Danggu Geikie Gorge National Park

Danggu — Dan͟ggu in the Bunuba language, 'the area where the water is very deep under the cave' — is where the Bandaraln͟garri (Fitzroy River) has cut a 30 metre gorge through the Geikie Range. The range is Devonian limestone: a barrier reef more than 100 kilometres long that grew in a tropical sea about 360 million years ago, with reef organisms later laying down limestone up to two kilometres thick. The Bunuba people are the Traditional Owners and joint managers of the park, which was established in the late 1960s and became jointly managed in 2017.

You come for the walls and the river. Creamy wet-season flood lines band the pale limestone well above the dry-season water, honeycomb weathering pocks the cliff face, and white rounded sections known to rangers as 'the meringues' sit above the water line. Three short walks — the Jarrambayah, Balili Rarrgi and Bun.gu trails — leave from the day-use area, and freshwater crocodiles, sea-eagles and purple-crowned fairy-wrens work the river corridor. The park is day-use only, with public toilets and not much else.

What to expect

Reviewed 9 November 2026

You start at the day-use area at the end of Geikie Gorge Road, where the gate opens at 6.30am and closes at 6.30pm. The park has run on limited facilities since the Fitzroy River floods of 2023 — a carpark, public toilets and a designated visitor use area, with visitors asked to stay inside it — and recovery works along the riverbank continue. The information shelter is where the stories are: the Bunuba name Dan͟ggu means 'the area where the water is very deep under the cave', and the shelter tells the Dreamtime story of Linyjiya, Old Man Rock, standing in the middle of the gorge. From here the tracks set out along the river, and within a few minutes you are looking at limestone walls banded with the creamy lines of past floods. Take the heat seriously from the first step: there is no drinking water and no seating anywhere in the park, and the DBCA advice is to carry and drink at least a litre of water per person for every hour you walk, with a hat, long sleeves and sunscreen on top of it.

The Jarrambayah Trail is the main walk: 4.4km return, 2 hours allowed, Class 3, running along the Fitzroy River floodplain to the West Wall of the gorge. The track is sandy and uneven and there is little shade once you are out on the plain, so it is a morning walk. What you are walking toward is the wall itself. The Fitzroy has cut 30 metres down through the Geikie Range here, and the rock above you is fossil limestone — the remains of a barrier reef that grew in a tropical sea about 360 million years ago. Creamy flood lines band the cliff face, because the river rises 10 to 16 metres in the wet and floods sections of the park under several metres of water, and honeycomb weathering has pocked the surface into small cells. White rounded limestone sections above the water line are known to the rangers as 'the meringues'. Take the rock seriously underfoot where you leave the formed track: reef limestone breaks sharp.

The river corridor is where the wildlife is, and much of it has a Bunuba name. Freshwater crocodiles (gayi) lie on the rocks and the banks, white-bellied sea-eagles (durramin) work the water, and rainbow bee-eaters (birrin birrin) and red-tailed black cockatoos (dirrarri) move through the trees along the bank. The park is known for purple-crowned fairy-wrens, and the water holds striped archer fish, rainbow fish, freshwater turtles and barramundi, with goannas and other lizards in the rocks above the water line. Fruit-bat colonies and noisy corellas are part of the soundtrack, and little pied cormorants and kingfishers work the pools. Walk at first light or late afternoon, both for the animals and for the temperature, and stay on the marked tracks — the sandy sections are slow going and the limestone off-track is sharp. Paperbarked cajeputs, river gums, freshwater mangroves, native figs and pandanus line the water, and spinifex holds the rocky walls above.

The gorge is one small window on a big piece of geology. In the Devonian, a barrier reef more than 100 kilometres long ran along the Kimberley coast, and as the sea floor subsided over some 50 million years the reef organisms laid down limestone up to two kilometres thick. Those beds are now the Napier, Oscar and Geikie ranges, standing 50 to 100 metres above the surrounding plains, and the Bandaraln͟garri (Fitzroy River) has sawn a 30 metre gorge through the Geikie Range to expose them. In January 2023 the river did its other work: ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie dropped record rain on the Fitzroy catchment, 1,500 people were evacuated from Fitzroy Crossing, and the flood tore out the walking trails, the ranger camp, the visitor gazebo, the boat ramp, the river access, roads and carparks. More than 1,000 tonnes of rubble and debris has been cleared from the park since.

What you plan around is the water and the heat. The river is closed to water access and swimming is not permitted — freshwater crocodiles hold the gorge, and saltwater crocodiles are not known to occur here but that can change, so report any aggressive crocodile to the Parks and Wildlife Service Broome office on (08) 9195 5500. In the dry season the river drops to a peaceful stream beneath the cliffs and the banding on the walls reads clearly; from December to March the Fitzroy can rise 10 to 16 metres and flood sections of the park, and a cyclone in January or February can close even the Great Northern Highway. The park is day-use only, so everything happens between the gate hours: no camping, no bins, no pets, no drones and no firearms, and no soap or sunscreen in the water. Take your rubbish back to Fitzroy Crossing with you. Before you leave town, check the DBCA park alerts page and confirm the park is open with the Broome office or the Fitzroy Crossing and Derby visitor centres.