Across the Gulf Savanna

In the tracks of explorers in Far North Queensland

Leichhardt Falls, near Burketown, Queensland. © Bronwen Scott

We drove along a two-lane road, smooth and straight, with the rising sun in the rear view mirror. To the north were the wide, serpentine curves of rivers in no hurry to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. But from the car, all we saw was savanna — tall grass punctuated with termite mounds and smooth-stemmed mallee gums. Had we not already known about the slow rivers and the…