Mercer Travels: Mount Augustus and Kennedy Ranges.

Back in Salmon Gums near Esperance we met a couple who said we should visit Mount Augustus, we had to look at the map to find it as had never heard of the place, they said it was the biggest rock in the world, bigger even than Uluru and worth a visit. And so since then we have had this place in the back of our minds but not quite sure it we could make it. Whilst planning our next route after Shark Bay we could either go north direct to Carnarvon and then track inland, or we could go a slightly longer route via dirt roads, we chose the dirt.
Leaving Nanga Bay we made our way out to the main highway, turning back south for about 30kms we came to the turn off for Butchers Track and headed east on the dirt highway. Our stop for that night would be Murchison, they only have about 20 permanent residents who work for the shire and the roadhouse. The van park at the roadhouse is good value and the amenities and BBQ area are all brand new, there is a small museum to have a look at and a new sports clubhouse which is only used twice a year for polo competition.

The next day we continued on the dirt roads north, stopping at Bilung Pool for morning tea, this was one of the popular watering holes for drovers moving cattle through the region and the local aborigines feared a water snake in the pool so would throw a handful of sand into the water to appease the creature before using the water from the pool.

Finally after a full day driving we could see Mount Augustus, it really stood out on the horizon and even had a blue/purple haze to it which we later found out is caused by plants releasing oils around the base. Mount Augustus (Burringurrah) rises to 1105m above sea level and is made up of sandstone and quartz and is the largest monocline or rock in the world. We checked in to Mount Augustus Station and setup camp with a nice outlook over the Mount. The following morning we did the walk to Edney’s Lookout which is about 6km return, in the afternoon we did a couple of the smaller walks before finishing the day at the sunset lookout to take some photos. There is a walk to the peak that takes 6hrs return but we felt we might have been pushing it trying to get the kids up there and not sure our own legs would make it that far either.

Aboriginal engravings

Moving on after two nights we made our way over to Gascoyne Junction to refuel before reaching Kennedy Ranges National Park, there is a god sized camping area suitable for large caravans with camp hosts in attendance to assist choosing a site and collecting fees. This is another place that has stunning views and a number of walks from the campsite to different areas of the park including some impressive gorges, we managed to do a walk/climb to one of the escarpments and a couple of the gorge walks which was good fun climbing over boulders.

On our third day the skies clouded over which meant we were due to head back to the coast and so after packing up we made our way back to Gascoyne Junction but not without first stopping at this cobbled road. Back in the 1930’s a government project for unemployed caused by the great depression, created this cobbled road from Carnarvon to Bangemall Goldfield. Another interesting story from this area in 1924 Charles Kingsford Smith ran the mail from Carnarvon to Meekatharra. using the earnings to help fund his aviation adventures.