Jupiter Well Camp
We left
Carawine Gorge to travel on rather muddy roads most of the way to the NT border. The
Telfer road was not closed due to this rainfall and was still being used by mining trucks. We got covered in mud. The road deviates to the north around the Telfer mining settlement. Permission must be sought from the
mine if visiting Telfer.
See the pictures and read this travelogue in detail on
Travelogues for 2009 on Australia So much to See.
Passing through the northern section of the
Rudall River National Park, we stopped to photograph
Lake Dora; a large salt pan. Punmu community as on the edge of
Lake Dora to the east of this point.
We stopped for a late lunch after crossing
Lake Auld, near the
intersection of the Kidson Track and the Punmu Road; the latter being the name of the road we had travelled on since passing the gold mining area of Telfer.
The tiny desert community of
Kunawarritji centres on the store, which supplies fuel at the high price of $3.20 per litre. This was the highest price we paid for diesel that year. Fuel is trucked to
Kunawarritji in drums, and most people travelling the
Canning Stock Route refuel here.
Kunawarritji is near
Well 33 and approximately half way along the
Canning Stock Route. We waited in a long queue of vehicles at this busy fuel outlet. A delightful moment was watching a red
sedan being driven around, with no windows whatsoever, full of smiling little Aboriginal children lined up through the open front and rear windscreens. They joy on the faces of these children was something to treasure.
After leaving
Kunawarritji, we soon reach the
Canning Stock Route and turned north for a few kilometres to reach
Well 33 for the night. The narrow track was quite corrugated as the track is not graded, and is a very popular four wheel drive adventure.
We shared the
camping area with several groups of travellers. In the morning feral camels visited the
campground.
The morning was a flurry of activity as the groups packed up their camps, filled their water canisters and headed on their way be it north or south along the
Canning Stock Route.
Gary Junction is at
the junction of the Jenkins Track from the west, the Gary Highway from the south, the
Gary Junction Road from the east and the Callowa Track from the north west.
Jupiter Well is a popular and lovely
camp ground amongst a grove of elegant desert oak trees. A
bore with a manual pump provides good quality water at the
camp. We, and a group of other campers heading in the opposite direction, spent the weekend at
Jupiter Well. The original
Jupiter Well site is on the opposite side of the road.
Jupiter Well was dug between 20th to 24th August in 1961 by a division of National Mapping Survey Team who were surveying for months in the desert and looking to avoid trucking water 480 km from near
Mount Liebig in the Northern Territory. It was named after the planet Jupiter was reflected in the
well late on the night of the 22nd.
The
well was re-dug in 1985, but now there is little more than a depression in the ground. A
plaque placed at that time shows the nearest watering points were at
Kiwirrkurra 147 kilometres to the east and
Well 35 (on the
Canning Stock Route) 205 kilometres to the west.
Near a crest with a
communications tower, is the wreck of someone’s dream. The remains of a caravan lies upside down by the road. Some joker has place the
toilet on the top. Recovery costs in the event of an accident or
breakdown often outweigh the value of the vehicle, so wrecks are regularly seen in the outback.
A little further east of this point is a
water tank set back from the road. Other travellers told us the water is very good. We did not investigate, but good to know for anyone who may be stranded in the area and in need of water.
The
Pollock Hills marked the approaches to the vicinity of
Kiwirrkurra, colourful with the
orange sand dunes contrasting with the
red rocks of
the breakaways.
Two 4wds approached, and one stopped to ask if we wanted fuel at
Kiwirrkurra. We said no we had not planned a fuel fill here as it was Sunday. The driver said Sunday was not a problem, but he would not be back for a while if we had wanted fuel, so thought to stop us and ask. He welcomed us to drive into
the settlement to see the Len Beadell truck. Fuel is cheaper at
Kiwirrkurra than at
Kunawarritji.
A loop road goes to the
Kiwirrkurra settlement, where the burnt out remains of Len Beadell’s truck is on display. It was burnt out approximately 30 kilometres east of
Kiwirrkurra, and was set up as a display at
Kiwirrkurra in 2004.
