Kalbarri National Park

Kalbarri National Park has two distinct halves. Inland, the Murchison River has cut an eighty-kilometre gorge through banded red and white sandstone laid down some four hundred million years ago, with Nature's Window, a rock arch framing a bend of the river, as its emblem, along with the Z Bend and the Loop walk. Two skywalks completed in 2020 project seventeen and twenty-five metres out from the cliff edge a hundred metres above the river. On the coast south of town, cliffs run for kilometres with lookouts at Island Rock, Natural Bridge and Eagle Gorge. Wildflowers cover the sandplain heath from July to October.

What you actually see

• Nature's Window - the sandstone arch framing the Murchison River bend.
• The skywalks - two platforms cantilevered out over the gorge.
• The coastal cliffs - Island Rock, Natural Bridge and the lookouts south of town.
• The wildflowers - sandplain heath in flower from July to October.

When to go

April to October; summer temperatures exceed forty degrees and the park restricts access to gorge walks in the heat, with trailheads closed after mid-morning. Wildflowers peak from August. Wind on the coastal cliffs is strong.

Honest expectations

Gorge walks are closed during hot weather and rangers enforce it; several people have died of heat exhaustion here in past years. The Loop walk is eight kilometres of rough ground with no water. Vehicle entry is charged and shade is nonexistent.

Nearby

Kalbarri town is at the river mouth; Hutt Lagoon lies south near Port Gregory.