NT possibilities in summer

When did you live up here?

I've been up around here since late(ish) 1973 and your last paragraph doesn't exactly line up with my experience, or my wife for that matter who was born here. Cyclones aren't that often but do need to be taken notice of and those who are in non cyclone coded accommodation, or are totally afraid of them, will relocate themselves to Adelaide River, Pine Ck or even to Katherine for the duration. As to the Stuart Hwy being cut for up to a week, even in those earlier days with some of the main rivers you were able to just use the railway bridges as an alternate. The last time it was cut for a while was when the train derailment at the Edith River happened from flash flooding, but that was just a few years ago. The longest duration I remember was when flooding closed it near Newcastle Waters during the 74/75 Wet Season but since the George Redmond Crossing was completed a few years later it hasn't been threatened again at that spot. But that's well South of the section of Highway being mentioned. Many places would get closed for short durations but usually only for a day or so. More delays happened on the Victoria Hwy and the Barkly at the Georgina. These days it isn't a regular occurrence for long(ish) delays on any of the 3 routes up here. We Seasons can vary a lot though.

For me, the Wet Season is the best time, unlike at the moment where it's been way too cold for way too long. I'll take our Wet Season and it's supposed suicide inducing conditions any day over a southern Winter or scorching Summer.

Hi Phil

We lived up there from late 90s to mid 2000s.

In that time there where sections of the Stuart Hwy closer to Katherine that would still flood and I do remember after one cyclone dumping it stayed closed for nearly a week. The news showed road trains all queued up on the road. This also happens all over the NT at time. Another place is on the way to WA - a section there gets news coverage with travellers being stuck for a week with rivers flooding.

Yes they have built new higher bridges over most of the problem areas but some are just major flood ways where no bridge can cover.

And then there is the Arnhem Hwy being flooded from Windows on the Wetlands onwards. That happened almost every season. You would see the trucks driving through water to get out to Jabiru by just seeing the tops of the white posts.

Using the railway bridge might be OK for a 4x4 but those with caravans might have trouble or those with standard height cars would not make it. And the road trains - can't see them on a rail track. Nor can I see the Rail authorities allowing cars over their bridges. I would not be comfortable driving over one of the old abandoned bridges.

I agree with you that the wet season is some of the best times in the top end but that is not how the mexicans see it. For people living in the NT it is just so dry and boring during winter it is great to see the first rains, and green frog tadpoles growing in every water source around the house.

Serendipity

Compared to the old road to Katherine (1.5 lanes width, no white lines, all low level crossings, Buffaloes, Road-trains, the old North Australian Railway crossings, windy, longer and slower) it's now a doddle. In fact it then used to be narrow bitumen all the way to Alice. It used to be an adventure in the 70's, just like the 900km route from the NT/SA border to Pimba on the dirt was.

Yes you can't build for the highest river levels at reasonable cost but the delays aren't really that bad and more and longer happen from closures after vehicle/truck accidents.

The Arnhem Hwy does need upgrading, especially from the Stuart to past the Mt Bundy quarries. That section just East of the Adelaide River has always flooded and generally a smaller stretch just on the Western side as well. The Eastern stretch though used to be completely devoid of trees on the flood plain due to the effects of the wild Buffaloes. In early 1974 we were trying to get to a Lagoon on the other side for some water skiing but were stopped at the bridge. Some friends just backed the trailer off of the road and went skiing on the plains anyway. Got some great views of "beach" landings on the bitumen road and the boat tied up to a white post. Not as many crocs around back then.

As to the railway bridges, back then the ones at the Adelaide River township, the Ferguson and the Katherine one itself were regularly used as alternate vehicle usage when the low level crossings were closed. Katherine and Adelaide River definitely had planks on them to allow vehicle usage. The Ferguson one I used once and it was in a Falcon and it was the worst but very little exhaust damage done. For a year I was living within view of the Katherine one and it was most definitely often used by Road-trains as well as all other traffic as the only other crossing was at the Low Level Reserve out West of the town and it was out for quite some time. The Armco guard railings did suffer a lot but helped to keep the Road-train trailers lined up. The first we knew about Cyclone Tracy was the stream of damaged vehicles pouring across the rail bridge on Christmas day. The Adelaide River and Katherine old rail bridges are abandoned as far as vehicle/train usage goes but the Ferguson one was resurrected and strengthened for the current railway but all 3 places now have high level road bridges anyway.