Redbank gorge is another gap in the West Macdonald range which runs in an East to West direction from Heavitree gap in Alice Springs. Waters have carved their way through the range in many spots, like Heavitree, Redbank, Ormiston, Glen Helen, Ellery Creek etc.
Redbank has a virtually permanent waterhole but when we visited it the water was really starting to dry up. The central Australian rivers and ponds are teeming with water life and when the water disappears then the life dies.
As we walked into the gorge along the sandy riverbed we started to get a sniff of the death around the pools in the gorge. We came across diminishing pools with hundreds of fish sharing a very small amount of water. Sooner or later these guys run out of oxygen and food and die. When some die then the water quality drops quickly and the rest die too.
This all sounds terrible but is just part of the natural cycle of things in these dry parts.
The fish are all very pretty and it is quite interesting to be able to see them so close up. The actual gorge waterhole was getting really smelly and had a lot of dead fish in it. It is still quite large but the colour is changing and it is becoming an opaque green colour.
The gorge was very pretty as usual and was interesting to visit.
Collection of fish in a small pond about a metre wide.
Dead fish about hand sized in the main waterhole.
Corinne standing in front of the main waterhole. There was a dead kangaroo nearby which really added to the atmosphere of the area.
Dead fish floating in the main waterhole.
A nice panorama of the the gorge taken from the waterhole. The sun was behind me and a so this was the best angle to see the gorge. The actual gap in the range is only a metre wide in a lot of spots.
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