Armidale helicopter tours: Oxley Wild Rivers National Park flights

Highlights of an Armidale helicopter tour over Oxley Wild Rivers National Park include Wollomombi Falls, the New England Plateau, Dangars Falls & Bakers Creek Gorge.

Australia has strong collection of scenic flights on offer to tourists. But one underrated helicopter tour option can be found in Armidale, New South Wales.

In the heart of the New England region, Armidale is close to the Oxley Wild-Rivers National Park. And this is the target for the helicopter tours run by Fleet Helicopters.

The shortest helicopter flight over the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park lasts half an hour and costs from $295 per person. But the hour-long flight of the ten gorges tour, costing $500 per person, is more spectacular.

Oxley Wild Rivers National Park helicopter tour departure

Departing from Armidale airport, this helicopter flight departs from Armidale airport and flies over the New England Plateau. The first Gorge encountered is Gara Gorge, and the flight continues via Metz Gorge to Wollomombi Falls. With a 220 metre drop, Wollomombi Falls is generally regarded as being the highest waterfall in New South Wales, and one of the top three in Australia. The precise order depends on how you’re measuring it.

Wollomombi Falls helicopter tour

Wollomombi Falls can be little more than a trickle if there hasn’t been much recent rainfall. But Dangars Falls puts on more of a show, billowing over the cliff face.

It’s a part of the world that’s monumentally underrated. The Oxley Wild Rivers National Park bears comparison to the far better-known Blue Mountains near Sydney. Of course, it’s not within two hours of a major city so it doesn’t see hordes of tour buses every day. But there’s the familiar blue haze, a lush green foliage and jaw-dropping views from almost every angle.

gorges of Oxley Wild Rivers National Park seen on a helicopter tour from Armidale. — The gorges of the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park are best seen on a helicopter flight. Photo by David Whitley/ Australia Travel Questions

Before heading into the gorges, passengers get a little education about the area. What we see today started to form around 60 to 70 million years ago when Australia and New Zealand were part of the Gondwana supercontinent. The tectonic plates crunched into each other, forming a plateau. A wet period then followed, in which rivers carved out the gorges through granite rock that was at one stage the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

Armidale helicopter tours over Bakers Creek Gorge

The benefits of the pocket-sized helicopter, its wrap-around glass windscreen and missing doors soon become apparent. The tour flies over Hillgrove, an old antimony mining settlement on Bakers Creek Gorge. It feels like a proper eagle’s eye view, picking out the mine shaft.

From Bakers Creek, the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park helicopter tour flies over motorbike tracks, walking trails and tributaries of the Macleay River. It looks out on a unique eco-system. Plenty of hitherto undiscovered plants have been found here by scientists, and there are probably a few more that are yet to be tracked down.

Animal tracks – probably belonging to dingos or wallabies – dot the scree slopes near the gorgeous loop in the river known variously as “The Heart Of New England” and “Mickey Mouse”. There’s no sign of any active life though – the tiny aircraft feels like it’s the only thing for miles around.