North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hi All

Does anyone have a recent report on access south on Nathan River Rd?

I know that access to Tomato Island is fine, however I'm not sure if the road past there from the Port Roper turn off heading south to Limmen is open?

If anyone has been down that way in the past week or so and can confirm, that would be appreciated.

Cheers

Should nearly be open, the area near the ranger Station was wet as of last week but NT Road Report has it open today. Problem is wet weather is coming to that area. I was planning a trip to Borroloola for next week but have cancelled, didnt want to get stranded there for Easter

I have been on some bad roads over the years travelling around much of the country and usually assess them as fine if truck traffic frequents them. Cape bypass's, battlecamp , some desert ones , the gibb and most of its offshoots, hell's gates and doomagee, Mitchell falls and kalumburu no problem even put coburg on the list. On all of them the less bad patches come and go BUT. That Nathan river road is the worst I have driven though slow and steady and no problem there either. Not sure how they keep those softball size rocks from getting thrown off the road, I always thought it was a short piece of light chain and dyna bolt em onto the middle of the road. Sorry can't help with a road report.

I luv that trip did it twice last year, first just after it opened then did it the other way going to Borroloola late in the dry. The Roper Hwy was worse with big patches of deep bull dust. Once you get off the Roper; Nathan River Road was fine. Its better than the Lajamanu Road to the Tanami. I averaged better time than going by Daly Waters and down that silly one tracker sealed Road.They have been working on the Nathan over the last few years, sections at a time.

Hope they have unbolted the rocks they had chained to it. Sad in a way need to keep some adventure places just cut down the misadventure part.

I've found that once you pass Tomato Island the road condition isn't normally too bad, the caravans used to chop it up a lot, but with the dangers in getting there from the Stuart H'way (associated with trucks) and the fee's at Tomato Island, I suspect that it will not be as popular this season.

The main issue is the gate on the Nathan at the Port Roper turn off, they normally keep it locked until the road has dried out a bit, and it's a fair drive to find if it's closed.

You could give Rhett at Lorella Springs station a call

Yep, I was thinking the Roper Bar Store, Nathan River Ranger and then Lorella.

Just thought someone may have been through and save me bothering them.

NT Roads has it open Rhet

Thanks for that, is this what you are looking at, or a different site?

http://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/roadreport/o ... on_id=5738


On this site http://www.parksandwildlife.nt.gov.au/p ... 0NBTvmSw8o if you scroll down to Limmen National Park, it states it's closed?? It also says Port Roper Road is closed in one area, and that it's open in another area.

No thats it Rhet. Last week it wasnt open this week with restrictions. Should be OK. The crossings wont be a problem the area around the Ranger Station will still be a bit damp as will the section near Lorella Springs. But if the site says open it should be good as they are very causious in providing advice. A few weeks back I was out at Bulman up the Central Arnhem. My mate is building the new Goyder bridge and you could do the crossing a week before the NT Gov opened the road on the site.

Righto mate.

Cheers.

Anybody gone through in the past few days? Remember a few tricky crossings there from last year so I'm interested what affect all the rain has had on creek depth..

What rain, its only rained around darwin

Wendy from the ranger station said on Tuesday that the road is passable but badly damaged. With a bit more rain on the radar it's likely to go from bad to worse.