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About this site. Privacy Policy. Terms and Conditions. A range of accommodation is available within the Park and there are a number of camp sites and picnic areas. A number of airstrips suitable for light planes are available both inside and outside the Park. ANPWS, Research, surveys, monitoring and rehabilitation programs in the Park have focused on both the natural and cultural heritages: on wildlife, vegetation, water quality, fire, problem weeds and feral animals; rock art and archaeological sites, Aboriginal knowledge, oral history, use of plants and satisfaction as residents; visitor use and impacts; and Park information systems.
Monitoring is still discovering new species, and mapping of the plant communities most vulnerable to fire is also important. The Office of the Supervising Scientist also operates a research station in the Park, monitoring especially pollution.
In the Native Title Act recognised that native title could coexist with other rights on the same land. In the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act recognised the role of Aboriginal sustainable practices. The result in Kakadu has been the acceptance of the local people as participants in the governing process through five associations and their representatives. Ten of the fourteen members of the Kakadu Board of Management are Aboriginal people nominated by the traditional owners of Park lands, to ensure that the Service is aware of Aboriginal perspectives on park planning and management, and expects them to participate in them.
This regime of joint management is an admired model both at home and abroad, though publicly challenged for its limits on tourism by the Northern Territory government ANPWS, The Park is divided into four zones of increasing sensitivity with appropriate policies for each. Site-specific plans for a number of visitor destinations in the Park provide for their responsible management. Active management ensures that minimal damage is caused by weeds, feral animals, fire, tourism and other human uses such as mining, especially in the southeast, and over roadside gravel extraction pits which are being rehabilitated.
Weed control continues with a successful Mimosa pigra control program. The Commonwealth Government also supports a program outside the Park to prevent invasion from nearby infestations. Management of Salvinia molesta is high priority.
There has been a program to eradicate introduced feral, water buffalo as part of the national brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication programme. The effects of mining are monitored, but not regulated, by the Office of the Supervising Scientist.
The main past cause of natural environmental degradation has been the water buffalo, which damaged the native vegetation and caused erosion. However, these have been reduced from 20, in to less than and this population is being controlled.
Feral pigs, horses and donkeys are also targeted. Combating infestation by the poisonous cane toad has recently become necessary Pyers, Their effect on the local wildlife is so severe that the Park authorities may translocate quolls to an offshore island to save them UNESCO, Since their successful protection, the saltwater crocodiles have multiplied to some 5, in number and become very bold, attacking boats and swimmers.
Park officials have had to begun protecting tourists from them. The two weeds, giant sensitive plant Mimosa pigra and the waterweed Salvinia molesta , are currently of great concern because they can easily come to dominate wetland areas DASET, Much effort have been made to eradicate Mimosa pigra since it first appeared in the Park in , by a full-time team of six staff, using manual and herbicidal techniques Braithwaite et al. As a consequence, Kakadu, with no untreated occurrences of adult plants known in the Park, is one of the few estuarine river systems in the Northern Territory that is effectively free of the weed, but there is a constant threat of re-infestation.
Salvinia molesta infestation has been so severe that biological control, using the Salvinia weevil Cyrtobagous salvinae and mechanical harvesting, have been attempted, and in the Magela Creek system in the north-east of the Park was quarantined.
A number of other weeds also cause concern and are subject to control programmes. Fire, although a major threat in the dry season, is an integral part of Australian ecosystems. Since , a return to the traditional Aboriginal fire regime has been an objective of fire management. This creates a mosaic of burnt and unburnt patches which protects the area from the destructive hot fires used by European pastoralists. This is important in the traditional floodplain hunting areas of the natives who have tended to be excluded from consultation in the past.
Research and monitoring of the effects of fire in the Park has been a continuing priority, especially to prevent it spreading outside the Park.
Rock art is most seriously damaged by water flowing over the rock and by feral animals. These sites are also damaged by vegetation, termites, wasp nests, and vandalism by visitors, although the last is rare ANPWS, Leases for working three uranium mines within the area of the Park were granted in the s, before the National Park was proclaimed.
These have proved especially contentious. The Ranger mine in an enclave within the Park, has been worked open-cut since , the land having been ceded to the company by the Northern Land Council acting on behalf of the local tribes in , and the mining rights were transferred to the company in However, the mine had a long record of toxic spills into its surroundings.
With extensive and relatively unmodified natural vegetation and largely intact faunal composition, the park provides a unique opportunity to investigate large-scale evolutionary processes in a relatively intact landscape. Criterion x : The park is unique in protecting almost the entire catchment of a large tropical river and has one of the widest ranges of habitats and greatest number of species documented of any comparable area in tropical northern Australia. The property encompasses all the natural and cultural attributes necessary to convey its outstanding universal value.
The rock art and archaeological sites are not under threat. The natural attributes of the property are in good condition, with pressures from adjacent land uses, invasive species and tourism needing ongoing attention.
