Four wheeling in the Territory's ranges

Driving in the subtle and remote East MacDonnells, Harts and Davenport Ranges

Many of the Red Centre´s postcard places, like Simpson´s Gap, Standley Chasm, Palm Valley and Ormiston Gorge, are found in the West MacDonnell ranges, along with the crowds who come to see them.

The East MacDonnells, and the Harts and Davenport Ranges further north, are largely left to adventurers, who seek a more subtle and remote, but no less memorable, Central Australian experience.

As with any Northern Territory journey, you have to be prepared to put in long hours at the wheel to explore in detail the country east of Alice.

However, the endless red horizon, the rhythm of the track passing under your wheels and only the crackle of a distant ABC AM station to keep you company can itself become a soothing, enjoyable way to travel. Time seems suspended, which today is a rare pleasure.

The East MacDonnell Landscape

As long as you´re properly prepared and equipped, the drive we´ll cover here presents no problems.

While the West MacDonnells is a long series of rolling red waves, flat on one side, rising to a jagged ridge, then falling away as a steep, broken face on the other, the East MacDonnells are more diverse and gentle in shape.

Softly rounded hills feature complex fold lines, rivers of sediment bending back upon themselves, evidence of massive upheaval of the landscape. They come in many colours: Ochre, cream and darker hues.

Like the West MacDonnells, though, these low, crumbling ranges are almost as ancient as the earth itself. You look at them in the warm afternoon light and see the topographic personification of a wise old man.

You can reach several highlights of the East MacDonnells on good roads, without having to travel too far from Alice Springs, if time is limited or you don´t have a 4WD.

N'Dhala Gorge and Ruby Gap

Head south on the Stuart Highway from Alice, towards the airport, then take a left turn just past Heavitree Gap on to the Ross Highway, the main access road to the East MacDonnells.

Emily and Jessie Gaps Nature Park is only 10 km down the road. Emily Gap, like many other natural features in the region, is an important spiritual site for the Eastern Arrernte Aboriginal people. It´s where the caterpillar beings of Mparntwe (Alice Springs) originated; a large rock painting depicts the caterpillar dreaming. Their influence extends across the country south and east of Alice, to the edge of the Simpson Desert. At N´Dhala Gorge, 80 km further east, you can also see petroglyphs depicting the caterpillar motif.

N´Dhala is accessible only by 4WD via an 11 km track. You can, however, reach nearby Trephina Gorge in a conventional car.

Trephina features colourful quartzite cliffs and stately river red gums along the edges of its wide, sandy bed. If you have time, camp overnight and do the Ridgetop Walk to John Hayes Rock Hole, which also has camping facilities and is accessible by 4WD as well.

Further north, Arltunga Historical Reserve, adjacent to the Arltunga Bush Hotel, is the remains of a goldfield settlement which prospered briefly in the early 1900s.

Semi precious stones are also found throughout this country. At Ruby Gap, 150 km east of Alice Springs, via Arltunga, explorer David Lindsay in 1887 found what he thought were rubies in the bed of the Hale River. They were in fact garnets.

The entrance to Ruby Gap Nature Park is 40 km from Arltunga; to enter the park itself, where you can drive for 5 km up the bed of the river and camp on its banks, you need a heavy duty 4WD with high ground clearance. 

Fossicking for semi-precious stones

Leaving the East MacDonnells, an easy 4WD track runs north for 60 km from Arltunga, over the Cattlewater Pass in the Harts Range, to connect with the Plenty Highway, the major route linking Central Australia with Queensland.

The Gemtree Caravan Park is 40 km west of this intersection. It can also be reached direct from Alice, a 140 km trip via the sealed Stuart and Plenty Highways.

Gemtree is adjacent to several fossicking leases. Join a guided tour (private access is not permitted) and spend the day sifting and washing buckets of red dirt, from which you´ll extract plenty of garnet if our experience is an indication. Nearby, fossick for zircon, another semi precious stone which can be clear, champagne, orange or pink in colour.

Garnet is worth about $90 a carat, which equates to a stone of 6 millimetres or so in size. You can get your stones cut on site.

In the Davenports

The Davenport Ranges lie about 350 km north east of Alice Springs, via the unsealed Sandover Highway or the bitumen Stuart Highway.

Whichever route you take, you´ll end up on the Davenport-Murchison Loop track, which takes you into Davenport Range National Park. A 4WD is essential.

 Approaching from Ammaroo, the Davenports rise almost imperceptibly from an otherwise flat landscape. They´re really little more than series of low, rocky, rolling hills, however, they contain an extensive network of waterholes, including the Old Police Station Waterhole, which is permanent.
 
As such, the park is an important refuge for waterbirds; the waterhole system, isolated from any other rivers, is also home to several species of native fish, as yet unaffected by the dreaded European carp, which has infested inland waterways across much of the eastern outback.

The park also marks the traditional land boundaries of three Aboriginal peoples ? the Warumungu, Alyawarre and Kayeteye ? as well as being bordered by several pastoral leases.   

The Old Police Station Waterhole is two kilometres long. Basic facilities ? pit toilets and wood barbecues ? are provided in the designated camping area along its south eastern bank.

