Alice Springs places to swim: Waterholes fill after heavy rains

Take a look at the Red Centre's full waterholes in the gallery above.

Half a dozen green-winged budgerigars chitter as they flit between the branches of tall gum trees. A kite wheels silently, high overhead. But the sight that stops me in my tracks is a pair of ducks – not a particularly exotic bird, except when you are in the middle of the desert. How did these two come to be bobbing along happily in a waterhole outside of Alice Springs?

The Alice is famously dry. The Todd River that runs through town is usually a dry riverbed. The air itself is so dry that fleets of international aircraft are currently parked in "deep storage" at the airport. In short, the Alice is not an obvious swim spot.

Yet the MacDonnell Ranges that flank the town are riddled with gorges that – given enough rainfall – function as waterholes. Some dry up quickly; others, like Ellery Creek and Glen Helen Gorge, have at least some water in them throughout the year. Right now, however, recent rains have turned the desert green and filled the waterholes to the brim.

"We have had some really good rain events earlier this year – only two big ones, but that's enough. Water levels rise very quickly here," says Scott Pullyblank, curator at the Alice Springs Desert Park. "Eventually it will evaporate, but for the next month or so, we'll have a lot of water."

That's certainly true at Glen Helen Gorge, the first stop on our swim safari. Sitting 130 kilometres west of Alice, Glen Helen Gorge holds water throughout the year. Right now, the pool gathered beneath those towering sandstone walls is so deep that I soon find myself out of my depth, even though I'm more than 182 centimetres tall.

The access road to the gorge is closed, but a sign points us to a bush trail that, 15 minutes later, deposits us on the banks of the gorge. We are the only people here. We wade past the reeds and start swimming, passing that pair of content ducks on the way. "There is a permanent population of waterbirds there - coots and grebes and ducks," Pullyblank tells me.

That is the only waterhole we get completely to ourselves. At Ellery Creek, one of the closest waterholes to the Alice, several families have settled in for the day. At Ormiston Gorge, I float on my back and marvel at the contrast between the spectral white trunks of the ghost gums lining the eye-watering blue of the desert sky. Later we sun ourselves on the rocks and watch as more intrepid souls pile their belongings on their heads and wade through the chest-deep water to the far side of the gorge, where they relax on a white sand beach.

Alice Springs isn't the only part of the Northern Territory now rejoicing in the after-effects of large rainfalls. Up in the Top End, the waterfalls at Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks are flowing freely, and the Mary River floodplain lies under a heavy blanket of water.

"We've had three poor wet seasons, but this has been an amazing year for water," says Charlie Carlow of Bamurru Plains, the tented safari camp overlooking the Mary River floodplain. "When there's this much water, it stays in the landscape so much longer – and it's great for the breeding cycles of the animals."

Scott Pullyblank agrees that visitors can expect to see more wildlife than usual in the coming weeks. "The budgerigars are going berserk breeding in the trees around water courses, and with all the grass that's sprung up, there's plenty of feed for them. You'll soon start to see really big green and yellow flocks at the waterholes."

As bird numbers increase, so will predator numbers; for the best wildlife viewing, it makes sense to choose one of the less-visited waterholes, such as John Hayes Rockhole at Trephina Gorge Park. "If you camp out and make yourself fairly invisible you might see quite a lot happening. Kites and wedge-tailed eagles hunt around waterfalls; you may see dingos too. Or skip the main waterhole at Ormiston Gorge and take the Pound Walk – there are other waterholes further out where people don't get to too often."

The writer was a guest of Tourism NT.

See also: There's a new world record holder for world's highest infinity pool

See also: Nine spectacular pink lakes you must visit