The magnificent Keep River National Park on the NT/WA border is currently looking more magnificent than ever following above-average wet season rainfall.
During the dry season, many grey nomads are blown away by the beauty of the relatively unknown park and its ‘mini Bungle Bungles’ and excellent camping. They would find it to be a different place at the moment.
While very few grey nomads or other visitors get to the park at this time of the year, NT Parks and Wildlife staff say it is looking lush and spectacular with the floodplains, billabongs and creeks overflowing.
More than 800 millimetres of rain fell at the park in January and February, following on from 200 millimetres in December.
The park’s solo wet season ranger, Chris Washusen, told the ABC that everything was absolutely waterlogged.
“Where there might be a little dry creek that you can drive straight through in the dry season, at the moment that is about one to two metres deep,” he said. “There is a lot of water out on the flat ground … you could almost drive an airboat across it at the moment.”
Mr Washusen said the trees and plants within the park were looking lush.
“The speargrass is all coming back at the moment and the boabs are starting to fruit,” he told the ABC. “It is good to see a lot of extra plant growth, but there are a lot of weeds unfortunately.”
While visitors may be thin on the ground, Mr Washusen said he was kept very busy with park maintenance.
“Usually I would be out spraying weeds around our infrastructure, our signs, making sure they are well looked after,” he said. “Plus trying to keep an eye on where all the water runoff is coming from, making sure none of the tracks get too badly eroded.”
· Have you been pleasantly surprised by the relatively unheralded Keep River National Park? Comment below.
Keep River National Park is a gem. We travelled in there in August 2022. Road in is slightly corrugated. We have a big van and no problems getting in. Camp sites need to be booked. The walks are well worth the effort. An amazing place