Rolling on the Duncan Road (WA/NT border)

Day 1 on the Duncan Road 

Heading down the Duncan Road today, a link between remote cattle stations, good old dust and rocks with very light corrugation, just a splash of water in the creeks. 441km to go.

Mobs of curious zebu cattle watch us just in case we might be offering salt lick or fodder. Roadside sightings of wildlife include birds of prey, wedge-tailed eagles and elegant brolgas in a creek. The landscape is filled with hundreds of kapok trees nearing the end of the flowering season and already bearing pods.

We love it, travelling slow, easy and relaxed for two hours and no more than 60kms today to the Behr River where we follow a bush track for 1km parallel to the river, carefully negotiating deep erosion, before arriving at a perfect campsite overlooking the river.

Well, our happy hour clock says it is 4pm, let’s slake our thirst now, to hell with having crossed over into WA time (2.30pm) which we will consider tomorrow!

Day 2 on the Duncan Road 

Our camp location is so lovely that we decided to stay at least another day. Only us, nature and the birds. First light to last light, savour the moment from sunrise to sunset.

Day 3 and 4 along the Duncan Road 

We left our delightful Behr River campsite without having seen anyone for 3 days. The road winds through typical Kimberley scenery, with numerous creeks of various levels, generally very low.

We passed Spring Creek cattle station where by sheer coincidence, at the Boulia camel races, I met the lady who, with her husband, was the manager of that station long time ago. I bought her biography book and find it fascinating to read about how life was in that area then.

We reached our second campsite by the mighty Negri River where we spotted numerous birds and a freshie leisurely swimming past us. Red-tailed black cockatoos, rainbow bee-eaters, flocks of budgies and many more.

Lots of birds could be observed nearby.

A starry night to be had camping on the riverbed. Hughie glows in the almost full moon as frogs provide the soundtrack.

Day 5 and 6 along the Duncan Road – Old Ord Homestead campsite by the Ord River

Rolling on the Duncan Road, km after km of my favourite kind of dusty track with overgrown grass down the middle, we climb a rise and sight the ruins of the Old Ord Homestead in the grasslands below. A falcon circles over the drooping metal roof, where a fig tree pushes skywards through an empty window, then soars past the broken, rusted engine. So many memories that were made and buried.

An unkept, rough and furrowed track leads 3 kms through the grass to vast slabs of flat rock beside the Ord River flowing gently in slow pools and tumbling channels.

Just us and the birds, the beating sun, and the cooling breeze.

What perfect country. Extra-Ord-inary

Day 7 Duncan Road Finale

After 6 days loving the Duncan Road, we found it hard to leave the Ord River solitude via the overgrown, rutted 4wd track to the abandoned homestead.

The onward track to Nicholson Station and the junction with the Buntine Highway sped along floodplains or snaked over sunlit spinifex hills. We drive past a small bushfire.

After days without seeing a soul, we met a couple of utes on the broad road linking remote stations.

We dropped in to Palm Springs, a delightful oasis backed by palms and a high, white and orange rockface glowing in the sun. A couple of bush fires were in full swing less than 2kms from Palm Springs, thwarting our plans to camp there.

We'll visit the other local Hall's Creek sights another time, the beauty of multiple visits in the last decade. Meanwhile we have a date to keep for Australia’s Biggest Barbie at Mount Augustus.






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Duncan Road, Duncan Highway, Palm Springs, Old Ord Homestead, Behr River, Spring Creek, Western Australia, WA, NT, Northern Territory