Photo: Wildplaces

halls creek

The small town of Halls Creek, in the south east of the Kimberley region, was the centre of a gold rush in 1865 and still retains some of its pioneering character today. Now the gold prospectors have been replaced by adventure-seeking tourists who use Halls Creek as a base to explore the Bungle Bungles, and the eerie moonscape of Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater, 150 km south in the Great Sandy Desert. The crater is 835 metres wide with an average depth of 49 metres, making it the second largest on earth. For the local Aboriginal people the crater marks the spot where an ancestral snake emerged from the desert during the dreamtime. Tours are available from Halls Creek.
kununurra

The eastern gateway to the Kimberley region, Kununurra (the name meaning 'big waters' in the local Aboriginal language) is only 30 years old. Established for the Ord River Irrigation Project, the town has more recently become a tourist centre offering 4WD tours and scenic flights to Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungles. Closer to town, Hidden Valley National Park is sometimes described as a 'mini Bungle Bungles', while a climb up to Kelly's Knob affords fine views of the surrounding landscape. Kununurra is 710 km from Darwin, from which there are regular bus and airline services.
gibb river road
Photo: W Turner

An alternative route through the heart of the Kimberley region, the unsealed Gibb River Road takes in 667 km of remote territory between Kununurra and Derby. There are plenty of places to stop and allow yourself to get sidetracked for a day or two, including Windjana Gorge, and Mitchell Falls, 270 km to the north on the coast, where four waterfalls drop side-by-side into the Indian Ocean. The Gibb River Road also travels through the heart of cattle station country, some of which offer homestead accommodation, and activities such as fishing, bushwalking, helicopter flights, and even bull riding. The road is accessible from April to October, but it is advised that a 2WD only be used if the road has been recently graded.
Photo: W Turner