About the region: Mysterious and beautiful, Arnhem Land is a vast area more than four times the size of Kakadu National Park. Inhabited by about 18,000 Aboriginal people and largely untouched by tourism development, the home of the world's oldest living culture has only recently become accessible to a tightly restricted number of visitors. The coastal areas of this huge tract of tropical land are characterised by mangrove swamps and tidal rivers, whereas the inland is mainly tropical jungle, swamps and gorges. The Aborigines of the region tend to live near the coast where fish are abundant and life is relatively easy.
Arnhem Land's unique wetland areas are host to an astonishing array of bird, animal and marine life. Billabongs and paperbark swamps where the Jacana (or Jesus bird) walks the waters on an aquatic forest of lily pads are home to myriad of birdlife. Large saltwater crocodiles inhabit the billabongs where are also found the Northern Territory's famous fighting game fish, the barramundi.

Alcan aluminium refinery, Gove Peninsula	Wild buffalo

The name Arnhem Land was first seen on maps drawn by Dutch cartographers following the visit of Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in April 1644. On the charts he drew he marked the mainland he sailed alongside as Arnhem's Land, as it was in that locality that the Dutch vessel, Arnhem, captained by Willem van Coolsteerdt had explored in May 1623. In February 1803, acknowledged the visit in that Coolsteerdt had named one of the cliffs Cape Hollandia after his homeland and marked his own charts with the names Cape Arnhem and Arnhem Bay. It is likely that the Australian Aborigines as a race came through Arnhem Land when they made their way across the Indonesian archipelago and first settled the Australian continent some 40-50,000 years ago. Aspects of Arnhem Land Aboriginal culture and language, particularly those on the coast, indicate they were regularly visited by Indonesian and Malaccan sailors and traders. Coolsteerdt (1623), Tasman (1644) and Matthew Flinders (1803) made the first recorded visits by European sailors to these shores. Ludwig Leichhardt travelled through the area on his 1844-45 journey from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, being the first white man to see Arnhem Land on foot. South Australian surveyor David Lindsay was commissioned to explore the central and eastern sections of Arnhem Land in 1883. He met with strong resistance from the local Aborigines and at one point his party was attacked by over 300 men.

Goyder River	Elcho Island

Attempts were made by pastoralists to establish cattle stations but the first success at permanent settlement here by whites came with the establishment of a mission station in 1908 by the Church Mission Society. In 1916 the Northern Territory Administration bought Paddy Cahill's cattle station at Oenpelli and in 1920 the 2400 sq. miles around the station were converted into an Aboriginal reserve. At the same time the Methodist Overseas Mission established a mission at Galiwinku, on Elcho Island, 500 km east of Darwin, which is now one of the largest communities in Arnhem Land with a population of over 1000 people. In 1931, all of Arnhem Land became an Aboriginal reserve. During World War II over 5,000 servicemen were stationed on Gove Peninsula. In the early 1970s, bauxite and later uranium was discovered and in 1979 permission was granted to mine yellow cake.

Mount Borradaile region: Situated in the northwest corner of Arnhem Land and adjacent to Kakadu National Park and Cobourg Peninsula in Australia's Northern Territory lies a vast sub-tropical savannah that has been described as a national treasure trove depicting ancient human occupation, and a pristine wilderness area hosting myriad ecosystems and wildlife inhabitants. Intense media interest has resulted in television documentaries and magazine articles featuring the Mount Borradaile region of Arnhem Land reaching a worldwide audience.
Bushwalking is a great way to discover the botanical wonders of the area, some of the plant species here are found nowhere else in the world, along with insect species such as the beautifully coloured Leichhardt's Grasshopper. It is not unusual for a dingo, rock wallaby or goanna to crosses one's path, and the birdlife is incredible, being home to more than 200 species.

Some of the rock paintings at Mount Borradaile have been dated as originating 50,000 years in the past. This art provides the pictorial evidence of the spiritual beliefs and historical events that are the heritage of the world's oldest surviving culture - some has been dated from 45,000 years before the Great Pyramid of Cheops was constructed, others depict more recent European visitations. The Rainbow Serpent, one of many motifs depicted in the art, is said to have originated in this region at the dawn of the Dreamtime and travelled throughout the land creating mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes and plains in its passing. It finally came to rest in Central Australia and from its being emerged spirit people who dispersed to all parts of the country, to create varied but essentially similar lifestyles within the tribal boundaries of their own Dreaming land, with many different languages evolving during this process. Walya-Nam-Adiki (my mother the land) features strongly in Arnhem Land Dreamtime lore, bearing many spirit children to populate the land.
Ancestral spirits still live in the indigenous world of today, in the form of animals, rocks, stars, hills and other sacred places and objects, powerful symbols of an ancient culture that has survived, largely unchanged, for an astonishing 65,000 years. Catacombs and grottos forged by nature over millions of years contain burial sites with human remains, which may be viewed but not photographed, in accordance with the wishes of the traditional custodians of the region. Artefacts of stone and wood, tools and weapons from the distant past, are to be found in many locations. Much of Arnhem Land is still unexplored and there may be many more treasures of antiquity yet to be discovered.