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A vast and varied
wilderness lies in the extreme north of
Australia, an area called the Top End by the
locals is simply of one nature's scenic marvels.
This natural wonder is located in the world renowned Kakadu National Park, east of Darwin, which has
a landscape that differs from place to place and
also one that changes with seasons. A lot of
areas here are flooded during the wet season
starting October while there are virtually no
rain during the dry season from May to September
which is the peak period for tourists since many
of the attractions here are not accessible
during the floods. It is useful to know that the
Aboriginal people living here recognize that
there are six seasons in the Kakadu region.
 Covering an area of
almost twenty thousand square kilometers, Kakadu is the land
of the Gagudju, an Aboriginal people from whom
the national park take sits name. According to
them, Kakadu was created when a female ancestral
being, Warramurrungundji, came out of the sea to
form the landscape and to give life to the
people. Ginja, a giant crocodile, followed her
and made the rock country. After their work have
finished, these ancestral beings changed and
became part of the landscape. Most part of this
land is owned by the Aboriginal people, who then
leased their land to the Director of National
Parks and Wildlife.
What attracts
visitors to Kakadu are the chance to learn about
the people, geology, plants and animals found in
this unique place. Visitors must visit the
Bowali Visitor Centre which has a wealth of
information about Kakadu while you can
understand more about the culture of the
Aborigines at the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural
Centre. The wetlands found here offer the most
picturesque scenery whereby crocodiles can be
seen on the banks of the Alligator Rivers.
 This place is a
rugged escarpment that travels for more than
five hundred kilometers along the east and south
sides of the national park which marks the edge
of the Arnhem Land plateau. Ravines cut into the
cliff edge, which in places is over four hundred
and sixty meters high. An extraordinary feat can
be seen during the raining season when
waterfalls thunder over the cliff whereby two of
the most famous falls seen here are the Jim Jim
Fall and Twin Falls. The lowland below the escarpment
is a combination of grassland, forest and swamp,
broken by quiet backwaters and crossed by
rivers. The view around one of Kakadu's main
rivers, the East Alligator is second to none.
One of the main
attractions here is the Aboriginal paintings
which can be seen at about seven thousand sites
in this park. One interesting fact about these
paintings are that the animals features in the
paintings change over the years as the sea level
rose. The earliest paintings were made during
Photo: Kakadu National Park the Ice Age and most of the paintings were shown
in X-ray style with internal structures such as
backbones visible. The earliest painting showed
kangaroos, emus and the Tasmanian devil and when
the Ice Age ended, fish such as the barramundi
and mullet are featured. When freshwater swamps
had formed in Kakadu behind levees that held
back the sea, the paintings depicted animals
such as the long-necked turtles, magpie geese
and also women poling rafts over the swamps. It
is here at Nourlangie Rock, a well-known outcrop
that rises from the lowlands, that some of
Kakadu's scarce Aboriginal rock paintings can be seen.
There are more than
one thousand different types of plants that grow
in Kakadu. The black-necked stork, a symbol of
the tropical north, lives in the Kakadu and can
be seen around the billabongs and freshwater
lagoons together with the blue-winged
kookaburra. Herons can be seen at the Yellow
Water billabong. Other creatures that live here
include the saltwater crocodile, freshwater
crocodile, the fierce-looking but harmless
frilled lizard and the water buffaloes. After
the World War II, uranium was discovered in the
once-remote Top End of Australia. Besides being
a major tourist attraction in Australia, the Kakadu National Park is classified under the
UNESCO World Heritage List. The filming of the
famous Crocodile Dundee movies too added to the
popularity of Kakadu.
Visitors who intend
to set out on a drive usually gather at the West
Alligator River. Traveling across Kakadu's
lowlands is no easy feat because you will have
to pass through a constantly changing landscape.
Rising from the lowlands are massive outcrops of
resistant rock that have been left standing as
the edge of the Arnhem Land plateau is worn
back. In certain areas, the grasses cover the
lowlands while other sections may have
eucalyptus forest, swamps filled with paperbark
trees and billabongs which are loops of river
that are cut off from the main stream. Towards
the coast, you will see mangrove swamps and sand
dunes. Despite the challenges that lie ahead,
your trip will definitely be worthwhile as the
Kakadu National Park is one of the most
beautiful place in the world and a very famous
tourist attraction in Australia.
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