(revised Oct. 2016)
The Northern Territory is six times the size of Great
Britain and boasts two paved highways. The Stuart Highway
comes north from South Australia through Alice Springs,
gateway to Uluru, and on to Darwin, the capital. The other,
which changes name, crosses the north from Western Australia
to Katherine, jogs south to about Tennant Creek, then
continues to Mount Isa in Queensland.
The northern portion of the Territory is known as the Top
End. It receives monsoonal rains during 'The Wet' (November
to May) and virtually no precipitation from June to October.
The area south of Tennant Creek is arid to semi-arid to well
south of the border with South Australia.
Temperatures vary greatly across the year and also within a
day. In arid regions like Alice Springs, evenings will be
quite cool, reaching single digits before dawn in July and
August. Midday temperatures during these cooler months
routinely reach the high 20ºs. Summer temperatures (January
and February) are 20º warmer, with highs routinely over 40º
C.
From Katherine northwards the dry winter months are somewhat
warmer, ranging between the mid-teens to the low 30ºs. The
monsoons moderate the temperature in the summer, yielding
highs in the mid-30ºs and lows in the mid-20ºs. In short,
the desert is hot and the Top End is wet from November
through May.
Geologically, the state is the northeast section of the
Precambrian Shield. The most recent formations are
cretaceous marine deposits in the Simpson Desert in the far
southeast, in a basin extending about 200km around Daly
Waters in the state's central north, and small plains which
lie intermittently along the coast. Paleozoic (mostly
Cambrian) rock extends across the centre of the state,
forming a tongue which nearly reaches Darwin. Proterozoic
material forms a semicircle around these areas, including
nearly all of Arnhem Land and the western and southern
borders.
The state is virtually surrounded by desert. The Great
Sandy, Gibson and Great Victorian Deserts form its west and
southwest. The Simpson Desert is the southeast corner. Near
its centre is the Tanami Desert.
Other dominant geological features include the Musgrave and
Macdonald Ranges and the intervening Amadeus Depression in
the southwest, the Barkly Tablelands in the northeast and
the spectacular Kakadu and Arnhem Land at the Top End. In
addition to these latter areas are the remarkable Uluru and
Kata Tjuta monoliths near Alice Springs, Katherine Gorge,
and the curious granite boulders south of Tennant Creek.
Not unexpectedly, the soil types and flora conform to this
geological and climatic pattern. Soil scientists mention
extremely soda-filled rock, limited permeability and
inherently low fertility. Deep siliceous soils form the
Simpson and Tanami Deserts where the hummock grass spinifex
prevails. Most of the Barkly Tablelands are cracking clays
which allow some acacia to grow, but mostly sustain tussock
grasses. The rest of the state is shallow sand over stone or
nearly solid subsoil. The north-south highway actually
passes along a corridor of scrub for most of its length.
As one approaches the Top End, increased precipitation
allows some increased variety of plant life. Immediately
north of Lake Woods the vegetation changes to scrub and by
Daly Waters patchy low eucalypts have appeared. Fauna on the
windward, western side of the peninsula tends towards
eucalypt, that in Arnhem Land tends towards scrub and
cypress pine. Within 300km of the coast, larger eucalypts
dominate. Those on the coast become a fairly dense forest.
There are any number of exceptions to this pattern. A large
section of eastern Arnhem Land, for instance, is barely
wooded despite having conditions virtually identical to the
surrounding areas.
Spinifex
Porcupine grass
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Lobed spinifex
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Hummock grassland, soft and lobed
spinifex
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Spinifex is a characteristic tussock grass growing
throughout the arid interior of Australia. The term, which
literally means 'thorn-maker', most correctly refers to
three species of maritime grasses which range widely across
Asia and Australasia, but the more popular usage refers to
grasses of the genus T.
riodia. Of the 30-odd
species of this genus, T. basedownii (lobed spinifex),
T. pungens (spinifex) and T. irritans (porcupine grass) are
the most noteworthy. The former grows in tussocks 30cm
to 1m in circumference and, like most Triodia, presents
irritating prickles. More mature plants can be recognised by
their hollow centre. Its fibrous grass blades can be 2m
long. It produces seeds in the spring and these erect
oat-like inflorescences are a major food source, fattening
range horses.
Spinifex's resinous nature makes them highly inflammable.
Aboriginal methods of land care involve burning off the
spinifex in late spring. The resin is also used as a hafting
glue for their spear and axe heads. Porcupine grass is less
a monoculture plant and extends as far south as Victoria
among mixed grasses. In fact a number of species are
commonly called porcupine grass.
The Territory's arid conditions inclined its history to
one of exploration rather than settlement. Like their
exploration elsewhere in Australia, the Dutch kept their
charts secret. Arnhem Land (the northeastern area of
Northern Territory, now Aboriginal Land Trust) is the
namesake of the Dutch yacht captained by Willem van
Coolsteerdt who visited briefly in 1623. The first
substantial exploration, however, was during Tasman's 1644
coastal voyage from Cape York to Western Australia. Failing
to find an expeditious route to their Spice Islands, in what
is now Indonesia, the Dutch lost interest.
Flinders charted the coast in the Gulf of Carpentaria in
1802-03. Unfortunately, his ship, the Investigator, was in
such poor condition that he was only able to make a detailed
survey of the eastern coast of Arnhem Land. The remainder of
the Northern Territory was charted by Australia's second
great cartographer, Phillip Parker King. King visited the
area between Cape Arnhem and Cape Leeuwin in Western
Australia during his four-year-long voyage between 1818 and
1822. Curiously, he did miss Port Darwin. King pressed for
the settlement of the Northern Territory.
Exploration by land was similarly late. Explorer Ludwig
Leichhardt travelled from Brisbane to the Gulf and northeast
across Arnhem Land in 1845. He returned to a celebrity's
welcome in Sydney after a 14-month absence. A.C. Gregory
followed much the same route in reverse. Starting near the
Western Australian border in 1855, he proceeded south first
until desert conditions forced him to retrace his steps. By
mid-1856 he had crossed the Top End, found his ship had not
met the expedition as planned, and proceeded to the east
coast.
In 1859 J. McDouall Stuart began his efforts to cross the
continent from south to north. He required five attempts.
The first ended in retreat from aptly named Attack Creek
about halfway through the Territory. When the second ended
in scrubland 100 miles further north, he wrote, 'The plains
and forest are as great a barrier as if there had been an
inland sea or a wall built around.' He succeeded in his last
effort, reaching the Top End in 1862 after a ten-month slog.
In the early 1870s a number of expeditions crossed to and
from the western coast to McDouall Stuart's line. Their
reports ended speculation about the hoped-for arable centre,
inland sea, or navigable interior rivers. In reality, the
looked-for inland sea is an exaggeration of the infrequently
filled salt lakes in central South Australia; when filled by
greater than average rainfalls, these lakes indeed become
luxuriant and are brimming with wildlife.
History of settlement
Early attempts to settle the Territory were futile. The
first settlements, Fort Dundas on Melville Island and at
Raffles Bay, were meant to provide an alternative to the
Dutch ports which imposed heavy duties. Both were abandoned
in 1829 due to tropical diseases, hostile local Aborigines
and Timor pirates.
Port Essington fared somewhat better. Founded in 1838 in
Barrow Bay, it lay so far off the beaten track that visitors
could be counted individually. They did include French
sailors in a pair of corvettes under Commodore Dumont
d'Urville in 1839; Commander J.C. Wickham aboard the Beagle
that same year; naturalist John Gilbert was stranded there
for a time in 1840 after a cyclone damaged his ship; and
Ludwig Leichhardt used it as the westernmost point of his
exploration in 1845-46. The settlement was abandoned in
1849.
Significantly, the first settlement after South Australia
accepted responsibility for the Northern Territory in 1863,
a mismanaged mosquito-infested swamp named Escape Cliffs,
failed as well. Former British army officer Boyle Travers
Finniss had established it at the mouth of the Adelaide
River. John McKinlay, leader of the search for Burke and
Wills, described it prior to its abandonment in 1866,
saying, 'A greater sense of waste and desolation is
unimaginable. As a seaport and a city this place is
worthless.'
By 1859, following the formation of Queensland and Victoria,
the map of Australia gave New South Wales administrative
responsibility for an awkward area north and west of South
Australia. To solve this discontinuity, either Queensland or
South Australia had to be given governance of the Northern
Territory.
In 1860 it was very nearly named Albert Territory and given
to Queensland to administer. Despite A.C. Gregory's
expedition across the north in 1855-56, the Queensland
government was too busy to bother with the opportunity.
South Australian governor Richard MacDonnell became
interested largely as a result of McDouall Stuart's reports.
For reasons that may have made sense at the time,
Queensland's western border was inset about 300km from the
South Australian border. Perhaps this three degrees latitude
change had something to do with a three-degree addition to
South Australia's western border?
The first town destined for success in the Northern
Territory was Palmerston, eventually called Port Darwin,
then Darwin. John Lort Stokes named Port Darwin after his
former ship mate Charles Darwin during a visit to the area
in 1839 aboard the Beagle. George Goyder, as South
Australian Surveyor-General, had read Stokes's journals and
established Palmerston at this location in 1869. It may be
unfair to suggest that its success depended upon the
Overland Telegraph Line. Suffice it to say, this line
necessitated settlements north from South Australia to the
Timor Sea.
Overland Telegraph Line (OTL)
Construction of the Overland Telegraph Line (OTL) deserves
description. By 1870 a telegraph service extended across
Europe and Asia and Australia desperately needed to
establish direct communication. At best, land mail took ten
weeks to convey. Proposals to replace the expensive and slow
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company with a
cable terminus at Northwest Cape, Western Australia, or at
Normanton on the Queensland coast were flawed by both the
extent of undersea cable and the distance from Australia's
populated southeast.
The South Australian Parliament loaned £120,000 to the OTL;
the British-Australian Telegraph Company agreed that all of
the Australian revenues would be paid to the OTL but that
the line must be completed in 18 months. Recalling that it
took McDouall Stuart ten months, it is hardly a surprise
that the telegraph company insisted upon substantial
penalties for non-compliance.
Charles Todd (1826-1905) was put in charge of the project.
As (Astronomical) Observer and Superintendent of Telegraph
for South Australia, he was an enthusiastic proponent of the
undertaking. He had already successfully run the line from
Adelaide to Sydney. Subsequent to the line to Darwin, he
organised one to Eucla at the South Australian border with
Western Australia, establishing direct communication with
the entire continent. He also outfitted the Western
Australian astronomical observatory. Upon Federation, his
postal and telegraph service in South Australia was found to
be the only one in the country to operate at a profit.
Construction of the telegraph line proceeded along three
sections simultaneously. E.M. Bagot contracted for the
southern portion through settled country between Port
Augusta and the Macumba River near Charlotte Waters. Five
government parties working on the central section made a
number of discoveries along their way, the most important
being reliable water sources for the relay stations. Among
these was Alice Springs, named after Todd's wife, Alice
Gillam. The settlement's river, usually dry, was also named
in honour of Todd himself.
Construction of the northern section, however, was hampered
by monsoons. The initial contractors proceeded south as far
as Katherine River before the rains prevented supplies
coming to them. The government's overseer cancelled the
contract just as the wet season ended. By the time he had
sailed to Adelaide and returned with six ships full of
workers and supplies, the rains had returned. After a visit
to the area, Todd put railway engineer R.C. Patterson in
charge of the frantic effort to complete the line.
The submarine cable reached Port Darwin from Banjuwangi in
Java in late June 1872. South Australia's line, however, had
only reached Daly Waters. The 380km gap to Tennant Creek was
crossed by pony express for the first message on 23 June
1872. A problem with the undersea cable delayed normal
communication until late October. The land line had been
completed on 22 August 1872, eight months into the penalty
clauses in the original contract.
In our era of radio communication it is difficult to gauge
the effect of this first iron line. Even with this
telegraphic link to the continent, communication was not
instantaneous. Because of the necessary repeater stations,
it took two days for a signal to be passed.
Alice Springs repeater station, ca. 1880
Among the nine such stations along the OTL, those in the
Northern Territory were established as the first continuous
presence of European society in the inland regions of the
continent. The line itself was a landmark for subsequent
surveyors, particularly those from Western Australia.
Telegraphic communication between Melbourne and Sydney began
in 1858, between Sydney and Adelaide in 1867, and between
Adelaide and Perth in 1877.
After the Overland Telegraph Line was established, little of
historical note occurred in the Territory until Federation.
Chinese labour was used during the 1880s to mine gold, but
immigration restrictions imposed at the end of the decade
resulted in a decline in this population. Some cattle
industry started in the Barkly Tableland, but tick fever and
drought reduced the industry.
