Karijini National Park
Interesting facts
- A rail corridor carrying iron ore trains and the Marandoo iron ore mine cut right through the park, splitting it in two.
- The explorer Francis Thomas Gregory led a party through the area in 1861 and named the Hamersley Range after his friend Edward Hamersley.
- The gorge walls expose named rock units such as the Brockman Iron Formation, the Wittenoom Dolomite and the Mount McRae Shale.
- Five gorges, Hancock, Joffre, Knox, Red and Weano, converge at the heart of the park.
- Most of the park's 250 to 350 mm of yearly rain comes in summer thunderstorms and cyclones, yet winter nights can bring frost.
- For thousands of years its traditional owners managed the country with fire-stick farming, a practice of deliberate, controlled burning.
- Red kangaroos, euros, rock-wallabies, dingoes and echidnas live among the spinifex, along with pythons, goannas and legless lizards.
- The park lies north of the Tropic of Capricorn, about 1,055 km from Perth, and covers some 627,000 hectares.
Why it is worth it
Karijini National Park, in the Pilbara of Western Australia, is a plateau of red iron-rich rock and gold spinifex that hides an underworld of gorges. On top the country is flat and hot; then the ground opens, and narrow chasms drop through layer upon layer of banded rock to green pools, ferns and waterfalls. The contrast between the burnt surface and the cool, echoing depths is the essence of the place.
The rocks are among the oldest exposed on Earth, around 2.5 billion years old: banded iron formations laid down in ancient seas, striped in rust, purple, ochre and grey, together with dolomite and shale. In the gorges these layers are cut like pages of a book, and in places erosion has worn them into stepped ledges that form natural staircases down to the water. Dales Gorge holds Fortescue Falls, which tumbles over those ledges into a deep pool, and upstream the tranquil Fern Pool, fringed with ferns and figs. Circular Pool lies at the bottom of a rounded amphitheatre of rock. Weano Gorge narrows to Handrail Pool, reached by a scramble between close rock walls; Oxer Lookout, high above, gives one of the most dramatic views in the state, straight down into the gorges below.
The park was created in 1969 as Hamersley Range National Park and renamed in 1991. Karijini means "hilly place" in the language of the Banyjima people, who, with the Kurrama and Innawonga, are its traditional owners; their presence here goes back more than 20,000 years. At over 6,200 square kilometres it is the second largest national park in Western Australia, and it also includes Punurrunha (Mount Bruce), at 1,234 metres the state's second highest peak, with a summit trail over the Hamersley Range.
The best months are the cooler dry season, roughly April to September; summer heat regularly passes 40°C. Some gorge walks require scrambling and swimming in cold water, and flash floods can follow rain.
Getting there
Tom Price, the nearest town with services, is about 50–80 km from the main areas of the park depending on the entrance used; Karratha, the regional centre, is about 200 km away. Paraburdoo Airport (PBO) is about 105 km away in a straight line. Sealed roads reach the main recreation areas, with Dales Campground and the Karijini Eco Retreat inside the park.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Karijini National Park is an Australian national park centred in the Hamersley Ranges of the Pilbara region in the northwestern section of Western Australia. The park is located north of the Tropic of Capricorn, 1,055 kilometres (656 mi) from the state's capital city, Perth. Formerly known as Hamersley Range National Park, the park was officially renamed in 1991.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
-22.25060, 117.97600per Wikidata