Category: Northern Territory

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Northern Territory

Borroloola

Borroloola is a remote fishing community on the McArthur River in the Gulf of Carpentaria. This historic town is the considered the gateway to the Gulf region and is famed for its excellent fishing, and the rich lead, zinc and silver deposits that are mined in the area. Borroloola can be accessed via the Carpentaria Highway from Daly Waters in the Northern Territory or on the road through Garawa Aboriginal Land Trust from Queensland. Once a frontier town, Borroloola is now the capital of the Gulf region. Today, the town still has a frontier feel. Fishing and camping remain a way of life for locals and travellers chasing barramundi. King Ash Bay, a great fishing spot 50 kilometres down-stream, also attracts thousands of visitors each year.

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Northern Territory

Ti Tree

The tiny township of Ti Tree, 314 kilometres south of Tennant Creek, services several Aboriginal communities, including Utopia, which is renowned for its art. Ti Tree feels close to the middle of the outback, but it is a great place to stop over and refresh between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek. Much of the land surrounding Ti Tree belongs to the Anmatjera people and their art can be viewed in town. Despite its arid setting, visionary farmers have put Ti Tree on the map as a valuable horticultural area, where the annual table grape and melon harvests are a huge success due to the year-round sunshine and abundant underground water supply. The Ti Tree Roadhouse services travellers’ needs. Visitors can cool off in the garden or air conditioned bar and order a hearty meal at the counter.

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Northern Territory

Kakadu Area

World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park is a place of rugged escarpments, lush wetlands and cascading waterfalls covering over 19,000 square kilometres. Kakadu is Australia’s largest national park, and can be entered either from Darwin on the Arnhem Highway or via Pine Creek on the Kakadu Highway. The Nature’s Way tourism drive is a great way to explore the Park. The flora and fauna found in Kakadu National Park is diverse, with pockets of rainforest, paperbarks, pandanus and cycads, and wetlands dotted with lotus lilies. Some of Kakadu’s amazing wildlife includes crocodiles, barramundi, and birds such as magpie geese, brolgas, jabirus and white-bellied sea eagles. Around 1000 different plant species, a quarter of all Australian freshwater fish species, and over one third of Australian bird species can be found in the Park. Kakadu National Park is managed jointly by Parks Australia, an Australian government body, and the Park’s traditional Aboriginal owners. A number of Aboriginal clans reside within the Park, and have for some 50,000 years. Kakadu is home to one of the largest concentrations of Aboriginal rock art in the world. Natural galleries of these ancient paintings can be seen at sites like Ubirr and Nourlangie Rock. Other spectacular landmarks include Jim Jim Falls, Twin Falls, Maguk/Barramundie Gorge, Jarrangbarnmi/Koolpin Gorge and Gunlom, which means ‘waterfall creek’. Kakadu National Park also contains several established walking tracks and camp grounds. At the centre of the Park is the small mining township of Jabiru, which offers a range of services and accommodation and serves as a touring centre for the wetlands of the nearby Mary River National Park, home to millions of birds and plentiful barramundi. Another settlement, Cooinda, also offers accommodation, and is located on the banks of Yellow Water, a billabong teeming with migratory birds, saltwater crocodiles and other wildlife. Cruises on Yellow Water depart daily. A visit to Kakadu is best started at the Bowali Cultural Centre near Jabiru or the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre near Cooinda. Each provides visitors a good appreciation of the Park’s traditional owners’ culture and heritage.

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Northern Territory

King Ash Bay

King Ash Bay is a popular fishing spot all year round. Fishing enthusiasts can head to King Ash Bay, which lies around 40 kilometres past Borroloola on the McArthur River. The King Ash Bay Boat and Fishing Club is a primary destination for visiting anglers, and the host of the annual Borroloola Fishing Classic, which attracts competitors from all over Australia. The King Ash Bay Fishing Club allows non-members to camp on the banks of the river.

