Mysterious Kimberley is like nowhere else on earth

You could be forgiven for mistaking the Kimberley’s scenery for a sci-fi movie set.

Tour boat at the King George Falls

You could be forgiven for mistaking the Kimberley’s scenery for a sci-fi movie set. One of the most sparsely populated places on the planet – with just 36,000 people across 425,000 square kilometres – this pocket of northwest Australia is remote, rugged and ravishing. Waterfalls seem to pour off every cliff edge, vast caves decorated with the world’s oldest rock art await, gorges carve through two-billion-year-old sandstone escarpments, and epic tides tumble over reefs, transforming ecosystems in minutes. Amid it all are sprinkled tropical forest-topped islands – thousands of them – and impenetrable ochre chasms enveloped by bottle-shaped boab trees and tall stands of grass that bristle like an old man’s beard.

Some landscapes are so convincingly Jurassic you expect dinosaurs. What you find are crocodiles: the “freshies”, which locals think nothing of swimming with; and the “salties” – not quite as friendly – in unfathomable lengths wallowing in mangroves on the hunt for fish and crabs.

Echidna Chasm in Purnululu National Park

It’s not just the lizard-like reptiles that are larger here – in the Kimberley, the skies feel wider, the air cleaner, the night skies brighter, the wilderness, well, wilder. This is nature writ large, a true frontier that excites your imagination like nowhere else in Australia. From Broome to Montgomery Reef, Horizontal Falls to the Bungle Bungles, here are 10 ways to experience the region’s ancient landscapes.

Cruise the Kimberley’s rivers and coast

Wilderness and solitude are amplified the further north you travel in the Kimberley, until you reach a point, around Mitchell River and Prince Regent national parks, beyond all towns or roads. Just rivers wending through gorges, spilling into the Indian Ocean. Needless to say, the best – sometimes only – way to explore this remote pocket of Western Australia is by boat, with companies like True North and The Great Escape cruising barramundi-filled estuaries in serious style. Perks of both include on-ship helicopters, available to shuttle you to far-flung waterholes for picnics and a swim, and able to hover beside 30,000-year-old rock art, hidden high on rocky cliffs. Each morning you’ll wake in a destination more dramatic than the last, whether spotting brolga and candy-coloured kingfishers beside the crashing twin King George Falls in the North Kimberley Marine Park, or on the lookout for rays, turtles and snubfin dolphins amid the opaline waters of Montgomery Reef, the world’s largest inshore reef.
truenorth.com.au
greatescapecruises.com.au

Dive in to the Buccaneer Archipelago

This part of the Kimberley Coast is the gateway to the Buccaneer Archipelago, 1,000 tiny islands that pop like jewels from the turquoise sea. If, upon arrival, you can’t believe the otherworldly setting unravelling before you, consider the fact this part of Western Australia is two billion years in the perfecting. A proposed 660,000-hectare marine park will ensure the protection of the fragile ecosystem, from the rocky uninhabited islets topped with lime-green pandanus and emerald rainforest, to the “Iron Islands” rich with ore. You can enjoy highlights on Air Kimberley’s “Buccaneer Explorer” fly-cruise itinerary, but to prolong that edge-of-the-world feeling take a four-day cruise aboard a luxury houseboat with Kimberley Quest – helicopter and speedboat at your beck and call to reach hidden hamlets.
airkimberley.com.au
kimberleyquest.com.au

Cruise, then fly, over the Horizontal Falls

Aerial view of the Horizontal Falls, Talbot Bay

It’s here, surrounding the Buccaneer, that King Sound breaks records for the highest tides in the country, and among the highest in the world. To fully appreciate this intensity, head to the Horizontal Falls, described by Sir David Attenborough as “Australia’s most unusual natural wonder.” Nothing quite prepares you for an in-person encounter with this dramatic phenomenon, pulling visitors in – literally – with its forceful movement of water. At lowest tide, every second, one million litres of water squeezes through two narrow gaps in the ridges of the Kimberley’s rust-red McLarty Range, effectively a waterfall turned sideways. At mid-tide, it reverses, and by high-tide, the flow is rushing the opposite direction through the chasm. Boats crossing the falls buck and jive over enormous undulating eddies and froth, while light aircraft hover over the spectacle’s rising spray.
horizontalfallsadventures.com.au

Check in to El Questro

A splendidly chic lodge uniting style with sustainability, El Questro is a working-cattle-station-turned-luxe-resort surrounding Emma Gorge, which carves through the very top of the state. Whether you’ve checked in to its sleek suites, the homestead or its glamping tents, unencumbered wilderness beckons on your doorstep – more than 300,000 hectares on the lodge’s property alone. This offers endless opportunities to hike, bike, ride, drive, cruise and even fly over some of the country’s most far-flung landscapes – your adventures here offer the increasingly rare impression that you’re the very first to have experienced them. Try a sunset cruise along Chamberlain Gorge, where your boat is dwarfed by soaring walls of red rock. At the end of the day, dust off the dirt, and sit beneath the stars to indulgent meals inspired by the surrounding Ord River Valley.
elquestro.com.au

