Mound springs are true oases in the desert, pro­vid­ing a life­line for peo­ple and ani­mals alike.

Dal­housie Springs, in South Australia’s far north-east, is made up of 148 sep­a­rate springs, all fed by the­Great Arte­sian Basin, a mas­sive under­ground water source that flows under near­ly a fifth of the country.

The springs have been flow­ing here for between one and two mil­lion years and are home to a huge diver­si­ty of fau­nafound nowhere else on the planet.

Of great cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance to local Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple, these springs have been the only reli­able per­ma­nent water­sources in the arid out­back since humans first arrived in the region.

Mound springs take their name from the dis­tinc­tive mounds that build up around some springs. With water flow­ing fromthe top of the mound and out onto the sur­round­ing plains, they form a tru­ly sur­re­al landscape.

Springs can be fresh or salty, and can be warm or even hot, as the water comes from deep under­ground where it isheat­ed by the earth’s man­tle and high pressures.

To expe­ri­ence them for your­self, check out these two parks:

1. Witji­ra Nation­al Park

Locat­ed 887 kilo­me­tres north-west of Port Augus­ta is Witji­ra Nation­al Park.

It’s here that you’ll find Dal­housie Springs’ Main Pool, which ismore than 160 metres long, 60m wide, and reach­es a depth of near­ly 12m.

The water is 42 degrees where it wells from under­ground, cool­ing to a pleas­ant 36 – 38 degrees at the sur­face and mak­ing it a won­der­ful place to revive and wash off the desert grit – so long as you don’t use soap or sham­poo, as this can harm the ecosystem. 

Plan­ning a trip to Witji­ra Nation­al Park?

Make your trip easy and con­tribute to the man­age­ment and con­ser­va­tion of this spe­cial area by pay­ing vehi­cle entry fees before you go.

You can buy a sin­gle vehi­cle entry pass for this park, or con­sid­er a desert parks pass if you’re plan­ning to vis­it oth­er desert parks.

2. Wab­ma Kadar­bu Con­ser­va­tion Park

The most icon­ic mound springs are found in Wab­ma Kadar­bu Con­ser­va­tion Park, 450km down the Ood­na­dat­ta Track.

Here you’ll find Thirrka (or Blanche Cup) and Pirdali-nha (or The Bubbler).

Pirdali-nha takes its Euro­pean name from the reg­u­lar bub­bles that pop to the sur­face as the water wells up. The main pools and over­flows at both springs are ringed by lush, green sedges.

Near­by is Wab­ma Kadar­bu (or Mt Hamil­ton), which trans­lates as ​‘snake’s head’ and is actu­al­ly an extinct mound spring that is cen­tral to the Ara­bana cre­ation sto­ry for this site.

Unlike the Main Pool at Witji­ra Nation­al Park, swim­ming is not allowed at these hot spots.

Plan­ning a trip to Wab­ma Kadar­bu Mound Springs Con­ser­va­tion Park?

Make your trip easy and con­tribute to the man­age­ment and con­ser­va­tion of this spe­cial area by pay­ing vehi­cle entry fees before you go.

You can buy a sin­gle vehi­cle entry pass for this park, or con­sid­er a desert parks pass if you’re plan­ning to vis­it oth­er desert parks.

Species of the springs

Due to the sta­ble nature of the spring ecosys­tems and the iso­la­tion caused by the dry­ing of inland Aus­tralia, mound­springs are home to many species that live nowhere else.

Across the Great Arte­sian Basin, there are more than 90 species that are endem­ic to springs, with more than half ofthose found in SA’s mound springs.

Dal­housie alone has 16 endem­ic species, includ­ing five fish, snails, a yab­bie and oth­er crustaceans.

Vis­it­ing the springs

Check out the lat­est infor­ma­tion on Wab­ma Kadar­bu Mound Springs Con­ser­va­tion Park and Witji­ra Nation­al Park before you head off, includ­ing details about fees, safe­ty, fire infor­ma­tion and facilities.

Plan­ning to explore oth­er parks in the area? Learn more about desert parksand buy a desert parks pass.

Main image: Main Pool at Dal­housie Springs

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in July 2017.