Kakadu National Park Overview
Lying 100 miles east of Darwin within the Alligator
Rivers region of Australia’s Northern Territory, Kakadu National Park
is the second largest national park in the world and one of the
country’s most famous natural attractions. The park covers some
20,000 square kilometers and is well known for its amazing
bio-diversity as well as its rich indigenous cultural heritage.
Nature is the most obvious appeal of the park, with its
unique eco-system supporting a vast selection of plants and animals as
well as attracting thousands of migratory birds of different
species during its two main seasons. Animal and birdwatching
are popular pursuits with many visitors and require no previous knowledge of
wildlife to be enjoyed.
After nature, the park’s Aboriginal heritage is its biggest
appeal. As a home to indigenous people for around 40 millennia,
the park offers visitors a chance to step into this tribal man’s territory.
Aboriginals continue to live within the park, following long-held ways of life
and traditions. The visual evidence of their past in the
numerous rock paintings around the park is fascinating, and
sites at Nanguluwur, Nourlangie and Ubirr offer interesting insight.
There are countless outdoor activities that can be pursued
within the park, from simple forest walks to boat trips or even golf. Kakadu is
the ideal destination for lovers of the great outdoors. Whether
you experience the park through organised tours or embrace it completely with
days spent camping, trekking in the bush and swimming in natural rock
pools, it’s likely to be a magical experience either way.
Visit this website for further information about
Kakadu National Park.
The park is a World Heritage site. In fact, UNESCO has given it
two listings such is its natural, cultural and historical value. One result of
this status is that development within the park is strictly
controlled so there is limited infrastructure. The small town of Jabiru is the
main municipal centre and provides comfortable
accommodation for visitors. Limited facilities can also be found at Cooinda
and South Alligator.
Kakadu is reached relatively easily. How you choose to get here
will be based on the intended length and nature of your stay. Many visitors fly
into Darwin International Airport then make the onward journey
by road in a rental vehicle. Alternatively, you can take one of the many
tours that are available from Darwin. Organised tours are generally by
coach but there are also luxury tours to the park from Darwin by small plane.
History
Kakadu National Park is one of Australia’s oldest Aboriginal regions
with tribal settlements having existed here for at least 40,000 years.
Aboriginal culture has undoubtedly been the biggest influence on the
region since the beginning of recorded history. The 5,000 plus art
sites and the large number of archaeological sites provide
fascinating evidence of the duration of tribal occupation here.
Explorers
of Portuguese, Malay and Chinese origin were the earliest non-Aboriginal
people to arrive in the region, each having claimed to be the first to
set foot here. However, the oldest surviving written evidence suggests that the
Dutch were among the earliest explorers, with Jan Carstenz and
Abel Tasman having arrived in 1623 and 1644 respectively.
Close to a century later in 1802, Matthew Flinders visited the
Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1845, Ludwig Leichhardt became the first
land-based explorer from Europe to visit the region, then later again
in 1862 Scotsman John McDouall Stuart travelled along the Kakadu region’s
southwestern boundary.
The Macassans from Sulawesi were the first travellers to form relationships with
the Kakadu region’s indigenous people, establishing contact on
their trips here during the wet season. The Macassans came to acquire the
sea cucumbers known as trepang, which they relied upon the
Aborigines to harvest and process in return for goods brought from Sulawesi,
thereby establishing a basic trade agreement.
The British presence on Australia’s northern coast in the early
19th century was short-lived despite the eagerness of colonists to
beat the French and Dutch in staking claim to the area.
Settlements at Fort Dundas on Melville Island, Fort Wellington at Raffles Bay
and the Victoria settlement at Port Essington had to be
abandoned on account of sickness and unavailability of basics such as food and
fresh water.
The arrival of Missionaries impacted considerably on the
natives of the Kakadu region, especially those in the area known as Alligator
Rivers. Aborigines began to receive schooling and other
benefits from the Kapalga Native Industrial Mission (established in 1899) and
the subsequent Oenpelli Mission (established in 1925).
Mining played a small part in shaping the region in the late
19th century after mineral deposits were discovered. The Overland
Telegraph line and the North Australia Railway line
were constructed as a direct result of the mining booms that occurred at that
time.
Burrundie and Pine Creek benefited significantly from the
railway, helping to establish them as permanent settlements. Later in the 1920s
and ‘30s, small gold mines sprang up at Imarlkba and Mundogie
Hill and later still in the 1950s, uranium mines were also established in parts
of the region.
Through the establishment of colonies by European travellers, the
arrival of missionaries and the development of the mining industries,
the indigenous peoples of the Kakadu region were exposed to an increasing number
of foreign influences. Numbers dwindled through disease, forced
relocation and other factors. By the 1970s, fewer than 150 Aboriginals remained
in Kakadu.
Nowadays, Kakadu is home to over 500
Aboriginals of the Bininj (Mungguy), Mirrar (Gundjeihmi) and Murlugan
clans. These peoples live in and around the national park alongside other
non-Aboriginals.
Weather
Kakadu’s climate is monsoonal in nature and the region
experiences only two distinct seasons; the wet and dry seasons.
Transitional states between the two are indistinct.
The dry season lasts from late April or early May until
September and is characterised by high temperatures, low
humidity and little or no rainfall. Temperatures at the height of the season
(June to July) are typically in the low 30s (°C). From October
to December as the climate moves towards the wet season,
temperatures increase with highs of up to 37°C. Humidity is
also high and electrical storms are common at this time.
The wet season arrives in January and lasts until late March or
early April and is characterised by a combination of high temperatures and
frequent and heavy rain. Temperature highs reach the low 30s (°C) and
volumes of rainfall can vary from between 1,300mm and 1,500mm depending
on the location.
From a visitor’s perspective, the dry season is perhaps the best time to
make a trip to Kakadu National Park. A visit during the wet season
shouldn’t be ruled out, however, as rainfall is only sporadic, flora is greener
and waterfalls are considerably more impressive.
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