Timber Creek and Judbarra

Gregory National Park, NT. Photo credit: Tourism NT

Timber Creek and Judbarra

285km south-west of Katherine, along the Victoria Highway, you’ll reach Timber Creek, gateway to the mighty Judbarra/Gregory National Park.

Things to do in Timber Creek
The first police station here opened in 1898. It’s now the Timber Creek Police Station Museum. It’s only small, but it gives you a fascinating glimpse into early police life.

The Victoria River is great for Barramundi and mud crab fishing. Scenic flights and boat tours of the area are available from here and the Victoria River Roadhouse.

The Roadhouse is a good place to stop and refuel (you and the car). It and the Judbarra/Gregory National Park Visitor Centre are also good places to pick up maps and brochures for the park, and to ask locals about road closures (especially in the wet).

Things to see in Judbarra/Gregory National Park
Watching a landscape change from tropical to semi-arid is quite something, and the transition is easy to see as you head south through this park.

At 13,000 sq km it’s the second largest in the NT, brimming with gorges, monsoon rainforests and escarpments that practically beg to be bushwalked.

Best of all, though, are the sometimes magnificent, sometimes plain daft, but always incredible boab trees. They’re one of the Northern Territory’s star natural attractions, and you’ll only find them here or in the Kimberley region of WA.

The Nawulbinbin (Joe Creek) Loop Walk is quite demanding but takes in a number of Aboriginal paintings along its route. Alternatively, take the more laid-back approach and try the Escarpment Walk. The views of the Victoria River down below are glorious.

You can access the park from Kununurra, WA, but you’ll still reach Timber Creek before the park entrance. Tracks are mostly for 4WD (with a handful for 2WD) but roads can still become impassable during the wet season (Nov-Apr). You can check which roads are open before you set off here.

Oh, and watch out for the crocs.

Bullita Homestead
It’s a bit of a detour (42km off the highway and 4WD only), but the homestead does give you a real insight into the difficult lives of the early pastoralists who settled this remote region. The homestead was abandoned in the 1970s but has been lovingly restored by the park rangers and is kept in top shape. The information boards are detailed and interesting too. If you’re looking for accommodation in the Judbarra area, you’ll find a campground nearby.

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Gregory's Tree

This is the land of the Ngaliwurra and Nungali people, who lived here for tens of thousands of years before it was ‘discovered’ in 1856 by Augustus Charles Gregory.

The bush knowledge of the Aborigines kept the new arrivals alive long enough for them to repair their ship and move on. The timber they found to enable those repairs gave the creek its new name, or so the story goes.

At Gregory’s original campsite, 15km from the creek, there’s an ancient boab tree into which Gregory carved his name. You can still see Gregory’s Tree – and the carving – today.