2002/11 Australia trip - Elsey and Mataranka |
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We were blasting south now on the Stuart Highway, over 2000 miles to go to Melbourne. This meant we were by-passing lots of neat places like Gregory National Park, and putting them on our list for future trips. We were now back-tracking. Hard not to when there’s only one road. We stopped in Katherine again for more supplies, and then headed south to the town of Mataranka and to Elsey National Park.
Elsey park is in three pieces and after three wrong turns we found the piece of Elsey that had a campground and set up there, just before dark. Shortly after, a family arrived in an enormous converted Greyhound bus. They wanted to know where the pools were. I had to admit I wasn’t really sure where WE were let alone the pools!
Wednesday October 23rd
We walked down to the Roper River next morning. The map showed an all-day hike along the banks to a cascading waterfall but we didn’t have time for that, yet another item to add to our list for the future. I took a quick dip in the Roper River. Probably not the smartest thing to do, as I didn’t know if there were any crocs, but there are no warning signs and the park service had put some pontoons in the river and the water was really tempting on a steamy morning. After all the dried-up river beds we’d seen, I was surprised by the size of the river, at least 50 yards across and very deep.
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Elsey (3.48) |  |
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We drove back along the river to Mataranka Hot Springs. These used to be inside a 
private resort but the National Park has since adopted the springs themselves. The resort is still there though and you have to walk through the resort’s bar to get to the springs! The pools around the springs aren’t natural. The army built them during the war, for the officers’ recreation. One of the officers came back after the war and built the resort around them.
They aren’t really “hot springs”, as those are formed by volcanic action and are usually very acidic and smelly. These springs are hot just because the ground is hot, and the net result is 94-degree sweet-tasting water. The flow is prodigious, very hard to swim against. It’s a popular spot, with lots of visitors, but the water’s flowing so fast it never gets dirty.
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Mataranka (5.19) |  |
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Some Germans were having a discussion about whether they needed to wear swimming costumes. They decided that they did, so they stripped naked, put on their costumes, and jumped in. Not a pretty sight.
We walked further downstream to Stevie’s Hole, another famous swimming spot. On the way, we saw what appeared to be a flock of birds flying in circles around the trees. This would have been very strange behavior for birds, but they turned out to be bats, thousands of little red flying foxes. Apparently they show up there every October, stay a few weeks, eat all the food in the area, and then move on.
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Flying foxes (4.28) |  |
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The resort had a replica of Elsey Station. This was made famous by Jennie Gunn’s book “We of the Never Never” about the people who lived here a hundred years ago. Her husband was manager of Elsey Station and she went out there to live with him, something unheard of back then, when it could take weeks to get there from Darwin. I’ve read the book, and it’s a good read, but she tells just the story of how she got there and what they did in the year after that. You never hear anything about their background or how they met, and she doesn’t mention that her husband died of fever a few weeks after the story finishes. Or that she had to leave when her husband’s replacement arrived. I think there must have been a film or TV programme based on the book, as the town of Mataranka is trying to cash in on the publicity and has figures of the characters scattered around the main street.
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Bitter Springs (6.08) |  |
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We made one more stop to swim in the last piece of the park, the Bitter Springs area. These springs also feed the Roper River. They are also bubbling up hot water, this time with a faint bitter taste, but they felt just as good.