Update on some Pilbara and Rudall River Track Conditions - May-June 23

Good morning forumites. I’ve just returned from a month in the Pilbara and after a five year hiatus, a return visit to Karlamilyi (Rudall River) National Park and am providing a track update.

Skull Springs Road from Nullagine to Woodie Woodie – Road is in fair condition but has suffered from the most recent cyclone with numerous washaways making the going slow. While the countryside appears dry, the creeks have plenty of water in them. I spent a fantastic night in on the Davis River near Eel Pool about 10 km east of the Upper Carrawine turnoff.

Telfer mine road is as you’d expect, well maintained with light corrugations in places. Heaps of quad side dumpers on the move hauling concentrate out of Telfer and road teams constantly upgrading the road surface. Be mindful of the dust and what ‘s lurking behind it (often it’s a grader!)

Once you’ve been escorted from the Telfer Gate to the Rudall Road intersection you’ll have about four kilometers of good tracks then it goes to hell pretty quick. Some catastrophic washouts that require a little skill to negotiate. In other areas the track has been washed out so badly that people (including myself) have taken to the bush on the western side of the track to negotiate a new path of several kilometers. This is all prior to the Christmas Pool turn. That intersection by the way, is pretty indistinct so trust your Nav program. The EO App is spot on for this.

Christmas Pool to Coolbro is average and OK. Tons of water in Coolbro Pools accessible from the campsites above.

Coolbro Creek to Kintire – 10 km of really deep sand on the track where channeling has etched the track down 1.2 metres and more. This is Low Range 1 & 2 if towing anything and tyre pressures down as low as they’ll go. I was towing an Tandem Alu trailer with the new Can Am Defender. Ran 25 psi rear and 15 front with 12 in the trailer (Cold). Deep, slow and fuel chewing.

Old Kintire Rd through to Turtle Pool. Reasonable after a bit of track clearing. Broad leaf Acacia popping up everywhere and will eventually choke the roads. Both creek crossings are sand but negotiable.Turtle Pool is full but the area could benefit greatly from a cool burn (it’s thick bush!). Found more etchings in there than I knew of. Totally amazing place.

Darlsen Pinnacle – Road from the north is now totally grown over with acacia. Bush to either side is benign and easy to traverse and follow the track of if you’re clever, negotiate to a waypoint where this old track meets the east west track. That track is easily negotiated with only one of two areas grown over and a clear track around them. The track pushed through in 2018 is still visible and with a bit of a careful eye, traceable all the way through to Darlsen. I can confirm that this is still the best track in and that the creek crossing locations carefully chosen 5 years back remain the best (and often only) places to cross the larger Yandagooge tributaries. Each crossing point is still marked with a white reflective post. Be aware that the track does flick back on itself on occasions to take advantage of the lie of the land. All pools in that area are brimming.

This year, I exited south to Watrara and Tjarra Pools both of which are brimming with water and simply magnificent.

Road in to Desert Queen doesn’t change. Slow with dips, rocks and a few sharp creeks. Not difficult, just slow and cautious particularly if towing. 1.5 hours for the 17km for mew with the trailer on. Pick up timber well in advance because there’s none around at DQB All pools are as full as I’ve ever seen them in near 20 years of visiting the place. Simply magnificent.

Track down to the Rooney Creek pools (10 km east) is distinct and easy drive. Pools are amazing and a bit warmer to swim in than the gorge pools and their ‘spanner’ water!

The road from DQB turnoff south to the Talawana and Cotton Creek – A mixed bag till the Rudall River crossing then it turns to a corrugated Hell for the 70 klicks to the Talawana. If you’re looking for a respite from the Canning, this track in will be a constant reminder for you. Rudall River crossing is sandy but easily negotiable and no water impacting at present.

Road into Tjarra Pool. Washed out in places with a slow and cautious approach to the 9km required. The place is magnificent.

Talawana – Awesome in both directions. Corrugated around Cotton Creek.

My observations.

Very few people about – we were the only campers in most places with a few doing rapid day trips into DQB and then driving out again (Why?). This may change as the canning numbers increase.
My personal choice for entry would be the top route from Telfer. I’ll take sand and washaways over corrugations any day.

If you’re going to DQB, do your research and for gods sake check the route to the pools. It’s a half hour walk that requires some rock hopping. Over a week I saw five groups heading into the gorge, only one of them made it on the second try. Bare feet, walking up the wrong gorges and complaining that “There’s nothing about the place on the Internet” – for *&$#’# sake – really!!! Again Exploroz App is brilliant for this and also showing you where every other highlight of the walk is.

My entire reason for this years visit was to introduce the young bloke and his lovely girlfriend to the roads less travelled and places seldom seen and also test out and bed in both the new Jacksons Hard lid Camper (Freaking awesome) and the Can Am Defender HD9 (I rate this machine). While I’m an avowed Ozi user, No.1 had done considerable research and purchased the EO app (no input from me). As someone unfamiliar with the App, I was impressed particularly when I needed a few waypoints of POI after a platform glitch on the tablet. I did test it while out there and despite the tiny bloody iPhone he uses, I was impressed so well done D & M.




I will try and cut out the GPS tracks and update them in Places and Tracks in due course.

If your getting out and about this year – safe travels. Cheers