Mataranka Thermal Pool

This is one of Australia's most accessible natural thermal soaks: no bathhouse, no bookings, just a spring-fed pool in the bush. Bathers share it with the sound of flying foxes in the palms, and the nearby Bitter Springs offers a slower, drifting alternative through a spring-fed channel.

Nascente

Rainbow Spring

Mineralização

Warm calcium-bicarbonate spring water

Carácter

Clear, constantly flowing spring water discharging roughly 30 million litres a day into a sand-bottomed pool

The area is Mangarrayi and Yangman country, and the springs have long been significant to local Aboriginal people. The surrounding station was made famous by Jeannie Gunn's 1908 book "We of the Never Never", written about life at Elsey Station; the pool was developed for visitors in the twentieth century and is now managed within Elsey National Park.

The pool is free, open year-round and busiest in the dry-season winter months. Facilities are basic — changing rooms, toilets and picnic tables. Do not put your head under the water, avoid the pool if you have open wounds, and check park notices for seasonal closures or water-quality advice.

Mataranka is on the Stuart Highway about 105 km south-east of Katherine and 420 km south of Darwin. The thermal pool is roughly 8 km east of the township, signposted from the highway, with sealed road access and parking.