Fitzroy Crossing

Fitzroy Crossing is the central-Kimberley town that nobody talks about until they need it — and then everybody needs it. Drive the Great Northern Highway from Broome to Kununurra and this is the only fuel stop, the only IGA and the only pub for nearly three hundred kilometres in either direction. It’s also the closest service town to three of the most extraordinary national parks in Australia: Geikie Gorge, Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge, all carved out of the same 350-million-year-old Devonian fossil reef that once sat under a tropical sea where the spinifex now grows.

Our editor Hamish drove through here twice in the same fortnight in July, once heading east and once heading back. He came for the gorges and stayed an extra night because of the Crossing Inn — the oldest pub in the Kimberley, established in 1897, still pouring cold beer to drovers, tourists and Bunuba locals on the bank of the Fitzroy River. Fitzroy Crossing isn’t a town you build a holiday around. It’s a town you let unfold around you for two or three days while you work through the gorges, and most travellers leave wishing they’d given it another night.

The three Devonian Reef gorges

The whole reason Fitzroy Crossing matters as a tourist stop is the Napier and Oscar Ranges — what looks like ordinary outback limestone country is in fact the fossilised remains of a Devonian-period barrier reef that ran for hundreds of kilometres along an ancient coastline. Three national parks sit along the exposed reef line, all within a day-trip radius of the town. The Parks and Wildlife Service WA visitor pages are the source of truth for current access and conditions, which is worth checking ahead of every visit because road closures are common after late-season rain.

Danggu (Geikie Gorge) is the easiest of the three to reach — the access road from town is sealed, the gorge itself is 14 kilometres long, and the standard way to see it is a one-hour boat tour run by Darngku Heritage Tours, owned and operated by Bunuba Traditional Owners. The cliffs are stained two-tone — bleached white below the wet-season flood mark and red ochre above — and freshwater crocodiles bask on the rocks along the banks. The boats run morning and afternoon in the dry season. Bunuba guides are part of what makes this one of the best paid experiences in the Kimberley.

Tunnel Creek is the more adventurous option and demands a torch, sturdy shoes and a willingness to wade in chest-deep water through total darkness. The 750-metre tunnel cuts straight through the Napier Range and was a hideout in the 1890s for the Bunuba resistance leader Jandamarra, who held off police pursuit for three years from these caves before being killed nearby in 1897. The walk is genuinely cold once you’re past the entrance and the bats roosting in the high chambers will startle you. It is one of the most memorable hour-long walks in Australia.

Windjana Gorge, just over from Tunnel Creek on the same loop drive, is a wider, more open gorge along the Lennard River. The dry-season walk along the river bed delivers you within metres of dozens of freshwater crocodiles dozing on the sand. They’re harmless if you give them space — freshies will move away from you rather than at you — but it’s a strange first experience for anyone who’s only ever seen crocodiles on Steve Irwin reruns. The Lillimooloora Police Outpost ruins, where Jandamarra began his resistance in 1894, are on the same access road.

The Fitzroy River itself

The Fitzroy — Martuwarra to the Bunuba and Nyikina — is, by volume of water moved during peak flow, the most powerful river in Australia. In a big wet it shifts more water in a single February day than the Murray-Darling does in a year. The town and the highway bridge sit at the natural narrow point where the river was historically forded by stock crews, which is how Fitzroy Crossing got its name in the 1880s.

That power has a downside. In January 2023 the Fitzroy ran 15.81 metres at the town gauge — an all-time record — and Tropical Cyclone Ellie’s flood took out the highway bridge and isolated the town for weeks. The replacement bridge opened in late 2023 and traffic now runs normally, but it’s a reminder that this is a young, fierce river and the road network through the central Kimberley can shut on short notice. We’d always check the Main Roads WA live status before any wet or shoulder-season trip.

In the dry, the river drops to a chain of deep permanent pools strung along a wide white-sand bed. You can walk down to the bank from the Crossing Inn lawn, swim from a few of the deeper pools (after checking signage; saltwater crocs do push upriver as far as the town in big years), and watch the sunset turn the cliffs at the bend opposite the pub a hot pink-red. It’s the quiet, low-key cousin to the headline gorges and arguably the best free thing in town.

The Crossing Inn and town life

The Crossing Inn opened in 1897 and is the oldest pub in the Kimberley by some margin. The current building isn’t the original — it’s been rebuilt twice after floods and once after a fire — but the licence has run continuously from the same spot for more than 125 years. It serves cold beer, decent pub meals, and a riverside beer garden that catches the breeze off the Fitzroy in the late afternoon.

