Map of the Gibb River Road

Where to stay on the Gibb River Road

There's a surprising range of accommodation for travellers along the Gibb River Road, from campsites to station stays and glamping. 

Read on to plan your trip, including details of the Gibb’s gorges, accommodation and camping along the way, tours, suggested itineraries and the practical details like maps, driving distances and fuel stops.

Explore the Gorges 

The river gorges, cascading waterfalls and freshwater swimming holes along the Gibb are some of natures best, and a welcome reward after walking the bush tracks to get to them. 

While walking the trails and exploring the waterfalls, keep an eye out for Aboriginal rock art sites under ledges and overhangs. These are important cultural sites, so please do not touch or disturb them.  

Tours that take you along the Gibb

Head off the beaten track with an experienced guide and like-minded fellow travellers, join a micro-group (6 travellers or fewer) or to take a private charter/tour. 

Gibb River Road tours allow for a choice of accommodation, from fully accommodated, to participatory camping tours, where you pitch in to set up camp and prepare the evening meal, tours offering permanent campsites for some or all of your overnight stays, or tours allowing you to choose to upgrade your accommodation along the way. 

The classic Kimberley 4WD itineraries can vary from 10 to 15 days, travelling through the Gibb River Road and onwards to take in all of the region's major attractions, such as the Purnululu National Park (the Bungles), and on some longer itineraries, the Punamii-Unpuu (Mitchell Falls). 

National Parks along the Gibb

About the Gibb River Road

The route of the Gibb River Road crosses the traditional lands of many Kimberley peoples, including the Njikena, Bunuba, Ongkomi, Ngarinyin, Gedija, Worrorra and Wunumbal language groups. A rich indigenous culture has been practised throughout the area for many thousands of years, and the Gwion (Bradshaw) and Wandjina rock art traditions are features of the rock paintings in the region surrounding the Gibb River Road and Mitchell Plateau.

Once pastoralists moved across the Kimberley and established cattle stations, Aboriginal people were forcibly displaced from their traditional lands, working as stockmen and domestics on stations, and living and working in remote missions.

While the Gibb River Road as we know it today was constructed in the 1960’s, pastoralists had previously constructed two unsealed tracks linking Derby with Mt House station in the west, and Wyndham with Karunjie Station, Gibb River Station and Kalumburu in the east. Both tracks (known as the Mt House Road and Karunjie Track) were hand-hewn roadways wide enough for bullock wagons, and for drovers with their cattle herds.

These roads provided essential connections between the ports at Derby and Wyndham and outlying stations, but the going was rough – it could take over a week to travel with a supply wagon from Mt House to Derby.

The “Beef Roads Programme” was set up by the government in 1949 to provide funding for the construction of infrastructure to support the beef industry. The Gibb River Road was constructed as part of this programme, and under the supervision of Main Roads WA teams of surveyors, engineers and labourers set out on an arduous 3-year road-building project.

The Gibb River Road only partially follows the routes of the Mt House Road and Karunjie Track – with the benefit of explosives and heavy machinery, the road team were able to cut a new direct route through the Napier and Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges, and construct creek crossings. The first beef truck travelled the western section of the road in 1963, while works continued at the eastern end until 1967, completing the route of the Gibb River Road that we travel today.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s Aboriginal communities were established along the Gibb River Road, including Imintji, Kupingarri (Mt Barnett Station), Ngallagunda (Gibb River Station), Dodonun (east of Mt Elizabeth Station), Prap Prap (west of Doongan Station) and Kandiwal Community at the Mitchell Plateau.

Some of these communities are now involved in the tourism industry along the Gibb River Road and its surrounds, including operating tours, campsites, shops and roadhouses, and galleries featuring local artists.