Watarrka National Park

Kings Canyon is the famous part of Watarrka National Park. Almost everyone who visits the park visits the canyon. Many do the Kings Canyon walk. A few do the short walk at Kathleen Springs. Very few hike the two-day Giles track. Almost no one other than Willis's Walkabouts treks beyond these tracks deep into the wilds that make this such a special place.

Few people realise that Kings Canyon is only a tiny fraction of the park that surrounds it. Spectacular cliffs and gorges make Watarrka one of the most scenic parts of the Centre. The numerous permanent and semi-permanent waterholes have made this an important place for Aboriginal people for thousands of years.

There are a number of Aboriginal art sites scattered around the park. In deference to the views of the traditional owners, the only art site photo we have on the website is the one here, taken on the Lilla cultural tour which we include in our trips wherever possible.

It's not just the landscapes that make Watarrka so special. With over 750 species of plants, at least 60 of which are rare or relict, Watarrka is by far the richest area for plant diversity in the whole of Central Australia.

As the sign says, Watarrka lies at the intersection of three landscapes: the the mountains of the Macdonnell Ranges to the northeast, the sandplains of the western deserts to the southwest and the low hills and mesas of the Simpson Desert to the southeast.

On our Watarrka bushwalks, we hike far beyond the tourist walks at Kings Canyon, deep into the heart of the George Gill Range, a 'site of conservation significance'. You visit deep gorges and picturesque waterholes, trek through red dunes and green vegetation and enjoy spectacular views over the steep cliffs on the northern edge of the range. We visit Watarrka on two different trips.

• Watarrka National Park, two weeks in June or July.
  For more information, see the detailed trip notes.
• On the second half of our three week Finke-Watarrka trip in September.
  For more information, see the detailed trip notes.

Finally, here are some links to additional information about the area.

• The NT Parks & Wildlife Watarrka National Park page has some good general information including links to a park information sheet and to a brochure about the shorter hikes in the park.
• General Information
• Wildflowers
  A blog page with some great flower photos.

• A gallery of Watarrka photos from our trips

• A story one of our clients wrote about our 2002 trek along with some photos from another one of the clients.

• Interested in birds? See a bird list from one of our Finke - Watarraka trips. While the list is an old one, we still see most or all of the same species on our trips.

• A power point slide show of photos taken on one of our trips.
  This shows you some of the flora and fauna as well as how we use a helicpter to do a water drop on the longer trip in dry years. A few of the photos are from Uluru.
  It is a very large file so it may take a while to load.