In 1909, the Commonwealth bought the Northern Territory's
development loans and railroads from South Australia. Under
federal administration Palmerston was renamed Darwin. A
census conducted at the time counted 3310 people of
non-Aboriginal descent in the Territory. Scottish
veterinarian Dr J.A. Gilruth was appointed in 1912 as the
first Territorial Administrator. His lack of judgement and
fairness provoked a stop-work union meeting at the Vestry
meatworks in Darwin at which they voted to boycott the state
hotels to protest against the price rise for bottled beer.
Following the meeting, hundreds of workers marched on
government house where they burnt Gilruth in effigy. The
central importance of beer in the life of Territorians had
already been established.
More ready access to the Territory came in the 1930s. Air
travel to Europe began in 1934, necessitating fuelling stops
in Darwin or Daly Waters. But the construction of the Alice
Springs-to-Darwin section of the Stuart Highway had an even
greater effect. Under David D. Smith, the road was
constructed largely by manual labour supplied by camel
train. When reprimanded for exceeding his budget to
straighten and widen sections, his defence was 'Too bloody
bad!' His anticipation that war would shortly start and that
the improved road would be required proved correct. He was
put in charge of its upgrade and sealing in 1943.
Camels
Camels came to Australia as draft animals from the Canary
Islands in 1840, but did not become a major import until the
1860s. In 1860, 24 of them arrived from India for use on the
Burke and Wills expedition. The first serious camel stud was
at Thomas Elder's station at Beltana, South Australia. This
station, by the way, was the basis for the multinational
firm Elders IXL. Between the 1860s and 1907, imports may
have been as many as 12,000 head despite a number of
breeding herds in Australia. The camel herdsmen were
imported as well. These 'Afghans', as Australians would have
the term, came from throughout western Asia, but
predominantly from Peshawar in present-day Pakistan.
1895
The caravans supplying stations and settlements beyond the
railheads were generally comprised of 40 camels under four
handlers. They routinely covered about 40km per day; the
camels carried around 500kg each, depending on the breed.
They were tremendously important to the exploration and
development of vast areas of the inland. As late as 1912,
they were used as water-carriers for the building of the
Trans-Australian Railway, and were still used as pack
animals in the 1930s. As motor transport came to dominate,
camels were simply left to run wild in the outback. A
current resurgence in interest in camel-raising is due to
their relatively unobtrusive effect on semi-arid pasturage.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour caused the evacuation
of women and children from Darwin. The first of about 60
bombings of Darwin during the Second World War occurred on
19 February 1942. It was the most effective of the war,
resulting in 10 ships being sunk in Darwin harbour, 250
individuals killed and 320 injured. During the war nearly
half of the town's buildings were damaged. Darwin was the
only place in Australia to be repeatedly attacked by the
Japanese. It is this period, 1937-43, that author Xavier
Herbert treats in his epic novel Poor Fellow My Country
(1975). Herbert had earlier written Capricornia (1938), the
name he gave to Northern Australia; here he describes the
Territory's history as 'more bloody than that of the
others'.
The one great improvement to come out of the war was the
sealed roads from the south and the east, and improved
communications with the rest of the country. Since the
Second World War, the Northern Territory has developed in
terms of pastoral and mining industry, although the
population still remained small. Darwin came to world
attention in 1974, when, on Christmas Day, Cyclone Tracy
destroyed most of the town, killing 66 people and leaving
thousands homeless. The evacuation of these survivors by
Qantas Airlines, with 674 passengers on one flight, still
ranks as one of the largest mass air evacuations in history.
Within four years, Darwin had been completely rebuilt.
Today, the Territory's greatest industry, and a booming one,
is tourism, as it is the gateway to the 'real' Australia:
the Red Centre, the outback, the beauties of Kakadu and
Uluru. Alice Springs' population has grown from a little
over 1000 in the 1950s to more than 20,000 entirely as a
result of tourism. The benefits of this influx of new people
and new ideas have been substantial, although the
Territory's limited population still leads to its
marginalisation in terms of Australian politics and
mainstream affairs-a situation that leads to the sense of
transience and difference that is part of the Territory's
charm. The State's
Tourism Department has taken great strides to make its
web presence comfortable and thorough.
Darwin (population 80,907) sits on the edge of the Timor
Sea in the Northern Territory's coastal northwest. Much of
its architectural history has been destroyed by cyclones,
most notably those in 1897, 1937 and 1974. This fact,
coupled with the city's proximity to Asia, has led to a
major attitudinal transformation beginning as early as the
1980s. Darwin has become a racial melting pot, with its
focus turned towards Asia; in many ways, as a recent article
in the Sydney paper stated, Darwin 'has been transformed
into a bustling, if small, South-East Asian town'. This may
be a bit of an exaggeration, but the ethnic mix of the
population certainly substantiates such a claim: the town is
home to more than 60 ethnic groups, with mixed marriages
quite common and intriguing cultural festivals emphasising
these new combinations. The food markets dotted around the
city offer the greatest evidence of Darwin's strong Asian
flavour. It is important to remember that Timor is only one
hour away by plane, and even Malaysia is a shorter distance
than Sydney. Many of the city's businesses are owned by
Indonesia's leading families, and the Sultan of Brunei owns
three large cattle properties nearby. One-quarter of the
Territory's small population is Aboriginal, a much higher
ratio than anywhere else in Australia.
The image of Territorians as beer-swilling red-necks is
becoming increasingly dated; as the Territory's former Chief
Minister Shane Stone has said: 'It is the southern cities
that have ethnic ghettos; we have one of the most
free-flowing racial communities in the world.' With 25 being
the average age in the city, Darwin does express a different
outlook than the rest of the country: the tropical climate,
and the isolated location, do contribute to a feeling at
times of transience and 'no worries' inconsequentiality. The
atmosphere of Darwin, in its various directions, can best be
seen in the city's Festival of Darwin, held in August, and
including plays, musical performances, art and other
activities; and, most famously, in the Beer Can Regatta,
also in August, with boats made entirely of beer cans.
The town
Darwin's earliest surviving buildings are the Fannie Bay
Gaol Museum (1883) (admission free, open Wed. - Sun.
10.00 - 15.00; a few kilometres north on Smith Point Road);
the Victoria Hotel (1890), Smith Street on the mall; and the old courthouse and police
station (1884) at the end of Smith Street on Esplanade. In
fact, these buildings are not as interesting as those
designed in the late 1930s by B.C.G. Burnett (see below).
Admiralty House (now a restaurant) on the southeast corner
of Knuckey Street and Esplanade remains from the 1930s as do
some houses on Myilly Point.
Victoria Hotel
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Admiralty House ca. mid 1950s
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Admiralty House today
|
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Nearly all of the dwellings and most of the commercial
and governmental buildings were destroyed when Cyclone Tracy
struck on Christmas Day in 1974. Heroic efforts by emergency
services prevented widespread tragedy. In the end 49 people
died as an immediate result of the storm rather than in its
aftermath. The town was rebuilt, another heroic effort, with
marked respect for the inevitable cyclones making the
architecture somewhat blockish.
The city is fairly small and quite flat. Bicycles are
readily hired and the bike paths are well maintained. The
Stuart Highway enters Darwin proper from the northeast,
becoming Daly Street. Wharves and marinas are south and east
of the city centre. To the north of Daly Street along East
Point Road are Palmerston Park, the golf course, Mindil
Beach Reserve, the Botanic Gardens and the museum and art
gallery. The city centre has a large pedestrian mall with
governmental buildings mostly to its south near the harbour.
An esplanade skirts the beaches.
The Botanic
Gardens (free admission, t 08 8999 4418; open daily
Gardens 7.00-19.00, Display House 8.30-13.30) are
immediately north of the city centre and accessible by car
off the Stuart Highway on Geranium Street or by bus no. 10
to Casuarina or no. 8 to Palmerston from the city centre to
Tucker Hut Inn and left at the next corner. The gardens were
started by Maurice Holtze, a German hired in the 1870s to
establish a fruit and vegetable plantation. Not
surprisingly, Cyclone Tracy ravaged the garden's trees and
shrubs, but the tropical collection has since been admirably
re-established. The Garden's estuary and marine plantings in
natural settings are a botanic garden rarity. The new water
fountain and its incredible cubbyhouse in a fallen tree are
recommended by visiting children.
Burnett House
The National
Trust has three buildinging in Darwin open for visits,
Burnett House (admission free, Mon.-Sat. 10.00-13.00, Sun.
15.00-17.00, t 8981 0165), Audit House (9.00-14.00, at
the edge of the Myilly Point historic disctict immediately
sourth of Mindil Beach, open ocassionally for
events), and Roadmaster's House. The Trust's offices
are at Audit House. Although Cyclone Tracy destroyed
nearly all of the domestic buildings in Darwin, this
district's dwellings from the 1930s were largely spared.
Beni Carr Glynn Burnett, an architect who had worked for
some years in China, came to Darwin in 1937 as the
Territory's Principal Architect. He designed the houses on
this elevated point to take advantage of the sea breezes.
The houses are elevated and have louvres for their casement
windows. The internal walls are three-quarters height and
have lower louvres as well as openings in the eaves. In
addition to the National Trust in Burnett House, another
Burnett-designed house on Burnett Place is open as a gallery
and cafe.
Mindil Beach Reserve (bus nos 4 or 6) is best visited on
Thursday and Sunday nights (16.00 - 21.00) during the dry
season for its elaborate market
and food stalls. The al fresco cuisine is unsurpassed
and the atmosphere worth the trip itself. Similar food stall
markets are found on Saturday morning at the Parap market
(further north, bus no. 6), on Sunday morning in Rapid Creek
(a suburb north of the airport which hosts the Mindil market
during the Wet, bus no. 4) and in the central Smith Street
mall every evening except Thursday. On the beach is an
interesting bamboo-and-cane sculpture by Hortensia Masero,
created for the
Festival of Darwin, a dance-music-art celebration
which takes place every August.
The Museum and Art
Gallery (admission free, 08 8999 8264; open daily
10.00-17.00) is in an oceanside park north of Mindil Beach
Reserve off East Point Road. It has a remarkably good
collection representing regional Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Island culture, an ambitious maritime display
presenting a number of vessels. The natural history display
includes a graphic description of Cyclone Tracy's effects
and the national response to the devastation it wreaked.
Local pride in the ethnic community is expressed,
particularly in a display of a Malaysian prahu (a marine
houseboat) and a Japanese pearling lugger. The museum also
administers the Australian Pearling Exhibition, located
directly on the left upon entering the Stokes Hill Wharf. In
addition to a video describing pearl oyster farming, its
displays feature the early history of pearling in the
region.
Day trips from Darwin
The Darwin
Regional Tourism Association (t 1300 138 886) is in
the mall at 6 Bennett Street, around the corner from the
Mall. The Northern
Territory Parks and Wildlife (t 08 8999 5511) can be
helpful as well. The Darwin
Bushwalking Club (t 08 8985 1484) welcomes visitors
and offers advice on walking tracks in Litchfield National
Park and Kakadu, among others.
Day trips from Darwin include visits to Litchfield
National Park (t 08 8976 0282, 115km south); and
flights or ferry to the Tiwi people (see below) on Melville
and Bathurst Islands. Longer tours to Peppimenarti and to
Manyallaluk (near Katherine Gorge) are available. The Northern
Territory Tourist Commission in Darwin and the Northern
Territory Police have considerable information on
these and other organised Aboriginal cultural experiences.
Bathurst and Melville Islands
The traditions on the islands are still quite intact,
largely due to the Tiwi's independent character. They had a
history of hostility towards the Macassan who came to fish
for trepang (sea cucumbers) from Sulawesi, formerly the
Celebes, as early as the 17C. Their relations with the
British who attempted settlements at Fort Dundas and Raffles
Bay were cool as well. Both settlements were abandoned in
1829. In the late 1890s, Joe Cooperand Paddy Cahill hunted
buffalo on Melville Island. They were chased off, but Cooper
eventually returned to live there for 16 years. Initially,
the Catholic Church mission on Bathurst Island received
little support, reputedly because the Tiwi were suspicious
of priests without wives.
Tutini burial poles left after a Pukumani ceremony, Tiwi
Island, NT
AATKings
Travel (866 240 1659) offers tours via air or
ferry from Darwin to Bathurst Island for tea with local
women, a visit to the local museum and craft center and to
the pukumani burial site. The burials are marked by poles
which are painted, carved and erected as part of the final
funerary ceremony in which the spirit of the deceased is
released.
Litchfield National Park
Litchfield
National Park is less than two hours' drive (115km)
south of Darwin on the Stuart Highway. Its proximity
to Darwin makes it a local favourite, so the park can be
somewhat crowded on holiday weekends.
Sandstone cliffs at the edge of a plateau separate the
park's two major ecological areas and produce a number of
spectacular waterfalls. Atop the plateau is an open eucalypt
forest, and there are pockets of rainforest throughout the
park. Below the escarpment is a black soil wetlands noted
for speargrass of the Aristida genus, a tall bright green
grass in growth and a pleasant straw colour during the dry
season.
