Australia Weather News

"Is there water at Python Pool?"

It is a question often posed in the pubs and community noticeboards around Karratha, 1,530 kilometres north of Perth.

Typically asked by travellers drifting through the West Australian mining town, it receives little by way of reply — besides an eye-roll and wry smile.

But, for some fleeting hours on Saturday, the answer was very much yes.

Following days of heavy rain in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Mitchell, a lucky group of bushwalkers was treated to a rare waterfall above the swimming hole.

Resident Emma Gentry said she had never seen anything like it in her 14 years of living in Karratha.

"Within the hour, we just slowly watched the water build up and start flowing over the top rocks," she said.

"And before we knew it, we were looking at a huge waterfall that filled up the pool itself and then started running down the creek.

"It's definitely something I think is near on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Desert landscape transformed

The sight of water gushing between Python Pool's twin faces comes one week after ex-Tropical Cyclone Mitchell swept through the region.

According to a Department of Biodiversity, Conservation, and Attractions weather station, the surrounding Millstream-Chichester National Park received 73.2 millimetres of rain on February 8.

It coincided with the wet and plodding passage of the then-category three system.

Nearby Bureau of Meteorology rain gauges recorded 122mm in Karratha and 69mm in Roebourne the same weekend.

Onlooker Jake Rothe said he suspected it might happen when he spotted a weather front descend over the Pilbara plains on Valentine's Day.

The catchment was fit to burst.

"It's fantastic," he said.

"Ever since we got here two years ago, we've been wanting to go out camping.

"A lot of the usual water holes that the locals tell us about have been pretty dry, but just about every single one of them is full now."

Ms Gentry said the changes in the landscape, which had endured a particularly dry summer, were a joy to see.

"I've been out there a few times when we've been months without rain and it dries up to quite a small, stagnant hole," she said.

"To see it in just full flow and just refreshing the whole landscape.

"We all just sat there in absolute awe."

A sacred place

Yindjibarndi leader Michael Woodley said Python Pool, or Yurlburru-nha, was "an important and significant place" traditionally used in navigation.

"My people, Yindjibarndi people, when they would travel through country, they would use these places … where we know there's always water," he said.

"It's part and parcel of our country, it's connected to our songs and stories," he said.

He said water sources in the Pilbara hold spiritual, cultural, and practical meaning.

Yindjibarndi country, or Ngurra,is latticed with deep gores fed by an underwater aquifer and the run-off of the Hamersley Ranges.

It is also a fragile system recently acknowledged as under pressure by the WA government.

Mr Woodley said the cascading water at Yurlburru-nha showed "the spectacular of it all".

"To see it in this time, in this way, where there's a good rain and there's a good waterfall," he said.

"It kind of turns into a different place."