Advertisement
Published: June 26th 2012
On the road to Fitzroy Crossing
..this is what the Kimberley is about, cattle, grass, boabs, anthills and scrub..the only other thing, dramatic scenery is to come.Fitzroy Crossing
5
th June 2012
Fitzroy Crossing, situated on the Fitzroy River is located 2.21kms South of Junjuwa, 11.7kms North of Bayulu, 84.74kms NorthEast of Yungngora, (all communities), and 222.06kms West of Halls Creek. It is situated in the centre of some of the best pastoral country in Australia and is the heart of the Kimberley Region. The Fitzroy Valley attracted early pastoralists such as the McDonald Bros in 1886 when they set up the Fossil Downs cattle station. This was following a three-year, 3,500 mile trek from Goulburn, New South Wales. Fitzroy Crossing was a creation of necessity; early settlers to the Kimberley needed a place to ford the mighty Fitzroy River. The old, (original), crossing was the shortest and safest route. Focus shifted from the original townsite of Fitzroy Crossing when a modern stilted bridge was built downstream in 1974. In the wet season the river can rise over 20 metres and spread out up to 15 Klm from its banks.
Fitzroy Crossing and the lands and valleys around it were the home for a number of Aboriginal language groups. When Fitzroy Crossing was established the main group was the Bunuba People, their land stretching from
the present day Brooking Springs and Leopold Downs Station to the Oscar, Napier and King Leopold Ranges. The Bunuba are the River and Hill people.
The river was discovered in 1873 where it discharges into King Sound by George Grey in the HMS Beagie, the mighty Fitzroy River was named after the former Captain of the ship, Capt. Robert Fitzroy RN. Rising in the King Leopold and Meuller Ranges and flowing through rugged country for 750Klm before reaching the “Sound” it has a catchment area of 90,000 square kilometres.
The town was gazetted in 1975, but had been shown on maps as early as 1903. It is 114 m above sea level and is surrounded by the vast floodplains of the Fitzroy River. The current population of the Fitzroy Crossing area is approximately 1500 people, about 60% of whom are Indigenous Australians. Cattle stations are the main economic occupation. A number of Indigenous Communities run enterprises in Fitzroy Crossing such as Tarunda Supermarket, The Crossing Inn and the Ngiyali Roadhouse. The historic Crossing Inn was first established in the 1890’s as a shanty Inn and Trade Store on the southern bank of the Fitzroy River where the actual
river crossing site was located. It supplied passing stockman, drovers and prospectors with goods and a well earned ‘watering hole’. It has operated on the same site ever since and is the oldest established hotel in the Kimberley Region. It is one of the only hotels in WA to retain a true outback atmosphere and when we went in for a drink we were the only Caucasians, apart from the barman, amongst the many patrons drinking that day!
Fitzroy Crossings’ main attraction is its close proximity to Geikie Gorge, a magnificent 30 mtr deep gorge with sheer yellow, orange and grey walls. We went on, and enjoyed, a guided boat tour up the gorge and saw our first crocodiles , albeit ‘freshies’, for the trip. This was our first entrée into the gorges of the Kimberley and we were not disappointed and made comments such as ‘the rest, (gorges), will need to be good to beat this!’ Once we finished our boat trip, Trish wanted to do the river walk despite me saying , “I am not sure about this”. Yes, we did see some new bits but nothing more than what we saw from the comfort of the
Fitzroy Crossing
..this is the place to stay here, great c/van park. boat but we did get blisters and sore feet on a hot day trudging through thick, and soft, river sand for two hours, but hey, it was all good and when will we be back here to do it again? !!
We also purchased our first Aboriginal Art here from the gallery at the Crossing Inn and went into the community to meet the lady who painted it, Joan James, It was great to find her and meet here and we were able to photograph her holding her painting. We stayed at the River Lodge Caravan Park which was very upmarket for us and as we met up with Linda and Kristy again here and may not catch up with them again on this trip, we all went to dinner which was a lot of fun.
From here we will retrace our steps back towards Derby to meet the junction of the Fairfield Leopold Downs road to head west to Tunnel Creek and Winjana Gorge, our next destinations.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 31; dbt: 0.052s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Matty
non-member comment
Hang on...
So this photo, of a crocodile, was taken while you were on foot, in the gorge? Run!