Camooweal Caves National Park, Cave system and grassland national park in Barkly Tableland, Australia
Camooweal Caves National Park covers 13,800 hectares of open eucalypt woodland, spinifex, wattle and Mitchell grass on the Barkly Tableland, 15 km southeast of Camooweal. Its flat steppe lies on soluble dolomite, where rainwater has opened sinkholes and caves up to 75 metres deep, linked by shafts. Two short walking tracks, Little Nowranie Cave and Great Nowranie Cave, start from a car park beside the Nowranie waterhole.
The Indjalandji-Dhidhanu People lived in the wider Camooweal area for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the 1860s, using the park and the Georgina River for trade with neighbouring groups. They hold that Dreaming routes cross the park, and ancestral spirits shaped the landscape there. The park is also known as Wiliyan-ngurru National Park.
The Indjalandji-Dhidhanu People lived in the wider Camooweal area for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the 1860s, using the park and the Georgina River for trade with neighbouring groups. They hold that Dreaming routes cross the park, ancestral spirits having shaped the landscape and created sites of importance there.
The park lies 8 km south of Camooweal on the Barkly Highway, east of the Georgina River. Two short tracks, the Little Nowranie Cave and Great Nowranie Cave walking tracks, start from a car park where camping is allowed. Mountain bikes, off-road motorcycles and four-wheel-drive vehicles can be used to explore the park. The sinkholes and caves themselves are not accessible to visitors and pose a fall hazard to walkers.
The sinkholes and shafts reach depths of up to 75 metres, formed in dolomite rather than limestone, and they are not open to visitors; walkers are warned of the risk of falling in. Only the two sinkholes at Nowranie are accessible, on the Little and Great Nowranie Cave walking tracks.
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