If you want to take a trip of a lifetime while also minimising your impact on the environment, communities and cultures you encounter, this road trip is the way to go. From natural wetlands and landscapes to ancient or contemporary Aboriginal art along with the Territory’s multicultural capital city Darwin, here's how to experience the Top End and make a positive impact.
Day 1
Pay it forward
Get yourself Territory ready in Darwin, shopping for everything from tropical fashion to books about First Nations culture and skincare infused with native botanicals. Tick these boxes and more at Aboriginal Bush Traders, a not-for-profit that only sells sustainable, ethically sourced goods from local Aboriginal people. Purchases complete, treat yourself at their café where native ingredients are celebrated.
Other sustainability-minded shops include House of Darwin, a social enterprise offering clothes with street cred, and Ginger Pink, whose slow fashion and accessories are made for the tropics by local creatives and small family-run businesses.
Get back to nature
Meet the locals, including saltwater crocodiles, Darwin carpet pythons and blue-winged kookaburras, at the Territory Wildlife Park. There are regular talks, presentations and feeding sessions with animals native to the Top End, so your visit is sure to be fun and educational.
Plus, your entry fee and purchases (including at the café, where packaging is biodegradable and compostable) support the Park’s work to save rare and endangered local species. Currently that includes northern quoll and black-footed tree-rat captive breeding programs.
Walk, eat, repeat
There is no more sustainable mode of transport than your own two feet. Join Darwin Gourmet Tours’ progressive dinner walk, which showcases native ingredients, local produce and local food culture. From papaya to prawns, or kangaroo to Kakadu plums, experience a feast of flavours at several Darwin restaurants. This small-group tour also takes in the city’s award-winning street art.
Day 2
Say g’day to Kakadu
It’s 250km to Jabiru, the town within Kakadu National Park, so make an early start. Covering almost 2 million hectares, this Aboriginal-owned and UNESCO World Heritage-listed park is a wonderland of remarkable geology, life-giving waters, fascinating flora and fauna, vast skies and timeless Aboriginal culture. Break your drive at the Park’s Mamukala Wetlands, where birds including magpie geese, cormorants and kingfishers abound.
Delve deeper
Take a closer look at Kakadu’s aquatic side on the Guluyambi Cultural Cruise. Departing about 45 minutes’ drive from Jabiru, this unique experience is offered by Aboriginal owned and managed Kakadu Cultural Tours. For 100-plus amazing minutes, soak up the East Alligator River’s sights and sounds while learning about your local Aboriginal guide’s culture. From traditional uses of this ecosystem’s abundant plants and animals to tools for hunting and gathering, its culture intertwined with nature.
Admire art old & new
In Jabiru visit Aboriginal-owned Marrawuddi Arts and Culture. From bark paintings to handwoven baskets, you will surely find souvenirs to treasure forever among the local Aboriginal art offered here. Then, just 30 minutes’ drive away, see Aboriginal art that is thousands of years old at the internationally significant Ubirr rock-art site. Time your visit to coincide with the free sunset walk-and-talk led by a park ranger.
Rest assured
Overnight at Jabiru’s Mercure Kakadu Crocodile Hotel, part of Kakadu Tourism, an Indigenous-owned collection of businesses committed to local people and the planet. You will find Aboriginal artworks around this four-star hotel, meet Aboriginal staff, and enjoy dinner knowing food scraps will be composted or fed to local communities’ animals, and cooking oil will become biofuel and feedstock. Kakadu Tourism also has a comprehensive recycling program in place, which diverts materials including plastics, steel and motor oil from landfill.
Day 3
Walk to awe-inspiring art & views
Pack a picnic (including reusable plates, cups and cutlery if possible) and drive 30 minutes south to the Burrungkuy (Nourlangie) area. Easy trails lead to Anbangbang Billabong and its abundant birdlife, and lookouts with picnic-perfect panoramas of savanna woodland and monumental red-rock escarpments.
You can also easily walk to two rock-art sites, including Burrungkuy (Nourlangie). Time your visit according to the free ranger-led walk-and-talk to be sure of spotting images of creation ancestors including Namarrgon, the Lightning Man, and depressions in the rock formed by people grinding food long ago. At the Nanguluwurr site, see a striking example of ‘contact art’: an image of a two-masted sailing ship.
Delve even deeper
Continue about 30 minutes to Warradjan Cultural Centre, where you can learn about Kakadu’s Traditional Owners: the Bininj from the north and Mungguy from the south. From dilly bags to a goose-hunting platforms, authentic artefacts illustrate their traditional way of life, and creation ancestors are revealed through sight and sound.
Live the dream
A few kilometres further along is Kakadu Tourism’s Cooinda Lodge, located beside Yellow Water Billabong. This village-style property includes restaurants showcasing Top End flavours, and a range of accommodation. For luxury and sustainability, book one of the new Yellow Water Villas. Built on stilts to minimise environmental impact, these eco-retreats are shaded by trees. Not one was cut down to make way for these five villas, which are individually decorated with the creations of local Aboriginal artists and craftspeople.
