Saturday 23rd July
Tunnel Creek is the name given to a National park created after a creek was discovered running through a tunnel in some several million year old ranges. Back in the bad old days when white men were killing Aboriginals for sport, one of the local Aboriginals by the name of Jandamarra, took exception to the white man’s so called sport, and retaliated by killing a white policeman.
As can be expected, the white man didn’t like this, and decided that Jandamarra had to be brought to account. Jandamarra, realising that there was a price on his head, decided to do what he could do best. He went bush. He knew about a creek that ran underground, and hid out there for over a year before the white man’s Aboriginal trackers finally found him and shot him outside the entrance to his hideaway. And so Tunnel Creek was ‘discovered’ by the white man, and soon became a tourist attraction.
Tunnel Creek is 115 km from Fitzroy Crossing, on a road that leads through to the Gibb River Road. To get to it from Fitzroy Crossing, we first of all had to travel 45 km along the main road towards Broome, and then 70 km on a rough metal come dirt road, recommended for 4WD only.
As seems to be standard for any road in Australia that is not sealed, it was full of corrugations. Absolute bone jarring, tooth rattling nightmares of things. Again, how to attack them was the big problem, but like our last experience, we were soon rattling along at about 80 kph and hoping for the best.
Some stretches were reasonably smooth, but others were so bad you just had to hang on and hope the car didn’t shake itself to bits before it got through. However we finally got to Tunnel Creek and joined about 20 other 4WD’s in the car park.
The walk through the tunnel is about 750 meters long, and we had been warned that there were several crossings that could be up to waist deep, and to bring sturdy shoes and a torch. We came prepared with our togs as well, and were glad we did.
What a fantastic experience, entering the tunnel by walking along the stream bed, and then following the stream as it wound its way underground. It had scoured out huge caverns and in places the roof had caved in leaving openings to the daylight above.
Once through to the other side we sat down and had our lunch and then retraced our steps to the start. Then it was back into the car for another bone shaking 70 km back to the main road.
About halfway back we came across a campervan stopped on the side of the road with a puncture. We stopped to give them a hand as they were having trouble getting their jack under the car. Very soon a couple in another car also stopped. We got talking, and next thing we find out they used to live in Taranaki, he was from Hawera, and she was from Oakura, but now living in Aussie. What are the chances of that? Away out in the bush, miles from anywhere, in the outback of Aussie, and you meet someone from Taranaki. After helping to get the tyre changed, we carried on rattling and banging our way out to the main road.
Finally to our relief we hit the sealed main road and headed back to Fitzroy Crossing. There was another tourist attraction, called Windjana Gorge, further along the road, but we weren’t prepared to subject our car to any more punishment. It’s a pity that most of Australia’s best tourist attractions are so hard to get at, because of the road conditions. Because we must rely on our car to get us the rest of the way around Aussie, we just can’t afford to subject it to this sort of harsh treatment. Already we have had to give the Gibb River Road and the drive in to the Bungle Bungles, a miss, for this very reason.
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