Tunnel Creek in the Kimberley Western Australia

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Western Australias oldest cave system, in Tunnel Creek National Park, is famous as a hideout used late last century by an Aboriginal leader known as Jandamarra. He was killed outside its entrance in 1897.

Tunnel Creek flows through a water worn tunnel beneath the limestone of the Napier Range, part of the 375 to 350 million-year-old Devonian Reef system.

You can walk 750 metres through the tunnel to the other side of Napier Range, wading through several permanent pools and watching for bats and the stalactites that descend from the roof in many places.

The tunnel is up to 12 metres high and 15 metres wide in parts. Near the centre of the cave the roof has collapsed and is an excelent place to ovserve the colony of fruit bats. Take a torch, wear sneakers and be prepared to get wet and possibly cold.

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The road to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek
Fairfields Leopold Downs Road to Windjana Gorge/Tunnel Creek

Getting to Tunnel Creek National Park
Access to the park is via unsealed roads, approximately 35 kilometres southeast of Windjana Gorge National Park or 90 kilometres from Fitzroy Crossing. Tunnel Creek National Park is a day use area only, with facilities limited to toilets and an information shelter. No overnight camping is permitted and access is limited to the dry season only. © source | courtesy of australiasnorthwest.com

Things You Need To Know

Where is at Tunnel Creek?
Tunnel Creek National Park covers just 91 hectares. It is 112 kilometres from Fitzroy Crossing, 180 kilometres from Derby, 36 kilometres south-east of Windjana Gorge.

Travelling time to Tunnel Creek
Two hours from Fitzroy Crossing and two and a half hours from Derby.

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Tunnel Creek Camp

What to do at Tunnel Creek
Cave exploration, sightseeing, walking and photography.

Facilities at Tunnel Creek
Tunnel Creek is a day use area with facilities limited to toilets and an information shelter. There is no camping and pets are not allowed. There are no rubbish bins so please take your rubbish with you.

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Best season
The best season to visit is between May and September and the park is usually inaccessible during the wet season. (Information supplied by the Department Environment & Conservation)
(Information supplied by the Department Environment & Conservation)

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Tunnel Creek Monitor

About the Kimberley
• The Kimberley in Australia is one of the last true wilderness areas on Earth, with rustic unique outback landscapes and landmarks billions of years in the making. Covering app 423,000 square kilometres in north Western Australia and with a population of less than 40,000 people, it’s here you’ll encounter some of the most extraordinary outback adventuresand folks in Australia. Discover ancient gorge country with hikes and trekking a must in planning your Kimberley vacation to enormous cattle stations, pristine coastline and sandy beaches, to one of the oldest cultures on the planet and the world’s only horizontal waterfalls.

Self drive along the Gibb River Road from Broome or Darwin is a Australia four wheel drive hire camper or wagon. The Gibb River Road was initially constructed as a beef road to transport cattle from the surrounding stations to the ports of Derby and Wyndham.It spans some six-hundred and seventy kilometres from Derby to the junction of the Great Northern Highway between Wyndham and Kununurra.