Desert Dunes & Salt Flats: A 4WD Guide to Welford National Park

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I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this area and their connection to Country, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

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Welford National Park feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere. At an inconvenient 1,200km from the east coast, you’d think you’d be pretty much in the centre of Australia.

But no, you still aren’t that close to the NT. In fact, the closest town to Welford is Windorah, about 110km away.

While there aren’t really any hiking trails here—usually a highly desirable feature for us—I was still pleasantly surprised. If being by yourself surrounded by natural desert beauty on scenic drives is your thing, then heading to Welford is perfect.

Spending a couple of nights here as part of a Southwest Queensland winter road trip is ideal, allowing you to easily string together a route around various national parks in the region.

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WELFORD NATIONAL PARK: KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

Like Idalia National Park, Welford is located in Outback Queensland’s Barcoo region.

Part of the Channel Country, the area is defined by vast water channels that run bone-dry during winter and drought, only to turn the region into an inland sea when the rains come. Sometimes the water arrives months after it has rained further north, creating serious travel headaches.

BEST TIME TO VISIT

The ideal time to visit Welford is during winter (May–late August).

During summer, temperatures regularly soar into the low to mid 40ºCs, and the park frequently closes due to seasonal flooding.

The winter months are much cooler and gorgeous with blue sky days and warm day time temperatures around 25°C. Nights can be chilly and may even drop to around 0ºC so decent layers for cold weather are essential.

That said, the weather out here can surprise you; during one mid-winter trip, we had temperatures in the high 20ºCs during the day, and even the nights were so mild that I didn’t even bother with thick socks and definitely no beanie.

HOW MUCH TIME TO PLAN

Welford is a long way from anywhere so plan to spend at least two nights here to fully enjoy the desert isolation. There are a couple of scenic drives—you’ll really only experience the park if you have time to do the drives.

If you want to explore all the scenic routes, they take a significant chunk of time out of your day. It’s also just nice to have some downtime when you’ve travelled such a long way.

We camped here for two nights, arriving in the early afternoon after camping at Idalia National Park, and found that gave us just enough time to tackle the tracks without feeling rushed. If you are keen on birdwatching or want to launch a kayak into the permanent waterholes along the muddy Barcoo River, plan an extra day or two.

GETTING TO WELFORD

The main obstacle to exploring Welford is that it’s just a long way from the populated east coast. On the other hand, that’s also a great bonus because you’re a long way from everyone else too.

Welford is very easy to find.

Since we came from Idalia National Park, we took the Yaraka Retreat Road and then turned right onto Jundah–Quilpie Road.

If you’re coming from Quilpie, it’s about 200km north along the Diamantina Developmental Road towards Windorah, and then roughly another 60km along the Jundah–Quilpie Road. Easy peasy.

VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS

Jundah–Quilpie Road leads right through the national park and is passable for 2WD vehicles in the dry and tends to be well-graded. A 4WD is highly recommended though.

Parts of the region can stay closed surprisingly late into the winter season, so always check live road conditions on QLD Traffic before you set out.

To explore the actual park, especially the Desert Drive, a high-clearance 4WD is essential as park tracks cross clay pans and have sandy sections.

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ESSENTIAL GEAR AND PREP FOR VISITING WELFORD

Travelling this far out west requires complete self-sufficiency. Here are a few tips:

• Nearest Fuel Stops & Supplies: Fill up in Jundah (~45km away) or Windorah (~110km away) if you need fuel. You’ll want plenty of buffer if you intend to drive all the scenic loops, as running out while exploring isn’t a whole lot of fun. There’s only a tiny shop in Windorah if you need to get some last–minute supplies.

• Emergency Supplies: While Windorah or Jundah aren’t that far, it always pays to have a first-aid kit and extra food in case you get stranded by sudden weather, road closures or car breakdowns. Have supplies for at least an extra five days.

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CAMPING AT WELFORD

There’s only one camping area at Welford these days—Little Boomerang Waterhole—and it’s a small one at that. Your only facilities include a drop toilet so make sure you’re camping without leaving a trace.

The camping area has a permanent waterhole of the Barcoo River on one side, and open grass plains and shrubs on the other.

The whole camping area is set up for about 20 campers but if there were 20 individual parties, it’d definitely get a bit tight.

There are about 7–8 individual campsites. Although they’re unmarked, it’s easy to work out the different spots as park rangers have placed rocks roughly marking the cleared areas and installed fire rings in each. While there are trees surrounding the camping area, they don’t offer a ton of shade.

There isn’t a heap of privacy here but if the campground isn’t booked out, you can space out reasonably well. But even with every spot occupied, we didn’t feel packed in like sardines.

The ground is very flat, and in winter, it was cracked dry. You could tell that with just a spot of rain, the ground would open up and turn the campground and roads into a mud bath. Fortunately in winter, there isn’t too much of a chance of that happening.

Although the camping area is along the Barcoo, you’re not exactly on the banks of the river; the banks are fenced off. You can walk behind the fence but not drive down to the river here.

The banks are very steep so lowering a kayak into the river would be a bit of a tricky manoeuvre. It’s clearly possible since people do it, but you’d have to be quite careful.