Wangi Falls
Florence, Tolmer and Wangi Falls are the most
accessible of the park's waterfalls.
Shortly after entering the park from the east, via the town
of Batchelor, a display and boardwalk present the flood
plain and magnetic termite mounds. These termites have built
above-ground nests as an adaptation to the high water table
and flooding during the summer. The wedge shape and
north-south orientation of the mounds are to cope with daily
temperature changes. At night the insects congregate in the
middle of their mound; during the day they move to its
cooler eastern side.
Beyond the mounds the road climbs the escarpment at Aida
Creek Jump-up. About 6km along is the turn-off to Florence
Falls. Here a boardwalk suitable for wheelchair access leads
to a spectacular lookout. Below, the exuberant rainforest
and a swimming hole at the end of the steep path to the
cascade's bottom make this an attractive stop. About 9km
from Florence Falls is Tabletop Swamp, a good wetland for
bird watching and a picnic site. A number of the park's
sites are along tracks accessible to experienced drivers of
all-terrain vehicles. The most notable is arguably the Lost
City, a jumble of natural sandstone pillars and blocks.
Tolmer Falls, about 14km beyond Florence Falls, has a good
boardwalk, providing wheelchair access to its view as well.
The cascade and pools immediately around its base are
inaccessible to protect a number of bat species nesting
here. The most popular site in the park is Wangi Falls
(pronounced wong guy). These flow strongly year round and
cascade into a large pool which is suitable for swimming
except during periods of high water.
Kakadu and Uluru are World Heritage Sites for their
natural setting and association with Australia's Aboriginal
traditions. The land rights of the associated Aboriginal
communities are recognised in both cases, each area being
governed by its traditional owners. Excellent tours
of Kakadu are organized by Parks Australia during the
dry, May - September.
Kakadu
National Park (t +61 8 8938 1120) encompasses nearly
all of the South Alligator River system, 22,000 sq km in
all. Its World Heritage Listing in 1984 came as a result of
the second stage of its formation. In 1979, the eastern and
central sections of the park were ceded. These had been the
Woolwonga and Alligator River wildlife sanctuaries, set
aside in 1969 and 1972. Finally, in 1991, the southern
sections were listed. Some of this area is being claimed by
the Jawoyn people in adjacent Katherine Gorge. Should they
be awarded the claim, they will receive financial benefits
and representation on the board of management.
History
Captain Philip King was the first European to enter the
area. During three voyages between 1818 and 1822 to complete
Matthew Flinders' exploration, he travelled up the East and
South Alligator Rivers. He named the rivers, mistaking the
local crocodiles for alligators. Ludwig Leichhardt crossed
the Arnhem Plateau and South Alligator River on his
exhausting 14-month-long trip from the Darling Downs in
Queensland to Port Essington.
A short-lived gold rush to Pine Creek, immediately southwest
of the park, and the first pastoral leases in the area
brought some Europeans here in the late 1870s. From the
1890s to the present, feral water buffalo were hunted at
first for skins and since the 1950s for sport. These animals
are the descendants of those released upon the abandonment
of military settlements at Raffles Bay and Port Essington on
the Cobourg Peninsula and from Escape Cliffs.
Baldwin Spencer was the first anthropologist to describe the
Aboriginal culture of the area. In a visit to Oenpelli on
the Arnhem Land plateau in 1912, he described a nearby rock
art site: The slanting roofs and sides [of the rock shelter]
were one mass of native drawings, precisely similar to those
done on bark, but here, the rocks had been blackened for
long years by the smoke of countless camp fires and the
drawings, most of them fishes, had been superimposed on one
another, the brighter colours of the more recent ones
standing out clearly on the darker background. Subsequent
work by anthropologists N. B. Tindale and, most notably, by
Charles P. Mountford in the 1920s and 1930s brought the
region's art to the attention of an international community.
The 1954 UNESCO World Art Series was possibly the first to
disseminate widely Aboriginal images to the world at large.
Baldwin Spencer
Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer
(1860-1929) began his career as a biologist, after
graduating from Oxford and being appointed to the
professorship of biology in Melbourne in 1886. Spencer's
indefatigable curiosity and scholarly energy led him to join
the first expedition of Central Australia, under W.A. Horn,
in 1894. Here he met the remarkable F.J. Gillen (1855-1912),
a government employee who had steeped himself in knowledge
of the Central Desert's Aborigines, their language and their
customs. Gillen was called 'Oknirrabata', or 'great
teacher', by the Aranda tribe. Spencer and Gillen began the
first in-depth anthropological study of these tribes,
producing in 1899 the ground-breaking Native Tribes of
Central Australia. Spencer continued his academic duties in
Melbourne, while carrying out additional field-work in the
Northern Territory in 1901 with Gillen, identifying
previously unknown Aboriginal tribes and languages; these
studies resulted in the book The Northern Tribes of Central
Australia (1904). In that same year, Spencer became
President of the Board of the University of Melbourne, and
in 1911, he was asked by the Commonwealth Government to lead
an expedition into the Northern Territory to enquire into
conditions of the Aboriginal inhabitants; his report, again
with Gillen, was the two-volume Across Australia (1911), another
pioneering achievement.
In 1912 Spencer became Chief Protector of Aborigines and in
that capacity carried out further exploration of unknown
tribes and outback regions. Throughout the 1920s, he
continued to publish important works on Aboriginal life and
customs. In that decade, he turned his attention to the
study of the natives of Tierra del Fuego; on an expedition
there in 1929, at the age of 69, he died. While much of
Spencer's work has certainly received critical revision in
subsequent anthropological studies, his initial achievement
in identifying Aboriginal material culture, languages, and
social customs remain as an extraordinary accomplishment,
and established the discipline of anthropology in
Australia. Tim Rowse's essay 'Moralising
the Colonial Past', reviewing recent histories of
Australian anthropology, is a good start toward
understanding early relations between colonial and
indigenous people.
Uranium was discovered in Kakadu in 1953 and four large
deposits were found in the early 1970s. The very real
dangers the proposed mines pose was controlled until the
recent Liberal government put aside the previous Three Mines
policy. Fortunately, the prevailing low price of uranium
makes development a legally symbolic gesture rather than a
fiscally prudent operation.
Flora and fauna
At Ubirr
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Sand
goanna
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s
Black cockatoo
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Rainbow bee eaters
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Short eared rock wallaby
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Mabuyu at Ubirr, Kakadu
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The park contains four major landforms: the Koolpinyah
plains, the coastal riverine plains, the Arnhem Land plateau
and escarpment, and some southern hills.
Extending from Darwin to the Arnhem Land escarpment, the
Koolpinyah Plains are gently undulating Late Tertiary
deposits of heavily weathered Mesozoic sediments. Comprised
of gravels, sands and clays, the soils at the surface are
relatively infertile, having been leached of minerals and
alkali earths. Accumulations of iron and aluminium further
reduce the fertility. The proliferation of iron creates the
characteristic ironstone found as broken pavements or
outcrops at the headwaters of creeks. The associated stands
of tall trees are the Darwin stringybark and Darwin
woolybutt eucalypts, with an understorey of ironwood and
green plum, pandanus palms and extensive and fast-growing
tall grasses, the most prevalent being spear grass. The more
prevalent lowland forests grow on heavier, less well-drained
soil. The eucalypts here are markedly stunted and scattered
amid sparse shrub and annual grasses.
This habitat supports a variety of wallaby and wallaroo, as
well as nocturnal sugar gliders, brushtail possums and
quolls. A variety of skinks are routinely sighted as are
sand goannas. The well-known frilly-necked lizard, though
present, is elusive. Bird species include lorikeets,
yellow-tailed and red-tailed black cockatoos, rainbow
bee-eaters and a variety of kingfishers.
In addition to the gentle slope northward to the sea, two
other features of these plains are sinkholes forming
seasonal or permanent bodies of water and, of course, the
five rivers in the park. These flow strongly during the
seasonal rains and dry out to a string of billabong wetlands
by the end of the dry season in their inland reaches. The
most accessible wetland areas are Mamukala a few kilometres
east of the South Alligator River; Yellow Water and
associated billabongs near the Warradjan Cultural Centre;
and Ubirr in the northeastern part of the park. Their signal
trees are broadleaf and weeping paperbark eucalypts,
freshwater mangroves, pandanus and water lilies.
In addition to endemic species, the less commonly seen
magpie geese, shining flycatchers and black-necked storks
frequent these freshwater wetlands.
The coastal riverine plains tend to be black organic clays
associated with tidal or flood plain estuaries on the
Magela, Nourlangie and Jim Jim Creeks and the South
Alligator River. Most of these areas are flooded four months
of the year, some as many as nine months. Like the Kimberley
region in northern Western Australia, the tides here are
remarkable. The 5- to 6m rises in the spring extend 105km
upstream on the South Alligator River. The associated
coastal monsoon rainforests are marked by banyan, kapok and
milkwood trees.
The geological history of this landform dates from the end
of the last ice age. About 14,000 years ago the sea level
was some 150m below the present level and the shoreline was
more than 300km north. By 6800 years ago, the sea level was
more or less as it is currently. During the next 500 years,
mangroves developed along the rivers until sedimentation
reduced the marine effects upriver and freshwater swamps and
wetlands began to appear. This process continued until quite
recently, the Magela flood plain being formed as recently as
1300 years ago.
The Arnhem Land Plateau and Escarpment is of quartz
sandstone with drops of up to 330m to the adjoining plains.
Largely confined to inaccessible areas in the park's
southeast, it is more readily viewed at Katherine River
Gorge. Soil is absent from large areas of the plateau, sand
deposits being interspersed above the Cretaceous bedrock.
Eucalypt woodland is interspersed with spinifex grasslands
and scrubby heath. Acacia and grevillea blossom in the early
dry and throughout the wet season. Associated animal life
includes Pamela's and Jewelled velvet geckos, skinks,
white-throated grass wrens and chestnut quilled rock
pigeons. Both birds are unique to the area. As elsewhere
along Australia's coastal regions, the white-bellied sea
eagle is an important predator of the smaller marsupials.
The joints, faults and dykes of the Arnhem Land Plateau make
the plain act as a major aquifer from which the South
Alligator and Mary Rivers spring. The permanent springs in
the gorges create monsoon rainforests of evergreen
allosyncarpia. During the dry season these areas are well
frequented by bird species. Those largely confined to the
park and its immediate surrounds are the rainbow pitta,
orange footed scrubfowl and the Torresian imperial pigeon.
Aboriginal history
Archaeological evidence suggests that Aboriginal people
came to Kakadu between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago, the
latter figure being the more likely. They would have come in
the late Pleistocene period from the Indonesian archipelago.
Archaeologists debate the circumstances of the earliest
arrivals, basically relating fluctuations in sea levels with
methods of dating which use radiocarbon and optically
stimulated luminescence. If the Aboriginal population
crossed during low sea levels around 70,000 years ago, the
crossing would have been between 60 and 100km. If rising sea
levels had provided impetus to develop watercraft, the most
likely date would have been about 60,000 years ago or later
across distances not unlike those existing at present.
By 20,000 years ago the Kakadu residents were making
sophisticated stone tools including one of humankind's
earliest examples of hafted edge-ground axes. From about
8500 to 7000 years ago the sea level rose, forcing the
population off the coastal region onto the Arnhem Land
plateau during a period of increased rainfall. The current
flood plain developed between 4000 and 1500 years ago. In
the last 1000 years the Aboriginal population increased
dramatically as they became adept at using the resources of
this freshwater environment. Immediately prior to European
contact, the area now defined as Kakadu Park probably
supported 2000 people.
The rock art in Kakadu follows a typical sequence for
indigenous art in Australia. Large quantities of ochre have
been found around rock shelters which date to as early as
20,000 years ago, suggesting that the same people who made
the edge-ground axes decorated their walls as well. Images
from the immediate post-glacial period of rising sea levels
do exist. Chronology of the succeeding styles relate them to
the effects of climate on the area's flora and fauna as well
as the chemical changes in the pigments and rock surfaces.
George Chaloupka summarises the stylistic changes in Kakadu
in the 'Rock Art of the Northern Territory' in The Inspired Dream
(1988), a catalogue of an exhibition presented at the
Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane. The styles of rock
paintings are grouped as pre-estuarine (before 8000 years
ago), estuarine (8000 to 1500 years ago), freshwater (since
1500 years ago) and contact (following Macassan and European
contact in the last 300 years). The greatest number of
pre-estuarine art dates from 20,000 to 8000 years ago. Its
earliest images are prints of hands followed by naturalistic
depictions of kangaroos and wallabies at about 18,000 years
ago. Interesting to palaeontologists, these images include
now extinct megafauna (large echidnas and wombats). Later in
this period the images present human activities such as men
with hunting implements (boomerangs and hooked sticks) and
women with digging and fire sticks and stone axes. Initially
the style was quite representative and dynamic, but the
depictions became increasingly stylised and abstracted.