Chopper over the Bungle Bungles

Soaring over the Bungle Bungle Range in a helicopter, you’ll feel like the queen bee. It’s not just the buzz of your chariot’s rotor, but the alternating striations of orange sandstone and black algae crust wrapping hive-like mounds in Purnululu National Park below. Change your flying trajectory over the World Heritage-listed expanse to reveal gorges, chasms and rockpools, cooled by Livistona palms clinging to rocks. These narrow crevices are perhaps best explored on foot, for that Indiana Jones moment of grasping rays of sunlight skirting 300-metre rock towers moulded by rainfall over millions of years. If you’re driving, bring a 4WD and a sense of adventure; and come between April and mid-October when the park is open.
helispirit.com.au

Drive the Gibb River Road

For legendary 4WD journeys, look no further than the Gibb River Road, an epic 660-kilometre stretch of unsealed track linking the towns of Derby and Wyndham. Built in the 1960s to transport cattle from outlying stations into port, its immense linked farms still line your route – some the size of small countries. Allow two weeks to complete the trek, the only path in to some of the region’s wildest attractions. Exit the main road to discover the oasis-like Windjana Gorge, where trails along the Lennard River traverse the spiritual homeland of the Bunuba people. Marvel at the majesty of Punamii-Uunpuu (Mitchell Falls), four tiers of water filling emerald pools. Cool off in Manning Gorge, where seasonal waterfalls tumble to year-round swimming holes of the croc-free variety, and Bradshaw and Wandjina rock art presides from above on rock overhangs. And tour Drysdale River Station, a 405,000-hectare working cattle farm, so vast it boasts its own airstrip – from here you can hire a helicopter to enjoy a bird’s-eye view over the Michell Falls, Prince Regent River and Kimberley coastline.
drysdaleriver.com.au

Catch a sunset/moonrise in Broome

Enjoying prime position on the Dampier Peninsula, a slice of white sand and pindan soil between the turquoise water of the Indian Ocean and the mangroves of Roebuck Bay, Broome is remote – some 2,500 kilometres from the nearest capital city (Perth). This last-frontier setting brings with it plenty of country swagger, but also a surprisingly cosmopolitan lifestyle thanks to the hugely multicultural population; more than 57 languages are spoken around town. Early settlers were drawn here by the prospect of finding fortunes in the pearling industry, which thrives to this day. But modern-day fortune-seekers arrive for the blazing sunsets that set Cable Beach aglow each evening. If you time your visit right (March through November), you might catch the Staircase to the Moon, a natural phenomenon caused by the full moon’s reflections across the mudflats of Roebuck Bay, creating the illusion of a stairway reaching skywards.

Discover Indigenous history

Having lived in and beside salt water his entire life, Yawuru man Bart Pigram knows a thing or two about the place he calls home. His Narlijia Experiences Broome tours offer an intimate glimpse into Indigenous life in northwest Australia, whether you’re visiting sacred middens (piles of ancient shells and bones), plucking through mangroves in search of mud crabs, or hearing about the plight of Aboriginal communities during the town’s pearling heyday. Whichever your experience, you’ll get to taste bush tucker and learn about traditional medicines – you might also have the chance to witness Broome’s 135-million-year-old dinosaur footprints, visible at low tide in several locations including Reddell Beach, Cable Beach and Gantheaume Point.
toursbroome.com.au

Camp at Cape Leveque

Mud Crabbing with Bolo, Kooljaman at Cape Leveque

Perhaps the only sunsets more memorable than Broome’s are at Cape Leveque, sitting pretty on the northern tip of the Dampier Peninsula and offering a setting few get to glimpse. The 200-kilometre drive between the two destinations requires a 4WD, with both paved and unsealed red-dirt roads traversing significant swathes of native-title land, including settlements of Beagle Bay and Lombadina. When you arrive at Cape Leveque, check in to Bardi Jawi-owned and -managed Kooljaman, an off-grid wilderness camp crafted to capture the surrounding natural beauty. And boy does it dazzle – think dramatic flame-hued cliffs tumbling to bone-white sand and gin-clear water, so vivid you’ll think someone has removed your glasses and cleaned them for the first time. Pitch your own canvas, sleep in safari-style tents or stay in cabins, and then enjoy days swimming, snorkelling, fishing, whale watching or bird spotting.
kooljaman.com.au

Swim in Lake Argyle

Australia’s second-largest freshwater man-made reservoir by volume, Lake Argyle was formed by the damming of the Ord River more than 50 years ago. The expansive waterway hosts 70 islands… and more than 30,000 freshwater crocodiles. Surrounded by ancient boabs, fields of sandalwood and sunflowers, and bizarre red rock formations, the lake is the founding force behind Kununurra. Welcome to the Kimberley’s youngest town. This is a place where you can walk barefoot into a jewellery store selling the world’s most prized diamonds: pink gems sourced (until 2020) from the region’s Argyle Diamond Mine – the largest in the world. Then cruise ‘freshie’-filled Lake Argyle estuaries to find a beach where you can swim or kayak with the creatures. If the thought rattles your nerves, drive straight to Hoochery Distillery (WA’s oldest) for a shot of Kimberley Moon white rum or Ord River corn and sorghum whiskey.
kimberleyfinediamonds.com.au
hoochery.com.au
triplejtours.com.au