Pilot’s Guide - Mount Hart Wildnerness Lodge
- sportsmanaust
- Jul 9, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 16, 2023
Mount Hart Wildnerness Lodge is a former cattle station located in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia, 70km North off the Gibb River Road.
We stayed at Mount Hart for a week in 2019 and 5 or so days in both 2021 and 2023. Since 2021, Mount Hart has changed ownership but remains a welcoming and friendly place to stay. They now also run two helicopters out of the airstrip which offer scenic flights.
Two reasons for our extended stays at Mount Hart are its central location in the Kimberley and they have a 6000L tank of AVGAS.
We have the capacity to carry camping gear and dry food for two people so we enjoy staying at the Mount Hart campground. It's a ten minute walk (maximum) from the airstrip. It has grassy, shaded areas by the creek to set up. They also have hot showers and an ablutions block down there. We have organised a lift to and from the campground with our camping gear with staff who are always friendly and helpful. Always recommend calling ahead to confirm fuel is available, check on the airstrip condition and advise your ETA. Also, just a tip when calling to ask about airstrip condition in any remote area. It is advisable to ask when the last plane landed on it and/or politely ask to speak to a pilot. Another thing to do is a precautionary to check runway yourself, clear any wildlife (kangaroos/cattle). We recently spoke to a local pilot who said he has seen other obstacles such as star pickets left on the runway which people had forgotten to remove after stations had driven cattle through.
We generally do a precautionary fly over as there is a flock of corellas living in the trees around Mount Hart. The corellas, upon hearing aircraft engine noise, will fly to open air over the airstrip right into the flight path of an aircraft!
Back to Mount Hart. The Homestead is adjacent the airstrip and offers various accommodations (see their website link above), a bar, and pizza/fish and chips for lunches and dinner. The food and atmosphere is great. We enjoyed live music and bush poetry readings during our stay.
The airstrip is kept in good condition. Be cautious with flight planning as it gets dark quickly. In daylight, the airstrip is not always easy to find without clear reference points. Look for the double D peak of Mt Matthew which sits to the North of the airstrip.
The night skies are stunning and well worth a stay just to see the Milky Way in a dark night!
Video above: Landing at Mount Hart with Mt Matthew in the background.
Places we have explored from Mount Hart include:
Horizontal Waterfalls! Read the ERSA special procedures and we got a briefing from local commercial operators before visiting. Download the Yumpie Sound tide chart from BOM & look for the spring tides at full and new moon. Halfway between the high and low tide is best for seeing the Horizontal Falls at full flow. E.g. Low tide about 0630, high tide at 1230. 0930 would be about spot on.
Another day, we organised to join a Shoal Air day tour at Mitchell Plateau to see the Mitchell Falls. There had been a lot of rain over the wet season so the Falls were full of running water! We carefully planned our daylight hours for departure times & fuel. It gets dark quickly in the Kimberley being close to the equator. The day trip was well within our margins but there is very limited fuel availability in the Kimberley so plan carefully and call ahead.
A third longer day of sightseeing from the air took us to Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater and the Bungle Bungles at Purnululu National Park in the East Kimberley. Again, check the ERSA special gen procedures for conducting scenic flights around the Bungles & get a briefing from local operators. With a refuelling/sandwich stop at Halls Creek in between, we spent about 6 hours in flight.
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