Halls Creek - Places to See

Old Halls Creek
Today Old Halls Creek is nothing more than some remnants of buildings, some street signs, the ruins of the old mud brick Post Office, a recently built well to celebrate the discovery of gold in the area, a graveyard, and a modern restaurant.

The graveyard is not really of great historical importance. Perhaps the most famous grave is that of James 'Jimmy' Darcy who made the front page of most Australian newspapers in 1917 - no mean achievement given that the country was in the middle of the Great War.

The China Wall
The 15 km journey out to Old Halls Creek on the Duncan Road passes the town's two major tourist attractions. A few kilometres out of town is a sign to the China Wall. 1.5 km off the road is a strange limestone formation which rises from a creek up over a small hill. It is a natural formation of white quartz which does look like a small version of the famous Great Wall of China. The stream below is surrounded by trees and in the 'green season' it is an ideal location for swimming.

Caroline Pool
Further on is the Caroline Pool, another popular local swimming spot, which is reminiscent of the gorges along the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. The river comes between two cliffs and forms a deep pool in the gorge.

Wolfe Creek Crater
But it is the Wolfe Creek Crater and the Bungle Bungles which hold the most appeal. Neither is easy to get to. Wolfe Creek Crater is located 151 km south of the town on a less than perfect dirt road. Known to the Djaru Aborigines as Kandimalal it was named Wolf Crater after Robert Tennant Stowe Wolfe, a digger and storekeeper who lived in Halls Creek in the late 1880s. The first Europeans to see the crater were F. Reeves, N. B. Sauve and D. Hart who sighted it while carrying out an aerial survey of the area in 1947. Later that year the three men reached the crater by land.

There is some dispute as to the crater's status with some sources claiming that it is the second largest meteorite crater on earth (the other being in Arizona) while others claim it as the fourth largest. Both these claims should be treated with considerable scepticism. The excellent Wolf Creek Crater by Ken McNamara (published by the Western Australian Museum) claims that in Western Australia alone the Goat Paddock Crater and 'The Spider' crater are considerably larger. Perhaps the final word on this confusion belongs to McNamara who, having weighed the evidence as to whether Wolf Crater was really formed by a meteorite, observes: 'In a 1 to 5 classification of craters, only 12 are categorised as Class 1; included is the Wolf Creek Crater. Class 1 craters are those with which meteoric material has been found, and are considered to have probably been formed by an explosion caused by meteor impact with the Earth. Of the Class 1 craters Wolf Creek is the second largest in the world, being exceeded in size only by the Arizona crater.'

Regardless of these counter-claims Wolf Crater, with a diameter of 853 metres and a depth of 61 metres it is still very big. It was probably as much as 200 m deep when it was originally formed. From the distance it appears as a low hill but when the rim of the crater is reached it is a sight of great symmetry and beauty. The age of the crater is unknown but available evidence suggests that it was probably formed about 2 million years ago. Because of the extreme dryness of the area the erosion of the crater has been very slow. Accommodation is offered at nearby Carranya Station Camping Grounds which are 7 km from the crater. The Station can be contacted through the Derby Flying Doctor Base on 08 9191 1612.

Bungle Bungles
If Wolfe Creek Crater is dramatic it is nothing in comparison to the Bungle Bungles which, if they weren't so inaccessible, would certainly be one of Australia's premier tourist attractions.

Known to the local Aborigines as Purnululu, the Bungle Bungles are located north east of Halls Creek (take the Great Northern Highway 109 km north from Halls Creek and turn east on the Spring Creek Track) on a road which is so bad that the RAC has this to say about it: 'The distance from the highway to the Three-Ways intersection is only 55 km, however, the trip will take two or three hours and the track is suitable only for 4WDs with good clearance. Caravans will not survive the trip.' Reaching the campsites involves further travelling for at least another hour.