Kimberley Pioneer 2025

Board The Ghan in Adelaide for an incredible showcase journey of inland Australia. As the train leaves the city heading for the Flinders Ranges and beyond, the dramatic changes in landscape from pastoral land to arid outback scenes will ignite your imagination. (L,D)

OVERNIGHT: 2 nights The Ghan

After your first night enjoying the fine dining and relaxed comfort of this iconic train, you’ll wake to an unforgettable outback sunrise at Marla – a remote outpost 160 kilometres from the Northern Territory border that marks the start of the Oodnadatta Track. Enjoy the magnificent scenery as you make your way onwards to Alice Springs, where you have a selection of Off Train Experiences to choose from. There’s an experience to suit everyone, including an off-road mountain bike adventure, the Alice Explorer tour, a cultural experience at Standley Chasm, meeting the wildlife at the Desert Park or taking in the astounding beauty of Simpson’s Gap. Alternatively, take it all in from the air, with an optional upgrade helicopter flight. (B,L,D)

When the landscape transforms into rocky gorges and fast-flowing canyon streams, prepare to experience one of the Top End’s most impressive natural wonders on a boat cruise along Nitmiluk Gorge. Alternatively, the Katherine Outback Experience lets you into the lives of those who call the outback home, there is also a helicopter flight upgrade available, for those wishing to see Nitmiluk from an aerial perspective. Continue to Darwin, where you will be transferred to your overnight accommodation. After checking in, you may wish to explore the Waterfront Precinct, with its many restaurants and bars. (B,L)

OVERNIGHT: 1 night Adina Apartment Hotel Darwin Waterfront

This morning, you will be transferred from your accommodation to the Port of Darwin to board Coral Adventurer for your Kimberley cruise. Take the time to become acquainted with the facilities on board before joining the expedition team in the Bridge Deck Lounge for an introduction to the Kimberley. As dusk falls, meet your fellow travellers and the Captain and crew for the Captain’s Welcome Drinks. (B,L,D)

OVERNIGHT: 10 nights Coral Adventurer

Please note: This is an indicative itinerary as the visits and order of days may vary depending on optimal timings with tidal and weather conditions.

Fed by the King George River draining across the Gardner Plateau, 80m-tall King George Falls are the most impressive Kimberley waterfalls and the highest twin falls in Western Australia. Before feeling the mist-like spray rising from the base of King George Falls, we cruise through steep-sided gorges carved by a flooded river system that forged a swathe through the Kimberley landscape 400 million years ago. 

Early in the waterfall season, we may cruise around the base of King George Falls while in later months we take the opportunity to view the honeycomb erosion patterns of sandstone cliffs up close. (B,L,D) 

Please note: This is an indicative itinerary as the visits and order of days may vary depending on optimal timings with tidal and weather conditions.

Vansittart Bay is home to many cultural and historically significant sites, like the remarkable Gwion Gwion (Bradshaw) Aboriginal rock art galleries, estimated to be up to 20,000 years old and Jar Island, so named after the pot shards found here, brought to the island by Makassan fishermen harvesting sea cucumbers (also known as trepang). 

Nearby, on the Anjo Peninsula lays the well-preserved wreckage of a US Airforce C-53 Skytrooper aircraft, the result of a pilot losing his bearings flying from Perth to Broome in 1942 and putting down on a salt pan near present-day Truscott Airbase. (B,L,D) 

Please note: This is an indicative itinerary as the visits and order of days may vary depending on optimal timings with tidal and weather conditions.

Tumbling down the Mitchell Plateau in a series of tiered waterfalls and emerald-green rock pools, the Mitchell Falls are the photogenic poster child for the Mitchell River National Park. Take a scenic helicopter flight (additional cost) to multi-tiered Mitchell Falls, where rock pools cascade down the escarpment and ancient rock art galleries are concealed in caves behind curtains of water. 

Mitchell River National Park is inhabited by significant numbers of mammals, amphibians, reptiles and bird species, which are lured by a year-round water source. Sandstone terraces beside tiered rock pools make a terrific viewing platform from which to absorb the serenity of this ancient landscape. 

An alternative to Mitchell Falls is exploring the sandstone caves of Wollaston Bay or Wollaston Creek. This mass of weathered tunnels, arches and columns forms a labyrinth-like maze and was once an Aboriginal midden. Another option while anchored at Winyalkan Bay is a visit to a series of Wandjina and Gwion Gwion rock art galleries at Swift Bay. 

In the evening, enjoy watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean while indulging in a gourmet BBQ. (B,L,D) 

Please note: This is an indicative itinerary as the visits and order of days may vary depending on optimal timings with tidal and weather conditions.

Prince Frederick Harbour is one of the Kimberley’s most spectacular locations, located at the southern end of York Sound. The harbour is dotted with islands lined with mangroves and monsoon rainforests, set against a backdrop of ochre-hued escarpment. 

White-bellied sea eagles and other birds of prey are often seen here, and at low tide, expansive mudflats reveal large populations of mudskippers and mangrove crabs. We will take our Xplorer tender vessels on a cruise up Porosus Creek to view some striking rock formations. 

