Katherine Gorge
Interesting facts
- In 1989 the park was handed back to the Jawoyn after an 11-year land claim, and they immediately leased it back to the government for 99 years.
- The handback, on 10 September 1989, was one of the first major Aboriginal land claims to succeed in Australia.
- According to Jawoyn tradition, the gorge country was shaped in creation time by Nabilil the crocodile, who gave its features their names.
- The name Nitmiluk comes from nitmi, the cicada song Nabilil is said to have heard while camping at a gorge entrance, and luk, meaning place.
- Strictly speaking, Nitmiluk refers to a stretch of about 12 km of chasms and ravines along the river.
- The Katherine River drops around 384 metres over its 328 km course before joining the Daly River.
- John McDouall Stuart named the river on 4 July 1862 after Catherine Chambers, daughter of his expedition's sponsor, the pastoralist James Chambers.
- In 1998 heavy rain from Cyclone Les raised the river by more than 20 metres, flooding much of the town of Katherine.
- The Jatbula Trail runs 62 km one way and takes five or six days, with overnight camps beside springs and cascades such as Crystal Falls and Sweetwater Pool.
- The gorge hosted the final challenge and finish line of The Amazing Race Australia 4.
Why it is worth it
The Katherine River has carved a chain of thirteen gorges through ancient sandstone east of the town of Katherine, in Australia's Northern Territory, and in the dry season the water lies still and dark between red cliffs, while in the wet season the rising river joins them into one. Known to the Jawoyn people as Nitmiluk, the gorge is the centrepiece of Nitmiluk National Park, which covers almost 2,950 square kilometres and borders Kakadu National Park to the north.
The name Nitmiluk is usually translated from the Jawoyn language as "place of the cicada dreaming", and the gorges and surrounding country hold deep ceremonial significance for the Jawoyn, who are custodians of the park; the region is also known for its ancient rock paintings. The river itself rises in Kakadu and, as it falls during the dry months, the individual gorges become separated by rapids and rock bars, reconnecting when the wet-season floods arrive. Boats and canoes travel up the gorge system, with cruises going as far as the fifth gorge. Freshwater crocodiles nest along the banks all year; saltwater crocodiles can move in during the floods and are caught and taken back downstream when the dry season begins.
The surrounding escarpment country is home to ospreys, red-tailed black cockatoos, great bowerbirds and red-winged parrots, and part of the park belongs to an area recognised by BirdLife International for the endangered Gouldian finch. A long-distance walk, the Jatbula Trail, follows the route used by generations of Jawoyn people between the gorge and Leliyn (Edith Falls); it is named after Peter Jatbula, who played a key part in securing land rights for his people. The park was established in 1977 under the name Katherine Gorge National Park. Katherine itself, the fourth-largest settlement in the Northern Territory, grew from an outpost on the Overland Telegraph Line and takes its name from the river, named by the explorer John McDouall Stuart in 1862.
Getting there
The gorge and its visitor centre are about 30 km east of the town of Katherine, which lies on the Stuart Highway some 320 km by road south-east of Darwin and is a stop of The Ghan train. The nearest major airport is Darwin International Airport (DRW), about 270 km away in a straight line; the city of Palmerston is about 260 km away.
On these lists
-14.31250, 132.47420per Wikidata