Ormiston Pound is a ring of mountains in the

Northern Territory of Australia The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

punctuating the

MacDonnell Ranges The MacDonnell Ranges, or Tjoritja in Arrernte language, Arrernte, is a mountain range located in southern Northern Territory. MacDonnell Ranges is also the name given to an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australia ...

, in the

West MacDonnell National Park Tjoritja / West MacDonnell is a national park in the Northern Territory (Australia) due west of Alice Springs and 1234 km south of Darwin. It extends along the MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs. The popular extended walk, the Larap ...

, approximately west of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

.West MacDonnell National Park Fact Sheet,

Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory __NOTOC__ Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory (also known as the ''Parks and Wildlife Division'' in some sources) is the Northern Territory Government agency responsible for tasks including the establishment of "parks, reser ...

It lies at roughly the halfway point in the

Larapinta Trail The Larapinta Trail is an extended walking track in the Northern Territory of Australia. Its total length is from east to west, with the eastern end at Alice Springs and the western end at Mount Sonder, one of the territory's highest mount ...

and has views from its circumference of

Mount Sonder Mount Sonder, or ''Rwetyepme'', its Aboriginal name, is the fourth highest mountain in the Northern Territory, Australia at . Mount Zeil is the highest at , to the west. Location and features Mt Sonder is west of Alice Springs along the Ma ...

Gosses Bluff crater Gosses Bluff (or Gosse's Bluff) is thought to be the eroded remnant of an impact crater. Known as Tnorala to the Western Arrernte people of the surrounding region, it is located in the southern Northern Territory, near the centre of Australia, ...

and the surrounding range. The Pound, a ring of mountains, is dominated by

Mount Giles Mount Giles is one of the highest mountains in the Northern Territory, Australia, at . It lies along the MacDonnell Ranges, dominating Ormiston Pound, in the West MacDonnell National Park, approximately west of Alice Springs. It can be vis ...

, which forms its eastern boundary. The western boundary is formed by the Ormiston Gorge, a popular tourist destination. Ormiston Gorge Water Hole

The pound is accessible from a road in the west, which travels between Glen Helen and

. There is a

waterhole Waterhole or water hole may refer to: * Watering hole, a depression in the ground in which water can collect, or a more permanent pool in the bed of an ephemeral river * Water hole (radio), an especially quiet region of the electromagnetic spectru ...

at the bottom near the gorge, as well as several lookouts. The entire pound covers . The

Finke River The Finke River, or Larapinta in the Indigenous Arrernte language, is a river in central Australia, whose bed courses through the Northern Territory and the state of South Australia. It is one of the four main rivers of Lake Eyre Basin and is th ...

passes Ormiston Gorge in the west.

References

{{Reflist Mountains of the Northern Territory

See also

References