EVERYTHING in Judbarra National Park is big: the landscape, the history, the animals, the four-wheel driving challenges and the weather that passes through it each year. And the park itself is big, coveringmore than 13,000km², making it the second biggest in the Territory after Kakadu NP.
Judbarra was once named Gregory National Park, after Augustus Charles Gregory, who in 1855 led several exploratory parties up the Victoria River and penetrated nearly 500km south towards the Great Sandy Desert on what would become one of the longest overland rides in Australian exploration. The park was renamed Judbarra in 2021 to recognise the traditional owners.
Just off the Victoria Highway is the famous Gregory’s Tree, an age-old boab that is an aboriginal sacred site as well as a marker for Gregory’s travels. Setting up camp near the huge boab, Gregory instructed artist and storekeeper J Baines to carve the dates of their arrival and departure from the
