Mt. Waterloo and Mt. Trafalgar

Location: the Kimberley region of Western Australia

Mount Trafalgar, situated in the Prince Regent Nature Reserve, is one of Australia's most remote places, with the only access by air or boat. There are no roads into the area and a permit is required from Conservation and Land Management for those wishing to enter the area. The top of the massive bluff can only be reached by boat or helicopter. A Kimberley region tourist company offers helicopter flights to the area which take visitors to the top of the mountain where they can enjoy a champagne breakfast as the sun comes up over the ocean.

The Prince Regent River, in the far north-west Kimberley, remains today as one of Australia's most remote wilderness areas.  No roads penetrate its rugged sandstone ranges, and a tide-race with formidable whirlpools restricts access from seaward. Upstream from the veritable inland sea of St. George Basin, the Prince Regent River runs straight as an arrow into the heart of the Kimberley Plateau, following an ancient fault line. The Prince Regent Nature Reserve, created in 1964, covers some 633,825 hectares, protecting almost the entire river catchment. The Reserve was nominated a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 1978, in recognition of its outstanding intact wildlife and pristine values.

The first Europeans known to gaze on this scene were the botanist, Allan Cunningham, and ship's surgeon, James Hunter, in September 1820 on the survey vessel HMC Mermaid, under the command of Lieutenant Phillip Parker King.  While the ship was undergoing emergency hull repairs at Careening Bay, the pair had climbed a prominent hill, which they named Mount Knight. From this peak, their eyes were drawn to a glimmering inland tidal basin, as well as a skyline dominated by a spectacular tilted mesa.
In the oral traditions of the Wororra, the local Aboriginal people, this mighty mesa, Ngayangkarnanya, had been carried in the Dreamtime from the north by a vast shoal of fish, sharks and crabs. The colossal weight of the load not only exhausted them, it squashed many flat - creating in the process both rays and shovel-nosed sharks!
Unaware of these ancient legends, Phillip Parker King and the crew of HMC Mermaid ventured in to explore the basins and navigable lower river, bestowing British names with patriotic zeal. The Prince Regent River was named for the Hanoverian prince, shortly to succeed his incapacitated father, George III, and reign in his own right as King George IV. The 391-metre mesa was named Mount Trafalgar by King, in honour of Nelson's great naval victory of 1805. An adjacent lesser peak was named Mount Waterloo, after the Belgian village that witnessed the decisive defeat of Napoleon by the Duke of Wellington's army.

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