Lorella Springs, Northern Territory closure: Popular wilderness park closes public access

A treasured Northern Territory tourist destination has been forced to shut access for drive-by tourists after more than two decades, with its owner blaming bureaucracy and red tape for making it ‘impossible’ to keep running.

Lorella Springs Wilderness Park, a remote property in the Gulf of Carpentaria, is home to idyllic waterfalls and swimming holes.

But the popular spot will not be opening in 2023 unless visitors are in a pre-booked tour group.

The one-million-acre cattle station has been owned and maintained by the Walker family since they settled in the region in the mid-1980s.

On January 13, owner Rhett Walker said he was closing Lorella Springs ‘with a heavy heart, a lot of emotion and a bit of fear’.

‘My dream has unravelled,’ he said. 

Lorella Springs Wilderness Park, a remote private property in the Gulf of Carpentaria, has announced it will be closing to drive-by tourists 

The popular tourist destination is known for its idyllic waterfalls and swimming holes 

Mr Walker said he’d spent almost his entire life making Lorella one of the most popular and longest surviving tourism ventures in the Northern Territory.

‘Forty years ago, it was a piece of land in the middle of nowhere, that nobody wanted or even showed interest in,’ he said.

‘It protected my family and I when we were at our most vulnerable, and in return it allowed us to care for it and made us its “keepers of the land”.’ 

Mr Walker said his family had opened up Lorella to the public 25 years ago to share the ‘many beautiful wonders’ of the property. 

Visitors to the sanctuary had access to thousands of kilometres of 4WD tracks, bushwalks, bird watching, swimming, and remote camping. 

Mr Walker said he never intended for the park to be a ‘big corporation, only a successful small family business’, but Lorella had grown so popular ‘she became a victim of her own success’.

Lorella Springs Wilderness Park owner has blamed ‘bureaucracy’ and ‘red tape’ for the closure

Mr Walker cited ‘bureaucracy’, being ‘forgotten’ due to its remote location and ‘red tape’ as reasons behind the decision to close access to the public.

‘There was a time when my vision was so clear that the sacrifices I had to make in my life only seemed natural and fair,’ he said.

‘However, in recent times, with more and more restrictions being laid on us, I have been losing that dream and far from becoming easier, the running of Lorella’s tourism as it is has become impossible.’ 

Locals and visitors to the park took to social media to express their sadness over the announcement. 

Mr Walker said the family shared in the public’s disappointment and shock, but that the situation was out of their control

‘To hear the wonderful unique adventure Lorella Spings is closing due to government red tape is a national disgrace,’ one said.

‘Please don’t let this happen’.

Many were grateful to the family for opening its gates to the ‘awesome bit of paradise’. 

‘Thank you for sharing your paradise with us, we are truly thankful and we always remember and recall our adventures at Lorella with great fondness and love,’ one visitor said.

Mr Walker said the family shared in the public’s disappointment and shock, but that the situation was out of their control.

Mt Walker said Lorella had not only changed his life, but the lives of many.

He said Lorella would be now be ‘taking a new direction’.

‘It may be looking a bit bumpy ahead, but let’s see where the future leads us.’