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Destinations > Diamond In The Rough
Diamond In The Rough
Make sure you have enough fuel to go on the Warracoota Circuit Drive before leaving the park. The round trip from Gum Creek camping area is about 95km and some parts of the circuit are really rough. Try and allow approximately 3 hours to complete the journey, longer if you are like me and want to explore the bushes around the base of sand-hills for wildlife.
Just after turning off onto the circuit drive you pass steel cattle yards that were constructed by the former owner of the park, then a bit further on you come to some large red dunes. If you walk up to the top of these red dunes there are great panoramic views over the surrounding landscape. Walk slowly and you might even spot a small military dragon or a skink running across the sand.
After leaving the sand dunes behind you the track winds across clay pans for about 10km. If you come to the park at the beginning of the season drive very slowly over them since there might not have been any other vehicles there for months making the wheel tracks that you are supposed to be following next to invisible. There are few small posts that you can get your bearings off but they can be difficult to see.
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Once you are past the clay pans the landscape is dominated by small clumps of mulga, gibber plains then grasslands which are a good place to keep your eye out for zebra finches and other seed eating birds. The original inhabitants of the Diamantina area the Maiawali, hunted for lizards and other small animals across these grasslands, making their camp around the tree lined banks at Lake Constance that you pass about halfway through the drive.
Over the next 10km or so the track is quite rough as it winds across the flat, cracked earth of Flinders grass country before it slowly rises up into broader grasslands and surrounding sand-hills. Make sure you get out and have a look around Warracoota Waterhole that was an important stock watering point during the park's former cattle station days. The track meanders on for about another 30km from here until it comes out on the Springvale-Boulia road about 9km west of Gumhole camping area.
Welford National Park
To reach Welford National Park, head back to Windorah and fill up with fuel and water then drive east towards Quilpie for about 50km until you reach the turn-off to Jundah. The park, whose southern boundary runs along the Barcoo River, is another 50km north of here.
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Just after turning off onto the circuit drive you pass steel cattle yards that were constructed by the former owner of the park, then a bit further on you come to some large red dunes. If you walk up to the top of these red dunes there are great panoramic views over the surrounding landscape. Walk slowly and you might even spot a small military dragon or a skink running across the sand.
After leaving the sand dunes behind you the track winds across clay pans for about 10km. If you come to the park at the beginning of the season drive very slowly over them since there might not have been any other vehicles there for months making the wheel tracks that you are supposed to be following next to invisible. There are few small posts that you can get your bearings off but they can be difficult to see.
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Once you are past the clay pans the landscape is dominated by small clumps of mulga, gibber plains then grasslands which are a good place to keep your eye out for zebra finches and other seed eating birds. The original inhabitants of the Diamantina area the Maiawali, hunted for lizards and other small animals across these grasslands, making their camp around the tree lined banks at Lake Constance that you pass about halfway through the drive.
Over the next 10km or so the track is quite rough as it winds across the flat, cracked earth of Flinders grass country before it slowly rises up into broader grasslands and surrounding sand-hills. Make sure you get out and have a look around Warracoota Waterhole that was an important stock watering point during the park's former cattle station days. The track meanders on for about another 30km from here until it comes out on the Springvale-Boulia road about 9km west of Gumhole camping area.
Welford National Park
To reach Welford National Park, head back to Windorah and fill up with fuel and water then drive east towards Quilpie for about 50km until you reach the turn-off to Jundah. The park, whose southern boundary runs along the Barcoo River, is another 50km north of here.
next page »
