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Largely tropical, the Norrthern Territory covers about one sixth of the Australian continent with an area of 1.35 million km2 which is equal to the combined areas of France, Spain and Italy. It is an area of great diversity, from lush tropical rainforest in the north to the ancient semi-arid plains and deserts of the Red Centre. |
Regional Guides: Darwin | Red Centre | Top End | Arnhem Land | Gulf Country
Darwin: Australia's northermost capital has evolved out of the devastation caused by Cyclone Tracy in 1974 into an attractive vibrant and progressive city that serves the country well as its northern gateway. No longer a pioneer outpost and small port, it is now one of Australia's most modern and multicultural cities with a unique tropical flavour.
Katherine Gorge: Katherine Gorge, a deep gorge carved through ancient sandstone by the Katherine River, is made up of thirteen gorges, with rapids and falls, and follow the Katherine River, which begins in Kakadu. During the Dry, the Katherine Gorge waters are placid in most spots and ideal for swimming and canoeing. Saltwater crocodiles regularly enter the river during the Wet season, when the water levels are very high. These gorges and the surrounding landscape have great ceremonial significance to the local Jawoyn people, who are custodians of Nitmiluk National Park.
Litchfield National Park: a must-see for anyone visiting Darwin, Litchfield National Park is a day-trip destination from the Territory's capital. Its attractions include tropical waterfalls that cascade from a sandstone plateau called the Tabletop Range, swimming holes, monsoon rainforests, intriguing magnetic termite mounds and historical sites. Also of note are many 4WD tracks into some of the more remote parts of Litchfield National Park and the surrounding region.
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Alice Springs: The quintessential Aussie outback town, The Alice, as she is affectionately known, is a busy regional centre and hub for mining and exploration, transport, public administration and tourism in Central Australia. The town is also strategically located amid the major natural attractions of the Territory's Red Centre.
MacDonnell Ranges: A series of mountain ranges located in the geographical centre of Australia, they consist of parallel ridges running to the east and west of Alice Springs and provide that township's unique backdrop. The ranges are composed of many rock types, but are most famous for their red quartzite peaks and gorges, which can be easily accessed on day trips from Alice Springs. The famous Larapinta Trail, a 223 km trek along the spine of the ranges, is one of the most challenging and rewarding walks in Australia, passing not only through some spectacular coun try but also Aboriginal Dreaming sites and historical sites from the region's early pioneering history.
Tiwi Islands: Dubbed The Islands of Smiles, the Tiwi Islands are acclaimed for their Aboriginal culture and warm hospitality. Dense rainforest, sandy beaches and rock pools combine to create the Tiwi Islands’ coastal landscape. Comprising Melville and Bathurst Islands, the area is renowned for its unique Aboriginal arts and crafts, love of Australian Rules Football or AFL, and blue-water fishing. The islands are a short flight or cruise from Darwin.
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Uluru/Kata Tjuta Narional Park: a World Heritage Site, Uluru is Australia's most famous natural landmark and the country's most visited site. The mysterious red monolith is the weathered peak of a buried mountain range and rises some 348 metres above the desert. It has many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Nearby is Kata Tjuta, and also known as The Olgas, are a group of large domed rock formations. Borth are sacred to the Aboriginal people of the area.
Kakadu National Park: About the size of Israel, one-third the size of Tasmania, or nearly half the size of Switzerland, Kakadu National Park in the Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory is a vast expanse of diverse and largely unspoilt natural beauty. The world heritage listed park is renowned for the richness of its Aboriginal cultural sites as well as its scenic beauty and variety of wildlife. Kakadu's flora is among the richest in northern Australia with more than 1700 plant species recorded which is a result of the Park's geological, landform and habitat diversity.
Kings Canyon: Some 325 km. south-west of Alice Springs, Kings Canyon is one of The Red Centre's most spectacular attractions. The huge, sheer walls of the canyon rise from the creek bed in which there are numerous rock pools and lush vegetation, including Cycad Palms, ancient in their origin. Kings Canyon is often included in a round trip to Ayers Rock, however the canyon area is amazing in its own right. It is easy to spend a day or more wandering around its vast area when exploring its unique beauty.
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Road, rail and air all play a significant roll in getting into, out of and around the Northern Territory.