Towards the end of the period human and animal figures
become more stylised. By the end of the pre-estuarine
period, yam figures and the Rainbow Snake Being occur.
In common with the art of the Kimberley region (see p 577),
yam figures become increasingly important in art, while
human figures become more stylised as the rising sea levels
forced the people further south. By about 8000 years ago the
Rainbow Serpent begins to appear, indicating a new and
unifying mythology coming to the area. Currently, the
Rainbow Snake is associated with rain and floods in which
the serpent rises from the sea and eats people. Fish are
also increasingly depicted as the technology changes from
hunting to fishing.
The estuarine period commenced during the climatic change at
the end of the last ice age. Sea levels rose to isolate
Australia from Papua New Guinea and Tasmania from the
mainland and the current monsoon pattern emerged here in the
north.
Once the x-ray style of depiction becomes prevalent (about
1500 to 1000 years ago), the freshwater period is fully
established. Namarrgon, 'Lightning Man', also appears as the
climate of the wet becomes the norm. During this period, the
food sources of the Aboriginal population became truly
aquatic. These foods were depicted in readily recognisable
fashion and include jabirus, waterlilies, magpie geese and a
number of fish. The didgeridoo is first depicted at this
time.
The style of the rock art remains consistent throughout the
freshwater period and into the contact period, the depiction
of guns, ships and introduced animals being the first
indication of this current period. Additionally, new colour
sources such as Rickett's Blueing, a laundry product, become
available for use. Wax from Australian wild bees is used to
model small images of animals and humans, which are then
painted. These figures are called kamou korngi and are
occasionally found adhering to the walls of rock art sites.
Unlike the impression many people have of indigenous art,
the more recent images are not drawn prior to food gathering
as a means of ensuring success. Rather they are likely to be
part of a religious ritual or undertaken at a moment of
idleness. Aboriginal calendar
While the European calendar divides the year into a dry
winter, from May through September, and a wet summer, from
November through March, not surprisingly, the Aboriginal
people resident in Kakadu and the surrounding region have
much finer distinctions for the seasons. The pre-monsoon
storm season, Gunumeleng, begins in October when the
humidity and temperature rises and spectacular thunderstorms
begin; fruit trees are bearing at the beginning of this
season. Gudjewg, the monsoon season, begins in late December
and the water apple bears fruit in early January at the
beginning of the heavy rains. By the end of the monsoon
season about 1300mm of rain will have fallen. One year in
ten will bring a cyclone. In February the plains are
flooded, though some occasional fine hot spells can be
expected. The magpie geese begin laying. The last of the
storms begin in March at the onset of Banggereng. These come
from the southeast and their strong winds knock down the
tall seasonal grasses. A cooler, humid season begins in late
April, Yegge. The green grasshoppers are calling, the yams
are ready for harvest and the tourists start arriving in
force. At the end of Yegge, in mid-June, it is time to start
lighting fires to burn off the ground vegetation. This burn
off causes spectacular sunsets. The woollybutt trees blossom
at the start of Wurrgeng, a relatively cool weather season
between mid-June and mid-August. By the start of Gurrung,
mid-August, when the fruit trees begin blossoming, the
weather has become hot and dry. A number of deciduous trees
lose their leaves to preserve water. The blossoming of the
water apple signals the end of this season.
Kakadu tour
Travel in the park is via the Arnhem Highway crossing
west to east and the Kakadu Highway crossing southwest to
northeast. The former runs more or less east to west for
247km between Darwin (its junction with the Stuart Highway
is 43km south of Darwin) and the park's only town, Jabiru.
The Kakadu Highway is diagonally southwest, northeast from
Pine Creek on the Stuart Highway and the western areas of
the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust. While these roads are
sealed and passable in all seasons by two-wheel-drive
vehicles, a number of secondary roads leading from them
require four-wheel-drive, particularly in the wet season.
Entering the park after a rather uneventful 210km drive
across a low eucalypt scrubland from Darwin, the first river
crossed is the Wildman River. Shortly thereafter, a track
north leads to popular fishing and camping sites at Two Mile
Water Hole on this river, an 8km trip passable by
conventional vehicles in the dry. A further 38km leads to
Four Mile Water Hole, but this track is only passable by
four-wheel-drive vehicles.
The next river crossed is the West Alligator, then its West
and East branches. At about 37km into the park a track south
leads to camp grounds at Alligator Billabong and Red Lily,
Bucket and Leichhardt Billabongs. A four-wheel-drive road
leads from Alligator Billabong to the Old Darwin Road near
Kunkamoula Billabong. Even in the dry season, all of these
tracks are difficult.
Kakadu Holiday Village (t 08 8979 0166) is about 43km into
the park, just west of the South Alligator River. About 10km
beyond Kakadu Holiday Village a short way south of the
highway is a favoured bird-watching area at Mamukala.
Here a 3km easy walking trail
with bird hides and an observation building allows access to
the flood plain of the South Alligator River. The wetlands
bird species of the park are plentiful here, especially in
the dry season.
A second walk, the Gu-ngarre Monsoon Rainforest Walk, is
somewhat shorter and passes through monsoon rainforest and
woodlands. The pamphlet on Aboriginal plant use available
from the Bowali Visitor's Centre makes possible plant
identification along this easy walk.
The park headquarters and Bowali
Visitor's Centre (t 08 8938 1121) is just beyond
Gu-ngarre, 80km into the park at the junction of the Arnhem
Highway from Darwin and the Kakadu Highway just west of
Jabiru, the park's single town. This company town, with an
airport, was built to service the adjacent Ranger Uranium
Mine. In town is an Olympic-sized public swimming pool and a
nine-hole golf course. The best published guides to the park
are available at the Visitor's Centre. Also available here
are schedules for the excellent walking tours of the rock
art sites at Obiri Rock and Nourlangie Rock and of the areas
around the major natural sites.
The Gagudju
Crocodile Hotel Kakadu, Flinders Street, Jabiru (t +61
8 8979 9000) is also known simply as the Crocodile Hotel for
being shaped like a crocodile (you enter through its mouth).
An Aboriginal-owned luxury hotel, its shape is a reference
to the myths of the Gagudju people. Like the Crocodile
Hotel, the Kakadu
Frontier Lodge and Caravan Park (t +61 8 8979 0166)
was designed with Gagudju advice which gave rise to its
circular shape.
The track north from the park's information centre leads
43km to Ubirr, site of some of Australia's finest rock art.
The art may be seen at the end of an easy 1km walk to Obiri
Rock. The entire historical range of styles is evident here,
including depictions of extinct thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger),
stick figure spirits called mabuyu, x-ray-style brush-tailed
wallabies and post-contact European figures. The Rainbow
Serpent and Namarkan Sisters paintings have particularly
interesting mythologies. Following a short, steep track to a
lookout provides a view of the East Alligator River flood
plain.
Other walks in the area are the Manngarre Monsoon Rainforest
Walk (about an hour mostly on a boardwalk from the boat ramp
downstream from the Border Store) and the Bardedjilidji
Sandstone Walk. This latter walk is 2.5km long and starts
from the car park near the upstream picnic area. It
traverses some wetland areas and leads to sandstone
formations geologically related to the escarpment.
The Guluyambi
River Trip (t 1 800 525 238), which departs from the
boat ramp below the Border Store, lasts about two hours.
Aboriginal guides describe their relationship between the
land and their culture. The fairly small boats make the trip
seem quite personal and the guides are engaging.
Australia's most famous rock art gallery is at Nourlangie,
31km from the park's headquarters south off Kakadu Highway.
Two galleries are open for view, one at Nourlangie and the
other at Nanguluwur. A fairly easy 4km return walk from
Nourlangie leads to Nanguluwur Gallery, a much less
frequented site with significant post-contact images, as
well as post-estuarine x-ray-style painting and hand
stencils.
The principal site at Nourlangie
is the Anbangbang Rock Shelter, which is 1.5km from the car
park and wheelchair accessible. The mythical figures
Nabulwinjbulwinj (seen at left), Namarrgon (Lightning Man,
an insect-like figure who produces lightning by striking
rocks with axes protruding from his head and joints) and
Barrkinj (Lightning Man's wife) at Anbangbang Rock were
repainted in accordance with tradition in 1963-64. The
famous realistic painting of a sailing ship with its
trailing dinghy is at this site as well. In addition to
walks to the rock art sites, the area has a number of nature
walks. Nawulandja Look-out is a short track uphill to
overlook the Nourlangie Rock. The Anbangbang Billabong hosts
a picnic area with a 2.5km track around the billabong. The
Barrk Sandstone Bushwalk is a 12km, 6-hour strenuous walk to
the top of Nourlangie Rock. In fact, it is the only long
walk along marked trails in the park. Should you wish to
take any other independent bushwalks, you are required to
inform the rangers at the park headquarters of your
itinerary. Further south on the Kakadu Highway is the
turn-off to Jim Jim Falls. Although the track leading to the
falls requires four-wheel-drive and the short walk to the
falls is something of a scramble over and around boulders
near the base of the falls, the 215m cascade and swimming
hole at their plunder pool are well frequented. Because the
flow from the escarpment gradually lessens and even ceases
as the dry period proceeds, the area is best visited as soon
after the road reopens as possible. Even in the dry period
of the year (The Dry), the surrounds and gorge at Jim Jim
Falls are worth the effort.
Twin Falls, which can be counted on to flow through The Dry,
is 10km further along and something of an adventure to
reach. After fording Jim Jim Creek at the camp site (the
sandy creek bed can mean the creek is deeper than the depth
indicators suggest), follow a short walk from the car park.
From here visitors must swim a few hundred meters through a
monsoon forest gorge to the falls (an air mattress is a very
pleasant means of covering the distance!). A fairly
difficult path up the ravine at the right of the falls leads
to a lookout from the edge of the escarpment at the top of
the falls.
Yellow Water, 50km south of the park headquarters on the
Kakadu Highway, is a wetlands near the juncture of Jim Jim
Creek and the South Alligator River. The Warradjan Cultural
Centre is along the way. The building is circular and its
shape reminiscent of the pig nose turtle, hence its name.
The displays recount creation myths in which the first
people, the Nayuhyunggi, established the land and its laws.
At Yellow Water Billabong proper, a raised boardwalk leads
to a viewing platform. At sunrise and sunset, the wetland
birds and sky views are worth braving the mosquitoes (apply
insect repellent beforehand!). Yellow
Water Cruises (t +61 8979 1500) take visitors onto the
waterways. They are popular and usually require advanced
booking, particularly for the dawn cruise. The Gagudju Lodge
is in Cooinda, near the Yellow Waters wetland bird spotting
area. The junction of the Old Darwin Road and Kakadu Highway
is about 11km from Cooinda. The road is passable with
conventional vehicles though unsealed and rejoins the Arnhem
Highway after 90km through sparse woodlands. The trip from
Cooinda to Darwin is about 3 hours' drive via this route.
The park's southern exit eventually leads to Pine Creek.
Tracks to the south of this road lead to Maguk Walk (12km
from the highway and about a 90- minute return walk to a
pleasant swimming hole at the base of a small, year-round
cascade, and Gunlom Waterfall (36km from the highway and an
hour's return walk to a paperbark-shaded pool below a
seasonal waterfall).
Arnhem Land
Adjacent to Kakadu National Park across the East
Alligator River is Arnhem
Land. Owned by a number of Aboriginal groups, it is
normally closed to independent visitors. Travel must be
authorised and requires a permit from the Aboriginal Land
Council (t 08 8938 3000)
The best way to visit Arnhem Land is as part of a tour
group. The Umorrduk (t 08 8948 1306) and Davidson's
(08 8979 0413, info@arnhemland-safaris.com) have established
a safari camps. Umorrduk's camp is adjacent to the
Gummulkbun clan's land. As many as 16 visitors can visit the
area, staying in a comfortable bush camp for a day,
overnight or longer. The tour is organised around
photographing wildlife and visiting rock art sites along the
Arnhem escarpment and nearby flood plain. It departs from
Darwin. Davidson's is from a handsome lodge at Mt.
Borradaile. Their tour features ecological and
bird watching events and tours of the local rock art
galleries.
Cobourg Peninsula
Seven Spirit Wilderness is in Gurig National Park (t 08
8979 0244) on the Cobourg Peninsula, 200km northeast of
Darwin. The park presents a diverse coastal
environment-sandy beaches, dunes and grasslands, mangroves
and their associated swamps and lagoons, forest. The
award-winning tourist hotel provides income for the
traditional owners of the area and a well-sited wilderness
experience for tourists. Access is by light plane or boat
from Darwin.The area is only open during winter.
Even more so than elsewhere in Australia, the distances
to travel by car in these outback territories are
surprising. The Northern Territory border is 1600km north
from Adelaide. The road north from the border passes the
roadhouse communities of Kulgera and Erldunda and Stuart's
Well. The gravel road east from Kulgera follows the Goyder
Stock Route, crossing the Ghan on the way to Finke, itself a
stop on the former Ghan railway line. Finke is now an
Apatula Aboriginal settlement quite near Lambert Centre, the
geographical centre of Australia, which is visited as
something of a shrine by touring Australians. Erldunda marks
the road leading 250km west to Uluru and is said to have the
most expensive petrol on the Stuart Highway.
Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park
Grass and bush near Uluru
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Kata Tjuta at evening light
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Situated about 450km south and west of Alice Springs, Kata
Tjuta (the Olgas), and particularly, Uluru (Ayers Rock) are
major emblems of Australia. Their traditional owners
are the Pitjantjatjara Anangu. Parks
Australia administers them.
Isolated on a dry plain of red soil, they were described by
explorer Ernest Giles in 1875, who compared the mounts,
saying 'Mount Olga [Kata Tjuta] is more wonderful ... like
five or six enormous pink haystacks ... Mount Ayers [Uluru]
the more ancient and sublime.'
Geologically, these formations are a sediment of
well-weathered Proterozoic material. About 600 million years
ago, the southern edge of the surrounding Amadeus Basin
began to fracture. A range of mountains was exposed as they
were pushed 50km northwards, overriding the basin's edge.
Subsequent processes of sedimentation deposited sands which
became rock, the material of Uluru, or pebbly conglomerates
which became Kata Tjuta. These sedimentary rocks came to the
surface as basin movements tilted the sandstone 75 degrees
and the conglomerate some 30 degrees. The most recent
erosion of these formations left Uluru and Kata Tjuta. A
number of caves at the base of Uluru were cut by wave action
about 70 million years ago when it stood as an island in an
extensive lake. Iron oxide in the fragile sandstone accounts
for the subtle red and ochre colours.
The first European exploration of the area was undertaken by
Ernest Giles in 1872. Although he saw the two formations, he
was north of Lake Amadeus and could not cross it. William
Gosse and his Afghan camel driver Khamran reached the Uluru
in July of 1873 by following Giles's route but skirting the
lake on the east. Gosse named it for Henry Ayers, then
Premier of South Australia. Giles reached Uluru on his next
venture in September of that year. The first scientific
collections were made in 1894 when the Horn Expedition
visited Central Australia. Baldwin Spencer (see box, p 592),
the expedition's zoologist who collected specimens and
recorded some of the rock art, subsequently devoted his
career to Aboriginal anthropology. The surrounding desert
area was set aside as part of the Peterman Aboriginal
Reserve in 1920. The first track graded in was from Curtin
Springs in 1948.
The area around Uluru and Kata Tjuta was proclaimed Ayers
Rock-Mount Olga National Park in 1958. Its name was changed,
reverting to the traditional Uluru and Kata Tjuta, and it
was recognised by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve.
Uluru stories
The mythology of Uluru involves a number of more or less
unrelated totemic events. While they all occurred during the
tjukurapa creation times and are largely secular in content,
the differences in the recorded versions make them difficult
to present. Generally, the southern face of Uluru is marked
by the battle between the Liru poisonous snakes and the
peaceful Kunia carpet pythons. The story of the Mala hare
wallabies is seen on the northern and northwestern corner of
the rock. The Kandju sand lizard made the Kandju Soak and
its immediate surrounds on the western side of Uluru. Wiyai
Kutjara
The monolith itself was built as part of the Wiyai Kutjara
story. The two boys made the rock while playing with mud
after a rain. At the end of their play, they left Uluru,
travelling south to Wiputa in the Musgrave Range, then north
to Atila (Mount Connor). Here one of the boys threw his club
at a hare wallaby. He missed, but a spring rose where it
struck the ground. Refusing to reveal the site of the
spring, he nearly caused his brother to die of thirst. The
boys fought, eventually ending up on top of Mount Connor
where their bodies are preserved as boulders.
Tjati or Lingka
Tjati (the name in Yankuntjatjara for a small, red lizard
living on the mulga flats; in Pitjantjatjara the lizard is
called lingka) travelled past Atila to Uluru. He threw his
boomerang, a curved kali stick, which embedded itself into
the northeast face of Uluru. Tjati dug a series of
bowl-shaped hollows at Walaritja trying to retrieve his
weapon. The boomerang itself is the curving edge of one of
the holes. In some accounts he failed to retrieve his
throwing stick and eventually died in a cave at Kantju. His
tools and body are the large boulders on the cave floor.
In other versions, he found his weapon and stayed here for
some time. When he moved to the north side of Uluru, he
became known as Linga and lived on honey ants. They
eventually chased him to the southern side of the rock where
he nearly starved. After eating a Kunia python girl, he left
for some place south of the Musgrave Range.
Mita and Lungkata
Two crested bell-bird brothers called Panpanpalala were
hunting an emu at Wangka Arrkal, south of present-day Mulga
Park near the South Australian border. They wounded the bird
Kalaya with a spear. It ran north to Uluru and the brothers
lost its tracks.
Meanwhile, the blue-tongue lizardmen Mita and Lungkata had
come to Uluru from near Mount Liebig to the north via Mount
Currie (Mulya Iti). They burnt the country where they
walked, showing how to use fire to manage the land.
Reaching Uluru they camped at a cave on the rock's western
face overlooking the area around the ranger station. While
hunting along the southern part of the rock, they came upon
the injured emu which still dragged the spear of
Panpanpalala. After they had killed the bird with a stone
axe at Kurumpa, to their dishonour they cut it up and
started cooking it rather than try to discover who had first
speared it.
When the crested bell-bird brothers saw the smoke, they came
and asked after the wounded emu. Mita and Lungkata lied,
saying they had not found the bird. Shortly thereafter the
bell-bird brothers found the emu's tracks and realised what
had happened.
Lungkata and Mita picked up as much of the best meat as they
could carry and hurried towards their camp, dropping bits as
they ran. The lean joints are now the fractured slabs of
sandstone immediately to the west of Mutitjulu. They buried
the meaty thigh at Kalaya Tjunta on the southeast side of
Uluru just north of Ikari.
When the bell-bird brothers caught up with the lizardmen
again, they were so angered by the mistreatment that they
set fire to the lizardmen's shelter. Mita and Lunkata tried
to escape by climbing the rock face at Mita Kampantja, but
fell into the fire and were burned to death. The lichen on
the rock here is the smoke from the fire and the two
half-buried boulders are the remains of the blue-tongued
lizards.
In other published versions of the story, Mita and Lungkata
are a single, particularly lazy, blue-tongued lizard camping
at Miltjan. In another, they offered the crested bell-bird
brothers the gristly lean joints, lying about the fleshy
thighs buried nearby.
Kurrpanngu attacks the Mala
The Mala hare wallabies travelled south to Uluru from
Mawurungu, Warlpiri country near Yuendumu, through the
Haasts Bluff area. At Katjitilkil on Uluru's northern side
they began preparing for men's ceremonies. The men made a
decorated ngaltawata ceremonial pole and carried it up to
the top of Uluru. (Because tourists are brash enough to use
this same route to scale Uluru, the local people fear for
their spiritual and physical safety.) The ceremonies at
Kantju and Warayuki on the northeast corner of Uluru began
when they planted the ngaltawata there.
The women were careful not to know anything about these
ceremonies so they collected and prepared food for the men
in the caves around the Mala Walk and at Taputji on the
eastern side of the rock. One of their wana digging sticks
can be seen there in the form of a stone. The old men camped
between the women and the ceremonies to protect against
accidental intrusion. Their camp is directly opposite
Taputji rock.
Just as the ceremonies had started, the Wintalka mulga seed
men had the bell-bird Panpanpanala invite the Mala to come
to a ceremony of their own at Kikingkura near the Docker
River. More than wanting the Mala to participate, the
Wintalka wanted to use down from the Mala's eagle chick to
decorate their participants. Of course the Mala could not
interrupt their ceremony and found the request to use their
eagle chick feathers offensive. They responded curtly. The
call of the bell-bird is still 'Pak', meaning 'They can't
come; they can't come'.
Their refusal enraged the mulga seed men. In their anger
they constructed Kurrpanngu, an evil magic monster in a form
something like a hairless dingo dog, a mamu. It moved as a
violent wind storm across the sand dunes from the west until
it found the Mala track at Muly Iiti (Mount Currie). Then it
followed them south to Uluru. The Mala women were dancing at
Tjuktjapinya, just to the east of the ceremonial grounds.
Their mawulari hair skirts were transformed into the pendant
cones of rock at Tjukutjapi.
In one recorded version of the story, the women drove him
off and he continued around Uluru to Inintitjara to find the
Mala men sleeping. For calling a warning to the men,
Kurrpanngu turned Lunpa kingfisher woman into a boulder. You
can still see Kurrpanngu's paw prints in the rock there.
In another version, when Lunpa saw the monster approach she
screamed a warning from her home at Ininti waterhole to the
women. In a panic, the women fled south through the men's
ceremony at Malawati. This ruined the ceremony. The monster
caught a Mala man and ate him. Some of the tracks of the
Mala run past the northern edge of the Musgrave Ranges to
Ulkiya south of the Mann Ranges, others run past Altjinta
near Mulga Park Homestead.
Liru Fight Kuniya
The Kuniya pythons came to Uluru from three directions.
One group travelled west from Paku-paku and Waltanta near
Erldunda. Another came south through Wilpiya past Wilbia
Well. The third came north from Yunanpa or Mitchell's Knob.
A number of Uluru's physical features date from their
occupation. The boulders at Tjukiki Gorge, also known as
Miltjan, were once Kuniya women sitting in their camp; the
tall slab of rock at the head of the gorge is one of their
coolamon carrying dishes.
A Kuniya python woman from Waltanta carried her eggs either
as a necklace or in a manguir grass head pad. Once at Kuniya
Piti she dived into the sand, leaving the eggs behind in a
ring or she buried them there on the eastern side of Uluru.
The Kuniya python woman camped at Taputji where the grooves
she made as she left and returned each day can be seen on
the north.
Kuniya python woman's young nephew had made enemies of some
Liru poisonous snake warriors. They came to Uluru having
travelled along the southern edge of the Petermann Ranges to
the west from beyond Wangkari (Gills Pinnacle). They saw
Kuniya python nephew resting just west of where the tourists
now climb Uluru and attacked the Kuniya nephew. The scars
left by their spears can be seen at Ayurungu on the
southwest face of Uluru. He fought as best he could, but was
outnumbered and killed. The two black watercourses there are
the bodies of two Liru.
His aunt, Kuniya python woman, was sad and angry about his
death. When she travelled underground from Kuiya Piti to
Mutitjulu the Liru warriors mocked her. Beside herself, she
began a dance which would give her the power to avenge her
nephew and her honour. She had so much power she had to pick
up handfuls of sand to hold the poisonous power. Where this
sand fell, fig trees and spearvine became poisonous and
unusable. In fact her ill-will so infected the place that
the local people would avoid the area immediately around
Mutitjulu.
She had her wana digging stick with her and was going to
make a grief scar on the forehead of a Liru warrior. Her
anger was so strong that she hit him on the head. You can
see the face of the Kuniya woman on the eastern face of the
gorge. The wounded, a Liru warrior, is on the western side.
His eye and head wounds are the vertical cracks on the face
of the gorge. His severed nose is plainly seen. The Kuniya
who lives at Uluru rock hole stops the water from flowing
into Mutitjulu. She will move away if someone shouts 'Kuka!
Kuka! Kuka!' which means 'meat, meat, meat!' in 1977. The
Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara people claimed the reserve
in 1979 but the Aboriginal Land Commissioner excluded Uluru
from the award. Finally, amendments to the Aboriginal Land
Rights (NT) Act and the National Parks and Wildlife Act in
1985 granted these people freehold title to the park. The
park has been cooperatively managed with great success by an
Aboriginal board and the National Parks and Wildlife service
since this grant.
Yulara
Yulara (population c 900) functions as the service
village for Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Opened in 1984, Yulara's
design takes some care to match the structures with their
environment. In addition to the only accommodation near the
monoliths, the community has a medical centre, police
station, service station, modest shopping precinct, and
airport providing plane service from Alice Springs,
Melbourne and Sydney.
Incidentally, Yulara translates as 'place of the howling
dingo'. Its Cultural
Center (t +61 8 8956 1128) has displays describing the
area's geology, natural and social history and presents a
collection of photographs of the region. As
well as a display describing Uluru and Anangu art, it houses
the Maruka Arts and
Crafts Centre. This Aboriginal owned enterprise
presents dancers and working artists.
A number of tour agencies operate out of Yulara.
Uluru Aboriginal Tours departs from the Cultural Center and
is Aboriginal owned and operated, and gives you an excellent
chance to speak informally with the area's traditional
owners. Uluru
Experience and AAT
Kings also have offices here. All the tours are alike
in that guided visits to Kata Tjuta and Uluru are
interspersed with meals and a sunset viewing.
