Things to Do in Marble Bar: Gorges, Gold and a Back Track to Port Hedland
- Adventure Lifestyle
- May 19
- 5 min read
Most people drive straight past Marble Bar. We get it. Australia's hottest town sits in the middle of nowhere, and at first glance there's not a lot there. But the country surrounding it turned out to be some of the best we'd seen all trip.
We spent a few days exploring the best things to do in Marble Bar, from gorges and gold mining history to free camping and 4WD tracks, and finished it off with an alternative route back to Port Hedland that proved to be a bit more adventurous than we'd bargained for.
Glen Herring Gorge: A Short Hike South of Marble Bar
First up was Glen Herring Gorge, south of Marble Bar. We hiked in on foot to see what we could find, and the place delivered. It's only a small gorge but it packs a punch. Stunning scenery, heaps of bird life, and as has become a bit of a theme in the Pilbara, we had it completely to ourselves.
You can keep going further down to where it opens out onto another road, but we did the gorge section and walked back to the cars. We had plenty more on the agenda for the day.
Gold Prospecting at the Marble Bar Common
From Glen Herring we headed back into town and out to the Marble Bar Common, a designated prospecting area where anyone can have a go. Paul brought along his Gold Monster 1000, a beginner's wand detector, for his first proper attempt at hunting for gold.
The common is pretty well stripped after decades of prospecting, but it's a good starting point for anyone learning the ropes. A couple of hours of scratching around turned up plenty of aluminium, old fencing wire, bullets, an old sardine tin, and various other bits of rubbish, but no gold. Not even a sniff.
It's something we'll probably try a bit more of in future episodes. Even if you don't find anything, sitting out in the hills in dead silence with just the beep of the detector is a pretty good way to spend a morning.
Comet Gold Mine Museum: Marble Bar's WWII Secret
For five bucks each, the Comet Gold Mine Museum was well worth a look. There's the obvious stuff you'd expect: old mining gear, rocks and gemstones, a few decent yarns from the gold rush days. But the thing that caught us off guard was the WWII history. Turns out there was a secret airbase out here during the war, and the museum's got a proper collection of memorabilia from it.
Flying Fox Lookout
A lookout that actually does what it says on the tin! There's an old flying fox structure with rope swings hanging off it, and the views from up there were excellent. Well worth the short detour off the main road between Glen Herring Gorge and Marble Bar.
Free Camping at Doolena Gorge
After a long day, we aired down and rolled into Doolena Gorge. We'd seen social media videos of people taking big vans down the track and chopping it up trying to reach the prime camping spots, so we made sure to drive responsibly and leave it as we found it.
What a spot. Red rocky gorge walls, glassy water, and a free camp that would have rivalled most paid sites in the country. The fact that we hadn't paid for camping in over two weeks (since the Newman Caravan Park) was a reminder of how good the Pilbara is for free camping, provided everyone does the right thing. Leave it how you found it, take your rubbish, and don't leave your fire burning.
We cooked dinner on the fire and went for a swim in the morning. The other travellers left early, so for a couple of hours we had the gorge entirely to ourselves, which gave us the chance to get some great drone footage of the place.
You could easily stay at Doolena for two nights or longer. In peak season and school holidays we'd imagine people set up for weeks at a time.
Coongan Pool: A Lesser-Known Camp Near Marble Bar
A gruelling 10 minute drive across the road took us to Coongan Pool. Despite being so close to Doolena, the scenery was completely different. A long green pool surrounded by grassy, shaded campsites, with a few resident cows wandering around looking unbothered.
We picked a big, level grassy spot under the trees. There was a rope swing nearby but the water at our section was a bit shallow for swinging into, so we left that one alone. Paul's back has enough rods in it already.
After a relaxing afternoon at camp, Paul took on dinner duties and cooked up a one-pot butterbean and lentil curry on the fire. Tinned butter beans, lentils, diced tomatoes, coconut milk, vegetable stock, curry powder, garam masala and cayenne pepper, with the rice cooked straight into the curry. Served with fresh bread from the Marble Bar General Store, which bakes fresh daily and was genuinely excellent.
The whole dish probably cost about $10 and made enough for six big meals. Exactly the kind of cheap, hearty cooking that works when your fresh produce is running thin. We hadn't done a proper food top-up since Tom Price, which by then was getting close to three weeks ago.
The Alternative 4WD Route from Marble Bar to Port Hedland
For our final stop in the Pilbara, we decided to take an alternative route back to Port Hedland. We'd done a similar thing on the way into Marble Bar, picking a 4WD track instead of the main road, and figured we'd do the same on the way out.
The track only added about 30 kilometres to the trip on paper. In practice, it added six hours. We were pretty sure we were the first ones through this season, and large sections were overgrown, rocky, and rutted out.
The scenery made it worth every minute. We travelled through the southern side of the mountain range between Marble Bar and Port Hedland, surrounded by ranges on every side, with views you'd never see from the main road. It was the kind of country that justifies all those hours spent scouring Google Earth looking for new tracks.
There were a few moments. A steep descent into a valley where the track had been washed out by water and turned into a properly rutted mess. A climb where Karleah dropped the Hilux into a rut waist-deep on her, requiring Paul to walk it out with some careful guiding. The kind of bits that make a track memorable.
It was a brilliant detour, and well worth doing if you've got the time and a capable 4WD between Marble Bar and Port Hedland. If you'd like to follow our exact route, you can grab the GPX file pack here:
That wraps up our time in the Pilbara. Next stop, the Kimberley.
Watch the full episode below to see Marble Bar and its surrounds in action.
Comments