Northern Territory tourist information
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Time
The Northern Territory is nine and a half hours ahead of GMT (GMT+9.5) and doesn't observe daylight saving. It is in the same time zone as South Australia during the winter, but an hour behind during the summer daylight saving period
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The Northern Territory is blessed with diverse and contrasting environments, where change is the only constant. Intriguing and spectacular wildlife vary dramatically from the deserts of Central Australia to the tropics of the Top End. "The NT" is renowned for its colourful outback characters, the type you'd meet at one of the legendary outback pubs, cattle stations or country towns, larger than life and only too willing to share a yarn or two. Fly to remote areas in helicopters or other small aircraft and take in the spectacular scenery, 4WD tracks let you explore places of natural wonder like Uluru. Tours led by traditional landowners allow you to learn about a culture that has survived for thousands of years including dreamtime stories, bush tucker, and their iconic art and crafts. Extreme fishing tours take you out to places teeming with barramundi and other species. Birdwatching tours open up breath-taking moments usually reserved for film. You can also stay in one of the many resorts and experience the unique surroundings from the side of a pool, sipping on a cocktail.
Darwin is the tropical capital city of the Northern Territory, a small yet cosmopolitan city with more than 50 nationalities making up its 110,000 population. Modern Darwin is more open to Asia than perhaps any other Australian city. It plays an important role as the front door to Australia's northern region and as a centre for administration and mining. The port facilities have recently had a major upgrade, and the completion in September 2003 of a railway link to Alice Springs and Adelaide has locals hoping Darwin will become the continent's transport hub with South-East Asia.
In the heart of Central Australia is Alice Springs, surrounded by cavernous gorges, boundless desert landscapes, remote Aboriginal communities and charming pioneering history. It embodies the hardy outback of the Northern Territory's Red Centre, and is a travel hub for sights and hikes in the region including Australia's most famous natural icon Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
Sweeping from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the West Australian border is Katherine, a small regional town with a population of less than 10,000 people. The diverse landscapes and unique ecosystems set the scene for outback adventure activities like fishing, canoeing, bushwalking, birdwatching, camping and four-wheel driving. The township is situated on the banks of the Katherine River, which flows down from the world-renowned Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk National Park).
171 km east of Darwin is Kakadu National Park and Arnhem Land comprise more than 110,000 square kilometres in the north-east corner of the Northern Territory. The landscapes of are diverse and set the scene for outback adventure travel, aboriginal culture and nature activities. Kakadu National Park is the largest national park in Australia. It contains one of the highest concentrated areas of aboriginal rock art sites in the world; the most famous examples are at Nourlangie Rock and Ubirr.
Tennant Creek is situated in the Red Centre of Australia, 500km north of Alice Springs and 1000km south of Darwin. The town is surrounded to the east by the Barkly Tablelands - a huge expanse of land that supports some of Australia’s premier outback cattle stations. Tennant Creek is right in the middle of the outback, but the country is beautiful and anything but barren with open mallee scrubland, surrounded by rocky ranges and brilliant blue skies that give way to millions of stars at night.
Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock)
The southern portion of the Northern Territory is home to UNESCO World Heritage area Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. It is best known for iconic Uluru (formerly known as "Ayers Rock"), a single massive rock formation, and also for Kata Tjuta (formerly known as "The Olgas"), a range of rock domes. Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are considered sacred places by the Anangu people, the Aboriginal tribes that have lived there for thousands of years, much of Kata Tjuta is off-limits and climbing Uluru is strongly discouraged.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Northern Territory
