Tunnel Creek

Tunnel Creek has worn a passage seven hundred and fifty metres long straight through the Napier Range, and the walk goes right through it: in one end, out the other, wading pools that can reach waist depth, scrambling over rockfalls, with a torch as the only light except where a collapsed section opens to the sky halfway along. Stalactites hang from the roof, bats roost above, and freshwater crocodiles live in the pools. The cave was the hideout of Jandamarra, a Bunuba man who led armed resistance against pastoralists in the 1890s and was killed near here in 1897, and the site remains highly significant to the Bunuba people.

Highlights

• The tunnel walk - 750 metres through the range, wading and scrambling in the dark.
• The collapsed skylight - the opening halfway where daylight enters.
• The bats and crocodiles - roosting colonies above and freshwater crocodiles in the pools.
• The Jandamarra history - the cave's role in Bunuba resistance in the 1890s.

When to go

May to September; the creek floods in the wet and the tunnel is impassable and the roads closed. Even in the dry, water levels vary and the walk can require deep wading. Morning is coolest.

Things to know

A good torch is essential, and shoes that can get wet. Water depth varies and the footing is uneven. Freshwater crocodiles are present in the pools; they are generally harmless but the situation unnerves some visitors. There are no facilities at the site.

Nearby

Windjana Gorge lies north; Fitzroy Crossing is southeast.

Key facts