Wolfe Creek Crater
Location: Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater National Park, Australia Diameter: 875 metres (2,871 feet) Depth: 60 metres (196 feet) Age: 150,000 years
Positioned on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert in northern Western Australia, Wolfe Creek Crater – known to Aboriginal Australians as Kandimalal – is a truly extraordinary sight. Wolfe Creek Crater was thought to have formed 300,000 years ago, though recent studies have estimated the age of the crater to be a lot younger, around 150,000 years.
A prominent feature of the landscape, Wolfe Creek Crater is the second-largest crater in the world from which fragments of a meteorite have been collected. Scientists estimate that the crater-forming meteor – predicted to have been 15 metres (50 feet) in diameter and weighing approximately 14,000 tonnes – was probably travelling at eye-watering speeds of 17 kilometres (10 miles) per second before slamming into the Australian desert.
The crater was only discovered by Europeans in 1947 during an aerial survey of the region, but Wolfe Creek has long been known to Aboriginal people, known as Janyil in Djaru and as Karntimarlarl in Walmajarri. There are many stories associated with the crater among the
indigenous communities of Australia. One story involves two giant ancestral snakes, who formed the nearby Sturt and Wolfe Creeks when they made their way across the desert. The crater is where one of the mythological snakes emerged from the ground.
The crater lies 145 kilometres (90 miles) from the nearest town, Halls Creek. The isolation has helped preserve the crater and surrounding area, and Wolfe Creek Crater was given Class A Reserve status in 1979, adding further protection to this astonishing landmark. People are encouraged to visit the crater during the dry season – May to October – as access to the site is via a gravel road, and is not appropriate for unconventional vehicles. There is a 400-metre (1,312-foot) return walk to the crater rim which involves a steep, rocky climb, and climbing down into the crater is forbidden due to loose rocks making it dangerous. Wolfe Creek Crater is home to some interesting wildlife, including the vocal Major Mitchell’s cockatoo harvesting seeds from plants on the crater floor and brown ringtailed dragon lizards on the hunt for insects.