Impressions of Mataranka

Our first impressions of Mataranka were not favourable-we stopped here briefly back in June on our way from Roper Bar-making our way to Katherine for a ‘famous’ homemade Mataranka pie-but like so many of us – these are non-existent-must be a ‘drawcard’ to enter and buy other products.

Since writing this remark we have met 2 kiwis who have tasted these ‘famous pies’- @$7.00 each and apparently a nice tasting pie.

Mark recommended we call into the Elsey National Park Campground-  on our way south – so we did – 14 nights later we moved on.

However we have come to love the area especially the Elsey National Park, the rivers, the thermal springs, and the bird life.

Mataranka has a population of around 250 people but this swells during the dry season as travellers come to enjoy the pools and the elusive Barra fish. There are 3 campgrounds – Territory Manor-Barra feeding here and Bitter Springs, Mataranka Homestead –thermal pools and the Elsey National Park-where we stayed - $6.60ppnite.

 Typical of National park campgrounds-set out in circular roads with campsites veering off-we camped on a bitumen surface. Hot showers, flush toilets, drinking water and free firewood make this campground one of the better facilitated campgrounds. The Roper River runs through the camp ground-there are pontoons to lie or swim from, boat ramps, canoes to hire. Once a week the ranger comes to give a talk about the region. This is a NO GENERATOR camping ground and also no pets/animals. Two campers with a black dog were discovered-they had managed to evade the caretaker for 4 days by leaving early morning and coming back late at night, but another camper reported them and they had to move the next day.

Although a NO GENERATOR campground,  campers still seem to think they can run a generator for a few hours, arguing that no other campers are nearby. The caretaker assured them this was not possible. Almost everyone here has solar panels-either mounted on the roof or free-standing. We have 2x 80watts free standing panels that charge 1x 87amph and 2 x104amph batteries – 1 in the caravan and 2 in the truck.

We also have an invertor-which charges our phones, electric toothbrushers, shavers, cameras, computors etc.

There are also walks within the park-Murray and I did the Mataranka Waterfalls walk-4kms each way. The falls are not spectacular – very small, but the walk is pleasant and you can swim at the falls.

The bower birds intrigued us and kept us amused each day. They reminded us of the cheeky magpies-picking up silver/white objects to decorate their bower. They were very friendly and loved to hop all over our tables and chairs picking up crumbs or the beer can tabs.



bower bird nest



Apostle birds and blue-eyed honeyeaters were also prolific.

Fresh water crocodiles inhabit the river; pigs come out in the evening. The ranger told us that the pigs are trapped and used as bait for the salty traps and the ‘agile’ kangaroos – (road killed) are used as bait in the pig traps. Wild cats are also trapped.

Donkeys can be heard neighing, especially at 6.30am! One night we heard a high pitched bellowed neighing, followed by 2 quick neighs-speaking to others we feel a dingo ‘got’ the donkey. And on another occasion a cow bellowed/mooed all night – the caretaker suggested her calf may have been taken by a dingo.

Fruit bats are found at the Mataranka Homestead pools-to eradicate these tall sprinklers have been installed and when the bats arrive-on come the sprinklers. The bats have now moved to the Botanic walk at Elsey National Park. Because we were getting over our midges from Darwin-the caretaker advised us not to do this walk due to the bat excrement on the path and dropping onto us.

Murray was shown a new method to make fish bait-one thatis  guaranteed not go smelly-does anyone recognise it, or how to make it?