If you are up for experiencing some of the region’s best four-wheel driving, the (Iytwelepenty)/Davenport Ranges National Park covering 1120sq kms are worth a visit.
Surrounded by the Anurrete Aboriginal Land Trust indigenous ties with the land are extensive while a varied history of mineral exploration, mining, pastoral and missionary work was carried out at different stages in development of the area.
A well-defined road heads up and over rocky hills once you turn off the Stuart Highway at the 87km mark south of Tennant Creek. If you follow the Binns Track loop tackling the deeper bulldust on the southern road out, you will enter again on the Stuart Highway north of Barrow Creek.
There are few facilities (pit toilets & fireplaces), it is remote, and you will need a sense of adventure. The challenging and picturesque main access roads (Binns Track) are accessible most of the year by a high clearance vehicle although can become impassable after heavy rains. The 17km Frew River 4WD loop track over the top of the ranges takes almost two hours because it is bumpy, shifting down to first gear in a couple of spots will be necessary. You will be rewarded with glorious views over the range country. Check road conditions with the Visitor Information Centre and pick up a fact sheet outlining the finer details of the park.
Old Police Station Waterhole contains permanent water, while the smaller Whistle Duck Creek will evaporate during the dryer months. Unspoilt beauty, a refuge for birds and secluded water holes offers peace, tranquillity, and basic camping facilities.
Around Whistle Duck Creek birdlife increases significantly, almost as if a switch is flicked. There are black-faced cuckoo shrikes, rainbow bee-eaters, spinifex pigeons, diamond and peaceful doves, a flock of budgies and myriad honeyeaters. The Davenport Range also attracts a wide variety of animals because there is such an eclectic mix of vegetation. Through rolling hills dressed in startling white ghost gums, snappy gum and soft spinifex, occasional coolibahs, curry wattles and thick mulga. It is the crossover between the plants of the central desert and more tropical species such as the silver-leafed grevillea.
