Gibb River Rd - Drysdale Station – 8 to 9 August 2010

From Mt Elizabeth we drove to Drysdale River Station, a fully working Station. This is a very efficient and impressive operation, with an attached camp ground, shop,[with minimal but adequate food to purchase] fuel pumps and cafe. The cafe’s specialty is the Kimberley Hamburger [with the lot!] which makes a great lunch.

As we like to support these local stations, we also had dinner there.
Dinner is the same meal as is served to the Station hands, which gives the opportunity to talk to the locals [including the truck drivers] around the bar before dinner. This is a great place to pick up local information on road conditions and hear the local gossip. Stations like this one remind us of medieval castles, totally self sufficient communities.
This is the Gibb river crossing on the road to Drysdale Station.

Gibb River Rd – Galvin’s Gorge, Mt Elizabeth – 7 to 8 August 2010

We rejoined the Gibb River Road. A number of fires were burning in the distance, with large billowing smoke clouds on the horizon. This is patch burning which will protect the countryside from fierce hot fires later in the season. Little incendiaries are dropped by helicopter and will ignite and burn a small area. Fires here are usually caused by lightening strikes during the buildup. If part of the country is burnt already in cool fires native flora and fauna are not so damaged and the lightening fires don't have an opportunity to spread and burn for a long distance because there is no ground fuel. In the past they would burn till they reached the sea.The burnt areas give animals a place of refuge. This is the traditional aboriginal way to manage the country.


We stopped at Galvin’s Gorge for lunch and a swim.

We then took the road north to Mount Elizabeth Station, where we stopped for the evening. Mt Elizabeth Station has a very bad road in. It offers hot showers and if you collect firewood on the way in it has varied containers to light a fire in.

Gibb River Rd - Mornington Wilderness – 5 to 7 August 2010

From Bell Gorge we drove back to the Gibb River Road, and then after a short distance took the turn off to to Mornington Wilderness Sanctuary.
The Sanctuary is owned and run by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and part of the property has been destocked to provide a habitat for the endangered Gouldian Finch. It is a haven for many other bird species.

We swam in Cadjeput Water Hole and went out to Sir John Gorge at sunset. We had a dinner at Redtails Restaurant in the lodge; it is a set menu.
The next day we canoed up Dimond Gorge.

 


We did the bird walk at Mornington at 6.00a.m.

After breakfast in the lodge we said goodbye to Mornington Wilderness, a very special place.

Gibb River Rd – Lennard River Gorge, Bell Gorge – 4 to 5 August 2010

We left Mt Hart and rejoined the Gibb River Road, stopping to explore the Lennard River Gorge.
We then continued to the Silent Grove National Park, set up the van and drove the short distance to Bell Gorge, where we enjoyed a swim in a beautiful pool, near a magnificent waterfall.
 


Leaving Silent Grove in the morning we crossed Bell Creek on our way back to the Gibb River Road, and the Imintji Store, a very well run roadhouse with a wide range of groceries, fruit and homemade pies.  The tables and chairs were of solid rock.  Fred Flinstone is alive and well in the Kimberly's!
 
 

Gibb River Rd - Mt Hart Wilderness – 3 to 4 August 2010

We drove on to Mt. Hart Wilderness Lodge managed by Taffy Abbott and Kim in partnership with the Department of Environment and Conservation.
Mt. Hart has the lodge for visitors who fly or drive in and an attached camp ground away from the homestead on the Barker River. This is a good camp spot. Free of saltwater crocodiles the river is a great place to swim at the end of the day.
We walked up Annie Creek Gorge in the afternoon.

Although the resort dining room is for lodge visitors, if there are spaces available for meals these are listed in the campground laundry. We booked dinner by putting our names on the list at the laundry before 3.00PM. Dinner was an excellent three course buffet meal for $35, with the evening’s cook being the owner Taffy. The meal started with an unusual grace: “For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful I didn't mess it up.”
After dinner we remained at the bar and paid to use the satellite internet, our last connection for a while. Mt. Hart Station was operational from 1914 to 1987 and had a succession of highly eccentric owners, none of whom appeared to have made a cent from the operations. We liked the sign in the bar, “Drive Carefully – We have two Cemeteries – No Hospitals.”
The King Leopold Conservation Park has some unique geological landforms and is a very stable landmass remaining more or less unchanged since it arose from the ancestral glop. It was declassified as a farming lease in 2000 and gazetted as the King Leopold Conservation Park, with Mt. Hart excised as a lease from the Park.

Gibb River Rd – Windjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek – 1 to 3 August 2010

We left Leopold Downs rather late on 1 August, as we spent the morning visiting the Wesley School site. Although we drove past Tunnel Creek we decided not to stop, but come back the next day and so drove straight to Windjana Gorge.
This is a nice National Park camp site and we had a fresh water crocodile hamming it up for the cameras. We also had Tricia’s Birthday Candles around the campfire.

The next day we drove back to Tunnel Creek, which is a gorge waiting to happen and walked through the various caverns to the creek at the other end of the tunnel. It was a great walk, and John did not tell Trish about the bright red crocodile eyes shining in the torch light as we waded through the creek.




At Tunnel Creek we saw another Wicked Camper. These all have some witty, some risque slogans painted on them. This one was suitable for a family blog.

From Windjana we headed off to join the Gibb River Road.
Just past the turn is a Snack Stop at Lennard’s River where you can get a cup of tea or coffee and a snack. We had a cup of tea and talked to a truck driver, also a poet who recited one of his works. He told us it is available to read on the wall of the Innamincka Pub.

Leopold Downs – 30 to 31 July 2010

John met with Joe Ross, a local leader for the Bunuba people in Fitzroy Crossing and he arranged for us to visit Leopold Downs Station and meet the manager Ned McCord.

When we arrived a film crew, making a docudrama about local aboriginal hero, Jandamarra, a Bunuba equivalent of Robin Hood, were at the Station discussing their plans. Jandamarra was a respected member of the Bunuba in the 1880’s, a crack shot and skilled horseman. He was employed as a police tracker, but after members of the Bunuba were rounded up and kept without food and water for a number of days, he rebelled, shot Constable Richardson, and for the next three years led an organized armed rebellion against the European settlers.

The film crew invited us out to see the filming at the old Leopold Station. They have renovated the outside of the Station House so it looked as it would have done when it was lived in. The inside is totally tumble down.

The filming was interesting but slow. They are shooting in a really remote area so all the crew are staying in small tents in the middle of a paddock. The only thing that makes it a bit easier is that meals are catered. I think making this film is a real labor of love for everyone involved. The local Bunuba people were clearly very proud to be part of retelling the story for a wider audience.

We saw the new Wesley Studio School built on Leopold Downs. Both Leopold Downs and Fairfield Station are owned by the Bunaba Tribe and the manager is helping them achieve their goals, one of which is a good school.

The school is amazing as the buildings are standard shipping containers which come fully built with walls, windows, bathrooms and kitchens. The sides open out to make the floor and roof and everything else comes stored within the container. It is a very good solution for remote housing as it is attractive and functional. The School will have a mix of local and Melbourne students and students will spend time in both Melbourne and Leopold Downs. It will provide an easier pathway to higher level secondary education for local students than has been the case as students were sent away to the city for senior school. The city was so different and lonely that the transition was very difficult for them.

There was so much to do we were invited to camp on Leopold Downs and had dinner at the Homestead, which was lovely.