Mitchell Falls
Interesting facts
- The Mitchell Plateau is often described as the only part of mainland Australia where no native species is known to have gone extinct.
- A fan palm found only in the north Kimberley, Livistona eastonii, grows on the plateau up to 18 metres tall, and some individuals are about 280 years old.
- The park shelters more than 50 mammal species, about 220 kinds of birds and 86 reptiles and amphibians, including saltwater crocodiles and taipans.
- The rare rough-scaled python lives among the sandstone of the plateau, alongside the monjon rock-wallaby.
- The black grasswren, a near-threatened bird of the region, builds its nests in crevices of the sandstone.
- Mining interest in the plateau's bauxite goes back to 1965, when the company Amax Bauxite set up a camp there.
- The national park was declared in 2000 without the consent of its traditional owners, whose native title was recognised only in 2011.
- The Uunguu Indigenous Protected Area around the falls had grown to about 759,800 hectares by 2020.
- The park lies about 2,140 km north-east of Perth, Western Australia's capital, and borders Prince Regent National Park to the south.
Why it is worth it
On the remote Mitchell Plateau in the far north of Western Australia, the Mitchell River steps down through four cascading tiers. Each tier spills into a deep green pool held between sheer walls of orange sandstone. The sandstone of the Kimberley Plateau is rich in iron oxides, which give it its rust-red and ochre colours. Over long ages the river has worn it into gullies, cliffs and falls, and below the last pool it runs north through a deep, narrow gorge. Red rock, dark water and the white threads of the cascades make one of the most striking scenes in the Kimberley.
The plateau is Ngauwudu, the country of the Wunambal Gaambera people, who have lived here for more than 40,000 years and whose law and culture centre on the Wandjina, the ancestral beings they call Gulingi, and on Wunggurr. Rock art survives in the park. Native title was formally recognised in 2011, and the Uunguu Indigenous Protected Area now covers a large part of the surrounding country. The national park is managed jointly by the Wunambal Gaambera and the state parks service. The English name came from the surveyor William Easton, whose party reached the region in 1921 and named the river after James Mitchell, then Premier of Western Australia.
Mitchell River National Park was created in 2000 and covers more than 1,150 square kilometres of the plateau. Its other main feature is Surveyors Pool, called Aunauyu. The park shelters a distinctive fan palm and several threatened animals, including the monjon, one of the smallest rock-wallabies, and the black grasswren. The plateau also holds large deposits of bauxite, and in 2015 the state government agreed with the mining companies Rio Tinto and Alcoa to end mining permits over this ground.
Getting there
The falls are in an isolated part of the Kimberley, reached by four-wheel drive along the Kalumburu Road and the Mitchell Plateau Track. From the campground car park, a walking trail of about 3.5 km leads to the falls, and helicopter flights run from the Mitchell Plateau. The nearest towns are Wyndham, about 270 km to the south-east, and Derby, about 350 km to the south-west. The nearest airport is East Kimberley Regional Airport (KNX) at Kununurra, about 340 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Mitchell Falls, located in the Mitchell River National Park, is a tiered, multi-step cascade waterfall in the remote Kimberly region of Western Australia. The Wunambal Gaambera people are the traditional owners of the land on which the Mitchell River runs. Having inhabited the land for over 40,000 years, they have a deep spiritual and cultural connection to the waterfall and surrounds. The waterfall is a popular tourist and hiking destination for those passing through the remote and rugged Kimberly region.
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