Description of the attraction
The Kakadu National Park, located 170 km from Darwin, is a must-see for tourists visiting northern Australia.
They are attracted here by breathtaking landscapes, indigenous culture and an abundance of wildlife. The park is home to many popular waterfalls and gorges such as Maguk, Gunlom, Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls.
The country's largest national park stretches 200 km from north to south and more than 100 km from east to west in the Alligator Rivers region. The total area of the park is equal to that of Slovenia, or almost half the area of Switzerland.
The name of the park does not come from the name of the picturesque cockatoo bird, but from the incorrect pronunciation of the word "Gagadju", this is the name of the language spoken by the aborigines living in the northern part of the park.
The Kakadu is remarkably diverse ecologically and biologically. Here, 4 river systems, 6 large landscape forms, river estuaries and marshy lowlands, river floodplains, plains, mountain heights, more than 280 species of birds, about 60 species of mammals, 1,700 species of plants and more than 10 thousand species of insects are taken under protection!
Aboriginal people have lived in this area for the past 40 thousand years, and their cultural and household items are also protected in the park - here you can find more than 5 thousand places associated with aboriginal history. On the territory of the sites Ubirr, Burrungai and Nanguluvur there are unique examples of rock art of the ancient inhabitants of these places. Among the drawings - images of hunters and shamans, told for the descendants of the story of the creation of the world.
About half of the park is owned by the Aboriginal tribes of the Northern Territory, and, according to the law, the Park Directorate leases this land for the management of the national park. The aborigines living today on the territory of "Kakadu" (there are about 5 thousand of them) are the descendants of various tribes that have lived here since ancient times. Their lifestyle has changed in recent years, but their traditions and beliefs remain an important part of their culture.
The first non-native explorers of Australia's northern coastline included the Chinese, Malays and Portuguese, and the Dutch were the first documented descriptions. In 1644, Abel Tasman was the first to write a description of the contacts between Europeans and aborigines. A century and a half later, Matthew Flinders explored the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1802-1803. Between 1818 and 1822, the bay was visited by the English navigator Philip Parker Keane, who called this area the Alligator Rivers because of the huge number of crocodiles. In the middle of the 19th century, British settlements began to appear on the territory of the future Kakadu Park with varying success, and by the end of the century - the first missionaries. In the 20th century, gold and uranium were mined here.
Kakadu was founded at a time when Australian society became interested in the creation of national parks to conserve biodiversity and recognize Aboriginal land rights. Back in 1965, a project was developed to create a park in the Alligator Rivers region, but it was not until 1978 that the Australian Government agreed to lease these lands for conservation purposes. The current territory of the park was part of it in three stages from 1979 to 1991.
Flora "Kakadu" - one of the richest in northern Australia, more than 1700 species of plants are registered here! Moreover, each geographical zone of the park has its own unique flora. For example, on the territory of the so-called Stone Country, rocky vegetation predominates, which has adapted to extremely hot temperatures and prolonged droughts, alternating with periods of heavy rains. Monsoon forests - huge banyans and thorny kapoks with soft scarlet flowers - thrive in cool, humid gorges. In the southern hills, you can find endemic plants that only grow in the "Cockatoo", such as the koolpinensis eucalyptus. Sedge, mangroves, pandanas and cinchona grow in the swampy lowlands, which are flooded for several months of the year.
The varied habitats in the park support a striking variety of animals, including endemic, rare and endangered species. Given the extreme weather conditions in the park, many animals are only active at certain times of the day or during the year. On the territory of "Kakadu" there are about 60 species of mammals, most of them are nocturnal, which makes it difficult to meet with them. But there are also some that can be seen during the day, for example, wallabies and kangaroos (there are 8 types of them here!). Other common inhabitants of the park include wild dingo dogs, black wallaru (mountain kangaroos), speckled marsupial martens, large marsupial rats, and brown bandicoots. Dugongs are found in coastal waters.
The cultural and natural value of the Kakadu Park is internationally recognized - in 1992, the national park was included in the UNESCO List of World Natural and Cultural Heritage Sites.
