Kakadu National Park

Kakadu, in the tropical Top End of the Northern Territory, is one of Australia's largest national parks and a World Heritage Site listed for both its nature and its culture. It spans a huge sweep of country, from the sandstone plateau and escarpment of the Arnhem Land edge, over which waterfalls such as Jim Jim and Twin Falls plunge in the wet season, down to floodplains and wetlands that in the dry season teem with birds and saltwater crocodiles. It is also one of the great galleries of Aboriginal rock art, with paintings at Ubirr and Nourlangie made over tens of thousands of years, among the longest continuous records of human culture on earth, and the land is still cared for by its traditional Aboriginal owners, who help manage the park. Boat cruises on the wetlands, walks to plunge pools and waterfalls, and the rock-art sites at sunset are the highlights of a country that changes utterly between the wet and the dry.

History

Aboriginal people have lived in the Kakadu area continuously for around 60,000 years, and its archaeological sites show occupation for at least 40,000 and possibly 65,000 years. The navigator Phillip Parker King surveyed the coast in detail in 1818, and in 1845 Ludwig Leichhardt became the first European explorer to reach the region by land; buffalo hunting later became a dry-season employer of Aboriginal people, and the Oenpelli Mission, begun in 1925, ran for fifty years. Kakadu was proclaimed a national park in stages between 1979 and 1991 and is managed jointly by its traditional owners and the Director of National Parks; it was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981 and extended in 1987 and 1992. Mining at Jabiluka was ruled out and that area added to the park in 1996, and the Ranger uranium mine ceased operations in January 2021 (Wikipedia, Kakadu National Park).

What's there

• Ubirr and Nourlangie rock art - ancient Aboriginal paintings beneath the escarpment, superb at sunset.
• The wetlands - boat cruises among birds and crocodiles, especially the Yellow Water billabong.
• Jim Jim and Twin Falls - the escarpment waterfalls and their plunge pools in the dry season.
• The escarpment country - the sandstone plateau edge and its lookouts.

When to go

May to October, the dry season, is the accessible time, with open roads, wetland cruises and swimmable plunge pools; the wet season fills the waterfalls dramatically but floods roads and closes much of the park. Even in the dry, the tropics are hot. Rock-art sites are best in the low light of early morning or late afternoon.

Practical notes

Distances are enormous and many of the best spots, including the waterfalls, are reached by rough four-wheel-drive tracks that are only open and passable in the dry season, so a normal car sees far less. Saltwater crocodiles are a genuine and lethal danger, so swim only where officially permitted and heed every warning. The tropical heat is intense. It rewards several days and, ideally, a four-wheel-drive or a tour.

Nearby

Arnhem Land lies over the river with permits; Darwin and the Litchfield park are to the west.

Key facts