North Kimberley Coast
Vansittart Bay & Jar Island
A sheltered, turquoise bay with coastlines of jagged sandstone and isolated beaches on the far north Kimberley coast, Vansittart Bay houses a remarkably intact WWII aircraft wreck surrounded by some of the oldest rock art galleries on earth.
Ancient Coastlines
A bay carved from sandstone and framed by saltpan and reef
Vansittart Bay opens wide to the Timor Sea, its shoreline a mix of pristine white beaches, low sandstone headlands and a broad tidal saltpan that floods and drains with the swing of the tide. Jar Island sits at its southern end, low and scrub-covered, its rock ledges hosting ancient Gwion Gwion galleries painted long before the last ice age ended. Boab trees, screw pine and paperbark eucalypts crowd the fringes, while at low tide thousands of fiddler crabs emerge across the flats, claws raised, as the water pulls back toward the reef line. It's a coastline built by tide and time rather than drama, and it rewards travellers willing to walk it slowly.
Seabound Landscapes
A harbour shaped by a rising sea
There are no wharves at Vansittart Bay and no roads in. From your ship, Zodiacs run guests ashore onto the saltpan or the sands of Jar Island's beaches. From there, the bay is best explored by foot, across cracked mud flats to a rusting WWII wreck and up sandy tracks to rock art sheltered under stone ledges for forty thousand years. Tides here dictate the schedule as much as any itinerary, the saltpan crossing only possible within a narrow window either side of low water. It's a destination that rewards ships built for improvisation, where the plan bends to the moment the guide reads in the water, and where the best of it is only ever seen by a few people and a few footsteps at a time.
Signature locations
Uncovering Vansittart Bay
Vansittart Bay reveals a handful of distinct stops, each only reached by Zodiac and on foot. Between them they cover close to forty thousand years of human presence on this coast, an evacuation mission gone wrong, and a saltpan alive with wildlife at the turning tide.
Jar Island
Jar Island hosts one of the Kimberley's most significant Gwion Gwion (Bradshaw) rock art galleries, painted centuries ago onto ledges and tucked into outcropings. The fine, tasselled human figures here are considered some of the oldest and most detailed examples of this style anywhere on the coast.
Jar Island
Jar Island hosts one of the Kimberley's most significant Gwion Gwion (Bradshaw) rock art galleries, painted centuries ago onto ledges and tucked into outcropings. The fine, tasselled human figures here are considered some of the oldest and most detailed examples of this style anywhere on the coast.
DESTINATION ESSENTIALS
Vansittart Bay & Jar Island FAQs
Every detail you need for your expedition to Vansittart Bay and Jar Island.
The Gwion Gwion (Bradshaw) paintings at Jar Island are among the oldest figurative rock art known anywhere in the world, with estimates for the style ranging from around 17,000 to as much as 40,000 years old. Ages vary between sites and dating methods, and guides on shore will usually explain what's understood about the specific gallery you're visiting.
Yes, and it's a highlight for many visiting Vansittart Bay. The aircraft remains mostly intact on the saltpan where it crash-landed in 1942. It's a standard shore excursion on Kimberley expedition cruises, but getting to it means a walk across open salt flats, so timing depends on the tide.
Most do, but not every itinerary schedules time for both the wreck and the rock art in a single call, and some visit only one. Given how different the two stops are, it's worth checking your specific itinerary rather than assuming "Vansittart Bay" covers everything.
If it's a destination that's high on your list, our team can help you find an itinerary that matches your Kimberley bucket list.
Vansittart Bay is typically visited during the Kimberley cruise season, from roughly April to September, when the dry season keeps rivers and saltpans passable and seas calmer. Later in the season the saltpan is generally drier and easier underfoot for the walk out to the DC-3 wreck.
Phillip Parker King named the bay in the 1820s after Nicholas Vansittart, then Chancellor of the Exchequer in Britain. Jar Island, close by, takes its name from the same voyage, after King found earthenware jars left behind by Macassan trepangers who had worked this coast long before European charting began.
Plan Your Kimberley Journey
Plan Your Kimberley Journey
Consult with our expedition specialists to tailor your voyage, matching your preferred style, vessel comfort, and itinerary.
EXPLORE THE KIMBERLEY
Other Kimberley Destinations to Discover
From ancient sandstone gorges and roaring waterfalls to remote island archipelagos, explore the iconic landscapes that define the Kimberley coast.
Expeditions & Itineraries