The tour was approaching its end and it was with a bit of unwillingness that I had to say goodbye to West Mac soon. I thought the Ormiston Gorge was one of the most amazing sites that I had visited thus far in the Outback. But before then, we did a quick stopover to view Mt Sonder.

The Pregnant Lady Rwetyepme

It is said that Mt. Sonder looks like a pregnant woman lying down. It takes a certain degree of imagination, but see if readers agree with that.

Now, the meaning of that interpretation of Mt. Sonder is perhaps not well known. I looked online and found a likely explanation. Mt. Sonder, in the native language named “Rwetyepme” (pronounced “roo-choop-ma”), means the Pregnant Lady. According to Reverend Michael Armstrong on the Anglican Board of Mission, the Dreamtime as told to him by an aboriginal elder goes like this:

In the dreaming a man and a woman, who were not permitted to marry due to their kinship relationships, had run away together. The woman was pregnant. They were hunted down for their breaking the law, and the man was killed. The woman was allowed to escape. However, she was so grieved by what occurred that she laid down on the ground and died.

Mt. Sonder and the Larapinta Trail

At 1,380 meters high, Mt. Sonder is the fourth highest mountain in Central Australia. It is named after German botanist Wilhelm Otto Sonder.

At the view of Mt. Sonder, we were told that the Larapinta Trail is the hiking route that would scale the mountain. The Larapinta Trail prides more than 220 km in total distance. On this trail you will garner insights into both the nature and the cultural aspects of the West Mac. Again, planning is necessary if you want to hike any or all of the sections of the Larapinta Trail. Hikers should consult a local travel operator if they want to do multi-day hikes. The Mt. Sonder section of the trail is a 16km hike.

We stopped only briefly at the lookout. The day appeared to be waning, and we headed out to the very last, and the most enjoyable for me, site. Ormiston Gorge was next.

The Finke River

Central in the learning here is the Finke River. Brent told us that the Finke River is the oldest river in the world. The Finke River formed as early as 300 to 400 million years ago, and not from glaciers or tectonic movements.

According to Britannica, the Finke River is a “major but intermittent river of central Australia that rises south of Mount Ziel in the MacDonnell Ranges of south-central Northern Territory. The Finke passes through Glen Helen Gorge and Palm Valley and then meanders generally southeast over the Missionary Plain. Entering a 40-mile (65-km) gorge between the Krichauff and James ranges, the river emerges upon mudflats and sand flats to be joined by the Palmer and Hugh rivers.”

The river flows intermittently, only at times of major rainfall events. Yet the Finke River was still a key water source for the fauna and flora in West Mac. At times of flood only, the Finke River would reach as far south as South Australia, which is the state in Central Australia that lies directly south of the Northern Territory.

That sounds like a whole plate of learning. But geography aside, the cultural aspects of the Finke River was tied to Australia’s European past as well. In this story the explorer John Stuart visited the Finke River in 1860. He named the river after his patron, William Finke.

Perhaps it is no surprise that the Dreamtime also features the Finke River, known as Larapinta, meaning “salty water.” The Wester Arrernte aborigines believe that the Rainbow Serpent emerged from Lake Eyre, thrusted north and formed the Larapinta.

The Ormiston Gorge

Where the Finke River passes to its west, the Ormiston Gorge lies still in the folds of time. Known as Kwartatuma in Western Arrernte, the Ormiston Gorge is a sacred site for the aborigines. The Dreaming involves the emu ancestors that traveled from the Ochre Pits to the Ormiston Gorge. They were hunted by a man here.

The popular hiking options at the Ormiston Gorge are the Ghost Gum Lookout (20 minutes, upward climb), the Waterhole Lookout Walk (5 minutes) and the Pound Lookout, a 3 to 4-hour loop. I opted to do the Ghost Gum Lookout and took a look at the Waterhole too.

From the Ghost Gum Lookout, I saw how unlikely colors of the Outback came together in a landscape full of life. At the fissures, the rock cliff faces consisted of the rusted Heavitree quartzite are exposed, and at the lookout this rusted earthiness becomes strands of brightness amidst a vast expanse of arid colors, mostly in chestnut hues and lots of dull greenery.

The river water here is not the navy blue that I saw at the Ellery Creek Big Hole, but perhaps it is so clear that the colors of the riverbed sediments are shown through in dark emerald. The river meanders in this gorge, like the velvety belt of a wholesome country girl.

The Waterhole was a fantastic place for reflection. The scenery there was serene, and more so than the Ellery Creek Big Hole. The Ormiston Gorge Waterhole features plenty of vegetation and tall gum trees to line its shore.

The waterhole is near-permanent here. At its deepest end in rainy season, the waterhole measures 14 meters deep. In here I felt the stillness of time under the slightly waning daylight. A book here for a whole day would be exceedingly pleasant.

There are also campgrounds at the Ormiston Gorge. For a pretty thorough factsheet on traveling to Ormiston Gorge, see this document by the Northern Territory Government.

Those who are interested in a learned immersion into the cultural aspects of the Ormiston Gorge, be on the lookout for the Kwarta Tuma Festival. The website is here.

My day at West Mac ended on a lovely high note. Would I come again? You know what, now that I have had the experience planning a trip to the Outback, I really might do a self-guided tour here, and explore some other spots that were not covered on this trip.

Sources

Reverend Michael Amstrong, Anglican Board of Mission Archives, Rwetyeome, The Pregnant Lady.

Ausemade, Mount Sonder / Rwetyepme.

Ausemade, Ormiston Gorge and Pound.

Clayton John, Larapinta Dreaming, heartfulness, January 2, 2023 at https://heartfulness.org/magazine/larapinta-dreaming

Kate Leeming, Following the Finke: A Modern Expedition Down the River of Time, www.breakthecycle.education.