Zebra Rock Mine on the Banks of Lake Argyle

Just inside the Northern Territory, close to the Western Australian border is the Zebra Rock Mine, Gallery and Campground.  This is the only place on earth that the unique zebra rock can be found.  The patterned bands in the rock are formed under intense heat and pressure, the red/brown is iron.  Geologists are still debating how the rock is formed with its bands of amazing patterns between layers of sedimentary rock.  The gallery has many examples showing the patterns and we found a few pieces while we were fossicking around the campground.

On our first night we signed up for the sunset cruise on Lake Argyle.  More about the lake later.  This time we're looking for wildlife and scenery.

As we cruised around the eastern side of the lake we saw plenty of waterbirds and several freshwater crocodiles.  Cherryl did some fishing when we stopped for drinks and nibbles and managed to catch a silver cobbler (a type of catfish).  This osprey co-operated with our camera so we could get a photo of it fishing.

Back on the boat and the sun was starting to go down.  Only one word can describe the scenery at sunset - MAGNIFICENT!!!  We took plenty of photos and it's been hard to select the ones for this blog.

Back at the campground we tucked into fresh fish and chips which we'd ordered before we went on the cruise.

The next day we decided to venture into Western Australia to visit Lake Argyle from the western side.  The lake was formed by the damming of the Ord River, and it's huge.  The dam wall was opened in 1972 by the Prime Minister, William McMahon.  At that time the dam wall was 68m high and 355m long and the lake held 5.8million megalitres of water.    At that time it was the largest reservoir in Australia and it  opened up 76,000 hectares of land for irrigated agriculture.  The spillway was raised 6m in 1996 which almost doubled the lake's capacity.

The western side of the lake is very different to the eastern side with many cliffs and rocky hills.

We spent 3 nights at Zebra Rock and had a great time.  The fish and chips were great and Ruth's scones are to die for (we managed to have fresh cooked scones with jam and cream for morning tea each day).