The Top End
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Hidden wetland parks and reserves, east from Darwin, remain largely unvisited by tourists en route to Kakadu, but these floodplain locations have many unique attractions of their own WORDS BY DICK EUSSEN WINDOWS ON THE WETLANDS Beyond Humpty Doo, 40km south of Darwin, is Beatrice Hill - a solitary three-peaked knoll that rises above the Adelaide River floodplain. Naval officers Hutchinson and Howard named it on 6 June 1864 while they were surveying the Adelaide River on board HMS Beatrice. The local Limilngan-Wulna people, who call it ‘Lidawi’, then used the hill as a wet-season retreat and escape. It represents an important turtle-dreaming site called ‘Lulak’.
Later, buffalo hunters camped on it, and the CSIRO operated a tropical research station on it after the hunters departed. When the Northern Territory became self-governing in 1979, the new government took the research station over and converted it to a prison farm in the 1980s. More recently, the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory took over the hill and converted it into a domestic buffalo research station and an information centre about the Top End floodplains.
A tall, imposing building now rises above the hill. ‘Windows on the Wetlands’ is a unique centre that has 360 degree views of the surrounding wetlands and monsoon forests towards Darwin and Humpty Doo - an outlying rural ‘suburb’ of Darwin.
Information and photographs are presented in the centre on how animals and plants cope with the annual inundation of the plain, the wet and dry seasons, the ongoing problems of invasive feral animals and plants, and the local Aboriginal and European history.
A section of the centre is like a museum and displays many interesting historical photos of events that have shaped the plains. Touch-screen computers allow visitors an interactive experience to find detailed information on the floodplain’s environment.
The multi-storey building, which stands tall above the hills, commands sweeping vistas and is a popular photo and viewing place for wet-season storms that sweep in from the Kakadu National Park almost every evening once the build-up of the wet season commences in October. It is a beautiful spot and well worth the visit.
‘Windows on the Wetlands’ is an excellent place from which to plan your Top End park experience. The Parks and Wildlife Commission is responsible for many parks and reserves that are easily accessed from the Arnhem Highway, and information on them is readily available at the centre.
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