OH MY GOODNESS!!! Lawn Hill National Park is spectacular!

Surrounded by Arid Savannah country, Lawn Hill is a lush and tropical heaven!

Although we have many great photographs of the place, the pictures don’t really do it justice. The sheer remoteness and spirit of the place was something special in itself.  The vibrant red colours that varied throughout the day contrasted against the crystal clear aqua spring water just couldn’t quite be captured through the lenses. Lawn Hill is abundant with fish, birds, palm trees, crocodiles and sheer natural beauty emphasised in contrast to the vast nothingness all around it.

We spent two full days here. We took every walk in the park (thanks to Rob’s enthusiasm by lunchtime on the first day!), swam in waterfalls, spotted 2 metre long crocs, and spent an afternoon quietly canoeing down the stillness of the gorge in the warm afternoon light only stopping to swim. Unfortunately, we have no photos to show of the canoeing, even though this was the most picturesque way to see the gorge as we figured we would have more fun if we weren’t worrying about expensive camera equipment. However we have pictures in our memories and I strongly recommend you add it to your bucket list so you can do the same.

Reluctantly we said goodbye to Lawn Hill, but not before a sunrise walk up to the top of Constance Range to look back on the gorge as it caught the early morning light. We were blessed enough to have a full moon setting as the sun rose.

We also stopped at Riversleigh ‘D Site’, which is an archeological dig site where fossils of giant mega fauna lie in their ancient graves. Since the site was discovered in 1963 many many fossils have been found. Over 60 000 to be exact which have identified over 300 species including giant crocodiles, giant wombats and carnivorous kangaroos. Today, the site is deserted with only signs to guide you through the site and thousands of fossilized bone protrude from the granite rocks. The most impressive of the fossils of course have been removed and funnily enough are kept at the Queensland museum. The fossils that we could see today were mostly small-displaced remnants that were impossible to translate into any animal.  We did however see the femur bone of a giant bird called ‘big bird’ which was fossilised next to the contents of it’s stomach! The abundance of fossils in the rocks is incredible and as you walk around the site you can’t help but think about how many more sleeping giants lay in the rocks below. Riversleigh is now listed as a world heritage site with Naracoorte in South Australia.