Outback
Northern Territory is a great area to visit.
Stuart
Highway is a great drive right through the middle of Australia’s
Red
Centre.
It goes all the way from Darwin
in the Top End of Northern
Territory to Port Augusta in South
Australia, and nowadays you can make the same
trip on the classic train The Ghan. Here is some information about the
trip, and in the end of the page is an Australian outback map, showing
the route.
Stuart Highway. By AllPosters. Click on thumbnail to buy
In the Northern End -
Darwin Darwin
is the capital of Northern Territory and a great city to visit. There
are a few good museums and crocodile parks as well as the famous wharf
and Mindil Bay Markets. Some of the places to stay are Asti
Motel, Banyan
View Lodge, Barramundi
Lodge, Chilli's
Backpackers, Comfort
Inn Vitina, Hi
Way Inn Motel, Holiday
Inn, Melaleuca
on Mitchell, Palms
Motel, Paravista
Motel, Poinciana
Inn, Value
Inn, and Youth
Shack. For
campers there are the
Hidden
Valley Tourist Park and Shady
Glen Tourist Park.
Stuart Highway - Litchfield National Park
As you drive south from Darwin,
you pass by Darwin Crocodile Farm,
Noonamah, and then the turnoff to Northern Territory Wildlife Park,
Berry Springs Nature Park and Orchid Gardens. Further south is Lake
Bennett, and not far south of it is the turnoff to Bachelor and Litchfield
National Park.
Bachelor is
a small
township, mainly known as the gateway to the park, and as Australia’s
first uranium mine. Today there are the Rum Jungle Hotel (named after a
rum supply wagon got bogged here in the 1800s, yum) and a few other
places
to stay.
Litchfield NP. Courtesy of
Tourism Northern Territory
Stuart Highway - Adelaide River and Pine Creek
Back on the highway, further south you come to Adelaide River – a
friendly township with a hotel (pub), police office and railway
station, and both Aboriginal
and European history. Adelaide
River
was
also one of the military headquarters during the WWII. A nice place to
stay is Mount
Bundy Station.
Further south along the highway you pass by Hayes Creek and Emerald
Springs Roadhouses, and
then you get to Pine
Creek.
Pine Creek is a small friendly town, known
for its gold rush in the 1800s. Today there are the National Trust
Museum,
Railway Station Museum and an open-cut gold mine. There are a few
caravan parks and the Bonrook
Country Stay.
Pine Creek. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Katherine
South of Pine Creek is Katherine
– the biggest town in the area. There
is a visitor information centre on the main road, and some places to
visit are Katherine Museum, Railway Museum, and Katherine School of the
Air. Places to stay include All
Seasons, Best
Western
Pinetree, Donkey
Camp Bed and Breakfast, Katherine
Motel, Knott’s
Crossing Resort, Maud
Creek Country Lodge and Springvale
Homestead.
Katherine. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Katherine
Gorge and
Cutta Cutta
Caves
Katherine’s best attractions however are outside the town. North-east
of the town is the famous Katherine
Gorge in Nitmiluk
National Park where there are some great
bushwalks, the longest to Edith Falls; and the gorge is very popular
with kayakers although you can also take a boat tour. A great place to
stay here is Nitmiluk
Chalets.
Campervan Hire - Compare Australian Big
Companies Here
South-east of
Katherine is Cutta Cutta
Caves
– some of the best limestone caves in
Australia. The caves are a part of some 1500 hectares of karst
landscape and there are some excellent stalactites and stalagmites. The
caves are also home for some rare species of bats
and snakes.
Katherine Gorge. By AllPosters. Click on
thumbnail to buy
Stuart Highway - Mataranka
South of Katherine is Mataranka – a small town famous for Elsey
National Park and Mataranka
Thermal
Pools. It’s a great place to have a
dip, with water constantly 34°C. In the Elsey National Park, there are
also Bitter Springs, Stevie’s Hole, Mataranka Falls and a botanic walk.
The area was the scene of the book “We of the Never Never” and if you
know the book, you may want to go and see the Elsey Homestead replica
and the Elsey Graves. Places to stay in Mataranka include Territory
Manor Hotel, Mataranka
Homestead Tourist Resort and Coodardie
Station Stay.
Mataranka. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Larrimah
South from Mataranka the lush green vegetation ends and desert
landscapes start. The first stop is
Larrimah, a
tiny place with
Larrimah pub (which also is a hotel and
there are camping places there too). There is also a local museum, and
the old telegraph station, and some historical WWII sites.
Larrimah. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Daly
Waters
South of Larrimah is Daly
Waters. If you thought that Larrimah Pub was a classic
outback pub,
wait until you get to the one in Daly
Waters. It is a few kilometres
off the
main road, but worth turning in.
In
fact, it’s worth a
night
and a few beers with locals, and there is also a fair bit of
memorabilia to go through – the walls are covered in old ID cards, all
sorts of stickers and there is also a museum.
Daly Waters. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Dunmarra
South of Daly Waters is the Hi-Way Roadhouse, where Carpentaria Highway
goes to Gulf Savannah. South from Hi-Way is Dunmarra – another
small
place with the Dunmarra
Wayside Inn Hotel. Further south are more small places like
Newcastle
Waters, Elliott, Renner Springs Roadhouse, and the historical Attack
Creek and the Churchill's Head Rock.
Dunmarra. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Threeways
South from there is a john Flynn Memorial, and the Threeway Crossroad,
where Barkly Highway that comes from Mount
Isa
in the Outback
Queensland, joins the Stuart Highway. There
is a roadhouse and camping places right at the crossroad. A bit south
of the crossroad are the Pebbles, a Telegraph Station, and a bit more
sizeable town – Tennant Creek.