A tour of Uluru
The guide on the three-hour walk around Uluru will
provide access to and descriptions of cultural sites
otherwise closed to inspection as well as relating the
mythology of Uluru to its physical features. The walk is
easy, but a 20-minute tour from the base of the rock to
Mutitjulu is offered as an alternative.
Tourists are asked not to climb up Uluru. As well as
showing disrespect for Aboriginal beliefs, the climb is
difficult and somewhat dangerous in spots and does not
present particularly fulfilling views of the desert
surrounds. In short, it is a sweaty waste of time which
might otherwise be spent learning something about the
mythology and way of life of the Aboriginal people who hold
Uluru in trust for the rest of us.
Greg Lenthen, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, gives an
insightful description of Uluru-climbing: The Aborigines
call those who climb Uluru 'ants'. It's not disrespect; just
how the climbers look on Uluru's great back. You're told
repeatedly that the traditional owners believe Uluru is
sacred and should not be climbed. The chain that climbers
use traces the traditional route taken by the ancestral Mala
men on their arrival at Uluru. Still the tourists climb.
But, according to the Ayers Rock Resort, the proportion of
visitors who do is declining. (One would hesitate to say
falling. Quite a few have. Lightening is also a danger at
times.) Parking is at the base of the climb which probably
does not further the attempts to dissuade people from making
it. The walk around the rock, travelling to the left takes
in rock-art sites at Mala Puta and Walaritja and eventually
at Mitutjulu. Sacred areas at Ngaltawata and Tjukatjapi on
the north, Kuniya Piti on the east and Pulari on the south
are protected by fences.
Kata Tjuta (the Olgas)
The Kata Tjuta is a group of granite and basalt
conglomerates initially named the Olgas by explorer Ernest
Giles in 1872 after Queen Olga of Spain. It lies about 30km
west of Uluru. The sacred significance of the rocks to the
Anangu is due to their importance to male education and
initiation. Being sacred, the site is closed to visitors.
Two trails, however, give glimpses of the 36 domes and the
chasms between them. Iron oxide in the fragile sandstone
accounts for the subtle red and ochre colours.
The Valley of the Winds trail is a three-hour, 6km walk
requiring a bit of scrambling as it winds through gorges.
The curious round pebbles of granite and gneiss are the
remains of a Proterozoic (1.2 billion years ago) mountain
range which eventually eroded into the Amadeus Basin. It
gives excellent views of the domes. A shorter walk leads
into Olga Gorge along the side of Mount Olga. In fact, the
picnic area to the west of the rocks just before the
junction of these two trails offers about as good a view as
that on the Valley of the Winds trail. The best impression
of Kata Tjuta is likely to be at sunset from this vantage
point.
Visits to Kata Tjuta, particularly those as sunrise, are
popular and are arranged through the Cultural Center.
Obviously, those most closely identified with the
Other trips into this more remote area in the south of the
territory are better made as part of a four-wheel drive or
camel tour (t 08 8956 0925) booked out of Alice Springs.
These normally visit Rainbow Valley and Chambers Pillar.
Rainbow Valley is in the easternmost extent of the James
Ranges and is known for the subtly attractive sandstone
cliffs with characteristic iron oxide colouring. The 50m
tall sandstone pillar in Chambers Pillar Historical Reserve
was used as a navigational aid for overland travellers prior
to the rail line being laid.
The Henbury
Meteorite Conservation Reserve west of Stuart's Well
is about an hour's drive south of Alice Springs on the
Stuart Highway. Stuart's Well itself simply marks the
junction of Ernest Giles Road and Stuart Highway. The
reserve is 16km east and north of the junction on passable
unsealed roads. The 12 visually unremarkable craters were
made a little more than 4,000 years ago when a meteor broke
into fragments quite near the ground. The largest of the
craters is 180m across and 15m deep. It would have been made
by a meteor about the size of the average 3-year-old
child. Astonishingly to the Western observer, the
local Aboriginal people, the Luritja, have traditional
descriptions of the event.
Almost 300km north from the South
Australian border, 450km north of Uluru, and 1480km south of
Darwin, Alice Springs, known familiarly as 'the Alice' (as
in the famous book and film A Town like Alice (1956) by
Nevil Shute), sits on an alluvial plain near Heavitree Gap
cut by the Ross River in the eastern section of the
MacDonnell Range. This range runs east and west and rises
steeply from an elevation of about 650m. Gorges and gaps cut
these dramatic red mountains, providing year round water
holes and pools, literally oases. Some remnant plant life is
only found here and in well-watered coastal areas of
Australia. Two major rivers flow from the MacDonald Range
during winter: the Ross and Finke Rivers eventually run dry
both in seasonal and geographical terms. In October, the
Henley-on-Todd Regatta offers a series of leg-powered
bottomless boat races on the 9dry) Todd River.
Most of Alice Springs (population 25,700) has been rebuilt
or renovated since the 1960s. As will be immediately
apparent, the town has been completely transformed from a
dusty outback centre to a tourist mecca. As writer Bernard
Boucher wrote as early as 1979:
Alice Springs had lost
its quaintness as the isolated centre of the Australian
wilderness. It was no longer a one-horse town ...
International tourism had brought a peculiar
sophistication to the place, still small by city standards
but beyond the days of being just a cattleman's town. Now
the Aborigines sold their boomerangs and nulla-nullas from
a glass-fronted craft centre close by the smart shopping
arcades.
History
Like other towns along the Stuart Highway, Alice Springs
was founded as a telegraph station. J. McDouall Stuart's
route of exploration was about 50km west of the site.
Surveyor William Whitfield Mills and local pastoralist John
Ross brought the telegraph line along Ross River,
establishing a repeater station at a spring about 7km north
into the plain. They named the station for Charles Todd's
wife, Alice. The river in town, usually dry, was named after
Todd himself.
An associated settlement called Stuart eventually took the
station's name, becoming Alice Springs or 'The Alice' in
1933. While some cattle were run in the area early, the
population was minimal until the railroad finally reached
town in 1929. An extension of this railway to Darwin (a
commitment imposed on the federal government when South
Australia ceded the Northern Territory) is currently under
discussion.
The bitumen road to Darwin was completed during the Second
World War and its extension south was paved in the 1980s.
Service to the area prior to the rail was by camel train.
Commemorating the Afghani camel handlers, the rail service
is called the Ghan. An unfounded gold rush in the early
1930s brought a flurry of settlement. Most of the population
since the Second World War have lived here to service a
mid-winter flow of tourists. Sites of historical interest in
the area are modest structures and include the Stuart Town
Gaol and Hartley Street School in Alice Springs and the
Alice Springs Telegraph Station and Hermannsburg Aboriginal
Mission in the vicinity.
The Hartley
Street School also houses the local National Trust
Centre (t 08 8952 4516, open Mon-Fri 10.30-14.30, entry
$2.00). The town's earliest school building dates from 1929.
The gaol dates from 1907-08 and functioned until 1938. As
the Trust's brochure states, 'The floor plan and fittings
reflect the harsh discriminatory treatment of Aborigines
during the time of its use.' It is virtually closed in the
heat of summer (Dec-Feb), but normally functions between
10.00 and 12.30 weekdays and a half-hour earlier on
weekends. An arid zone botanical garden,
the Olive Pink Flora Reserve
(t 08 8952 2154; open daily, 8.00-18.00) is across the Todd
River from the city's centre. The reserve, named after a
prominent early ethnographer of the Aboriginal people in the
vicinity, displays shrubs and trees typical in the Alice
Springs area. Annie Meyer Hill is an Arrernte sacred site,
Tarrarltneme. To the south an east-to-west running ridge can
be discerned. One of the first creations of the Caterpillar
Spirits, this was where they crossed the Todd River.
Aboriginal art and culture
Maruku Arts and Crafts Centre
(t 08 8956 2153)
at Uluru, and Alice Springs galleries Papunya Tula
Artists, 78 Todd Street (t 08 8952 4731) offer
tourists possibly the best selection of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander art and craft outside the communities
in which they were produced. All of these venues are owned
and run by Aborigines, so proceeds go directly to the
Aboriginal communities and artists. Also of interest a
little outside the centre of town, on Larapinta Drive, is
the Araluen
Cultural Precinct (61 Larapinta Dr, Araluen, NT 0870,
10.00-16.00 t +61 8 8951 1120). Here is the Albert Namatjira
Gallery, with an extensive collection of works by the
artist; as well as an important collection of art by
contemporary Australian artists and craftspeople. Also in
the complex is Alice Springs's performing arts centre, which
can seat 500. The gem of the complex are the stained glass
windows in the foyer, designed by local artist Wenten
Rubuntja, and featuring the popular local theme of the Honey
Ant Dreaming.
Next door to the Araluen Centre is the Strehlow
Research Centre (admission is largely restricted to
scholars currently), an excellent and serious centre for the
study of Aboriginal culture. Carl Strehlow (1871-1922) was a
Lutheran missionary at Killalpaninna and Hermannsburg
missions who compiled the first extensive linguistic and
ethnographic information on the Arrernte and Luritja
peoples. Known as Ingkata, or trusted leader, among the
Western Desert peoples, Strehlow was entrusted with the most
sacred of artefacts by the Arrernte for safekeeping. These
items are stored at the centre, and can now only be viewed
by initiated male members of the tribe. Accessible displays,
however, discuss the life of the Arrernte, as well as
examine the work of Strehlow. The centre's building is
particularly attractive, including the largest rammed-earth
wall in the Southern hemisphere.
Alice's role in modern communication, as one might expect,
extends beyond the Overland Telegraph Line. The Reverend
John Flynn, founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and
Alf Teager experimented with pedal-generated electricity for
portable short-wave radio at Flynn's residence, Adelaide
House. Their experiments and the impact of the Flying Doctor
Service and Teager's radio are described (open Mon-Fri
10.00-16.00, Sat 10.00-12.00, small admission fee, tea and
biscuits).
The Old
Telegraph Station itself is 3km by riverside walk from
Wills Terrace or 4km north via the highway. Situated on the
billabong-like Alice Springs, the buildings were constructed
of local rock in 1871-72. Part of a series of stations
in the early days of telegraphic communication, messages
from Melbourne to London were passed on through Alice on a
five day journey to Europe, besting the three or four month
journey by sea. The station functioned until 1932
(open weekdays 8.30-17.00, weekends 8.00-17.00; guided tours
free with admission at 9.30, 11.30 and 1.30, 3.30 March -
December; admission $15.00, concession 12.50, children by
age 9.30, 5.50, or free).
MacDonnell Ranges
As mentioned in the geological description of the area,
the MacDonnell Ranges extend east to west across 400km.
Alice Springs is situated more or less in their centre. The
ranges are steep ridges in which water courses flowing into
the Simpson Desert cut ravines and gorges.
West MacDonnell
National Park (t +61 8 8951 8211)
extends west from Alice Springs to Mount Zeil (1531m above
sea level, rising 900m above the surrounding plain). Access
is via Larapinta then Namatjira Drives by vehicle or via
Larapinta Trail from the Telegraph Station. Maps for either
are available from the Parks and Wildlife desk in the
Hartley Street visitor's centre and at the visitor's centre
at Simpson's Gap.
At Dr John Flynn's gravesite, just outside the entrance to
the national park, Mount Gillen is visible to the south.
Flynn was, of course, the founder of the Royal Flying
Dctors' Service and the Australian Inland Mission. 22km west
of Alice Springs, an unpaved road leads north to Simpson's
Gap (open daily 08.00-20.00). The gap was identified by OTL
surveyor Gilbert McMinn as an alternative to Stuart's more
rugged route 60km further west.
The Arrernte people know the gap
as Rugutjirpa, home of the Goanna Spirits.
29km west of the Simpson Gap road is Standley Chasm. While
glimpses of the wildlife make Simpson's Gap best seen in the
early morning or late afternoon, the walls of the chasm are
renowned for midday displays of reflected light.
Shortly beyond the road to Standley Chasm, the road
diverges. Namatjira Drive continues into the western section
of the park and Larapinta Drive proceeds as a rough road to
Hermannsburg.
Albert Namatjira
Albert Namatjira (1902-59) was
born at the Hermannsburg Mission; he was a member of the
Arrernte people, and was a fully initiated member of his
tribe. At Hermannsburg in the 1930s, he became acquainted
with the artist Rex Batterbee, who encouraged him to paint
and trained him in Western landscape style and watercolour
techniques. He made his first paintings in 1934 and had his
first exhibition in Melbourne in 1938, when all of his
paintings sold within three days. By the end of the 1940s,
Namatjira was one of the best-known Australian artists in
the world. The response to his work epitomises the
ambivalent attitudes to Aborigines who supposedly
assimilated: while the works were recognised for their
stylistic maturity, as Western-style landscapes, they were
considered by many purists as being inappropriate for an
Aboriginal artist's subject matter. Despite his fame, as an
Aboriginal in the Northern Territory Namatjira was denied a
pastoral lease in 1949, and his attempt to build a house in
Alice Springs in 1951 was rejected. While a special act of
Federal Parliament upheld a tax office decision that
Namatjira should be taxed for income, he was not considered
an Australian citizen. In 1953, the artist was awarded the
Queen's Coronation Medal, and the next year Namatjira met
the Queen in Sydney. In 1957 he and his wife Rubina became
the first Aborigines to be given Australian citizenship,
although their children were still state wards. As a
citizen, Namatjira was able to purchase alcohol, which he
shared with his people. This act led to his imprisonment for
illegally supplying alcohol to Aborigines; he was held under
house arrest for two months. Three months later he died of a
heart attack in Alice Springs. Recent reassessment of his
work places his paintings within the history and development
of Aranda art and stresses his influence on later artists,
including his sons Enos, Ewald, Oscar and Kevin, and his
grandchildren.
