2026/07 Kimberley Part 1

2026
Trip to the Kimberley, July

15 Day APT Kimberly Complete

Part 1

Broome/Windjana Gorge/Tunnel Creek/Fitzroy Crossing/Purnululu National Park/Bungle Bungles

Thursday, 9 July

Depart at 11:05 from Brisbane via Perth to arrive at 18:00 in Broome

Broome to Broome: 15 days

4WD Tour

10 July

Broome is famous for:

...sunsets

...Boab trees

...Paspaley ...Cable Beach Resort

...the world's oldest cinema ... no traffic lights

You know you're in Broome when you keep going around in circles...

and having a good time ...

We checked into the Cable Beach Club Resort & Spa and waited for sunset.

Kimberley Pool

Getting my feet wet in the Indian Ocean

Waiting for sunset

Can't take much longer

Going down

Down further

Almost

Gone

We met our Tour Director Leigh and 22 fellow travellers over Dinner at Cable Beach Resort.

Saturday, 11 July

Departing Broome

Departing from Cable Beach Resort

Our Tour Director Leigh awaits with our coach

We travelled the Great Northern Highway.

First Stop in Willare

RNM checking out for roadworthiness

as are Carol and Nada

The first of many magnificent Boab trees at Meda

Evolution of the Kimberley Landscape

The Kimberley landscape is ancient and has been evolving for the past 250 million years. Climate and erosion by water, wind, and ice have worn away hills and valleys, leaving isolated hills. If earth movements uplift the surface, the landscape becomes rejuvenated as rivers and streams cut down into and erode the old surface, forming a new system of hills and valleys.

The following is a Sequence of Geological Events, showing the millions of years it took to form the West and East Kimberley:

Erosion produced the present landscape of hills, valleys, and gorges, driven by the uplift of the low Kimberley surface, which began 20 million years ago as Australia began to drift north towards Asia. A rise in sea level about 17,000 years ago, following the last ice age, drowned the Kimberley coastline, with the sea now filling what were once river valleys.

Today, we can marvel at the imposing sights, the famed black-and-orange-striped domes, the geological wonders, the Indigenous cultural significance and its overall magnificence.

We began our first walk to Bandilngan (Windjana Gorge), where sheer cliffs tower above glistening white sands.

Bandilngan National Park

Lennard River

An ancient marine fossil embedded in the gorge walls, but you've got to know where to look, Leigh knew

Tunnel Creek (Dimulurru)

Over the past 20 million years, water has carved through the limestone of the Napier Range to form this 750m-long tunnel, once part of an ocean reef system.

Dimulurru was used as a hideout by the Aboriginal resistance fighter Jandamarra of the Bunuba people, who led a 3-year campaign against British colonisation. He was killed in 1897, aged 24.

Dimalurru follows a prominent joint or fault that has acted as a channel for groundwater flowing through the limestone and eroding the tunnel.

RNM climbing

Be CROCWISE in the Kimberley... Alas, RNM saw the sign and retreated hastily

Omnipresent Boab trees

First stop at Fitzroy River, a small settlement on the mighty Fitzroy River.

Fitzroy River Lodge

Fitzroy River Lodge pays homage to local identity Maxine McDonald, whose portrait graces the Lodge's walls.

Maxine McDonald

1914 - 2003

Maxine became famous throughout the Kimberley for bringing high culture and hospitality to the remote outback, often hosting guests, regional travellers, and visiting politicians on the wide verandahs of Fossil Downs Station, near the junction of Margaret and Fitzroy Rivers. She was educated in Sydney and worked there as a high-society fashion model until she married William 'Bill' McDonald in 1938, whose pioneering family had established Fossil Downs Station in the 1880s after a historic 3-year overland cattle drive from NSW.

This remarkable woman actively advocated for living conditions, healthcare, and education in isolated pastoral communities across northern WA. In 1981, she received an MBR for her outstanding service to the Kimberley community.

12 July

Departing Fitzroy River Lodge

We headed to Mimbi Caves, home to the Gooniyandi people and a place of spiritual significance for thousands of years.

Mueller Ranges

View of the Window - natural window in a sandstone dome

Mimbi Caves

An intricate system of high, narrow, interconnected passageways forms underground pools. Water only flows through the caves after prolonged heavy rain during the wet season. During the dry season, water dripping from the cave roof onto the floor precipitates calcite to form stalagmites, or flows down the walls to form curtains of flowstone.