The Kimberley is Western Australia's vast northern region and one of the last genuinely remote wilderness areas left in Australia. We're talking about a region roughly the size of California with a population of about 40,000 people. The Gibb River Road runs 660km through the heart of it on dirt, 4WD only, mostly closed during the wet season because of flooding. There are crocodiles in the waterways. There are gorges that look like they were carved by something with very strong opinions about what landscape should look like. It's extraordinary and it is not for people who want things to be easy.
If that sounds like your kind of trip, the Kimberley will be the best thing you've ever done.
What Kimberley Tours Actually Cover
The Gibb River Road is the main artery through the Kimberley and the access route to most of the gorges and stations. It runs from Derby in the west to Kununurra in the east. The road is unsealed, corrugated in sections, and requires a 4WD with good clearance. Organised tours provide appropriate vehicles and handle the navigation, which is worth a lot on a road where the nearest mechanic can be 200km away.
Windjana Gorge National Park has towering limestone cliffs rising 90 metres above the Lennard River, ancient reef formations (this was a coral reef 350 million years ago), and freshwater crocodiles in the pools below. Freshwater crocs are the smaller, less aggressive species but they're still wild animals and the setting, gorge walls reflecting in still water with crocs visible on the banks, is one of the more primally impressive things the Kimberley offers.
Purnululu National Park (the Bungle Bungles) is the image most people associate with the Kimberley. Beehive-shaped sandstone towers striped in orange and black, formed over 20 million years of erosion, and only accessible by 4WD or light aircraft. They were unknown to most Australians outside the region until 1983 when a film crew featured them on television. UNESCO World Heritage listed. Genuinely one of the most remarkable landscapes in the country.
Mitchell Falls in the remote northwest Kimberley is a four-tiered waterfall dropping into a series of rock pools and then out to the coast. Getting there requires either a 4WD drive on very rough tracks or a scenic flight over the Kimberley, which is an experience in itself. The falls are a sacred site for the Wunambal Gaambera people and the broader landscape around them is largely untouched.
Lake Argyle is Australia's largest freshwater reservoir, formed when the Ord River was dammed in 1972. It's 70 times the size of Sydney Harbour, has its own ecosystem, and at sunset turns a shade of red and orange that makes it look like the surface of Mars. Sunset cruises on the lake are one of those activities that sound ordinary and turn out to be genuinely stunning.
Wolfe Creek Crater is the second largest meteorite crater in the world that's still clearly visible at the surface. 880 metres in diameter, 60 metres deep, and sitting in the middle of the desert with zero fanfare. It's about 150km south of Halls Creek and is one of those detours that's worth every kilometre for the sheer strangeness of standing at the rim of something that a meteorite made.
When Can You Actually Go?
The Kimberley has two seasons and they are not equally accessible. The dry season runs April to October and is when tours operate, roads are passable, and the Gibb River Road is open. The wet season from November to March brings monsoon rainfall, flooding that closes roads completely, and temperatures that regularly exceed 40 degrees with high humidity. Most of the Kimberley is inaccessible during the wet. Plan for the dry season and don't try to be clever about it.
Heading east after the Kimberley? Perth to Darwin tours continue through to the Top End from Kununurra. Or head back the way you came through Broome and south. Back to the West Coast Australia hub for everything else.
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