But immediately prior to these events the first european visitors to the region, the Forest brothers, did bring a man named Hardman (a geologist) who not only recognised the gold bearing possibilities of the Hall's Creek area but more importantly here at Windjana, found the bones of extinct megafaunal species in the gorge on only one short visit to the place. He also described the "Devonian" wonderland of fossils that the Napier and Oscar ranges are still famous for worldwide.This geological history dates back over 350 million years and tells a story of the slow, relentless moulding of Windjana Gorge into the spectacular place it is today. The very first back-boned sea creatures' evolution is preserved like a time capsule here and along the Napier and Oscar Ranges. This alone brings scientists from around the world to this remote region on an ongoing basis.The evidence in the bones found by Hardman points unmistakeably to the fact that for most of Aboriginal peoples' history here they lived alongside the giant and diverse range of megafauna that once trod the soils of Australia. The Aboriginal landowners lived alongside massive species of animals, reptiles and birds such as diprotodonts, giant crocodiles, snakes and monitor lizards as well as giant emus and many creatures unlike any that survived the last great climate change and series of extinctions some 20,000 years ago.But hidden behind the massive gorge, and restricted from public interference is the irrevocable evidence of Aboriginal peoples long and momentous stewardship of these great lands. In a hidden cave high in the escarpment, looking out over the plains towards the King Leopold Ranges to the north Sue O'Connor and a group of university students conducted an archaeological dig in the early 1990s that resulted in the Kimberley's first confirmed dating of Aboriginal presence to at least 40,000 years ago in these rugged, mountainous regions.This antiquity places the Kimberley coastline at the forefront of possible first settlement sites for the Australian continent. The rock art of the Kimberley since these earliest of times is now amongst the most important assemblage of human historical art on the planet.But back in the present, Windjana Gorge National Park is a park that you simply cannot miss if you ever visit this timeless land of extremes. The weather is as romantic as the tropical islands off the coast, but the scenery is one of amazing contrasts, to such a degree, that photographically speaking ... this is OVERLOAD country!The facilities for camping and simply visiting are very well organised by the Dept. of Environment rangers and a day visit with an overnight stay at one of the relatively nearby options makes this one of the more accessible major points of interest in this wide, remote and sometimes uncompromising landscape.IF YOU MISS WINDJANA GORGE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE KIMBERLEY!