Photos of the Northeast of Western Australia, Australia

Western Australia flag
Images of the World
Flag of Australia

The Northeast of Western Australia

The Duncan Road (formerly Duncan Highway) runs from the Northern Territory border at Nicholson to Halls Creek, which links up with the Great Northern Highway. Old Halls Creek grew up after gold was discovered here in 1885. A gold rush by about 10,000 prospective miners ensued, but this didn’t last long; the old place is now crumbling away, 15 kilometres from the present town serving the region’s cattle stations. Halls Creek moved 12 kilometres west from its original location in 1949, and the current town is home to the indigenous Jaru and Kija peoples and some Tjurabalan peoples from the desert to its south. They represent over 60% of the town’s population.

Landscape west of Nicholson
 
Duncan Road
 
Palm Valley Station
 
Waterhole, Palm Valley
 
Road from Nicholson to Halls Creek
 
Ruins of Old Halls Creek
 
Near Halls Creek
 
Street in Halls Creek
 
Aboriginal art work, Halls Creek
 
Landscape west of Halls Creek
 
Termite mound
 
Along Great Northern Highway
 
Hills along Great Northern Highway
 
Fitzroy River
 
Fitzroy Crossing Post Office
 
Fitzroy Crossing school
 
Car in a tree
 
eikie National Park
 
Fitzroy River in Geikie Gorge
 
In Geikie Gorge National Park
 
Gorge, Geikie Gorge
 
Corkwood tree
 
Corkwood tree
 
Boab, or bottle tree
 
Humpies in Balgo
 
Balgo soccer game
 
Old people of Balgo
 
Children playing with water
 
Simple housing, Balgo
 
Iron housing
 
Old Mission Dam
 
View to Five Mile Dam
 
Balgo Hills
 
Boys throwing rocks, Balgo
 
Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater
 
Wolfe Creek Crater
 

The Fitzroy River region in southern Kimberley was occupied by white settlers after 1880 to start cattle stations there. This was fiercely resisted by the local Bunuba Aboriginal people, who would spear the pastoralists’ stock and didn’t want to work for the invaders. Jandamarra, or “Pigeon”, as he was known to the whites, led his people in guerilla warfare against the invaders until he was shot by one of his own people who worked for the white police.

Balgo, formerly known as Balgo Hills, in the dry and remote outback of Western Australia, is a former Catholic mission set among hills and spinifex grass on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert. The about 400 speakers of the Kukatja language are still very traditional and are related to people living on cattle stations towards the border with the Northern Territory. It now has a thriving artists’ cooperative. About 100 kilometres north of Balgo and 145 kilometres south of Halls Creek is Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater, 850 metres in diameter and 50 metres deep, one of the world’s largest. It was formed more than a million years ago when a giant meteorite fell to earth here. In Aboriginal mythology, it is associated with “Ngarrinti”, fly-dreaming. Native trees now grow in the well-preserved circular crater.