Finke Gorge National Park

45,856ha.

Finke Gorge National Park extends along the Finke River between the Krichauff Range in the west and the James Range to the southeast. The imposing rock formations in the park are of ritual significance to the Aborigines. The prehistoric red cabbage palms (Livistona mariae), extinct elsewhere, seen here are relics of a much wetter period.

They grow in the valley of Palm Creek, a tributary of the Finke River. From the earliest times the bed of the Finke was used by the Aborigines as a route through the hills, and in 1872 Ernest Giles, on the first of his five expeditions through the Red Centre, followed the Finke valley upstream from Chambers Pillar. At the mouth of Ellery Creek he found a number of palms which Ferdinand von Müller, director of the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, identified on the basis of Giles's specimens and sketches as the ancient Livistona mariae species. The river was named by Stuart in 1861 after his sponsor, Finke.

Palm Valley was probably also discovered by the German missionaries of Hermannsburg, an interesting example of early European settlement in central Australia which was handed over to Aboriginal administration in 1982.

Because of its inaccessibility, Finke Gorge National Park drew few visitors until a camping ground was established on Palm Creek, near Palm Valley, around 1960.

For visitors without an all-terrain vehicle there are organized tours from Alice Springs (information from Northern Territory Government Tourist Bureau).