DiNo's Travels Around Australia - 2014/2015/16/17: 31 May 2017

Today we were to take advantage of a lovely sunny day, except for a bit of a lazy wind. We headed off early to beat the rush, which was never a problem, as there was none. The 85 km drive to the Lawn Hill Gorge was over a gravel road. Our worst fears of a gravel road were not realised, as in many parts, the road has a light tar covering. Though the surface was broken at times, the dust problem was reduced considerably.

310517 Approaching the Gorge

310517 Aerial view of the Gorge

We passed Adel's Grove a few km before the Gorge. This is where Lawn Hill visitors camp. The Grove is a few km below the Gorge. We were obviously on the right road.

310517 Right road going by the sign

The Lawn Hill Gorge is in the Constance Range and is the result of the Lawn Hill Creek’s weathering of Constance sandstone, which comprises the Gorge walls. The walls are up to 30m high in places. The source of the water in the creek is the Georgina Basin, which is overlain by the Barkly Tablelands, further west. It is spring fed so the creek never dries up. The water is a lovely turquoise colour. The colour is caused by an algae which absorbs sunlight and reflects only the greenish colours of the light spectrum.

310517 The Gorge is in this National Park

We arrived in time to get the 9.00am electric boat tour of the Gorge. The one hour trip took us up the middle gorge which is about 1.5km long. Other more adventurous souls hired canoes. We were taken as far as the Indarri Falls, which were caused by interruptions to water flow over the years (trees and rocks). The falls are no more than 2m high and are covered by pandanus and other tropical foliage and are difficult to see.

310517 Access to the boat

310517 Looking upstream at the start of the boat trip
in Lawn Hill Gorge

310517 Heading up the Gorge

310517 Gorge walls - Constance Sandstone

310517 Indarri Falls

310517 Looking down the Gorge

The creek is well stocked with fish including, inter alia, Barramundi, Saratoga, Bony Bream, Catfish and Archer Fish. Fishing is not allowed in the creek

Plant life is plentiful given a tropical rainforest environment. Included are Pandanus Aquaticus, Leichhardt Pine, Weeping Melaleuca, Rock Figs, Cluster Figs and many ferns.

310517 Cluster Fig and Palm

310517 Leichhardt Pine

310517 Pandanus Aquaticus

310517 Rock Figs - note the roots

310517 Weeping Melaleuca

310517 Ferns on the rock walls

There are about 15 resident fresh water crocodiles in the creek. They don’t bother anybody so swimming is a regular event. There are several types of turtles including the rare Snapping Turtle.

There are water snakes too including the McLean, the Keelback and the Arafura File Snakes.

One interesting feature of the water is the presence of calcium. It floats on the surface like dust and eventually sinks to the bottom and forms “tufa”. The insoluble tufa “grows” around tree roots, branches, rocks and also precipitates in the pipes used for transporting water around the camp sites.

310517 Calcium deposit from around a tree trunk

310517 Calcium rafts on the water's surface

There are 160 identified bird species in the area but no water birds. The calcium interfers with the water birds’ feathers and down systems and they have learned not to come here.

There is no provision for camping at the gorge. Camping is done at Adels Grove, a few kms downstream from the gorge.

After our visit to the gorge we headed off to the Riversleigh fossils area, about 60km away, gravel road all the way. We looked over their fossil site D on the way. This is the only one open to the public. The fossils are in an ancient limestone deposit. There are marine and terrestrial fossils on the site. We could see fossil bits and pieces but could not readily identify anything, beyond what the signs told us, but the view from the top of the deposit was excellent. Sorry about the audio on the following video.

310517 One of many fossils at Riversleigh Site D,

We did not return from whence we came, but headed south towards the Mount Isa/Gregory road for the return journey. It was gravel road all the way.

We did come across some river crossings, which added interest to the drive and dirt to the car. The O’Shanessy River was a picturesque crossing. The water was similar to that in Lawn Hill Gorge so is similarly spring fed. It was flowing quite strongly.