Kakadu National Park - On Living Country

Kakadu is a vibrant national park cast across the tropical part of Australia’s Northern Territory. It is a place filled with life and wonder, susceptible to heat and rain, especially during the wet season. Containing both bush and wetlands, Kakadu is the largest national park in Australia, spanning almost 20 000 square kilometres. Amid such a huge area it is easy to feel small or lost – but never alone. Always, one is accompanied by plants, birdlife, insects, and animals that may not speak as we do but are nonetheless far from silent. No matter where you are in Kakadu, there is another life nearby.

View from a popular lookout in Kakadu National Park

A 150km day trip from Darwin exposes a mere snapshot of its features, and an overnight trip unlocks even more of its natural beauty. When visiting, a range of activities gives a greater scope of its diversity. Walking, boating, cruising on crocodile inhabited billabongs, and learning about bush food and country are all on offer. More than half of the park is Aboriginal land, and traditional owners have an important influence over all of its management, as they liaise with Parks Australia. At the park's heart is the remote town of Jabiru. Approximately 250 km from Darwin, the town provides a base for travellers and a centre for local people.

The rocks are covered in multiple places with artwork by the traditional Indigenous owners, who have lived in Kakadu for 65 000 years. The rock art depicts spiritual beings as well as animals, such as wallabies, who live in the Kakadu region. Still stewarded by Indigenous rangers, sections of Kakadu are accessible by comparatively recent human-made roads, although in parts a four-wheel-drive is necessary. There are waterfalls such as Jim Jim Falls to discover, and tracks to hike. Vast swathes of Kakadu are still remote. When standing on the ground of the national park, it feels like Kakadu is a world unto itself. There is enough happening ecologically and environmentally within its bounds, that the outside world seems distant.

Kakadu National Park is a gateway into a part of the Northern Territory iconic for its varied species and the breadth of its living landscape. It reinforces the truth that across Australia, there are places of significant difference that have been inhabited for millennia and are still here today. It is paramount they are preserved into the future so that their spirit does not die out. Just as we are alive, so are these elements of the natural world alive; we are amongst them, and our survival is intertwined.