Journey South / Gemtree Harts Range

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The major industries in the district are beef, cattle, gold mining and tourism. The district is flat, with the Harts Range rising in the West. Mt Riddock, 1000 m, is a prominent feature east of the Harts Range. The river systems are non-perennial but subject to infrequent flooding. The main rivers are the Bundy, Plenty, Sandover and Georgina.

The picturesque Harts Ranges are popular with tourists and fossickers, with garnets and zircons particularly valued. The district includes 25 cattle stations, six major Aboriginal communities, two major highways, the Plenty and Sandover and the Arltunga National Park.

Most Aboriginal people are Eastern Arrente but many different languages are spoken within the Harts Ranges. Weather conditions are similar to Alice Springs with low humidity, high summer and low winter temperatures. From May to September a constant dry south-easterly wind blows and the average annual rainfall is 250 mm a year.

At the turn of the last century pastoral settlement occurred in the area and prospectors found mica and gems. Pastoralists and miners quickly established leases covering much of the Eastern Arrernte's land. An Australian Museum expedition to the Harts Range in 1930, after suffering scurvy as a result of a shortage of fresh provisions, returned with minerals from the pegmatites and metamorphic rocks of the Harts Range and during the 1930s Atitjere became one of the most important mica mines in Australia.
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Billy Button Calocephalus knappii
Gemtree Harts Range
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Blue-leaved mallee Eucalyptus gamophylla
Gemtree Harts Range
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Broad-Leaf Parakeelya Calandrinia balonensis
Gemtree Harts Range
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Brown Falcon Falco berigora Race Centralia
Gemtree Harts Range
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Bush Raisin - Solanum centrale
Gemtree Harts Range
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Cattle Bush Trichodesma zeylanicum
GemtreeHarts Range
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Cockatiel Leptolophus (Nymphicus) hollandicus
Flying
Gemtree Harts Range Drinking Hole
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Cockatiel Leptolophus (Nymphicus) hollandicus
Flying
GemtreeHarts Range In Flight
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Crested Pigeon Geophaps lophotes
GemtreeHarts Range
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Crimson Chat Ephthianura tricolor
Gemtree Harts Range
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Crimson Foxtail Ptilotus atriplicifolius

Gemtree Harts Range
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Dead Finish Acacia tetragonophylla
Gemtree Harts Range
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Desert Grevillea Grevillea juncifolia
Gemtree Harts Range
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Dried Up Plenty River Bed
Gemtree Harts Range
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Eremophila christophori
GemtreeHarts Range
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Eremophila sp
Gemtree Harts Range
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Fork Leafed Corkwood Hakea eyreana
Gemtree Harts Range
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Golden Everlasting Helichrysum bracteatum
Gemtree Harts Range
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Groundsel Senecio cunninghamii
Gemtree Harts Range.
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Hairy Mulla Mulla Ptilotus helipteroides
Gemtree Harts Range
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Large Green Pussytail Ptilotus macrocephalus
Gemtree Harts Range
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Mistletoe Amyema maidenii
Gemtree Harts Range
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Mistletoe Lysiana preissii
Gemtree Harts Range.
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Mulga Ant Nest Polyrachus macropus
Gemtree Harts Range
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Possible Pleurocarpaea denticulata
Gemtree Harts Range
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Ringneck Barnardius zonarius Race zonarius
Gemtree Harts Range
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Saltspoon Daisy Helipterum stipitatum
Gemtree Harts Range
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Satin Azure Ogyris amaryllis ssp. amaryllis
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Mistletoe Lysiana preissii
Gemtree Harts Range
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Sclerolaena birchii
Gemtree Harts Range
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Solanum sturtianum
Gemtree Harts Range
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Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Acanthagenys rufogularis
Gemtree Harts Range
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Splendid Fairy-wren Malurus splendens Male Race splendens
Gemtree Harts Range
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Sturt’s Nightshade Solanum sturtianum
Gemtree Harts Range
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Turpentine Bush Eremophila sturtii
Gemtree Harts Range
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Variegated Fairy-wren Malurus lamberti Male Race Lamberti
Gemtree Harts Range
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Waitzia suaveolens var. flava
Gemtree Harts Range
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White Paper Daisy Helipterum floribunda
Gemtree Harts Range
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White Wood Atalaya hemiglauca
Gemtree Harts Range
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Wild Orange - Capparis mitchellii
Gemtree Harts Range
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Wild Passinonfruit Capparis spinosa ssp. nummularia
Gemtree Harts Range
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Witchetty Bush Acacia kempeana
Gemtree Harts Range
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Yellow-plumed Honeyeater Lichenostomus penicillatus
Gemtree Harts Range
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Zebra Finch Taeniopygia guttata Male
Gemtree Harts Range
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Southern Journey / Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park

