Judbarra / Gregory National Park
Judbarra / Gregory National Park (formerly Gregory National Park) is a national park in the Top End of the Northern Territory. It has an area of 13,004.12 km2 (5,020.92 sq mi), which is larger than the total area of all Ukrainian national parks combined, and it is the second largest national park in the Northern Territory, only behind Kakadu.
Understand
Visitor information
Get in
The park is about 200 km southwest of Katherine. From Katherine, the Victoria Highway takes you to the smaller part of the park, the so-called Victoria River section with access to the river of the same name, the Victoria River and further west is the significantly larger part of the park, the so-called Bullita section. The northern portion is accessible from the Victoria Highway and the Buchanan Highway, and the more southern portion is accessible via the Buntine Highway. All tracks in the national park can only be used with four-wheel drive vehicles.
Get around
See
- 🌍 Gregory’s Tree.
Do
- Escarpment Walk (2 km west of the roadhouse) – a 3-kilometre trail that takes about 1.5 hours to do which passes through large rocky landscapes and perhaps the most iconic Top End landscapes.
- For paleontology enthusiasts, the Calcite Flow Walk (14 km from Bullita Homestead) passes through several stromatolites along the limestone formations. The trail is 600-metres (return), and takes 30 minutes.
Eat and drink
There is food available at the Victoria River Roadhouse.
Sleep
Lodging
- 🌍 Victoria River Roadhouse, 19405 Victoria Hwy, Gregory, ☏ +61 8 8975 0744. A small family-run roadhouse that pretty much has the bare basic essentials you'll need. It includes a cafe too, and is the only the place to eat anywhere for quite a distance.
Stay safe
The months between November and March are best avoided due to the fierce storms, cyclones and rain that regularly hit Judbarra / Gregory National Park. While it's easy to underestimate them – don't. Press coverage of the storms may be low in this area, as few people live in this part of Northern Australia, but that does not necessarily mean the risks of storms and cyclones have gone.