This 4wd truck was the ration truck for Len Beadell’s party for several years. It caught fire during the construction of the
Gary Junction Road on 12 November 1960 at the 160 mile point from Sandy Blight
Junction. Destroyed were their supplies of food, water, fridge and much camping gear. On 1 July 1963 Len salvaged the tray floor and 6 springs for repairs to their current fridge trailer.
Kiwirrkurra is a small Aboriginal settlement of twenty five homes which was commenced in 1984 for Pintubi people who wanted to return to their lands from
Papunya in the Northern Territory where they had been resettled. In 1985 a fountain was built, but the water never flowed. It is signed
WATER DREAMING
TO THE PINTUBI
MAY HIS WISDOM DESCEND UPON YOU LIKE THE WATER UPON THESE ROCKS
1985
From our
overnight stop near Dovers Hills, near the Northern Territory border, we enjoyed the perfect silence of the night and the colours of the
Gibson Desert, and a glorious desert sunset and sunrise. The stars at night are so
bright and clear in remote desert locations. Nights like these have a very special place in Australian outback travel.
At a
Len Beadell marker, we crossed from Western Australia into the Northern Territory to continue our adventures. Len Beadell and his team were remarkable in their work surveying and building roads through the inhospitable and generally dry inland Australia. His books tell of their trials and successes with touches of humour, and illustrated by Len’s own delightful cartoons.
Between the scenic
Mount Liebig at 901 metres and
Mount Strickland, sits
Kintore; a settlement with a
population of over 500 people. We arrived a few minutes after 11.30 am, just in time for the last of the morning openings of the quaint fuel station – bowsers locked in a colourful painted shed, and joined to queue of cars; mostly locals but some tourists. A few were on foot carrying a jerry can.
A red Landcruiser, with smoke pouring out of the exhaust, was trying to push start a battered white Landcruiser with jerks and crunches. The white Landcruiser started, but soon stopped again. The driver took a jerry can to join the petrol queue, and once he had refuelled the vehicle, he then used it to push start the red Landcruiser, which had by then also stopped. Such was the entertainment in the centre of
Kintore as we awaited our turn to fill with diesel.
The Sandy Blight
Junction turn-off was a further 17 kilometres east of the
Kintore turn-off. This is another of the Len Beadell Roads, which zig zags back into Western Australia to meet the
Great Central Road east of Warakurna. It is signed four wheel drive only, and 340 kilometres to Docker River (
the settlement on the Northern Territory side of the border. The
Len Beadell plaque marking the start of
Sandy Blight Junction Road is a little to the north of the present road.
From the
orange road, distant hills, rugged in the sunlight to the south, and shades of blue and mauve looking towards the sun in the north.
Mount Liebig came into view and is particularly striking. Len Beadell lined up to road to take advantage of the view and described “The whole section of that country was amongst the most picturesque in Central Australia.” 1960
Stopping to
check another
Len Beadell plaque, we drove in a little way from the road to find a very good place to
camp. The
bore has been decommissioned and the solar panels from the pump have been removed. There was neither
hand pump nor any other way of drawing water from the
bore, which was a pity as I found our general water tanks were empty. I believe this
bore was named
Lizard Bore.
Heading further east the next day, we past
Mount Liebig and other ranges in varying colours, shapes and textures. Len certainly captured the beauty of the area in his phrase. As we passed the community at
Papunya, Mount Zell came into view. Although 55 kilometres away, this highest point of the
West MacDonnell Ranges stood out from the surrounding hills. The brick coloured
Haast Bluff dominated as we approached and turned south onto
Haast Bluff Road. Near
Haast Bluff we passed a memorial to Frederick Blakeley.
This road varied between wide and firm to narrow, winding and sandy. We enjoyed
views of Mount Zell, Mount Razorback and
Mount Sonder before joining Namatjira Drive to the east of
Glen Helen, and on to
Alice Springs via the lovely
West Macdonnell Ranges.