To the east of Alice Springs the MacDonnell Ranges extend
about 100km. Access to them is via the Ross River Homestead
Road from the Stuart Highway immediately south of Alice
Springs. This scenic drive passes a number of high ridges
and eucalypt-lined creeks. Emily Gap is 10km from the Stuart
Highway. Called Anthwerrke by the Arrernte, it was the
birthplace of the Mparntwe Caterpillar Dreaming. The site of
petroglyphs related to the Caterpillar Dreaming is south of
the Ross River Homestead Road at N'Dhala.
Four-wheel-drive is necessary to reach the site. Currently a
tourist camp offering a variety of bush activities, Ross River Resort
(t 08 8956 9711) was originally Love's Creek Station.
Hermannsburg Mission
An interesting day trip to the Hermannsburg Mission is
reached west of Alice Springs via Larapinta Drive past John
Flynn's grave and Simpson's Gap National Park. The latter is
popular as a picturesque river of white sand flanked by red
and ghost gums. By the way, the Twin Ghost Gums made famous
by artist Albert Namatjira's depiction are just before
Standley Chasm (see above).
Hermannsburg (t 08
8956 7402, open daily 09.00-16.00) is about 120km from Alice
Springs. Like Killapaninna Mission on the Birdsville Track
(see p 645), it was founded by German Lutherans trained at
Hermannsburg near Hannover in Germany. This seminary had
trained missionaries since 1849 following Ludwig and Theodor
Harms's methods. Support for the missions were based in the
German communities in South Australia.
History of Hermannsburg
Hermannsburg was established in 1877 after an arduous
22-month trek from the Barossa Valley in South Australia. In
keeping with the Harms's missionary methods, the first
permanent building was a school. Doctrinal disputes saw its
brief abandonment in 1893 prior to Reverend Carl Strehlow's
tenure. Strehlow, bush builder Dave Hart and the local
Aranda-speaking people rebuilt the mission between 1894 and
the turn of the century.
Again consistent with German methods, the first school
presented the gospel in the local Aranda language. Strehlow
and his successor, Pastor F.W. Albrecht, consistently sought
to provide educational, humanitarian and aesthetic
opportunities well advanced of those advocated in Australia
at the time. Carl Strehlow and his son T.G.H. (Ted) Strehlow
significantly added to the white population's understanding
of Aboriginal culture. Like Johann Reuther and Otto Siebert
at Killapaniana, the German missionaries were more likely to
record and publish the traditions of their community
members. In 1982 the Lutheran Synod returned the land and
its buildings to the hereditary owners, the Aranda people.
The Ntaria Council renovated the buildings and opened the
mission to visitors in 1988; the region is now called by its
original name, Ntaria. The 11 buildings are of whitewashed
local stone with sheet metal roofing. They seem curiously
German amid the palms and river gums. In addition to the
school and church, the mission house is open and functions
as a tea room, and an exhibit of Arrernte paintings here
features work by Albert Namatjira among others.
Finke Gorge National Park
The Finke
Gorge National Park (t 08 8956 7401) is 12km beyond
Hermannsburg on a four-wheel-drive track. Tours should be
booked in Alice Springs and can be joined at Hermannsburg.
Travellers who have come as far as Finke Gorge National Park
will probably have already noticed the effect that a small
amount of dependable water has in the midst of arid country.
Nonetheless, a valley full of cabbage palms (20m tall),
cycads, eucalypts and shrubs growing in sandstone along the
dry bed of the Finke River is a surprise. The area was, in
fact, a rainforest as recently as 10,000 years ago. The
porosity of the sandstone makes the vegetation possible.
Palm Valley, Finke Gorge National Park
|
Cycad Gorge, Finke Gorge National Park
|
The Finke River flows beneath the surface most of the time.
Some of its numerous soaks are less saline than the river in
such circumstances. They were a necessary water resource for
the local western Arrernte. Following heavy rainfall,
though, the Finke can spread to several kilometres across,
eventually flowing into the Macumba River and Lake Eyre.
The cabbage palms, Livistona mariae, after which Palm Glen
and Palm Valley are named, are found nowhere else. Their
nearest relatives are in two small areas on the Fortescue
River in Western Australia and near Matoranka, south of
Katherine. The cycads were the world's first seed-bearing
plants. The seeds are poisonous, but once ground and
thoroughly washed, they formed a staple source of starch for
Aborigines throughout the Territory and Queensland. Symptoms
of cycad toxaemia are occasionally presented to outback
doctors still.
The Glen of Palms was first described by Ernest Giles in
1872 in notes he made for Ferdinand von Mueller, director of
the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. He had been following the
Finke River from Chambers Pillar. Dissuaded from exploring
further by fires lit by Aborigines, he did not find either
Palm Creek or Palm Valley. These areas were named by
missionaries from Hermannsburg. The Horn Scientific
Expedition to Central Australia spent time here in 1894.
Practically speaking, the area was inaccessible until Len
Tuit and Jack Cotterill opened the track and established
tourist ventures here in the late 1950s.
Of the three trails in the vicinity, the 5km Mpulungkinya
Track is the most popular. It proceeds through Palm Valley,
then up to a track overlooking the valley and back to the
car park. Mpaara Track, also about 5km long, is more
strenuous. It proceeds from the Kalarranga car park,
following a trail along the Finke River to Palm Bend and
eventually to the rugged Amphitheatre. The shortest walk is
c 1.5km and offers fine views of Palm Creek and the
Amphitheatre.
Tanami Track
The road west from Alice Springs follows the Tanami
Track. It is usually passable with a 2-wheel drive vehicle,
although care is necessary in areas of blown sand. Because
it traverses Aboriginal land, travellers without a permit
are required to stay within 50m of the roadway.
WARNING. Ask the police about the road and weather
conditions while notifying them of your travel plans. In
fact, the road is fairly frequently travelled. The Lonely
Planet publication Outback Australia mentions that
as many as 40 vehicles per day may pass during the cooler
dry season of May through August. The track passes near the
Aboriginal community Yuendumu, 290km from Alice Springs,
where petrol and provisions can be bought. This is also the
site of the Yuendumu
Sports and Cultural Festival held over the Northern
Territory's picnic weekend in early August. This event is
the Territory's oldest festival. An eagerly-anticipated
gathering, Aboriginal peoples from everywhere compete in a
variety of sports and cultural performances. On the weekend,
visitors are welcome and no permits are needed. As many as
5000 people come here for the Games weekend.
Yuendumu
is also the centre of one of the desert's most public art
movements. Just as had happened at nearby Papunya in the
1980s, the principal of the Yuendumu school, Terry Davis,
suggested in 1983 that the senior men of the community paint
the school doors. Seeing the opportunity to express their
heritage values and provide a comment on the European values
fostered by the school, the doors were painted in a scale
and time frame such as that of ceremonial painting. That the
artists here were of one language group, the Warlpiri,
facilitated the organisation of individuals' art work. The
theme of one of the doors described by Wally Caruana in his
book Aboriginal Art (1993) was the creation story in
which the Rain Being, having tired of his work making the
current owners of the land, transformed himself into a cloud
and travelled north. The painting depicted an encounter with
a second Rain Being and the resulting deluge and lightning
storm. After painting the school doors, these artists began
painting on canvases; one of these works, Yanjilypiri
Jukurrpa (Star Dreaming) (1985) by Paddy Jupurrurla Nelson,
Paddy Japaljarri Sims and Larry Jungarrayi Spencer, is
reproduced on the cover of Caruana's book.
Subsequently, painting for sale began here on a commercial
scale. Women artists in Yuendumu have had a particularly
strong role making painting for the public. They had been
decorating traditional implements for sale prior to the
middle 1980s, largely due to an interest expressed by
anthropologists working in the community. The subsequent
collaborative efforts are generally more densely worked than
the art the men make. Some of the best-known Yuendumu women
artists include Libby Napanangka Walker, Uni Nampijinpa
Martin and Dolly Nampijinpa Daniels.
Textiles and paintings
Cattle stations since the 1920s, Utopia and the
neighbouring Mount Skinner were purchased by the Aboriginal
Land Fund in 1976. After some temporary arrangements, the
Anmatyerre and Alyawarre were granted ownership in 1979. The
women in the community began producing woodblock-printed and
tie-dyed fabric, but quickly came to prefer batik. Silk
became their preferred fabric because it allowed the most
fluid brush and pen strokes. With the support of the Central
Australian Aboriginal Media Association, they produced a
series of batik designs and sold them in 1988 to the Holmes
à Court collection in Western Australia. Exhibited at
Tandanya in Adelaide in 1989, the success of this project
induced the women to
begin painting in acrylic as well. The senior woman of the
Utopia Group, Emily Kame Kngwarreye (d. 1998), has
subsequently brought international recognition to the
region; her unusually powerful paintings, both in 'dot' and
'line' style, have been exhibited around the world, and
represented Australia at the 1997 Venice Biennale. Major
exhibitions of Emily's work have been mounted by the Art
Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra.
360km further along the Tanami Track is the Tanami Mine. A
four-wheel-drive only branch of the road leads 230km (about
4 hours) north to Lajamanu where Cambrian soils and better
water allow eucalypts and some variety of grasses to grow as
the road passes through some interesting country to
Kalkarindji on the Buchanan Highway. The break between
spinifex desert and Mitchell grass cattle range occurs
nearer Kalkarindji.
About 230km west of Tanami Mine lies the Billiluna
community's land near Lake Gregory in Western Australia.
The Aboriginal community at Lajamanu are part of the
Warlpiri language group; they are closely related to the
Yuendumu, having been forcibly settled there in 1947 by the
government in order to make way for pastoral and mining
interests on their traditional land. Again, the local school
provided the impetus for public painting. Their paintings
are freer in their compositions than those by the other
Warlpiri. Both the Lajamanu and Yuendumu are represented by
the Warlukurlangu Artists
Association.
North of Alice Springs
North of Alice Springs on the Stuart Highway are
roadhouses at Aileron and Ti Tree. The Anmatjura people have
had the Ti Tree lease since 1971; the Aboriginal communities
at Utopia and Pmara Jutunta on the Sandover Highway use Ti
Tree as their provisioning station.
Along the southern section of the Stuart Highway route, some
variety of vegetation and geology occurs until north of
Barrow Creek. Much as the desert on the Tanami Track beyond
Yuendumu, from Barrow Creek virtually to Newcastle Waters,
the flora is hummock grass with occasional acacia bushes.
Geologically, the country is from the early Proterozoic
remains of the Davenport Range.
At present a rather drab cluster of buildings with an
interesting pub and the remains of a Second World War army
camp, Barrow Creek was the site of an attack by Kaytej men
on the telegraph station in 1874. The result was the death
of station master James Stapleton and a linesman. In the
ensuing two months the South Australian government killed 50
or more Aboriginal people.
Immediately beyond Wauchope (c 10km north of Barrow Creek)
are the Devil's Marbles. These granite boulders were formed
by exfoliation. Also known as onion skin weathering, this
form of erosion occurs as layers of rock peel away due to
expansion and contraction caused by daily warming and
cooling of the rock's exterior. These boulders are part of
the Davenport Range. While not particularly interesting
visually, these mountains have been continuously exposed for
1.8 billion years.
Tennant Creek
Tennant
Creek (population 3550) is the largest town between Alice
Springs, 530km to the south, and Darwin, 960km to the north.
About 10km south of the Overland Telegraph Line repeater
station, it has supported gold mines since the 1930s and a
copper mine since the 1950s. Locals sometimes maintain that
its site is south of the station because a beer wagon broke
down here, it being safer to move the town than to move the
beer. Among the more interesting sites in town is the
Jurnkurakurr Mural on the side of the Central Land Council
Building. It depicts lightning, fire, the budgerigar, crow
and cockatoo and the snake, all symbols of particular
importance to the neighbouring Aboriginal people. Tourist
information centre: on the corner of Paterson and Davidson
Streets; t 08 8962 3388. An airport here provides flights
with Airnorth (t 1 800 627 474) to Alice Springs, Darwin,
and Katherine; and all long-distance bus services will stop
at the Tennant Creek Transit Centre, where tourist
information is located.
