The Top End

August/September 2024

Kakadu, Katherine, Litchfield and Darwin

Not long after I returned from Europe I was packing again for a 3 week stint in the Northern Territory. Al had gone up a week earlier to start working in Jabiru and this was the start of the Australian leg of the New Phase Tour.

The idea was that we would go to a town where Al would work for a month and then have a month off when we would head off exploring until we get to the next town to work. Initially we will be fly in fly out but eventually it will be more camping and exploring the region. My thoughts would be that I could get a few clients and work remotely and try and get Fretless Financial Management Services to become a viable means of income.

So first stop was Darwin and back to the warmth. It was great to be in the tropics again. But here’s a tip – don’t leave your physical credit card at home if you’re planning to hire a car. The backward rental companies do not accept the CC on your phone. Anyway, emergency diverted courtesy of forward thinking and progressive East Coast Car Rentals. I’ll be using them whenever I can from now on.

Got on the road from Darwin late as I had to buy a protective case for my cameras so that I can check it in in the future (way to heavy to carry on) and also had to do some grocery shopping. This meant I left late and would drive most of the way in the dark. Not normally a problem but the animals in the NT are notorious road crossers and it wasn’t long before I hit my first mammal in a car. I’m not proud, in fact it gutted me. The two saving graces were that it was a small one and therefore the damage to the car was minimal and second, I was probably doing 110kmh so the little fella was dead on impact and would not have struggled. I still feel sick just thinking about it.

The fact I knew I had damage on the car was courtesy of a police officer who pointed it out. They were stopping cars for some reason and I noticed they had some indigenous people off the road and they were talking with them. No idea what was going on but it didn’t have a good vibe about it.

Got to Jabiru with no more collisions with animals (well, except for the 3,267 bugs splattered across the front of my car). In the morning I got my first proper look at this town built to house workers from the nearby uranium mine. The mine has shut down down and now the workers are there to clean it up. The town is clearly on the decline but it is the gateway to the Kakadu National Park, probably Australias most famous remote national park after she starred in Crocodile Dundee.

But the town had a coffee shop and it was bloody good coffee which was a huge relief after the rubbish we had in Europe and the UK. It doubled as the Art and Cultural Centre and we went to the indigenous painting lesson. I let John, the in-house artist, know that his job was safe and after one very brief look at my piece of “art” he basically agreed.

In Jabiru there is a supermarket, the Art & Cultural Centre, a golf club, caravan park, resort, swimming pool and a servo. That’s pretty much it. Backpackers can be seen serving groceries during the day and the same guy served you at the golf club. I wondered why the locals weren’t working instead. I do not have the answers but one theory is that the local nation get revenue through the landrights and this is enough for them all to live a basic life. They don’t seem to get satisfaction from working like the west do. But this problem is ours, not there’s. They don’t seem to think anything is wrong.

So the first weekend we went to the art centre and then headed out to Cahills crossing, Bardedjiliji and finishing off at the famous Ubirr (made famous in Crocodile Dundee). Let’s be clear, it is an incredible country up there. The custodians of this land are, were and always will be the Bininj and Mungguy. For thousands of years they enjoyed this land, feasting off the huge number of animals and plants and probably marvelled in awe at the beauty as we do today. But I imagine it would have been different with a great deal more wildlife there. I often wonder if they would want to return to such a life or not. I have the fear that these and other indigenous nations will just disappear into time because as a nation we have simply have no drive or passion to help maintain and save them. As a collective, or the man on the Bondi Tram, we just don’t have any interest in understanding our countries custodians, no urge to learn about them, about what was done to them of course but also what their psyche is, what makes them tick, what gives them purpose or meaning. Only they can tell us this, not any appointed guardian. But equally if not more importantly we need to want to listen.

I sat in a bird hide for a couple of hours one morning to prove that I was getting old. Mind you as I left a much younger person arrived so I didn’t feel so bad. There was a family of wallabies there and I did wonder if they were mourning the loss of one of their young ones.

Cahills Crossing is pretty amazing and unique. It’s what is written on the box, ie a river crossing but it does go under water at high tide and it’s at this time that barramundi can get from one side of the road to the other. But it also at this spot that the crocs realise they can get an easy feed. At one stage I counted 20 man eating hungry crocs in a single view and who knows how many were under water. You fall in there and you’re gone for sure.

Of course no trip to the Kakadu is complete without a sunset or sunrise cruise on the Yellow Waters Billabong. The wildlife is incredible. So many crocodiles that to be honest spotting them was a bit ho hum. It is popular but it is popular for a reason and that is because it is beautiful. The water level is low at the moment as we were coming to the end of the dry season. The guide pointed out where the water will be in a couple of months and it was really beyond belief.

Another cruise we took was along Katherine Gorge which was one of the places we stopped on our slow trek back to Darwin. The landscape is breathtaking and the colours magnificent. The river zig zags through this canyon carved over many years. Freshwater crocodiles lay eggs on the sandy beaches dotted along the river. The cruise included dinner at sunset which was as impressive as it sounds. One thing that took me by surprise was on the walk back to the car park there were cane toads everywhere. Those pesky little South American bastards introduced in Queensland to eradicate a cane beetle had made it all the way to this beautiful area. They were so cocky and sure that they had no predator that I was easily able to boot them off the path. They did not care less. So sad.

Then we checked out the waterholes basically. This part of our island continent is full of them from hot springs to pools at the top and bottom of the waterfalls. Initially I was freaked out by the possibility of crocs but that fear slowly subsided. One fear that I do have is of deep water and what lurks below. That did continue to freak me out I must admit. But the swimming was pretty cool and we saw some big barra and other fish. In summary we swam in Maguk, Katherine hot springs, Mataranka, Florence Falls, Buley Rockhole and cascades, Edith Falls, Wangi and I am sure that I have missed a few. They were pretty good I must admit.

We spent a day in Darwin which was interesting. They’ve got a pretty nice bay precinct showing outdoor movies, lots of nice restaurants of varied cuisine, safe swimming sections and all pretty easy to get around in. They have some pretty funky street art as well. We took a drive out to the WW2 museum and read up about the bombing of this area. The first raid was horrific with so much loss of life. Luckily this was the only significant deadly raid but it would have been a nightmare for the residents of the time.

The real eye opener I read about was the section on indigenous soldiers from the Territory. First thing that got me was that these guys signed up to fight for a country that at the time did not even recognise them as people let alone citizens who could vote. And secondly, when the first world war vets returned they received pensions and blocks of land they could make a living on (called a “selection”). But not the aborigines. Thanks for fighting guys but now get back in your hole. As a nation that is basically what we told them. Leaves a pretty bad taste in your mouth hey.

Getting out of Darwin to Sydney in the dry season you either have a cluster of flights around midday or another cluster of flights around midnight. In the wet they drop the midday flights and it’s only the red-eye available. We caught that one home and it is truly a horrible time to fly. The Territory is so different to NSW. The people, the landscape. They don’t have BCF in Katherine but instead they have Rod and Rifle. Pretty much sums things up for you right there. When you enter Rod and Rifle the first thing you are greeted by is a baby pet croc in a fish tank. And then when you make your way to the back you are greeted by a wall full of guns and ammo. You have a policeman outside bottle shops checking licenses to ensure that you do not live in or are not taking the grog back to a try settlement. It’s a different world. I am sure we will get back there one day and I hope I can learn even more about this amazing part of Australia and its people.