Bigge Island’s Indigenous name is Wuuyuru, and the Indigenous group of the area is the Wunambal people. (B,L,D) 

Please note: This is an indicative itinerary as the visits and order of days may vary depending on optimal timings with tidal and weather conditions.

King Cascade is a classically beautiful, terraced waterfall that is one of the most photographed waterfalls in the Kimberley. Falling from a considerable height and around 50m across, water tumbles down a staggered terrace of Kimberley sandstone. Layer upon layer of ochre-hued and blackened rock sprouts grasses, mosses and ferns in a lushly vegetated hanging garden. 

We will reach King Cascade after cruising in our Xplorer tender vessels down the steep-sided Prince Regent River, which is a remarkable anomaly as the river runs dead straight along a fault line. 

Lt. Phillip Parker King named nearby Careening Bay after he beached his leaking vessel, HMC Mermaid, to effect repairs. While stranded on this remote coastline for 17 days, the ship’s carpenter carved HMC Mermaid 1820 into the bottle-shaped trunk of a boab tree near the beach. 200 years later, the Mermaid Boab Tree has since split into two trunks and sports a mammoth girth of 12m. Significantly, the bulbous tree is listed on the National Register of Big Trees and the carpenter’s careful inscription now stands almost as tall as a person. (B,L,D) 

Please note: This is an indicative itinerary as the visits and order of days may vary depending on optimal timings with tidal and weather conditions.

Montgomery Reef is a biologically diverse area covering over 300 sq km and was named by Phillip Parker King. Twice daily, as the sea recedes in mammoth 11m tides, Montgomery Reef rises from the Indian Ocean in a cascade of rushing water, revealing a flat-topped reef pockmarked with rock pools and rivulets. 

As the reef emerges, we get up close in our Xplorer and Zodiac inflatable tenders to witness the spectacle, while our Expedition Team shares information about the formation of the reef and the myriad wildlife. Opportunistic birds take advantage of the emerging reef, feeding on marine life left exposed in rock pools. Turtles, dolphins, dugongs and sawfish are also attracted by feeding opportunities as the ocean recedes.  

The ocean is awash in a swirl of eddies and whirlpools as the moon’s gravitational force takes hold. Then, a few hours later the entire water-borne drama is reversed as the tide comes in and Montgomery Reef disappears below sea level. (B,L,D) 

Please note: This is an indicative itinerary as the visits and order of days may vary depending on optimal timings with tidal and weather conditions.

Raft Point guards the entrance to Doubtful Bay, a vast body of sheltered water that harbours significant sites such as the ancient Wandjina rock art galleries. Located a short walk from the beach, they are considered some of the finest in the Kimberley. We visit the rock art galleries when Traditional Owners are available to guide us. Doubtful Bay is the traditional country of the Worrora people, who follow the Wandjina, their god, law-maker, and creator. Images of Wandjina are found throughout the Kimberley, recording their stories, knowledge and culture. 

Red Cone Creek flows gently downstream until it meets the small but impressive Ruby Falls, named by local mariner Capt. Chris Trucker after his daughter. Red Cone Creek is carved through rock formations stacked atop each other like building blocks. These rock walls are great for clambering over to reach a series of freshwater swimming holes and waterfalls. The falls may be a gurgling torrent or a gentle trickle, depending on the time of the year. 

There are several other sites we aim to visit in Doubtful Bay, including the mighty Steep Island. (B,L,D) 

Please note: This is an indicative itinerary as the visits and order of days may vary depending on optimal timings with tidal and weather conditions.

The Horizontal Falls are one of the Kimberley’s biggest attractions and are a result of the enormous 11m tides the Kimberley is renowned for. Naturalist David Attenborough described the Horizontal Falls as ‘one of the greatest natural wonders of the world.’ 

This natural phenomenon has been created as the ocean thunders through a narrow gorge in the McLarty Ranges. Water builds up on one side and is forcibly pushed through the bottleneck, creating a rushing horizontal waterfall of swiftly flowing seawater. Riding the rapids on our Zodiac inflatable tenders is one of the highlights of our Kimberley expedition cruises. 

Talbot Bay is at the heart of the Buccaneer Archipelago, where rocks on the 800 or so islands are estimated to be over 2 billion years old. At Cyclone Creek, you will see evidence of massive geological forces in the impressive formations and cruise through the Iron Islands, past Koolan Island, before enjoying sunset drinks at Nares Point. (B,L,D) 

Please note: This is an indicative itinerary as the visits and order of days may vary depending on optimal timings with tidal and weather conditions.

The Lacepede Islands are a protected class-A nature reserve and are significant as a seabird nesting rookery for brown boobies and roseate terns. Other species often sighted at the Lacepedes include Australian Pelicans, frigate birds, egrets and gulls. The four low-lying islands are also an important breeding and nesting habitat for green turtles. 

If weather and tide conditions are suitable, we will explore the lagoons by Xplorer and Zodiac tender vessels. 

As your incredible Kimberley adventures draw to a close, on your last evening aboard enjoy the Captain’s Farewell Drinks with new-found friends. (B,L,D) 

Your adventure along the Kimberley Coast concludes this morning. Bid farewell to fellow travellers, the Captain and crew as Coral Adventurer docks in the Port of Broome. Here you will disembark. A post-cruise transfer to Broome CBD or Airport is included. (B)