The Australian Inland Mission building is a corrugated iron
prefabricated structure from the 1930s. These modular
structures were designed by Sidney Williams, an architect
and designer who had initially specialised in windmills. His
so-called Comet Buildings had steel frames and
interchangeable finishings and cladding. They are still
encountered in remote areas but are generally small huts
rather than buildings like this mission.
History
The indigenous population, the Warumungu, call the area
Jurnkurakurr. A number of dreaming tracks intersect here and
five languages are spoken locally. In a sense, Tennant Creek
can stand as an example of the history of Aboriginal/white
relations. J. McDouall Stuart reached the area in his first
attempt to cross the continent in 1860. The local Aboriginal
population resented his intrusion and raided his nearly
exhausted party. Stuart named Attack Creek, about 70km north
of Tennant Creek, in remembrance of this event. In 1872 the
OTL repeater station was established near here.
In 1933 an Aboriginal stockman named Frank discovered a gold
nugget south of the repeater station. The town site was
surveyed and attracted a number of Aboriginal people from
central Australia. The Aboriginal Inland Mission established
a mission in town in the late 1930s. Among the missionaries
were George Cormier and his wife. In 1943 and 1944 the
mission opened a ration station and church, but the Northern
Territory government decided to move about 200 Aboriginal
people 40km north to Phillip Creek. The mission followed.
Inadequate water at Phillip Creek necessitated a second move
to Warrabi in 1956. In the 1960s the owner of the Banka
Banka pastoral station bought six houses in Tennant Creek
for retired Aboriginal employees. When legal restriction on
Aboriginal freedom of movement was lifted, also in the
mid-1960s, the number of Aboriginal people living in and
around Tennant Creek increased.
Living in camps lacking amenities and marked by social
problems, these people formed the Julalikari ('one big
family') Aboriginal Cooperative Council in 1985. Working
with the Tennant Creek town council, the cooperative began
improving life in the camps. In the late 1980s a language
centre to foster the locally spoken languages, a health
service and a centre devoted to supporting the
re-establishment of traditional lands (the outstation
movement) have furthered this initial effort. Along the way
to Daly Waters, roadhouses serve travellers at Renner
Springs and Elliott. Further along, the cattle drive
watering stop at Newcastle Waters, now virtually abandoned,
was named by Stuart after the Duke of Newcastle, secretary
for the colonies. A.J. Browne of Adelaide contracted Alfred
Files to bring stock for the area in the 1880s. In 1886
Newcastle Waters became a stop on the Murranji stock route
from the eastern Kimberleys to the railhead at Mount Isa in
central western Queensland. Scant water along the route
prevented its full development until a series of 13 bores
were drilled between 1917 and 1924.
The Junction Hotel was built in 1932 out of abandoned
windmill parts picked up along the stock route. Wet straw
cooled the drovers' first few beers; warm beer was their lot
once drinking became earnest. The licence was transferred to
Elliot in 1962. Road transport had replaced the stock
drover. The last overland drive was during the 1988
bicentennial. 1200 donated head of cattle spent four months
to make the trip to Longreach, Queensland.
At Newcastle Waters small acacia bushes quite suddenly
become dominant then give way to eucalypts. Here the soil
geology changes from 1.8 billion years old to Cretaceous
formations of a mere 100 million years old. These conditions
continue to favour scrubby eucalypts (called Mulga in much
the same manner as the scrub in the Murray River corridor is
called the Mallee) to a point between Mataranka and
Katherine where Palaeozoic geology and eucalypts of medium
height mark the approach to the Top End. The historical
marker commemorating the joining of the northern and
southern sections of the Overground Telegraph Line stands on
the way to the roadhouse at Dunmarra. The settlement was
named in the 1930s by drover and station owner Noel Healy.
It comes from the Aboriginal pronunciation of Dan O'Mara, a
linesman who disappeared in the region.
Further north, past the junctions with the Buchanan and
Carpentaria Highways, is Daly Waters, named after the then
governor of South Australia by Stuart on his third and
successful attempt to cross the continent. The Daly Waters
pub's walls are decorated with just about anything passing
travellers have thought to leave. While the building dates
from the late 1920s, as a pub it was founded to serve
drovers in the 1890s.
Incredible as it may seem, this scattering of houses was the
site of Australia's first international airport. Qantas used
it as a refuelling stop between Australia and Singapore in
the early 1930s Sydney to London route. It served a similar
function for bombers during the Second World War.
Larrimah's population, like most of the roadhouse
settlements, is less than 50. In the Second World War, the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) built Gorrie Airfield
about 10km north of town. At its height the population was
6500 people. The Birdum Hotel was moved from the airfield to
Larrimah when the field closed and its facilities were sold.
Mataranka is a tourist stop due to its hot springs-16,000
litres per minute at 34ºC. Australians also know it as the
setting of Jeannie Gunn's pastoral novel, We of the Never
Never (1908). Indeed, it is this region that is generally
accepted as the 'true' location of 'The Never Never' of
popular description; Henry Lawson wrote The Never-Never Land
in 1901, and in 1905, explorer Alexander McDonald, in his
accounts of an overland journey, refers to the Central
Australian deserts as the Never-Never.
Should
you be in the area over the Queen's birthday long weekend in
June and have camping gear, try to attend the Barunga
Wugularr Sports and Cultural Festival (t +61
8 8941 8066). The four-day event attracts Aboriginal people
from across the territory for sports, dancing, arts and
crafts.
Katherine
At
1200km north of Alice Springs and a mere 337km from Darwin,
Katherine (population 8809) is at the junction of the
Victoria and Stuart Highways. Pronounced locally as 'Kath
rhyne', it was named by Stuart on 4 July 1862 after
Catherine Chambers, a daughter of James Chambers, one of his
patrons. The river is the first permanent water north of the
South Australian border. In early 1998, the town flooded to
such an extent that abandonment was seriously considered.
Like Alice Springs, Katherine is
a railhead and has some interesting aviation-related
history. A Gipsy Moth biplane, originally owned
by the area's first flying doctor, Clyde Fenton, is on
display at the Katherine
Museum (t +61 8 8972 3945, open daily 9.00-16.00) on
Gorge Road about 3km from the centre of town. The site of
the Overland Telegraph Line station was at nearby Knotts
Crossing. One of Australia's best Aboriginal-owned and
operated arts and crafts galleries, Mimi Arts and Crafts
(t 08 8971 0036), is on Pearce Street which runs
parallel to Murphy Street.
The first attempts to settle the area were pastoral. Alfred
and Mary Giles established Springvale Station in 1878. While
not particularly successful, the station began the cattle
industry in the region to the immediate north. Currently
Springvale Homestead (t 08 8972 1355) is a tourist
accommodation on the northern shore of the Katherine River
about 3km downstream.
A similar station called Manyallaluk (t
1 300 146 743 or +61 8 8971 0877)
in Eva Valley is now a prize-winning tourism venture
operated by the Jawoyn people. Manyallaluk is a Frog
Dreaming site on the eastern edge of the 3000 sq km station
which the Jawoyn share with people speaking the Mayali,
Ngalkbon and Renbarrnga languages. The station is about
100km north of Katherine and transportation to and from
Katherine or Darwin (via Litchfield or Kakadu National Park)
can be arranged. The activities include demonstrations of
traditional skills (collecting, dyeing and weaving baskets),
visits to billabongs and bushwalks.
Katherine Gorge and Nitmiluk National Park
The
Katherine Gorge area itself is a series of 13 gorges along
the Katherine River in Nitmiluk
National Park (t 1 300 146 170), which is about 30km
north of Katherine via Giles Street then Gorge Road. The
walls of the gorges are not particularly high, but are
vertical. Along its more easily accessible stretch the river
is about 50m across and the cliffs about the same height.
Rapids of varying force separate the gorges. Where the water
is too shallow for canoes or air mattresses, trails follow
the sides of the river.
The Katherine River's headwaters are in southern Arnhem
Land. The river joins and becomes the Daly River before
flowing into the Timor Sea 80km southwest of Darwin. The
placid flow from April to October makes it hard to imagine
it as a raging torrent during The Wet. In fact, the only
cruise scheduled during The Wet is contingent upon the river
not being too rough.
Signal flora include the salmon gum (so-called due to the
colour of its sap), northern ironwood, Darwin woollybutt and
an occasional boab tree. In less well-watered areas eucalypt
woodlands with acacia and spinifex are the general flora
species. Within the gorges one finds mosses, ferns and
livingstonia palms, pandanus, silver paperbark and even
mangroves. Fauna includes a variety of wallabies, freshwater
crocodiles and long-necked tortoises. The birds,
particularly around the picnic areas, include friar birds,
red winged parrots, black cockatoos, grey bower birds, blue
winged kingfishers, and honeyeaters.
The park takes its name from the Jawoyn people's Cicada
Dreaming. Its headquarters and visitor centre are near the
first gorge. In keeping with the wishes of the traditional
owners, there is no entry fee. There are charges for cruises
(two, four or eight hours long), the guided tour (2.5 hours
long) and canoe rentals. The cruises can be booked at the
Katherine tourist information centre. Bush walks range from
a short path to the lookout over the first gorge to several
days' trek. With the exception of the walk to the lookout,
bush walkers are required to register when undertaking a
walk and upon its completion. A refundable deposit is
required for those making the ten-day round-trip journey to
Edith Falls. (The deposit is to ensure that those who
register also de-register to preclude unnecessary search and
rescue operations.)
Butterfly Gorge walk is about four hours long or 5.5km
return. It passes through a pocket of monsoon rainforest on
the way to the second gorge. The crow butterflies often seen
in the ravine descending to the river provide the name.
Properly provisioned, a walk to Butterfly Gorge followed by
an air mattress descent by river to return to the visitor's
centre is about perfect. The walk itself follows black and
white markers to match the colours of the butterflies. The
first track encountered to the left (north, blue markers) is
the Lookout walk; the next track to the left is to Windolf
lookout following yellow markers. The Butterfly Gorge track
is the third track to the left and about 3.5km from the
information office.
The track to the right at this juncture leads to Lily Ponds.
This 7km walk to the third gorge will take six hours there
and back. Should camping overnight be desired, a site at
Dunlop Swamp on the way to Smitts Rock is reputedly a
pleasant stay. The visitor's centre will have information
regarding the availability of camp sites.
Illustrations:
800px-Red_Centre.jpg - Gabriele Delhey (GDelhey)
800px-Jim_Jim_Creek.jpg - Tdc
Overland_Telegraph_Darwin.jpg - Northern Territory
Archives Service [NTRS 234, CP 214]
darwin1.jpg
800px-Ubirr_Kakadu_National_Park_Australia.jpg - Thomas Schoch
put it under CC-BY-SA
800px-UluruClip3ArtC1941.jpg - Leonard
G.
gap_view_from_Meyer_Hill_.jpg - www.sopwer.com/gap-rest-area-stuart-highway-south-australian-border-darwin.html
Map of Northern Territory -
Summerdrought
Porcupine grass -
USFWS
Mountain-Prairie
Porcupine grass -
John Tann
from Sydney, Australia
320px-Triodia_hummock_grassland -
Hesperian
Alice Springs repeater station, 1880 -
http://www.catalog.slsa.sa.gov.au:1084/record=b1033254
Camel, 1895 -
http://innopac.slwa.wa.gov.au/record=b2079869~S2
Victoria Hotel - Ken Hodge
Admiralty House -
Nemec,
George Jiri
Botanic Gardens -
Bidgee
Burnett House - National Trust Northern Territory
Museum and Art Gallery of NT -
MorePix
Tutini burial poles left after a Pukumani ceremony, Tiwi
Island, NT - TourismNT
Wangi Falls -
(WT-en)
StuartEdwards
Baldwin Spencer - unattributed
View at Ubirr -
Thomas Schoch
Sand Goanna -
Alan
Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo - Peter Campbell
Musicians from One Mob Different Country Dance Troupe -
Owen65
Rock art at Ubirr, Kakadu -
Luke
Durkin
Short eared rock wallaby - Jon Connell
Mumukala - Brian Voon Yee Yap
Grass and brush near Uluru -
Jdtravers
Kata Tjuta at evening light -
Alexandra
Henbury crater - W & S Roddom
Alice Springs -
Johannes
Püller
Olive_Pink.jpg - Olive Pink Botanic Gardens
Papunya gallery space - Papunya Tula Artists
Rungutjirpa.JPG - Gabriele Delhey
Hermannsburg Mission -
Cgoodwin
Palm Valley, Finke Gorge -
Dhum Dhum
Cycad Valley, Finke Gorge -
Cgoodwin
Yuendumu artists - NGA
88_Emu_Woman_w480_Kngwarreye.jpg - NGA
Tennant Creek - Tourism NT
Katherine Museum -
Spear-Throwing_2016_Barmay_1854.jpg -
Barunga
Wugularr
Katherine Gorge -
Barry Rogge