Gregory’s Tree

Located in Judbarra / Gregory National Park, Gregory’s Tree is a Boab tree on the banks of the Victoria River 15km north-west of Timber Creek. It’s a sacred site to the Ngarinyman people.

The tree is a living monument to the exploration of the north of Australia, in particular the North Australia Expedition led by Augustus Charles Gregory in 1855-56. The tree, a boab (Adansonia gregorii), marks the area of Gregory’s ‘entrenchment camp’ from October 1855 to July 1856.

A boardwalk surrounds the magnificent Boab where Baines, the expedition artist, marked the arrival and departure dates of Gregory’s North Australia Expedition. You can clearly read the dates he inscribed into the tree trunk. The tree was to serve as a marker should the expedition run into trouble.

Gregory’s Tree is situated off the Victoria Highway, 9km west of Big Horse Creek campground, via a 3km unsealed 2WD road that may have some corrugations. The walk to the tree is 500m, is easy and accessible to wheelchairs.

The Park covers an area of about 13,000km² in the transition zone between tropical and semi-arid regions of the NT. It features spectacular gorge scenery, rare wildlife species and significant traces of Aboriginal culture, European exploration and pastoral history.