Wolfe Creek Crater

Wolfe Creek Crater is a meteorite impact crater (astrobleme) in Western Australia. It is accessed via the Tanami Road 105 km south of the town of Halls Creek. The crater is central to the Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater National Park.

The crater averages about 875 metres in diameter, 60 metres from rim to present crater floor and it is estimated that the meteorite that formed it had a mass of about 50,000 tonnes[3], while the age is estimated to be less than 300,000 years (Pleistocene). Small numbers of iron meteorites have been found in the vicinity of the crater, as well as larger so-called 'shale-balls', rounded objects made of iron oxide, some weighing as much as 250 kg.


The Wolfe Creek Crater in Outback Australia used to receive very little attention from travellers, the tourism industry and the media. At the moment the meteorite crater gets more publicity than any other national park in Australia.

A lot of the immense energy of the impact was instantly converted into heat. They melted, pulverised and atomised the meteorite itself and the ground underneath, deformed rocks and shot debris everywhere.

The crater that was left was probably about 120 metres deep. Over the next 300,000 years the wind gradually filled it with sand and today the Wolfe Creek crater floor is 50 to 60 metres below the rim, which rises 25 metres above the surrounding flat desert land.

Evidence of the impact, other than the crater itself of course, can be seen everywhere. Fragments of iron meteorite have been found kilometres from the crater. The western slopes of the crater and the floor are littered with more iron meteorite: rusty balls, some of them fused to the rocks.


Wolfe Creek meteorite crater was discovered during an aerial survey in 1947, and scientists have intensively studied the crater. But the Djaru Aboriginal people, the original inhabitants of the area, have known the crater for thousands of years. They call it Kandimalal and have their own dreamtime story about its creation:

Two rainbow serpents formed Sturt and Wolfe Creek as they crossed the desert, and Kandimalal is the place where one of the serpents emerged from the ground.