Windjana Gorge

The Napier Range is not a mountain range in the usual sense but the exposed remains of a barrier reef that grew in a Devonian sea some three hundred and fifty million years ago, and fossils of ancient corals and marine creatures are visible in its limestone. The Lennard River has cut Windjana Gorge through it, leaving walls up to a hundred metres high above a riverbed that holds pools through the dry season. Those pools are full of freshwater crocodiles, which bask on the sand in numbers and are harmless if left alone. Fruit bats hang in the trees, and the gorge is culturally significant to the Bunuba people, whose resistance leader Jandamarra used the country in the 1890s.

History

The gorge, also called Bandilngan, holds a large place in the recent history of the Bunuba people: in the 1890s the Bunuba leaders Jandamarra and Ellemarra led an armed uprising, and in late 1894 a party of about thirty armed police and settlers attacked them in the gorge, where Ellemarra was killed and Jandamarra, wounded, escaped. In the months that followed, police were given powers to shoot Bunuba people, and many, women and children among them, were killed (Wikipedia, Windjana Gorge).

What's there

• The freshwater crocodiles - dozens basking on the sand along the pools.
• The fossil reef walls - Devonian limestone with visible marine fossils.
• The river pools - permanent water through the dry season.
• The fruit bat colony - flying foxes roosting in the gorge trees.

When to go

May to September; the wet season floods the gorge and closes the roads. Early morning and late afternoon are best, both for temperature and for crocodile activity on the banks. Midday heat in the gorge is severe.

Things to know

Access is unsealed and the road closes in the wet. Freshwater crocodiles are not dangerous unless harassed, but they should not be approached. Swimming is not permitted. Facilities are a campground with basic amenities and no shop.

Nearby

Tunnel Creek is thirty-five kilometres south; Derby lies west.

Key facts