It´s a wonderful place to camp, not least because there´ll be hardly anyone else there. We camped in June ? peak season in the Territory ? and apart from one other couple had the place to ourselves.

You can leave the waterhole via a relatively benign 9 km track which hooks up with the main track for the 34 km run north to Epenara Station, or via the Frew River 4WD loop, a tough, demanding 17 km drive which will take at least an hour and a half.

Only fair dinkum 4WDs with low range and high clearance should try the Frew River route, which follows the higher ridges of the Davenport Range.

It´s spectacularly beautiful, rugged country, but the track is littered with tyre-shredding, sump-busting rocks; there´s also a couple of extreme climbs thrown in, which will stop you unless you are an experienced four wheel driver.

You descend from the Davenports at the northern end of the Frew River track for the relatively easy drive to Epenara, a vast pastoral lease, where you can refuel and obtain supplies at the station store.

The local Aboriginal blokes, from the Wutunarrgurra community, have a thing for HQ-HZ Holden utes ? V8´s of course.
The Epenara store, like those on many other stations in the Territory, is run by the leaseholders to serve nearby remote Aboriginal communities which have no store of their own. As such, it´s not only a place to pick up supplies, but also a focal point for community life.

At Epenara, head north east to join the Barkly Highway, near the Barkly Homestead Roadhouse, or west for 130 km to join the Stuart Highway, 90 km south of Tennant Creek.

En route is Kurundi Station. We stopped for a chat with the leaseholder. ?How big is your place?? someone asked. ?Three thousand, eight hundred and twenty five square miles,? came the reply. That stopped the conversation for a moment or two. 

Exploring Tennant Creek

At the Stuart Highway junction, turn south for the 400 km run back to Alice Springs, stopping for a wander around the Devils Marbles, just a few kilometres down the highway.

We headed north instead, to Tennant Creek. Many travellers to the Territory are scared of the Aboriginal people, a problem that´s particularly apparent at Tennant Creek, which has a large indigenous population and a reputation as a place that´s best avoided.

Whitefellas in their shiny 4WDs with the big caravans on the back tend to roll straight through town.

This fear is borne of ignorance, though for first time visitors it is perhaps understandable. Encounters with Aboriginal people in the Territory can be disturbing, confronting, rewarding or revelatory, but they need never be fearful.

In fact given what´s happened over the last 200 or so years, it is amazing how unreservedly friendly the Aboriginal people are. Even the old blokes, who in their long lives would have been on the receiving end of every conceivable form of social, economic and institutional racial discrimination, inevitably meet your eye with a ?G´day, mate?, a quiet smile and a wave. The chips are certainly not on their shoulders.

Tennant Creek is an old mining town and service centre for the vast cattle properties of the Barkly region, which stretches east towards Queensland. It´s a rough, tough, ten gallon hat and dusty boots sort of town, where, as one of the locals told us, ?a slab of beer is still a good way to get things done.?

Tennant Creek is a rough, tough, ten gallon hat and dusty boots sort of town, where, as one of the locals told us, ?a slab of beer is still a good way to get things done.?
At the Nyinkka Nyunyu art and culture centre you can learn about the Warumungu people´s culture and history. Guided tours can also be booked. Nearby, at the Pink Palace, local Aboriginal women produce traditional and contemporary artwork; enquire at Nyinkka Nyunyu to arrange a visit.

At the Battery Hill Mining Centre, take an underground mine tour. Tennant Creek had Australia´s richest gold mines in the 1930s. According to our guide, Brent Webb and Todd Russell, the Beaconsfield survivors, have given the mine tour business a huge boost. She no longer has to explain how the tag system works either. Fossicking for gold is still popular around Tennant Creek; permits are available at Battery Hill.

North of town is the old Telegraph Station, the first building in Tennant Creek, dating from 1872. Just past the Telegraph Station, heading north, is the 6 km track to Kunjarra, or The Pebbles, a granite outcrop and significant womens´ dancing place for the Munga Munga Dreaming.

A trip east of Alice can take as little as a day if you just head out to the easily accessible parts of the East MacDonnells in a hire car.

However, if you have time to spare, a heavy duty 4WD and are self sufficient, you´re more fortunate.

Like other long driving journeys in remote parts of the Northern Territory, the deeper pleasures of the East MacDonnells, Davenport Ranges and Tennant Creek are found in ancient, inspiring landscapes, proudly surviving Aboriginal cultures, rich pastoral traditions and the people you meet on the road less travelled.

Parts of this trip, particularly from Arltunga to the Davenport Ranges, and the Davenports to Tennant Creek via Epenara and Kurundi, are very remote and require you to be self sufficient in water, food, communications and vehicle spares.

Read NRMA's expert advice on camping, caravanning and 4WD holidays where you´ll be advised about how to prepare for a remote outback adventure such as this. It's essential reading before you go. 

More Information

• Ross River Resort (good value accommodation/caravan/camping in the East MacDonnell ranges, 85 km east of Alice Springs)
• The Gemtree Caravan Park

 Article by Bill McKinnon July 2006.

All information was correct at the time of writing but may change without notice.