The town itself is small — about fifteen hundred people, with a strong Bunuba majority and a long-established mission community at nearby Bayulu. The main commercial strip on the highway has the IGA, two roadhouses, a bakery, the Fitzroy River Lodge resort complex (the largest accommodation in town), and the Shire of Derby/West Kimberley district office. Mangkaja Arts is the local Indigenous-owned art centre, representing Walmajarri, Wangkajunga, Bunuba and Nyikina painters, and is well worth an hour. Many of its artists have work in the National Gallery.

Where to stay

Fitzroy River Lodge on the eastern edge of town is the biggest operation — powered caravan sites, motel rooms, safari tents, a swimming pool, a restaurant. It sits on the riverbank and is the standard pick for most road-trippers. The Crossing Inn has rooms attached to the pub for the budget-conscious. The Tarunda Caravan Park does basic powered sites in town. Bookings tighten through July and the start of August.

For travellers heading north to Windjana and Tunnel Creek, there’s also Windjana Gorge Campground inside the national park and Silent Grove (near Bell Gorge on the Gibb River Road) further north. Both are Parks-and-Wildlife managed and require pre-booking through the Parks WA website during peak season.

Getting there

Fitzroy Crossing sits 397 km east of Broome and 290 km west of Halls Creek on the Great Northern Highway, sealed the whole way. From Broome it’s about a four-hour drive without stops; from Kununurra it’s closer to seven hours. Air North runs scheduled flights into the Fitzroy Crossing aerodrome from Broome and Kununurra a few times a week, but most visitors arrive by car or coach.

This is the southern jumping-off point for the Gibb River Road if you’re heading north to Windjana, Bell Gorge, the El Questro country and the eastern Kimberley loop. The Gibb itself is unsealed, corrugated, and 4WD-only with proper recovery gear. If you’re building a Kimberley itinerary around this guide, see our pages for Broome and Halls Creek for the obvious bookends, and Karijini if you’re continuing south into the Pilbara.

When to visit

The dry season — May through to September — is the only window most travellers should plan for. Days sit in the high twenties to low thirties, nights drop to a comfortable fifteen or so, and the rivers are clear and the gorge boat tours run daily. October starts getting hot fast, and by November the build-up has set in — humid, sticky days in the high thirties followed by spectacular evening lightning storms. The wet itself, December to March, closes Tunnel Creek and Windjana most years, makes the Gibb River Road impassable, and brings the kind of cyclone activity that produced the 2023 floods.

The school-holiday peak in early July is genuinely busy — the Geikie Gorge boats run at capacity, the Fitzroy River Lodge books out weeks ahead, and the better camping spots along the highway disappear by midday. June and late August are noticeably quieter and exactly as pleasant weather-wise. Late September is hot but still manageable and very quiet.

Eating and drinking

The Crossing Inn is the obvious dinner stop — it’s been doing pub food on the same bend of river since the Victorian era and the steaks are honest. The Fitzroy River Lodge has a more polished restaurant inside the main building with a wider menu. Tarunda Cafe and the bakery on the highway are the breakfast spots; both turn out good coffee, which isn’t a given this far inland. Lulu’s Cafe at Mangkaja Arts is open seasonally and is the local recommendation for lunch.

This part of the Kimberley has alcohol restrictions in place that vary by area and that are taken seriously. Takeaway alcohol is sold under restricted hours at the two licensed venues and limits apply per person per day. The Shire of Derby/West Kimberley and the Liquor Commission publish current rules — check them before you arrive rather than after you’ve been turned away at the bottle shop. Carrying alcohol into any of the surrounding Aboriginal communities is a serious offence.

Why we keep coming back

Fitzroy Crossing has the strange property of being a tiny outback town that’s also the gateway to three of the best half-day walks in the country. You can wade through Tunnel Creek in the morning, eat a steak by the same river the dinosaurs drank from at lunchtime, and watch freshies sleep on the sand at Windjana before sunset, and you’ll be back at the pub by dark with a beer in front of you. Very few towns this small punch this far above their weight.

If you’re mapping a longer trip and want context, our Exmouth & Ningaloo guide covers the natural pair on the other side of the state, and Perth is the obvious arrival and departure hub for most international visitors making this loop. Allow ten days minimum if you’re doing Broome to Kununurra properly — this stretch deserves it.