Watarrka-Nationalpark

The Watarrka National Park covers the western part of the George Gill Range to the Kings Canyon, the largest canyon in Australia and Kathleen Springs. The Kings Creek has carved this bizarre, to 270 m deep gorge over millions of years into the sandstone walls of the plateau. On the bottom of the gorge where the available water holes never dry out. In the upper part there is the oasis garden of Eden, a water pool surrounded by 100 m high cliffs with lush vegetation, which also cycads grow as a remnant of a humid tropical climate.

The Lost City are Felsendome on the plateau, which are crossed by caves and served the Aborigines of the people of Luritja as sleeping and places of worship. Rock engravings and paintings indicate a settlement of several thousand years.

Reaching is the National Park of Alice Springs via the PKW grade gravel roads Mereenie Loop ( toll transit authorization required) or the Ernest Giles Road, past the Henbury meteorite craters. The only paved access exists from the south from Lasseter Highway via the Luritja Drive. Wheel-drive vehicles can handle through the Finke Gorge National Park an extremely rocky ride from Hermannsburg.

Flora and Fauna

A survey conducted in 1986 census showed nearly 600 species of plants. The high humidity in the canyon allows the large variety of plants of Red River Gums on Bottle Brushes to Fig Trees. But the animal world loves the cool moisture. In addition to budgerigars, zebra finches and Diamanttäubchen also the Red-backed Kingfisher and the Golden Kingfisher are found. Outside the canyon dominates a sparse vegetation of spinifex, Wüstenkasuarien and ghost trees.

History

The explorer Ernest Giles and William Gosse were the first whites who the dried up river bed in 1872 reached and named it after their main sponsor Fieldon King. Your report brought many cattle farmers in the area. Nevertheless, it is accessible only since 1960, after Jack Cotterill built a runway to Kings Canyon. In the late 1990s a driveway was paved.