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
Click the "Map" tab to see the route we've provided. Icons on the map are the POIs you'll need for navigation purposes. Be sure to check the list of Nearby
Places on each POI page.
If you'd like to save this information there are a couple of ways to go about it, depending on what you're actually after:-
- Ideal solution - download the ExplorOz Traveller App from the applicable store for your device -
either the Google PlayStore, the App Store, or the Windows Store (for Windows 10 devices only). The ExplorOz Traveller app is a complete mapping, navigation and tracking app and includes all the ExplorOz Trek routes ready for you to simply click and follow with auto-guidance available whether you are online, or offline. For more details, read our ExplorOz Traveller page. - You can print a paper copy of the text using the print icon button shown above, near the social media buttons. For the best output it is advised to open each tab/section to load all images and artwork. You will still need to click open each Place page (listed in Where to Stay, What to See) to print off all available information.
- If you have a Hema Navigator or use Mapping Software such as OziExplorer, or TrackRanger AND you are an ExplorOz Member, then you can click the Download Trek button at the top of this page to obtain the raw data files (eg. GPX) for this Trek.
- If you're not a Member, or you'd like to batch download the entire Treks database you can obtain this by buying a product called EOTreks Route Files from our online shop.
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.