If you aren’t keen on the park, your other option is to stay in Windorah (roughly 110km away), which has a caravan park, or along the Thomson River outside of Jundah (about 45km).

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EXPLORING WELFORD NATIONAL PARK

While there isn’t a heap to do at Welford, if you love isolation and desert-like country, you’ll enjoy Welford.

TAKE A SCENIC DRIVE

Welford offers three scenic drives. Since there’s only one short walking track at Welford, we spent our days going on drives, exploring a few spots along the way and relaxing back at the campsite.

The River Drive is 2WD-accessible (in dry weather) but for the other two drives, you do need a 4WD as there are lots of sandy patches, particularly along the Desert Drive.

DESERT DRIVE | 22km (one-way; ~1.5 hours)

The Desert Drive is stunning, cutting through gorgeous desert country of red sand dunes, spinifex shrubs and plains.

Along the way you can stop at a desert waterhole, climb a deep red sand hill for some nice views, take a look at an old oil bore (and learn surprisingly little about its history) and see some old pastoral stock troughs. Leave historical remnants as you find them.

Apparently, someone bored for oil here in 1986 but the bore ended up being used for sub-Artesian water flowing into stock troughs. That’s about all the history we could find about the oil bore.

We left relatively early on a our scenic drive to catch the soft morning light and finish before the sun started beating down on us. It took us about 1.5 hours with more than enough time to roam the dunes and explore the sights.

QPWS advises that you should plan around 3 hours for the drive but you’d have to be driving at snail pace and spend hours exploring the sand hill and pastoral remnants to be taking that long.

MULGA DRIVE | 71KM (circuit; 3-4 hours)

The Mulga Drive leads past river flats, Mulga shrubland and salt plains.

We probably enjoyed the Mulga Drive best but you do need to manage your time. We left around 3pm and with the sun setting at 5:45pm, we ended up rushing towards the end and got back to our campsite in the dark.

That said, watching the sunset over the salt flats was terrific!

Along the way, you could stop at Frances Waterhole or Trafalgar Waterhole, or take the quick walk up to Sawyers Creek Lookout (1.2km return) on the north-eastern escarpment.

The mulgas have really grown, so it’s less of an expansive lookout and more a view of the shrubs and tree canopy, but the purple flowers along the path were gorgeous.

Sawyers Creek at the eastern end is worth a look, especially in the late afternoon light when you get soft reflections in the water.

Plan at least 3 hours for this drive, more if you like to get out and have a look around.

RIVER DRIVE | 12.3km (one-way; ~0.5 hour)

The River Drive is an alternative access route to the camping area. To be honest, it’s really just a functional alternative rather than a scenic drive as there isn’t much to see along here at all.

Half-way along, you could stop at The Jetty at the Barcoo River—no, there’s no actual ‘jetty’ here—for some birdwatching or to scramble around the rocky outcrops leading into the muddy river bed.

RELAX (OR KAYAK) ON THE BARCOO RIVER

The rivers in the Channel Country are usually muddy and it’s no different with the Barcoo River. They don’t say ‘come and jump in for a swim’ (unless you fancy mud swims) but they are great for spotting birds, going for a paddle in a kayak or canoe or even some fishing.

The banks are pretty slippery and very steep so getting a kayak in and out is a bit of a challenge but it’s doable if you’re careful.

WATCH THE SUNSET FROM A SAND DUNE

Welford boasts a few lovely deep red sand dunes along the Desert Drive—interestingly, they’re Australia’s most easterly desert dunes. The only one you’re allowed to climb has beautiful 360º views and is arguably the best spot for sunset.

Like anywhere in the bush or outback, watch where you step for snakes and fragile desert plants if you roam about. We saw snake trails and various other tracks, although we didn’t actually run across any critters here.

ENJOY BIRD & WILDLIFE WATCHING

We didn’t see a ton of birds at Welford but we certainly heard them in the mornings! Birdwatching is popular here though—we met some very avid birdwatchers and birdwatching groups come through here regularly.

If you’re lucky (the waterholes are your best bet), you might spot emus, Major Mitchell’s cockatoos, various kinds of parrots, brolgas or kites. On our way to Welford, we had so many kites flying overhead that at some point we stopped counting!

We were lucky enough to come across a Central Bearded Dragon on our desert drive, and of course, the ubiquitous kangaroos are never far away.

LEARN ABOUT THE PASTORAL HISTORY

Welford doesn’t have a massive amount of pastoral history left but you can see remnants of feeding troughs, stockyards and windmills along the Desert Drive.

You can also learn about the historic 1882 rammed earth homestead at the start of the Mulga Drive. Since it is used as QPWS staff quarters, you can only admire it from afar.

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WHERE TO FROM HERE?

The sand dunes and salt pans at Welford make it quite a special national park to visit. If you’re an avid birdwatcher, you can probably spend hours at the waterholes watching birds.

Even though the campground wasn’t empty, we never met anyone on our drives and enjoyed a serene sense of isolation out here.

If you are planning a wider trip through the region, you can find more details on how to connect this stop in my Southwest Queensland national park road trip guide. For more on the surrounding landscape and camping options, check out my guides for Idalia National Park and Currawinya National Park.

Happy exploring,

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