Bladensburg National Park

Camping closure until January 2027

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) has a park alert in place. Bough Shed Waterhole camping and day-use area is temporarily closed from 27 May 2025 to 31 January 2027.

Bough Shed Waterhole is the only place camping is permitted in Bladensburg, so for now plan to stay in Winton and visit the park as a day trip. When it reopens, camping permits will be required and fees will apply.

About Bladensburg

QPWS says Bladensburg conserves 84,900 hectares of Mitchell Grass Downs and Channel Country, including unique birdlife, plants and animals.

• Landscape. Flat-topped plateaus and sandstone ranges give a scenic backdrop to vast grassland plains, river flats, river red gums and rocky scarp.
• People. The park is the traditional Country of the Koa people, and it includes many areas of important natural and cultural heritage.
• Station history. Pastoralists established a large station here. Its homestead has been restored and is used as an information centre and ranger office. Other sites in the park are reminders of its early pastoral history.

Bladensburg Homestead walk

Allow 30–45 minutes (Grade 2).

Explore the restored homestead and its original complex of staff quarters, meat house and store. QPWS says you'll learn about station life from a time when 11 miles to Winton was a long way.

A storyboard display by the Koa people weaves together their culture, history, values and connection with Bladensburg and the broader landscape.

Mobile coverage is available at the homestead information centre, but it's unreliable elsewhere in the park.

Scrammy Drive and lookout

40 km return. Allow 2–4 hours.

Starting at Bladensburg Homestead, Scrammy Drive crosses black soil plains and climbs through jump-up country. A short walk at the end takes you to Scrammy Lookout, where you'll find out who Scrammy was and share his view over the park.

• Vehicle. Scrammy Drive is for high-clearance vehicles only, and QPWS recommends a 4WD.
• At the lookout. Watch your step. Stay away from the escarpment edge and don't climb on rocks or boulders, because they're unstable.

Route of the River Gum

72 km return to Winton. Allow half a day.

This self-guided drive starts at the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton. It passes 15 places of interest in Winton Shire and runs through Bladensburg National Park.

• Pick up the drive brochure from the Waltzing Matilda Centre before you go.
• Carry extra fuel.
• Practise low-impact driving, and never drive on claypans.

Wildlife

Birds. QPWS says Bladensburg is home to a wonderful diversity of birds, including:

• emus and Australian bustards
• Hall's babblers and spotted bowerbirds
• singing bushlarks.

Look for painted firetails and rufous-crowned emu-wrens in the spinifex, and rufous-throated honeyeaters along creek lines.

Mammals:

• red kangaroos on the open Mitchell grasslands
• eastern grey kangaroos in the lower creeks
• wallaroos around the mesas.

Dunnarts and planigales, both native marsupial mice, shelter by day in deep cracks in the clay soils and come out at night.

Plants

• Mesa tops. The flat tops of the mesas and plateaus support open woodlands of western bloodwood and mulga. Mineritchie, or red mulga, with its curly red bark, lines some dry creek beds.
• Slopes and valleys. Lancewood covers the steep slopes of the sandstone ranges. Spinifex and Normanton box grow in the broad valleys.
• Spinifex range. QPWS notes that Bladensburg forms the south-eastern edge of the range of soft spinifex (Triodia pungens).
• The north. Much of the park's northern half is cracking clay soil covered by Mitchell grass, with small areas of gidgee woodland.

Getting there

From Winton, head south towards Lark Quarry Road. After 8 km, turn left onto the Route of the River Gum. At the junction 7 km further on:

• turn left for Bladensburg Homestead (5 km) and Scrammy Drive, or
• turn right for Bough Shed Waterhole (currently closed).

Vehicle. QPWS recommends a 4WD, though in dry weather a high-clearance 2WD can reach the park.

Rain. Even small amounts of rain can make roads impassable. QPWS advises carrying at least two weeks' worth of extra supplies in case you're stranded.

Before you go, check:

• Queensland Traffic or the council for road conditions
• the park alerts page
• the Bureau of Meteorology for weather warnings.

Staying safe

QPWS says the park is remote and rangers may not be there to help. Its advice:

• Water. Carry at least 7 litres per person per day.
• Vehicle spares. Pack two spare tyres, engine coolant and oil, and recovery gear.
• Itinerary. Leave your plans with a friend or relative.
• Breakdowns. Stay with your vehicle if it breaks down.
• Communication. In an emergency call Triple Zero (000). You could also try UHF radio (channel 1 duplex), a satellite phone or a personal locator beacon.

Fuel and supplies are in Winton, 17 km from the park entrance.

Park rules

• No pets. Domestic animals aren't permitted.
• Firewood. Collecting it in the park is prohibited. Bring your own clean firewood, such as untreated mill off-cuts.
• Rubbish. Take it all with you, because no bins are provided.
• Prohibited. No firearms, chainsaws or unregistered vehicles.

Nearby:

• Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways
• our Australian Dinosaur Trail guide
• Longreach
• the Matilda Way.