This vast National Park is a vast ancient land, with ranges, remote water holes and gorges. Some pools are permanent and are scattered throughout the park enabling large numbers of marsupials, birds and vast herds of camels to survive in what would otherwise be a very dry landscape indeed. As for the pronunciation of the name Rudall its ‘Roo-dal’ and not as most people say ‘Rudd –all’
The park sits on the boundary between the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts, and tracks in the park are not maintained.
Whilst remote and challenging, visitors to the park can expect to see a pristine desert environment with ancient ranges that provide the visitor with spectacular vistas. These ranges contain numerous, gorges,
rock holes and permanent water holes.
Rudall River itself is an ancient river system that flows easterly through the park to
Lake Dora.
The Department of Environment and Conservation doesn’t provide any visitor
services, you are on your own and need to be totally self sufficient and prepared if wishing to travel in the area. Most people access
Rudall River from
Newman via
Jigalong using the Talawana Track or
Marble Bar via the Ripon Hills Telfer Road.
A drive to Desert Queen Baths in the
Broadhurst Range will provide the visitor with a wonderful scenic walk along a gorge that has a series of large waterholes, many of which are permanent. Allow at least one day for this trek leg.
Equally spectacular is a drive along the
Graphite Valley track. This track although very rough provides hundreds of photographic opportunities on the drive along the valley floor or along the ridge line as you follow the route to its end. Views range from, mounts, jump ups, sandy creek beds, ranges, bluffs, mesas, and quartz outcrops. The
Graphite Valley track is not suitable for trailers of any type. Allow a full day return for this trek leg alone.
Out to the west, another track takes you to
Watrara Pool, Curran Curran
Rockhole and
Hanging Rock. This is another impressive trek with views of ranges, valleys and water courses. Allow 1.5 days return for this trek leg.
How to Use this Trek Note
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Environment
Rudall River NP has the
Little Sandy Desert in the south-west, an area of ranges and stony hills and the
Great Sandy Desert to the north.
The most prevalent vegetation is spinifex with trees and shrubs concentrated around water courses. Belts of large river gums along watercourses provide many a spectacular vista.
The main animals seen are camels, dingoes and marsupials. Depending on the season many birds are seen throughout the park, although mainly were water is found nearby. We have seen plovers, swallows, willy wagtails, honeyeaters, bustards and birds of prey to name just a few.
From a 4WDriving point of view, other than the poorly maintained and at times very corrugated main north south track, all other tracks in the park are rough. Some have not been graded since the day they were built and are now very rough, washed out and very difficult to traverse. It is however along these tracks that the best sights and
places to visit are found.
History
The Warnman, Gardutjarra, Mandjildjarra and Ngulibardu aboriginal people were the original inhabitants of the
Rudall river area.
The first white men to arrive in the area were W Rudall and F Hann in 1896-97. Rudall, a government surveyor, led a party searching for George Jones and Charles Wells, lost members of the Calvert Expedition. Hann was on a private trip looking for suitable pastoral country. Hann and Rudall met at
Meeting Gorge, west of
Hanging Rock.
Hann named
Rudall River; he also named
Broadhurst Range after Eva Broadhurst a part owner of Pyramid Station in the
Pilbara.
Rudall changed the name of Lake Misery to
Lake Dora after his fiancée Dora Miller.
One of Rudall’s men was H S Trotman; he later became the 2 I C to A Canning when the Rabbit Proof Fence and the
Canning Stock Route were explored and built.
Trotman’s initials and names of other
explorers can be seen chiselled into the rock face at
Christmas Pool (Wantamata).
Alfred Ives prospected in the area of the park 1937 -1939. A
plaque commemorating his expeditions is screwed to a tree at
Tjingkulatjatjarra Pool.
The
Rudall River National Park was declared on 22 April 1977.
TrekID: 164