A D VE N T U R E S
WATA R R K A NP, N T
T
he Northern Territory
is blessed with many
natural wonders and
geological marvels,
but few of them can
match Kings Canyon
for sheer jaw-dropping
splendour. The
canyon is the central
feature and prime
attraction of the Watarrka National Park
(NP), 330km south-west of Alice Springs,
cleaving a buttressed outlyer of the rugged
George Gill Range in a massive gorge
bounded by sheer, 300m-high cliffs.
On either side of the canyon, the plateau
has been sculpted by the elements into a
maze of burnished red sandstone beehive
domes. They are interspersed with rock
hollows whose cool, shady depths nurture
lush vegetation along chains of perennial
waterholes. It's one of the most varied
and starkly beautiful landscapes in all of
central Australia.
It would be trite to say that this is an
ancient landscape – that applies to pretty
much all of the Australian continent – but
the fact is the range’s geological record
stretches back more than 400 million
years. Back then this arid expanse, once
the bed of a vast primordial sea, was a
featureless wind-swept plain. Marine
fossils embedded in rock bear witness to
the extraordinary evolutionary changes
that have occurred here.
The canyon’s rich red colour is believed
to be the result of iron-rich dust blown
onto the once-white sandstone and fixed in
place by a form of fungus.
The record of human occupation is
a mere blink of the eye by comparison,
but impressive all the same. The Luritja
Aboriginal people have lived in the region
for more than 20,000 years and still
constitute the third-largest Indigenous
population in central Australia. The
name ‘Luritja’ is thought to derive from
the Arrernte word lurinya, meaning
‘foreigner’, applied to people who relocated
from remote Western Desert areas on to
Arrernte lands closer to Alice Springs. For
them, Kings Canyon was an oasis in a
harsh environment, providing refuge from
the hostile elements among the waterholes
and shady gorges, and abundant food in
the plants and animals that lived there.
Their occupation is attested by engravings
74
ADVENTURES
within the canyon and rock art sites along
the southern escarpment of the range.
The national park is named after the
umbrella bush (Acacia ligulata), known
to the Luritja people as watarrka,
which proliferates across the range and
surrounding plains. This and more
than 750 other plant species have been
recorded in the park, ranging from
desert oak, spinifex and acacias on
the exposed plateau to 60 or so rare
riverine plant communities along the
waterholes deep within the canyon. These