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Northern Territory

Wycliffe Well

Wycliffe Well, located 130 kilometres south of Tennant Creek and 380 kilometres north of Alice Springs, is famous for visitors of the extraterrestrial kind. UFO sightings have been part of Wycliffe Well’s folklore since World War II, and the town’s reputation for the unexplained attracts all types: even the Royal Australian Air Force has stopped in to investigate. Two model aliens sit out the front of the Wycliffe Well Holiday Park to welcome travellers, and the Park’s owner tells that many claim to have seen UFOs zipping around the night sky. He also boasts that the Park’s bar has the biggest range of beer available in Australia, and notes that this is perhaps a contributing factor to the presence of UFOs. As with most stops along the Stuart Highway, Wycliffe Well began as a watering point along the stock route for the Overland Telegraph Line in the 1860s. World War II saw Wycliffe Well become a market garden centre to service troops, and at the end of the war, two soldiers stayed on to continue selling vegetables and garden products to Alice Springs. In 1960, a petrol pump was installed in Wycliffe Well, and the town has since been reinvented as a favourite stop-over for travellers. Today Wycliffe Well is essentially made up of Wycliffe Well Holiday Park. The Park covers 60 acres and includes a large lake for fishing and recreation. The Davenport Ranges and the Devils Marbles are located within easy reach of the town.

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Northern Territory

Aileron

Aileron is a welcome rest stop along the Stuart Highway offering meals accommodation and fuel, located close to Ryan Well Historical Reserve. Aileron Hotel and Roadhouse is located 132 kilometres north of Alice Springs and 370 kilometres south of Tennant Creek. The roadhouse includes a convenience store, counter meals, a free laundry, a playground, tourist information and poker machines. The accommodation includes a caravan and camping area, backpacker dorms and self contained motel rooms.

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Northern Territory

Barunga

Located in Arnhem Land on the overland route to Nhulunbuy, Barunga is well known for its annual indigenous cultural and sporting festival.

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Northern Territory

Yulara

The small settlement of Yulara, which includes the Voyages-owned Ayers Rock Resort complex, services the Uluru-Kata Tjuta region. The Resort features hotels, self contained apartments, campgrounds, supermarkets, bars, restaurants, galleries, recreational facilities, banks and more. From the luxurious Voyages Longitude 131, through to motel style accommodation and well-equipped campgrounds, Yulara offers accommodation and services catering to every budget. Ayers Rock Airport is also situated at Yulara, seven kilometres from Ayers Rock Resort. Qantas operates direct flights to Yulara from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Cairns and Alice Springs.

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Northern Territory

Hermannsburg

Situated on the Larapinta Drive, 130 kilometres south west of Alice Springs, lies Hermannsburg, the birthplace of famous Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira. Hermannsburg was the German name chosen by the Lutheran pastors who established a small mission for the Aranda Aboriginals here in the 1880s. The mission centred around an old stone church and schoolhouse that are today open to visitors, offering a unique insight into the controversial missionary movement that took place throughout the Northern Territory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By all reports, the Hermannsburg mission was one of the more enlightened. Pastors learned the Aranda language, and while the Aboriginal community studied German and Christianity, they managed to retain their own cultural values. Hermannsburg’s most famous resident, Australia’s best known Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira, painted with watercolours in the European style taught to him by the missionaries. His works were infused with a distinctly Aboriginal take on the landscape. Namatjira died in 1959, but his house is located three kilometres west of Hermannsburg on the Areyonga Road and is open to visitors. Several of his grandchildren now carry on his artistic tradition.

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Northern Territory

Daly Waters

Daly Waters is located 274 kilometres south of Katherine near the junction of the Stuart and Carpentaria Highways. Despite the tiny population of the settlement, the Daly Waters’ Pub is one of the Territory’s most famous watering holes. The Pub is one of the oldest buildings in the Northern Territory: a quaint place armoured with corrugated iron, draped with bougainvillea and decorated with decades of memorabilia. The annual Daly Waters Rodeo is a Northern Territory institution not to be missed. Daly Waters also has the distinction of being Australia’s first international airfield. It has an interesting aviation history. It was a centre for the London to Sydney air race of 1926, a World War II air force base and a refuelling stop for Qantas. The Daly Waters Hangar exhibits interesting facts, photographs and equipment from the areas’ former aviation glory days. The area’s traditional Aboriginal owners, the Jingili people, believe the Dreaming tracks of the Emu and the Sun travelled through here on their way to the southern parts of the Northern Territory. When John McDouall Stuart explored around Daly Waters in the late 1800s, he and his party became lost in the region and were desperate for water, making their discovery of a small creek leading to a series of waterholes particularly significant.

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