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Hell Hole Gorge National Park Outback Queensland

Photo credit: Tracy Wattz © Queensland Government

About Hell Hole Gorge

    Park features

    The deep gorges, rugged cliff-lines and waterholes and rock pools of Hell Hole Gorge provide a stark visual contrast to the harshness of the surrounding arid mulga lands.

    Centred on waterholes and gorges of the rugged Powell Creek drainage system and its associated plateau, the park landscape is one of dissected residual ranges and stony tablelands leading down to floodplains at the foot of the Grey Range. Deeply-incised Powell and Spencers Creeks, with their steep escarpments and vertical cliffs up to 45m high, drain through the centre of the 12,700 hectare national park.

    River red gums, coolabah and gidgee line creek channels, while low open woodlands of mulga, bendee, other wattles and mountain yapunyah grow across scarps and plateaus. Well-adapted plants grow in the shallow, red soils. See species of significance blossoming after rain including Hakea maconochiena, Thryptomene hexandra, Acacia spania and Euphorbia sarcostemmoides. The park is home to remarkable animals such as red-tailed black-cockatoos and yellow-footed rock-wallabies.

    Looking after the park

    Help preserve this park’s natural and cultural values by following these few common sense guidelines:

    • Leave everything as you find it. This includes plants, animals, rocks and artefacts.
    • Firearms and other weapons must not be used in national parks.
    • Leave your pets at home. Pets frighten wildlife, annoy other visitors, can become lost and are prohibited in the park.
    • Take care with fire. Clear away any flammable material for a metre around campfires and extinguish your fire with water before you leave.
    • Keep water supplies clean. Never wash near the creek. Bury toilet waste at least 15cm deep and 150m from any watercourse. Toilet paper is slow to break down in arid areas, so please burn toilet paper if it is safe to do so.
    • Use fuel stoves to reduce the need for firewood. Wood provides homes for wildlife and nutrients for the soil.
    • Please remove your rubbish from the park and leave campsites clean and tidy.
    • Keep to designated roads and tracks.

    See the general guidelines on caring for parks for more information about protecting our environment and heritage in parks.

    Park management

    Formerly a grazing property, Hell Hole Gorge National Park was declared in 1992 to preserve representative ecosystems of the central-northern part of the Mulga Lands bioregion as well as a number of plant species of high biogeographic significance that are poorly represented in Queensland.

    The park was not accessible to visitors until 2015 when a gazetted road was constructed to the boundary of the park by Quilpie Shire Council.

    The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service manages Hell Hole Gorge National Park under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.

    The park is managed in accordance with Hell Hole Gorge National Park Management Statement (PDF, 307.9KB) .

    Tourism information links

    Quilpie Shire Council Visitor Information Centre
    visitquilpieshire.com
    51 Brolga Street
    Quilpie Qld 4480
    ph: (07) 4656 0540
    email tourism@quilpie.qld.gov.au

    Charleville Visitor Information Centre
    www.murweh.qld.gov.au
    Cosmos Centre Qantas Drive
    Charleville Qld 4470
    ph: (07) 4654 7771
    email tourism@murweh.qld.gov.au

    For information on road conditions contact:

    For tourism information for all regions in Queensland see the Queensland Holidays website.