Threeways. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Tennant
Creek
There
is heaps to see and do in and around Tennant
Creek. It is a
historic gold mining town so today you can visit the Battery Hill
Mining Centre, but there are also the Nyinkka Nyunyu Aboriginal
Cultural Centre, the Pink Palace, May Ann Dam, Bill Allen Lookout,
Tuxworth-Fullwood
Museum, and Tennant Creek Telegraph Station. Places to stay include
Eldorado
Motor Inn, Bluestone
Motor Inn, and a few caravan parks.
Tennant Creek. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Devils
Marbles
South of Tennant Creek is Wauchope – a small one-pub town where there
is
accommodation in the Timbertown
Resort and Motel. Just outside the town are Devils Marbles –
some of
the most famous rock formations in Australia. They are large granite
boulders that balance on top of each other in a way that makes them
look like they should fall any minute. Local Aboriginal
People’s legend goes that they are eggs
of Rainbow Serpentine. There are some bushwalking tracks here and a
camping ground if you want to stay over the night and get some sunset
and sunrise photos of the marbles.
Devils Marbles. Poster by
AllPosters. Click on thumbnail to buy
Stuart Highway - Wycliffe
Well
South of the Devils Marbles is Wycliffe
Well, a place that has turned
its past UFO sightings into a tourist attraction and painted some walls
and put up some statues of aliens. There is also a pub, and camping as
well as accommodation in the Wycliffe
Well Holiday Park and Cabins.
Wycliff Well. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Barrow
Creek
South from Wycliffe Well is Barrow
Creek – a small historical place with a pub, an old telegraph
station and a few other historical buildings. In modern times, Barrow
Creek got famous for
the disappearance of the British backpacker Peter Falconio.
Barrow Creek. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Stuart Highway - Ti
Tree
Further south is Ti Tree, a small township with a roadhouse, shop and
camping places. Ti Tree
is
mostly famous for its Red Sands Art Gallery.
South of Ti Tree is another roadhouse with
an art gallery in Aileron.
It
was once part of the historical Glen
Maggie Station. Nowadays there is an Aboriginal Art Gallery that
displays some of the famous paintings by Albert Namatjira and
other famous Aboriginal artists.
Ti Tree. Courtesy of Tourism Northern
Territory
Travel in the Outback Northern Territory: Alice Springs
Just south of Aileron Roadhouse is the historical Ryan’s Well that was
built in the late 1800s and worked until the 1930s drawing artesian
water to
the surface. The next stop south is Alice
Springs – the largest town in the outback
Northern Territory.
Some of the places to stay in Alice Springs include Alice
Lodge Backpackers, Alice
Motor Inn, Desert
Palms Resort, Desert
Rose Inn, Toddy's
Backpackers and White
Gum Motel. Click
here for the
full list of Alice
Springs Accommodation.
Alice Springs. Poster by AllPosters. Click on thumbnail to buy.
Travel in the Outback Northern Territory - East of Alice Springs
East of the town are East
MacDonnells:
Corroboree Rock, Trephina Gorge,
Arltunga and Ruby Cap. Those places are less visited than the national
parks west of Alice,
but they are equally beautiful, although
some of them, particularly Ruby Cap is quite remote.
Rainbow Valley. Poster by
AllPosters. Click on thumbnail to buy
Stuart Highway - Rainbow
Valley and Chambers Pillar
There are also some remote side-trips south of Alice Springs. You can
reach Rainbow
Valley and Ooraminna Station either by
driving a dirt road south-east from Alice Springs, or by turning east
off the Stuart Highway south of Alice, at Stuarts Well Roadhouse.
Chambers Pillar
is also reached
by the same road, however the last part
of the road that takes you there is fairly rough so you definitely a
4WD vehicle.
Chambers Pillar. Poster by AllPosters.
Click on
thumbnail to buy
Travel in the Outback Northern Territory to South Australia
Further south along the Stuart Highway there are Erldunda Roadhouse and
Kulgera Roadhouse before you cross the Northern
Territory – South Australia border and
enter the outback of South
Australia, where the Stuart Highway continues
south towards Port Augusta. On the western side you have the huge
Victoria Desert,
and on the
eastern side you have Pedirka Desert,
Simpson Desert,
and further
east Sturt Stony, Tirari and Strzelecki
Deserts.
Simpson Desert. Poster by AllPosters. Click
on
thumbnail to buy
Stuart Highway - Coober Pedy
As you drive south along the highway, there are small places like Agnes
Creek, Chandler, Marl, and Cadney Homestead Roadhouse before you come
to Coober
Pedy – a town famous for its underground
homes, hotels and museums – a great solution to how to escape the
heat and dust storms. Places to stay include the Comfort
Inn Experience, Desert
Cave Hotel, Down
to Earth B&B, Mud
Hut Motel, Opal
Inn, and Radecka
Backpackers.
Coober Pedy. Poster by AllPosters. Click on thumbnail to buy
Travel in the Outback South
Australia: Lake
Eyre East of Coober
Pedy is the William Creek Road that goes to
Anna Creek, and further into Lake
Eyre National Park – a fantastic salt
lake, fairly dry during the droughts but when the rains do come along,
waterbirds do too. South of Lake Eyre, the Oodnadatta Track
takes you to
Curdimurka, Bopeechee and Marree; and further east are Strzelecki
Desert and Innaminka.
Lake Eyre. Poster by AllPosters. Click on thumbnail to buy
Here is an Australian outback map, showing the Stuart Highway. I have
tagged the places that I mentioned on this web page. You can click on
the tags to see what places they are, and double-click anywhere on the
map to zoom it in and see the places closer. Drag the map to move
around, and if you want to see the satellite image with Google Earth,
click on "Sat" in the top right hand corner.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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that all the information on this site is correct,
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