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The new Davenport Range National Park lies along the main route approximately 470km by road to the north-east of Alice Springs and 240km south-east of Tennant Creek. It encompasses a biological inter -zone between the tropical north and the arid south of the Northern Territory. Stretching in a north-west/south-east direction the Murchison Range, lying south-east of Tennant Creek, joins up with the Davenport range and forms a barrier between the woodland savannah of the north and the arid desert of the south.

The Frew River flows through the Davenport Range and there are many permanent water holes which are an important refuge for a variety of fauna especially water birds. Seven specie of fish are found in the river system as well as fresh water crabs. Desert mice, Antechinus, Dunnarts, Spectacled Hare Wallabies, Northern Nail-tailed Wallabies, Black-footed Wallabies, Euros and Kangaroos all play a part in the ecosystem of this area.

The park area envelops the traditional lands of the Warumungu, Alyawarre and Kaytetye aboriginal peoples. Artefacts relating to an earlier occupation of the land may also be found and areas close to water have small flint quarries dating back to an unknown era. In more recent history missionaries came along to save souls, then pastoralists settled in the area, next came the miners to dig for wolfram, gold, copper, bismuth, tin and scheelite along the tributaries of the Frew River and especially at Hatches Creek.
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Amyema sanguineum
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park
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Binns Track Road Sign
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park
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Butterfly Bush Petalostylis cassioides
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park
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Coral Tree Erythrina variegata
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park
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Feral Cattle
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park
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Grey Rattlepod Crotalaria dissitiflora
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park
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Scaevola basedowii
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park
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Solanum quadriloculatum
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park.
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Spinifex Pigeon Geophaps plumifera
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park
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Yellow-throated Miner Manorina flavigula
Whistle Duck Creek Davenport Range National Park
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Southern Journey / Bitter Springs Mataranka

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Discovered by surveyors for the Overland Telegraph Line in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Bitter Springs are located approximately two kilometres from Mataranka in the Katherine region. The Springs are located amongst palms and tropical woodlands in the Elsey National Park. The Roper River begins within the boundaries of the 13,840 hectare Elsey National Park.

Numerous springs within the Park feed the Roper River. The Roper River is one of the largest rivers in the Northern Territory, Australia, extending east for over 500 km to meet the sea in Limmen Bight on the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is navigable for about 145 km, until the tidal limit at Roper Bar, and forms the southern boundary of the region known as Arnhem Land.

Mataranka Hot Springs and the township of Mataranka lie close to the river at its western end. Port Roper lies near its mouth on Limmen Bight. The first European to explore the Roper River was Ludwig Leichhardt in 1845 as he made his way from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. Leichhardt crossed the river at Roper Bar, a rocky shelf which conveniently lies at the high tide limit on the river. He named the river after John Roper, a member of the expedition.
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Blue Lily Nymphaea violacea
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Buchnera tetragona
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Cabbage Palm Livistona mariae ssp. rigida
Bitter Springs Mataranka Roper River
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Calandrinia uniflora
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Cicada's Shells
Bitter Springs Materanka
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Commelina ensifolia
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Common Koel Eudynamys scolopacea Male
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Kori (Australian) Bustard Araeotis kori
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Mistletoe Moth Comocrus behri
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Native Cherry Exocarpos latifolius
Bitter Spring Mataranka
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Pheasant Coucal Centropus phasiainus
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Pongamia pinnata
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Small Grass-yellow Eurema smilax
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Smooth Spider Bush Clerodendrum floribundum
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Swamp Tiger - Danaus affinis mating
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Swamp Tiger Danaus affinis on
Fiddlewood Citharexylum spinosum
Bitter Springs Mataranka Bitter Spring
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Tube Spittle Bug Machaerota pugionata Stal
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Valanga Sp. 1 Ist Instar
Feeding On
Pachygone ovata
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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White-browed Robin Poecilodryas superciliosa race cerviniventris
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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Yellow Oleander Casabela thevetia
Bitter Springs Mataranka
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