Mpaara Walk

Moderate

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A loop walk through Palm Valley that introduces Western Arrernte Aboriginal mythology tied to the surrounding rock formations, passing sites associated with local Dreaming stories.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

4.45 km

Est. time

1 hr 18 min

Elevation gain

112 m

Route type

Loop

Steepest stretch: +44m over ~300m (around the 2.2km mark)

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Finke Gorge National Park, Hermannsburg, Central Australia, NT. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

Tracks & plans

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Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Burrowing Bettong

Bettongia lesueur

Endangered — SA: Endangered, NT: Extinct▾

Endangered — SA: Endangered, NT: Extinct

The boodie, also known as the burrowing bettong or Lesueur's rat-kangaroo, is a small, furry, rat-like mammal native to Australia. Once common throughout the continent, it is now restricted to a few coastal islands. A member of the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae), it lives in burrows and is active at night when it forages for fungi, roots, and other plant matter. It is about the size of a rabbit and, like most marsupials, carries its young in a pouch.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Finke Gorge National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 2001) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Potoroidae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Bettongia lesueur

Lesser Stick-Nest Rat

Leporillus apicalis

Endangered — AUS: Extinct, NSW: Extinct, VIC: Extinct, SA: Endangered, WA: Extinct, NT: Extinct▾

Endangered — AUS: Extinct, NSW: Extinct, VIC: Extinct, SA: Endangered, WA: Extinct, NT: Extinct

The lesser stick-nest rat or white-tipped stick-nest rat is an extinct species of rodent in the family Muridae. It lived in central Australia where it built nests of sticks that accumulate over years and can become very large. The last confirmed sighting of this rat was in 1933 although there is a credible report of a sighting in 1970. In 2008, the International Union for Conservation of Nature listed it as "critically endangered", suggesting that it may yet survive in remote areas of unsurveyed territory, but revised its evaluation to "extinct" again in 2016, based on an assessment in 2012.

How to spot it

Family Muridae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Leporillus apicalis

Australian Painted-Snipe

Rostratula australis

Critically Endangered — AUS: Endangered, ACT: Endangered, NSW: Endangered, QLD: Endangered, VIC: Critically Endangered, SA: Endangered, WA: Endangered, NT: Endangered▾

Critically Endangered — AUS: Endangered, ACT: Endangered, NSW: Endangered, QLD: Endangered, VIC: Critically Endangered, SA: Endangered, WA: Endangered, NT: Endangered

The Australian painted-snipe is a medium-sized, long-billed, distinctively patterned wader.

How to spot it

The head, neck and upper breast is chocolate brown (in the male, dark grey with a buff median stripe on the crown), fading to rufous in the centre of the hindneck and merging to dark, barred grey on the back. There is a cream comma-shaped mark around the eye. A white stripe on the side of the breast and over the shoulders is diagnostic. The upperwing is grey (with buff spots in the male). The lower breast and underbody are white. Males are generally slightly smaller and less bright than females.

Family Rostratulidae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Rostratula australis

Spencer's Tapered Snail

Bothriembryon spenceri

Vulnerable — NT: Vulnerable▾

Vulnerable — NT: Vulnerable

Bothriembryon spenceri is a species of tropical air-breathing land snail, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Bothriembryontidae, and is endemic to Australia.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Finke Gorge National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, date unrecorded) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Bothriembryontidae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Bothriembryon spenceri

Perentie

Varanus giganteus

IUCN Least Concern — Australia's largest monitor lizard▾

IUCN Least Concern — Australia's largest monitor lizard

The perentie is Australia's largest lizard and the world's fourth-largest living lizard species, reaching up to 2.5 metres in length. It's a shy, wide-ranging predator of the remote rocky arid interior, rarely encountered simply because of how sparsely populated its desert habitat is.

How to spot it

Huge for a lizard — up to 2.5m nose to tail — with a cream-and-black reticulated head and neck, a yellowish body patterned with brown rosettes, and dark, white-spotted limbs. Look for it basking near rocky outcrops and gorges in the arid interior; if disturbed it will bolt for the nearest crevice or tree, or rear up on its hind legs to look around.

Family Varanidae · Source: Wikipedia

Photo: Bernard DUPONT (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Central bearded dragon

Pogona vitticeps

IUCN Least Concern — iconic arid-zone dragon▾

IUCN Least Concern — iconic arid-zone dragon

The central bearded dragon is a robust, spiny lizard of the semi-arid and arid woodlands of central Australia, named for the spiky, inflatable throat pouch ('beard') it darkens and flares as a threat and social display. It has since become one of the world's most popular pet reptiles, but the wild population remains a genuine outback local.

How to spot it

A stocky, flattened lizard up to 60cm long (over half of that tail), mottled in browns, reds, yellows and greys that shift with temperament and background. Look for it basking on fence posts, rocks or dead branches in open woodland during the cooler morning and evening, flattening its body and puffing out its spiny black 'beard' if it feels threatened.

Family Agamidae · Source: Wikipedia

Photo: Frank C. Müller, Baden-Baden (CC BY-SA 2.5) via Wikimedia Commons