I have to admit that many years ago on Claudia’s and my first visit to this natural gem I didn’t appreciate this that much. Back then, Kakadu seemed to be a park with long distances between the points of interest, high temperatures, and gazillions of mozzies. Thanks to some excellent ranger-guided tours, this time I got a deeper understanding about the intricacies of the park and its significance for its traditional owners.
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| The Thylacine got extinct on mainland Australia around 4,000 years ago, so this painting must be older |
For example, we learn about the Aborigine law in kinship, about their elaborate rules to prevent intermarriage. Of course the rangers explain how natural resources got utilised, as tools, weapons, food. From generation to generation, over tens of thousands of years, knowledge has been handed down: On how to prepare a toxic plant so it becomes eatable; where to find water; when to hunt turtles so they are fleshiest etc. One of the most important skills, which nowadays is used by the “white fellas” as well, is about using controlled bush fires to maintain a healthy natural environment.
When in the Seventies, before Kakadu was declared a national park, mining companies mapped sections with high uranium deposits, they matched those no-go areas that Aborigines had learned to avoid: For generations they had known that living in these areas would result in early death or miscarriages. Asking them could have saved the mining corporations millions of dollars. :-)
Today, Kakadu National Park is jointly managed by aborigines and white fellas. Some decades ago the land was given back to its traditional owners, then leased back to the National Parks Organisation. Step by step English names for certain spots are reverted to their original names, a tendency that can be observed throughout the Northern Territory: Ayers Rock has become Uluru again, the Olgas are Kata Tjuta, Nourlangie Rock is now Burrunggui.
As mentioned above, we spend a lot of time on ranger-guided tours. Apart from that we enjoy the sunset at Ubirr, overlooking Arnhem Land and Kakadu’s rocky escarpments and floodplains. In the East Alligator River, just next to Cahills Crossing, the passage into Arnhem Land, we see so many (saltwater) crocodiles that you could reach the opposite river bank by hopping from croc to croc. Definitely not a good spot for swimming!
We see even more crocs plus an abundance of other wildlife on two boat cruises on Yellow Water, the billabong and huge floodplains of the South Alligator River: One at sunset, one at sunrise.
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| Waiting — for you! |
Finally a short note for German readers: The name Kakadu is derived from the word Gagadju, the name of one of the local Aborigine languages. It has nothing to do with the cockatoo (German: Kakadu). Though we indeed spot quite a lot of red-tailed black cockatoos — and certainly there are other varieties around as well —, don’t expect an abundance of these birds in Kakadu National Park.
[Muriella Park, Kakadu NP, 20.-21. August]
[Jabiru, Kakadu NP, 21.-23. August]
[Cooinda, Kakadu NP, 23.-24. August]
