May 7- 8 Mt Elizabeth Station

May 22, 2018 - Reading time: 2 minutes

Woke at 5.30 am for our flight over the Mitchell Plateau and Falls. In a word spectacular! Had a very smooth flight, which took us south west from Drysdale River Station, over Mt Hann, and followed the Prince Regent River, over the cascades famous for a US actress being taken by a crocodile, to the amazing Saint George Basin, where we saw the flat top mountains Mt Trafalgar and Mt Waterloo ( both named just after the Napoleonic wars). The islands in the basin were amazing having beautiful escarpments. We then turned East and followed the Hunter and Mitchell rivers and had superb views of Mitchell Falls. (3 hours flying by the end)

On our return we quickly packed up the camper and departed for Mt Elizabeth station which was a distance of 170kms away. Managed to get there in slightly over three hours with several small creek crossings and some very rough corrugations especially on the Mt Drysdale road, which had already deteriorated further with the increased traffic flow. Would hate to be driving it mid June!

Mount Elizabeth is a full time cattle station, unlike Drysdale River and Home Valley which are very much more orientated towards tourism. Wunnumurra Gorge is the main attraction which is approximately 1 & ½ hours away but a distance of approximately 10 kms, all done in low range 4wd. The gorge is spectacular with a magnificent swimming hole while the falls themselves can provide a massage if you so desire. Located on the right hand side as you face away from the falls is some Indigenous art in the Bradshaw style. The Bradshaw art is very famous for two reasons, firstly it has been dated at 60,000 years ( therefore some of the oldest art in the world) old and secondly it is a completely different style to the more modern art and the traditional owners do not use that style, or know the stories associated with them. For people of my vintage it is the art referred to in ‘ Chariots of the Gods’ documentary from the mid 1970s! Unfortunately due to it’s location we wer creek upstream of falls The Pool