Sketches and Paintings: Palm Valley and Finke Gorge National Park, NT

We visited the Finke Gorge National Park, in Western Arrarnte country in early October 2021, and it left quite an impression.

Here, I’ve shared my sketches and paintings of the park and some information on the park. For a photo journal of the park and its stunning beauty, check out this post, and for official information from the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife service, click here.

The Place:

Getting there: The Palm Valley area in the Finke Gorge National Park was one of my absolute favourite spots when we were coming up the middle of Australia towards Darwin. It is about 140 km from Alice Springs to the park, with the last 16 km (according to the NT National Park site) on a 4wd track.

A part of the Palm Valley area in Watercolour and Pen.

The drive in was on a 4wd road that wasn’t difficult at least until the campsite. We had heard the road up to Palm Valley from the campsite was worse and a challenging 4wd track. This was true when we were there, but with patience it would have been doable.

We walked up to the valley instead which added about 5km to our walk, and in hindsight, it was not really necessary. On that hot morning, driving in would have been much nicer. That said, the walk in is pretty flat and easy, but of course do look at the advice provided by the park, and your own fitness level and comfort before attempting any walks. Take adequate water and a way to stay cool on warmer days.

This was a quick sketch done on location of the view from the campsite.

Staying there: We stayed here for four nights in early October 2021.

The campsites at the time were managed on a first-come, first-served basis, where you would rock up and select a site, fill in the form and put the fee into an envelope that would be collected by rangers. The Northern Territory has now gone to online site bookings, so you may have to book before coming down the track to the campground as signal was patchy while we were there.

The campsites were really spacious. We use a small ground tent or rooftop tent so don’t need much room, but we do like to spread out when we can, and the sites here were big enough for caravans etc. There were also showers! With hot water!

Most sites also offered lovely views and there was tons of bird life.

Wildlife: We saw lots of cockatiels, some wading birds - a grey-faced heron, an egret and of course the beautiful glossy ibis.

This is the one and only time so far (as of 21 August 2022) that I’ve seen a glossy Ibis. This gorgeous bird flew into the stream/creek next to the campsite and was a hard one to get a photo of, but Scott managed and so I had great reference photos. Also seen from the campsite but painted later in Darwin.

Other than the birds, we also saw tiny little frogs in the posts next to our campsite, lizards (skinks and a long-nosed dragon) and a dingo.

The Impression it Left:

Going back over my paintings and sketches while we were in Darwin for 7 months from November 2021 to June 2022, I realised that so much of what I’ve painted, drawn or sketched has been of this beautiful place.

Finke Gorge, and the views from the Mpaara and Kalarranga walks especially are the quintessential Australian landscape in my mind. Or at least the quintessential Australian desert landscape. What I’d imagined the centre of Australia to look like. Beautiful reds, dramatic formations, it was striking.

Trying looser watercolour mark-making this time.

Of course it is unfair to say this is the quintessential Australian landscape - Australia’s beauty is in its wondrous diversity from lush tropical forests to stunning deserts, waterfalls overflowing in the wet season up north, and the gentler colours of the south.

It is all Australia, but, this place, it felt surreal, and this is probably why I kept going back to the photos from the Finke Gorge National park, and kept wanting to sketch the creatures we saw there.

I still find it bizarre that this is based on a place in the middle of the desert rather than a tropical beach.

This is not the only place I’ve felt this way of course, and I’ll post about all the other amazing national parks and landscapes that have left me awestruck. For now though, here are some of the paintings and sketches this place inspired.

OK we’ve seen crows everywhere, but this one was hanging around us at the end of our Palm valley walk. It had such a funny look on its face I had to paint it.

For photos, check out the photo journal post.