Day Walks in Wild Western Australia EP 3: Sandstone to the West Coast

In this episode we visit three of the most exciting places that Western Australia has to offer: Walga Rock (Walganah), Mt Augustus National Park, and Kennedy Range National Park. All are fantastic for hiking.

Walganah is the second largest monolithic rock in Australia, after Uluru. It is 50 hectares in area and 5 km around the base. The summit is a maze of natural gardens, “Devil’s Marbles” and enormous detached slabs of rock waiting to plummet down its slopes. The rock and the surrounding continental crust are 2.6 billion years old – some of the oldest rocks on Earth.

But what makes it so special is an enormous overhang in the base of the rock that houses Western Australia’s largest Aboriginal rock art gallery. There are 800 motifs, covering an occupation period from 10,000 to 800 years ago. The most famous painting is of what appears to be a square-rigged sailing ship, with six lines of writing underneath of unknown origin.

The drive from Walganah to Mt Augustus National Park is a long and dusty one, but the trip is worth it. Mt Augustus is an inselberg, or “island mountain”. Its huge bulk thrusts 715 metres above the flat red plains, reaching 1,105 metres above sea level. The hiking is fantastic and varied, as is the rich collection of Aboriginal rock engravings.

The northern route from Mt Augustus to Kennedy Range National Park, via Mangaroona Creek, is rough, remote and infrequently travelled. And that, of course, is its attraction to us. Our trip to WA was timed to coincide with a wet year, with the resultant explosion of life. None more so than at Mangaroona Creek where Budgerigars in their thousands were mating in the River Gums, where they nest in tree hollows. The sight was amazing and the noise endless and deafening during the day. The preoccupation of the birds allowed us to get up close and personal. It was a privilege to watch this infrequent phenomenon (the birds won’t breed in large numbers without good rain).

Kennedy Range National Park, well what can I say. We arrived just as the campground was clearing out because of coming rain – the roads were expected to be closed for 4 days, and they were. From our point of view this was miraculous since we had the whole park for that time almost to ourselves. Not only that, but the creeks flowed, the waterholes filled, and good rains earlier in the year meant that the vegetation was bursting with life in this normally arid area. We witnessed an ephemeral and fragile beauty almost beyond description, all the while knowing that the normally arid climate would soon desiccate and bleach the vegetation once more.

The campsite is at the hub of most of the outstanding walking tracks. It is set to the east and at the base of a stunning escarpment rich in red hues. So sunrise on a clear, cold winter’s morning is nothing less than glorious. I had several goes with the camera and I hope you enjoy the results.