Description
Travelling around 66kms south west on the Stuart Highway from
Alice Springs takes you to the starting point of the trek. It can be done in a minimum of half a day, although a full day is recommended to take in all the sights. The track runs a total of 55 and a half kilometres along a single-dirt track, which is mostly an easy run on a hard surface except on a couple of
places of patches of very soft sand where it drops into the Hugh Riverbed. Camper Trailers and Off-Road caravans could be towed along this track. The
Owen Springs track ends at the junction of the Larapinta Drive, which is bitumen all the way for the final 50km return to
Alice Springs.
There are 2 great areas for bush
camping (no facilities), namely at
Redbank Waterhole on the Hugh River (a 2km side track), and also within
Lawrence Gorge.
Redbank Waterhole offers a peaceful rest area amongst the River Red Gums although they only offer limited shade. There is often enough water in the hole during the peak travel season to
cool off in and the hole shows signs of having more water after good rains. Further along the track interesting stops are at Haunted Tree
Bore and Old
Owen Springs Homestead ruins. You could expect to see Red kangaroos and numerous birds including
Port Lincoln Parrots and Honeyeaters and flowering corkwood trees.
North of Larapinta Drive there are more
camping opportunities at
Birthday Gap Waterhole and Reedy Waterhole, which are accessed from the Namatjira Drive. The turnoff however is a hundred metres or so before the Hugh River causeway and is unmarked. Both these
places are accessible without fees or
permits. For more information on this area in general, see our
West MacDonnell Ranges Trek Note.
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Owen Springs Reserve 
From: Stuart Highway & Owen Springs Access Tk
To: Larapinta Drive & Owen Springs Rd
Distance: 55.48 km
Direction: 350 °
Average Speed: 28.41 km/hr
Travel Time: 1 hour 57 mins
Using the Map
Our treks have a moving map facility, to take a virtual tour click on the Play button in the Moving map control (see Moving Map help)
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Speed (5 secs)
Live Tracking
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Permits
None required
Things to See & Do
Preparation
A full tank of fuel is required plus at least 40 litres of water if
camping more than one day. There are no facilities at either of the
camping areas. Please bury all human waste more than 50 metres from any river bed and burn all paper used. The normal safety and comfort rules apply in this harsh climate and please remember to take your rubbish away with you, keep to designated tracks, all cultural items and wildlife are protected. Open fires are allowed in the designated
camping areas but please extinguish them before you leave your camp site so as to minimise the risk of bushfires.
You will only find these tracks detailed on 250K mapsheets, and not on smaller scale map sheets. It is also not currently shown on the Hema GDT NC map, or any other paper maps we hold in stock. We used the
SG5301 Henbury map from the Natmap 250K Raster Mapsheets on CD.
Fuel Supplies & Usage
 | |
Diesel | 4cyl 8 litres |
ULP | 4cyl 9 litres |
LPG | 4cyl 11 litres |
| 6cyl 9 litres | 6cyl 10 litres | 6cyl 10 litres |
| 8cyl 9 litres | 8cyl 9 litres | |
Usage is averaged from
TrekFuel (* specific to trek) submissions and calculated based on trek distance.
Fuel is available at
Alice Springs although this town is not represented in this trek note.
Best Time To Visit
Closest Climatic Station
Alice Springs Airport
Distance from Trek Mid Point 47.02km NE
| | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun |
Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| Mean Max. °C |
36.3 | 35.1 | 32.7 | 28.2 |
23.0 | 19.9 | 19.6 | 22.6 |
27.1 | 30.9 | 33.7 | 35.4 |
| Mean Min. °C |
21.4 | 20.8 | 17.5 | 12.6 |
8.3 | 5.1 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
10.2 | 14.8 | 17.9 | 20.2 |
| Mean Rain mm |
38.0 | 42.3 | 31.9 | 16.8 |
19.4 | 14.4 | 14.7 | 9.5 |
8.3 | 21.9 | 26.7 | 37.5 |
Best time to travel Ok time to travel Travel NOT recommended
Supplies are available at
Alice Springs although this town is not represented in this trek note.
Camp Sites & Accommodation
Environment
This trek takes you over plains and through a gorge. The main flora feature is mulga scrub, which is interspersed with corkwood and ironwood trees. Along the river fringes elegant River Red Gums provide shady retreats for wildlife, which include a variety of birds and kangaroos.
History
The first white men to travel through this country were the explorers, John McDouall Stuart, William Kekwick and Benjamin Head. On 11 April 1860, whilst travelling north along the Hugh River they discovered a large water hole. Stuart named this waterhole
Owen Springs. One of the results of this discovery led to the Overland Telegraph Line following the Hugh River through
Lawrence Gorge in the Waterhouse Range in 1872. In the same year William Gilbert established a cattle run on
Owen Springs and built the first station homestead in the
Northern Territory. After the death of the last lessee of the Pastoral Lease, the
Northern Territory Government acquired the property in the year 2000 and opened it in a limited capacity for free public recreation in 2003.
Distance is GPS recorded driving distance (not straight line), Direction is straight line from start to end, Time is calculated from actual GPS driving data.