In a Gammon Gorge
Walked May 2024, Posted Sunday 17th November 2024
I first heard of the Gammon Ranges when I read C. Warren Bonython’s classic book on the Flinders Ranges1. His enthusiasm for the area shone through in the text, and his photographs showed a beautiful landscape that was unlike anything I’d seen before. I had to see it for myself.
As we drove north the sense of remoteness grew. The occasional towns disappeared, the asphalt road gave way to dirt, and the hills subsided to flat saltbush. The Flinders Ranges ran uninterrupted along the horizon to the west, providing the only visual relief.
We stopped at Balcanoona to check in with the rangers. They hadn’t talked to anyone who’d been camping in the Gammons for a couple of months, so information about water availability was vague. Leaving Balcanoona, we headed to Loch Ness Well2 to start our walk, trusting that my planning and skill would be enough to make it a success.
Part 1 — Bunyip Chasm
Our first day in the Gammons promised to be one of the best. From Loch Ness Well we headed up the dry Balcanoona Creek to enter the spectacular gorge where we’d camp for the night. But would we be able to reach the legendary Bunyip Chasm?
Part 2 — Mt John Roberts
The hardest section of the entire walk was the extremely steep climb out of our gorge campsite to reach the summit of Mt John Roberts, where we were in for a surprise. After enjoying the fantastic views, we descended the rocky ridge to the Wildflower Creek waterhole for our next camp.
Part 3 — Rover Rockhole
From our dry campsite at Wildflower Creek waterhole we headed up to Wildflower Saddle, then dropped into the gorge on the other side. A short distance upstream was Rover Rockhole where — if we were lucky — we would find our first water in two days.
Part 4 — South Branch
The morning was spent on a relaxed side trip that included some of the best gorge scenery of the walk, passing the aptly named Bathtub and on to The Terraces. After lunch we moved our camp further down the South Branch Italowie Creek gorge in preparation for our last day.
Part 5 — Worturpa Pound
An early start gave us one last morning walking in a sandstone gorge amongst the red gums and native pines. Leaving the gorge, we crossed the barren Worturpa Pound to return to Loch Ness Well and complete our Gammons adventure.
Footnotes
- Bonython, C. Warren (1974). Walking the Flinders Ranges. Rigby. ISBN 0851792863. ↩
- Loch Ness Well is about 32 km from Balcanoona by road, which in turn is about 600 km north of Adelaide. It can be hard to find it on a map — neither Google Maps or Apple Maps find that location by name (with Google Maps try searching for “Wildya Vari” instead). Grindells Hut is easier to find: from there head west about 4 km along Wurtupa Loop Track to where a short side track leads to Loch Ness Well. ↩