Air: Darwin is the Australia's major northern international gateway, being on the main air route into Australia from Asia, Europe and The Middle East. It has full customes and immigration processing facilities. It is also the gateway to The Territory's Top End for domestic air travellers. Because it has no night landing curfews, Darwin's airport is operational (and busy) right around the clock. Alice Springs and Uluru both have airports that cater only for domestic air travel from the Australian states.
Rail: The privately operated Ghan provides a passenger rail service between Darwin and Adelaide via Alice Springs. The two legs of the journey (Darwin to Alice Springs and Alice Springs to Adelaide) each have a duration of approx. 24 hours, with a 4 hour stopover at Katherine on the northern leg. The Ghan travels twice a week in each direction from May to November and once a week in each direction at other times. The journey can be broken at both Alice Springs and Katherine, allowing a stopover in both places to explore the towns and surrounding regions.
Road (coach): Numerous operators provide coach services to and from Darwin. Destinations include
- Perth via Kununurra, Broome, Carnarvon (57 hrs)
- Adelaide via Alice Springs, Coober Pedy, Port Augusta (43hrs 55min)
- Sydney via Alice Springs, Adelaide (43hrs 55min to Adelaide, then 25 hrs 30 minutes on connecting route to Sydney)
- Brisbane via Tennant Creek, Mt Isa (69 hrs 20 minutes)
- Townsville via Tenant Creek, Mt Isa (55 hrs).
Road (private motor vehicle): The major highways in and out of Darwin to Perth (via Katherine and Great Northern Highway), Alice Springs and Adelaide (Stuart Highway) are all sealed. The Savannah Way, linking Darwin to Cairns via Katherine, Booroloola and Normanton includes both sealed and unsealed sections, the latter varying in their condition between the wet and dry seasons.
The Outback Way is unofficially Australia’s longest shortcut, linking WA and Qld from Laverton to Winton via Alice Springs. Unsealed most of the way, it is made up of seven inter-connecting roads including The Great Central Road (WA); Tjukaruru Road, Lasseter Highway, Stuart Highway and Plenty Highway (NT); and Donohue Highway and Min Min Byway (QLD).
Lasseter Highway is a fully sealed 244 kilometre highway that connects Yulara, Kata Tjuta and Uluru east to the Stuart Highway.
Arnhem Highway is the major road accessway from the Stuart Highway (Darwin to Adelaide) to Kakadu National Park. It is sealed all the way.
The remainder of highways in the Northern Territory tend to the branch from the Stuart Highway, generally providing either an interstate connection (e.g. Plenty Highway), a connection between highways (e.g. Buchanan Highway), or a connection to a significant locality (e.g. Lasseter Highway). Roads such as Tanami Road or Tjukaruru (Docker River) Road provide important interstate connections yet do not get a ‘Highway’ name.
In the Northern Territory, the speed limit on the open road is generally 130 kilometres per hour. A driver’s licence from your home country or an Australian state will usually suffice for up to three months, as long as it has photo identification and it’s for the same class of vehicle you intend to drive. If you’re staying more than three months, you’ll need to get a Northern Territory drivers licence.
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| Useful information for visitors |
Clothing
Shorts, T-shirts and other similar light clothing are generally the rule of thumb in the Territory. Be aware that in the wet season up north, it rains heavily, so bring appropriate clothing and footwear. Also remember that nights are cold in the desert regions so bring warm clothing, and not just if you are visiting in the winter months, when visiting places like Alice Springs.
Banking
Banks in the Northern Territory are generally open:
9.30 am - 4.00 pm Monday to Thursday
9.30 am - 5.00 pm on Fridays.
Shop trading hours
Mondays to Wednesdays, Fridays, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Thursdays, 9:00 am to 9:00 pm
Saturdays, 9:00 am - 12 noon.
Shops in Darwin and Alice Springs tend to stay open longer hours to cater for tourists, and roadhouses in the outback and country towns are generally open 7 days a week to cater for passing motorist's needs.
| The Best Times to Visit NT |
The Tropical North: the months from October to March are what is known as the wet season. The dry season, from May to August, yields pleasant weather that is similar to summer in the southern states. In Darwin during these months, humidity is low, the temperature is constant (around 30 degrees), and the days are warm and pleasantly sunny. For this reason, the dry season is also the peak tourist season.
