HELL’S GATE
LEAVING Burketown and heading west on the Savannah Way, it’s dry and dusty and typical gulf landscape. But come the wet season and the whole region gets shut down due to the immense amount of water that this area receives. Both Tirranna Springs Roadhouse and Doomadgee are settlements where you can top up with food and fuel, and what surprised me was that it was a sealed road all the way to Hell’s Gate Roadhouse, nearly 200km away.
Hell’s Gate is like a retreat away from the harsh landscape of the surrounding country, where you can pull up and camp for a night or two with green grassy campsites shaded by outback gums. If you don’t want to cook, the roadhouse has a great menu inside, plus there’s an outdoor bar area to knock down a few cold ones. Part of Cliffdale Station, the roadhouse was built after six years of tough times and no income for Cliffdale, and today, it’s a must-do stop for any traveller. Not only does the roadhouse offer amazing food and accommodation, it also offers helicopter flights to remote water holes, functions and entertainment.
So, why the name Hell’s Gate? Well the name comes from the name of the small gap in the escarpment just one kilometre south of the roadhouse, originating in the early days of settlement of the gulf when the tough police force would escort settlers and travellers to the ‘portals of Hell’s Gate’. From that point onwards, they were ‘on their own’ until they reached the safety of police protection at Katherine in the NT nearly 1000km away.
When you consider that back then travellers were on foot or horses, traversing lands that were largely unexplored and considered very dangerous, it would well have seemed like the gateway to hell. Where the road passes through Hell’s Gate, it’s the same track that explorer Nat Buchanan travelled as he guided the first settlers to ‘take up’ and settle the first two ‘cattle runs’ in the NT in 1881.
Leaving Hell’s Gate the dirt road is rough as nails, with extreme corrugations where your tyres need to be lowered and everything tied down. It’s only 55km to the NT border but it takes time and if later in the year, the bulldust holes are thick and deep. By the way, Hell’s Gate is the last stop for fuel heading west until Borroloola, 320km away.
Wollogorang Road from the NT border is a spectacular drive, passing through Echo Gorge where the views from the top are endless in all directions, creek crossings (these turn to major rivers in the wet season) lined with age-old pandanus palms and huge gums constantly seeking water in the dry times. These creeks and pools are so very inviting but this is still croc country, and while you may not see them, they will see you.