Day 4
Watch the sun rise like never before
One of the region’s must-do tours starts right on your doorstep. Kakadu Tourism’s Yellow Water scenic cruise departs several times through the day, starting at dawn when the big sky is a kaleidoscope of colour. Watch this wetland ecosystem waking up, including saltwater crocodiles, countless birds like jabirus and egrets, and exquisite waterlilies.
Enter another world
From Cooinda Lodge it’s 280km to Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge on Jawoyn country. This is your base camp in Nitmiluk National Park, a jaw-dropping landscape of pools, waterfalls, caves, escarpments and 13 towering, interconnected gorges carved through golden sandstone by the Katherine River.
Nitmiluk Tours has your accommodation, tour and dining needs covered, starting with a riverside lunch at Nitmiluk Café. Later, kick back at Cicada Lodge’s restaurant, which highlights seasonal native herbs and fruits. Aboriginal owned and operated, Nitmiluk Tours provides employment and training for Jawoyn people, and help fund services and programs for this community.
Paddle through paradise
Get to know the gorges at your own pace with Nitmiluk Tours’ rental canoes. Gaze up at walls of weathered rock 70m high on either side, spot wildlife such as ospreys and red-winged parrots, and pause in shady spots including rainforest-like hanging gardens. Be sure to stay hydrated, and wear bathers so you can take a refreshing dip in cool, shallow areas.
Day 5
Choose your own adventure
How will you spend the morning? Consider hitting the walking trails leading to epic lookouts and seasonal waterfalls, and enjoying another swim along the way. Or go 15m underground in the Cutta Cutta Caves just beyond the national park. On Nitmiluk Tours’ guided cave experience, wonder at sparkling stalactites and stalagmites, and rare bat species.
See the bigger picture
Check out First Nation’s creativity in the town of Katherine. At Mimi Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, you can browse, buy and often see artists in action. This Indigenous-owned not-for-profit centre represents artists from around the region, and not only pays them fairly but also reinvests proceeds into artist resourcing and training.
Top Didj offer creativity from across the Top End, as well as a multi-faceted cultural experience with an Aboriginal artist. This gallery is a member of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia, which promotes accountability, integrity and transparency in the Indigenous art market.
Switch to cruise control
Enjoy a three-course meal while gliding along Nitmiluk Gorge in theatrical late-afternoon light, when the rock glows like fire. Your Nabilil Dreaming Sunset Dinner Tour guide will provide insights about this unique environment and Jawoyn culture, including their Dreamtime stories – like how creation ancestor Nabilil named this area Nitmiluk after the cicadas he heard chirping here.
On a short walk midway through the tour, your guide will also reveal rock art painted thousands of years ago. Back on the boat, raise a flute of fizz to an unforgettable place and the world’s oldest living culture.
Day 6
Make a splash
Today you’re returning to Darwin, which is about 300km from Katherine, but there’s ample time on your way north to stop at Leliyn (Edith Falls). The kiosk, barbecues, picnic facilities and priceless views make this spot in Nitmiluk National Park a must-see. Swim in the main pool at the cascading waterfall’s base, and walk the one-hour Leliyn Trail for a dip in the upper pool, plus breathtaking vistas of the falls and Edith River.
Go turtle-y wild
Get back to Darwin in time for dinner – with turtles no less. Sea Darwin’s sunset Turtle Tracks tour takes you to Bare Sand Island with the Kenbi traditional owners’ permission. With great care for the animals’ welfare, your guide will almost certainly be able to point out nesting flatback and olive ridley sea turtles – and possibly little hatchlings scurrying from nest to sea.
Back on the boat, dinner is served without any single-use plastic in sight. Packaging is either eco-friendly sugarcane or cardboard, and cutlery is made from sustainably produced bamboo. Since 2010, 5% of this tour’s ticket sales have been donated to conservation organisation AusTurtle. Sea Darwin’s other sustainability initiatives include participation in marine clean-ups, and contributing data for marine research.
Day 7
Park yourself here
Another day, another Top End national park. Just an hour’s drive south of Darwin, Litchfield National Park has everything from waterfalls and monsoonal rainforest to stone country and giant termite mounds. Take your own wheels, or take a break from driving and reduce your carbon footprint by joining a small-group tour.
Ethical Adventures offers the best of the park in a day, including Florence, Wangi and Tolmer falls, safe swimming spots and cracking views. Your guide also provides insights about the environment and the Marranunggu, Koongurrukun, Werat and Warray peoples’ culture. From using biodiesel to supporting local businesses and organisations, Ethical Adventures strives to live up to its name.
Celebrate sustainably
Back in Darwin, cap off your adventure with a feast at Saffrron. This Indian restaurant has a Top End twist, including local barramundi and banana prawns. In fact, they only serve Top End seafood, while other ingredients are sourced from Darwin’s markets and regional producers. Waste is minimised with the Eco Passive compositing system, cooking oil is sent for reuse as biofuel, and if you prefer to relax at your accommodation there’s more good news: Saffrron uses BioPak takeaway containers.