The dry season, from May to August, yields pleasant weather that is similar to summer in the southern states. In Darwin during these months, humidity is low, the temperature is almost monotonously constant (around 30 degrees), and the days are warm and pleasantly sunny. For this reason, the dry season is also the peak tourist season.
The tropical cyclones, choppy seas, endless days of rain and high humidity levels would indicate that the wet season is not the time to visit the Top End, but there are actually two sides to this picture. The wet season also brings forth the lush scenic beauty, raging waterfalls, an abundance of barramundi for those who love fishing, low prices all round and a lack of crowds at popular tourist haunts. September to December are usually very humid and quite unbearable, so it is best to stay away during those months if you find humidity unbearable.
The Red Centre: Central Australia is an all-year round destination, but it is a desert region, and the desert climate is characterised by extremes, so in the winter months, which is the peak tourist season, along with the warm, dry and sunny days come freezing cold nights. July is usually the coldest month, and frosts do occur about half of the nights in July and August! In summer, nights are not as cold, but the days are much hotter.
The Tropical North: Darwin, and the Top End has a Wet and a Dry season. The rainfall, which is heaviest from November to March, brings spectacular waterfalls to life, wild flowers into bloom and some routes are made impassable. This contasts with the Dry season, where rain fall is non existant to just a few mm per month, humidity is low and temperatures are comfortable and steady.
The Red Centre: the climate here is one of extremes. Though it is desert, it has even snowed on four occasions last century in Alice Springs and on Uluru in 1997. Not only do it experience hot summers and cold winters, the diurnal range in temperature can be up to 28°C. Summers are hot, monsoon rains occur periodically. Autumn sees warm days and cool nights and not much variation. Winter bring pleasant days but night time temperatures can fall below zero degrees celsius. Spring can be said to be the most exiting season of the year with big changes in temperature from day to day, thunderstorms, hail and dust storms. It is also the wild flower season, usually peaking in September and early October.
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 About the Northern Territory: Around four-fifths of the Territory (1.09 million km2) lies within the tropics and the 6200 km coastline is generally flat and backed by swamps, mangroves and mudflats, rising to a plateau no higher than 450 m.
The northern quarter, known colloquially as the "Top End", is a distinct region of savannah woodlands and pockets of rainforest. In the north-east, the Arnhem Land plateau rises abruptly from the plain and continues to the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Much of the southern three-quarters of the Territory consists of desert or semi-arid plain. Darwin, the capital, is situated in the north-western corner of the Territory.
The population of the Northern Territory is only about 1% of the total population of Australia. Population centres include the capital, Darwin, nearby Palmerston and Alice Springs. Australian Aboriginal people make up 27 per cent of the Northern Territory's population and own some 49% of its land.
The vast distances and extreme conditions of the Territory dictated that road should become the major form of transport within the Territory, and air to and from it. Sealed roads include the three major interstate links - the Stuart Highway from Darwin to the South Australian border, the Barkly Highway from Tennant Creek to the Queensland border and the Victoria Highway from Katherine to the Western Australian border.
Darwin is a first port of call for many international aircraft flying from Asia. From Darwin there are connections to all Australian capital cities. The Port of Darwin is the foremost deep water port in the north of Australia. There are two other major ports in the Northern Territory - Milner Bay and Grove, both managed by mining companies. The Northern Territory's energy resources include oil, natural gas and uranium. Oil and gas exploration and production occurs onshore as well as in three areas offshore which continue to dominate energy exploration.
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Destinations - regional centres
Destinations - tourist
Experiences/Activities
Journeys - rail
Journeys - road
Journeys - cruises
Journeys - scenic flights
Journeys - hiking
| Regions of Northern Territory |
Area
- Total: 1,420,968 km2 (3rd)
- Land: 1,349,129 km2
- Water: 71,839 km2 (5.06%)
Population (2002)
- Population: 197,700 (8th)
- Density: 0.15/km2 (8th)
Abreviations
- Postal: NT
- ISO: 3166-2: AU-NT
Elevation
- Highest: Mount Zeil +1,531 m
Time zone: UTC+9.30 (+10:30 ACST)
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