Kakadu National Park

Distances in the park are considerable, and plenty of time should be allowed for seeing it. Three or four days at least are required for anything more than a superficial flying visit.

The best way of seeing the park is in a rented car (car rental firms in Darwin and Jabiru). There are no means of public transport within the park. Fuel and provisions can be bought in Jabiru, Cooinda, Kakadu Holiday Village and the Border Store.

There are organized tours from Darwin, but excursions can also be booked in the hotels and at Jabiru airport. There are also sightseeing flights from the airport (8km east of the park headquarters).

Warning It is essential to watch out for crocodiles when fishing, boating or playing on a river bank. Swimming is prohibited throughout the park because of the crocodiles.

Name

The name of Kakadu National Park comes from Gagadju, one of the languages spoken by the tribes living in the vast area of the park. Archaeological evidence has shown that Aborigines have been living in this region for at least 25,000 years; but it seems probable that they have been here much longer than that, according to their myths about the beginnings of all existence in the Dreamtime.

Features

Kakadu National Park has been included in UNESCO's World Heritage List by virtue of its exceptional cultural importance (e.g. Aboriginal rock paintings) and its unspoiled natural beauty. As with Ayers Rock and the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, it is necessary to reconcile the constantly increasing numbers of visitors with the strictest protection of the natural landscape and the evidence of native culture. For this purpose the National Park is administered jointly by the traditional owners of the land, the Aboriginal tribes of Arnhem Land, within which the park lies, and the Australian National Park and Wildlife Service (ANPWS) in Canberra.

Much of the successful Australian film Crocodile Dundee was shot in Kakadu National Park, providing excellent publicity not only for the park but for the whole of the Top End.

Area and characteristics

Kakadu National Park extends for over 200km from north to south and over 100km from east to west, taking in almost the whole catchment area of the South Alligator River - making it the largest national park in Australia and the third largest in the world. An impression of its varied ecozystems can be gained by road, on foot, from elevated viewpoints or by boat. On the north coast is the tidal zone, with river estuaries, mangrove swamps and tall monsoon rain forests, and inland from the coast are the flood plains through which rivers pursue a winding course to the sea. During the dry season salt water and crocodiles advance anything up to 80km inland, while during the rest of the year large expanses of wetlands are under water, the flooding varying according to the duration and intensity of the rain. These areas are important staging posts for migratory birds and home to countless water birds - the magpie goose, the brolga (a species of crane), and the jabiru (black-necked stork).

Further inland is the gently undulating upland country which occupies the greater part of the park. All the main roads run through this area, so that visitors see mainly expanses of open tropical woodland. At the beginning of the dry season small areas of dry grassland are deliberately burned so as to reduce the danger of large-scale fires at the peak of the dry season.

The escarpment of the Arnhem Land plateau runs diagonally through the park from southwest to northeast. The plateau is dry, and after heavy rain, water pours over its bare rocks and down the escarpment in magnificent waterfalls to join the rivers and wetlands of the north.

The vegetation, consisting of shrubs and grass, is similar to that of Australia's arid interior. During the dry season the waterfalls and rivers dry up, leaving only rock pools and billabongs (waterholes in the river beds) to which many animals come to drink. Erosion has eaten away at the sandstone of the plateau, with projecting formations of harder stone such as Nourlangie Rock, famed for its rock paintings. Scattered patches of monsoon rain forest are found in the gorges and on shady hillsides where there is water.

In the south of the park, in stony upland areas with scattered crags of granite, plants and animals from the wetter north and the arid interior are found side by side. Much of the catchment area of the South Alligator River lies in this barren stone country.

Seasons

The alternation of the seasons in the tropical Top End is highly dramatic. The Aborigines, living close to nature, divide the year into six seasons, differentiated according to weather conditions and their effect on their hunting and gathering activities.

In the pre-monsoon period at the end of the hot, dry time of year, with storms and the first rain (the season they called gunumeleng, from October to mid-December), the Aborigines used to leave the lowland country and seek shelter from the heavy rain and flooding in caves and under rock overhangs.

Then follows the season of heavy rain, storms and flooding, when animals, fleeing into the trees, are easy to catch and goose eggs can be collected (gudjewg, from mid-December to March). Then the rain becomes less heavy and the floods subside, plants bear fruit and animals have their young, and the last storms sweep over the tall spinifex grass in the open woodland (bangerreng, in April).

After this is a time of morning mists and drying winds; carefully controlled fires 'clean' the land, still damp under the surface, and stimulate new growth, so that, it is said, many animals can be taken ready roasted (yegge, May to mid-June).

The cool season (days 30°C, nights 17°C) with less moisture leads to the drying up of watercourses and flood plains; geese must share the remaining waterholes with flocks of waterfowl and are easy to catch (wurrgeng, mid-June to mid-August). The following weeks are dry, hot and windless; all life seems asleep. Geese can still be caught, but now snakes and tortoises as well. The first storm clouds and lightning announce the coming of a new rainy season (gurrung, mid-August to end September). Although the wet season (November to March) can be trying, a visit at this time is an impressive experience, with thunderstorms, flooded waterholes, tumbling waterfalls and tumultuous rivers - but also with many roads, tracks, camping grounds and picnic areas closed by flooding.