Marble Bar

 As we had never been to Marble Bar we decided to take a 200 km diversion east on our way south from Pardoo Station (also our freezer is half full of vacuum sealed fish fillets so we thought we would give the fishing a break for a week). 

For some reason I had this preconceived idea that this was a land of spinifex, and flat desert like country but to the contrary - the drive in and around Marble Bar is a land of red hills, gorges,  flood plains and of considerable beauty (a little like Flinders Ranges in SA). 

Eggs with the lot - Coongan Pool Grill

We stayed for six nights 35 km north of town on the Coongan River at Coongan Pool (aka Long Pool) – nice little camp area away from the main highway with grassed river banks and cool water to have a dip and wash off the red dust. 

Gumtree TV

Bird life was prolific and you didn’t need an alarm clock as the thousands of white corellas that come in on dawn for a drink made sure you were awake. With temperatures ranging between 30C to 15C it was a comfortable camping with a swim during the day and a fire at night.

Close to our campsite (just a few km away) is Doolena Gorge which is a pretty camping area nestled in between the red cliffs of the gorge. We chose the Coongan Pool site only because there is still enough water to swim whereas Doolena only has shallow water at this time of year.

We had planned three day trips around the area:

The hottest town in Australia?

Day one was into town to pick up some tourist info, and visit the marble rock bar in the Coongan River after which the town is named. Turns out the early settlers incorrectly thought the rock bar was marble, but it is in fact jasper (so perhaps the town should have been called Jasper Bar?). The Visitors Centre folk tell you to take a bottle of water to pour on the rock so you can see the beautiful colours but by a stroke of good fortune a rare event occurred the day we visited – it rained! Around 5mm - so the whole rock bar was shining in its true beauty for our visit.  

At the marble bar rock bar

Your not allowed to chip bits off the rock bar (It’s an A Class Reserve) but you can go to a near by jasper deposit for those souvenirs – Linda got a few pockets full and I snuck in a piece which is destined to be a door stopper in our house).

Day two found us packing a lunch and thermos and driving out 35km past Marble Bar to the “Secret” WW2 airfield at Corunna Downs. This remote airfield was built to avoid detection by the Japanese but allow the B52 Bombers to do some very long distance bombing raids on parts of Japanese held Indonesia (including a raid n Jakarta). Over 2000 men were stationed there in very primitive conditions with no refrigeration, air con, and living in tents. Not much remains these days except two well maintained runways and some bunker hanger earthworks but there was a cinema, hospital,  stores, ammunition dumps, water tanks and nurses quarters – WAIT a minute – “Nurses quarters” – I bet event the most homely of the Nurses looked good after a few months in the remote site! 

Ready for a beer at the "Iron Clad"

Day three was planned to be a run out to Carrawine Gorge but the 400km round trip put us off so we did a trip to Comet Gold mine and Glen Herring Gorge.  The Comet Gold Mine has a sort of museum which is managed by an old Dutch fella who is also the caretaker for the closed gold mine. You need to dedicate at least half an hour to the museum as the old fella can talk – but his sense of humour and knowledge made the visit a memorable one. Another 30km out past the Comet Mine is the quiet scenic Glen Herring Gorge (if you get the “mud map” of the area from the Marble Bar Visitors Centre – be aware that it is definitely “not to scale” and often there are no sign posts at the turn-offs to the sights). The gorge is worth “finding” and is a relatively easy walk in from the parking area and has some fascinating geological structures and a pleasant pool at the end of the walk. Molly off course – swam in every dirty stagnant puddle before we got to the clean water – but hey – that’s what dogs do.

We were glad we ventured in off the coast to Marble Bar and ticked that one off the bucket list.

Longer than usual video is HERE