Some past land degradation from small-scale mining and over-stocking that occurred in the area that was included in the property in has been addressed through restoration measures.
As is the case for many protected areas, the straight-line boundaries of Kakadu are artificial ones. They relate to a long history of administrative land use decisions with the Northern Territory Government and the Arnhem Land aboriginal reservation. Although the South Alligator River drainage basin is contained within the park, headwaters of other rivers lie outside. There are also important natural values in the Cobourg Peninsula and in some of the coastal wetlands to the west of the park.
There are mining interests adjacent to the property, and the long-term aspects of waste disposal and eventual recovery required ongoing attention and scrutiny. In addition to the uranium mine at Ranger, which is excised from the property, there is one other excised lease at Jabiluka which is located close to an important floodplain inside the park.
A third previously excised area at Koongarra was incorporated into the property in , at the request of the State Party and the Traditional Owner. Large areas of Kakadu are virtually inaccessible to people other than the Indigenous traditional owners, and the Indigenous and non-Indigenous national park managers.
Cultural sites are therefore subject to little interference. The property is well protected by legislation and is co-managed with the Aboriginal traditional owners, which is an essential aspect of the management system. These arrangements ensure that the park has effective legal protection, a sound planning framework and that management issues are addressed. It aims to protect the values of the World Heritage properties, including from impacts originating outside the property.
By law, any action that has, will have, or is likely to have, a significant impact on the values of the World Heritage property, must be referred to the responsible Minister for consideration. Penalties apply for taking such an action without approval, and the Act has been tested in court in relation to protection of the values of World Heritage properties.
Once a heritage place is listed, the Act provides for the preparation of management plans which set out the significant heritage aspects of the place and how the values of the site will be managed. In , Kakadu was added to the National Heritage List, in recognition of its national heritage significance under the Act.
The gallery also includes a painting of a pipe-smoking European whose body is X-rayed through his clothing. It is thought this was probably painted around and depicts a buffalo hunter who was working in the area. The track winds around to the lookout. On the way there are two galleries - one is located underneath a rock overhang and the other depicts the Namarrkan Sisters. The last section of the walk around the Ubirr gallery depicts the Rainbow Serpent on a cliff wall above an occupation site.
The notice at this point outlines the importance of the site by pointing out that "the dark mounded soil at the base of the cliffs is evidence of Aboriginal occupation on this site. The deposit accumulated over time from fires and organic remains which were left on the site as First Nation people utilised the rich resources of Ubirr - its waterfowl, fish, reptiles and mammals.
Though the site was used for day-to-day shelter it has also been extensively painted. Scientific investigation of occupation deposits in this region has yielded evidence for man's presence in Northern Australia dating back some 23, years.
First Nation people believe however that they and their ancestors have occupied the land forever, since the landscape assumed its present shape in the era of creation which they sometimes refer to as the Dreaming. Brockman Massif. There are over sacred sites in this area, some dating back 20, years.
Some of the sites are designated sacred-dangerous and therefore not open to the public. The area has a number of cave sites and there is evidence of quarries where the local First Nation people made their stone implements. Interestingly some of the caves include drawings of thylacines, Tasmanian tigers, which presumably lived in the area at the time the paintings were done.
There are a number of walks at Nourlangie Rock including walks to the lookouts at Gunwarrdehwarde and Nawurlandja and a walk around Anbangbang Billabong. Anbangbang Gallery It is only a short walk a 1. Namarrgon the Lightning Man. The stone axes on his knees and elbows make the thunder. The story of the Lightning Man, as explained by the local First Nation people, is that Namarrgon, his wife Barrginj and their children, Aljurr, came from the north coast searching for a good place to settle.
Namarrgon now lives at Lightning Dreaming which can be seen from Gunwarrdehwarde Lookout. When Namarrgon wants to make lightning he strikes his stone axes on the ground or against the clouds. The actual lightning is his children - Aljurr - which means 'little lightning'.
Both the Lightning Man and Nabulwinjbulwinj were actually repainted in by Nayombolmi Barramundi Charlie of the Badmardi clan in the style of the earlier works which were fading due to the weather. The area also includes the Anbangbang Shelter which was used as a shelter during the wet season for at least the last 20, years and the Nanguluwurr Gallery, another art site, which is a 4 km return walk through the woodland. Yellow Water Located 57 km south of Jabiru, the Yellow Water billabong is one of the most famous areas within the park.
Whistling Ducks and Magpie Geese are the most abundant. Our guides run a competition between themselves on who can find "the big five" on one cruise - all five species of kingfisher that can be found in Kakadu. One species is only 2 cm tall. There are plenty of crocodiles in their natural habitat, and buffalo on the floodplains. A huge Jabiru's nest is nearby, and depending on the season, Brolgas can be found dancing.
There is no simple solution. In the 'dry', access is possible via a difficult 60 km road the last 11 km are 4WD only , the water dries up and the falls often don't fall.
In the 'wet' when the falls are at their most spectacular it is impossible to drive any vehicle into the area.
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