Kakadu National Park

Steve,

It was a magical place back in '84. It has undoubtedly changed a great deal since then.

I have been there and have my impressions. First time I went there Jim Jim Falls was closed.

Second time I went there was to see Jim Jim Falls. I asked at the entrance and was informed at the entrance that it was so I paid the exorbinate fee.

Got to the turn off to Jim Jim Falls and the gate was closed - with the closed sign clearly visible.

Prefer Litchfield. Tell Parks Australia North that we pay our taxes and don't expect to get ripped off again seeing a National Park that should be there for everyone.

To those that haven't been. Go and see it for yourself but make sure you have your wallet with you.

Hi Steve ..........

I was there on a professional tour bus in '87 with about thirty others from all states [God forbid ... I lived in Melbourne at the time!] for around a week .......... stayed at Cooinda in safari tents ... drank oodles of VB and sang dirty sailors songs most of the nights when we weren't fishing or sleeping and told lies to each other about the one's that got away, and some about fish,too !
'twas the best time ..........

This set the scene for a later trip in '91 with three vehicles [Nissan Urvan/Toyota Hi-Ace and a standard sedan with a campertrailer ....... [no pooncie 4WD's then, mate!] ..............
'twas the best time also!!

Camped, fished the magical Yellow Waters and Jim-Jim rivers/billabongs/lagoons and caught such fish !! Explored all around the Kakadu in our vehicles and where we couldn't go in our vehicles, we unloaded our mountain bikes and took the road less travelled, so to speak. Bunged a fishing rod/packet of sangers/stubby or two of Light ale/half a dozen very expensive lures into our backpacks and guess what .......................
'twas the best time ........ again!

Barramundi so big ........... at the end of the days fishing we left our boat at the ramp area and winched the barra on to the trailer ..........
'twas the best time .................... we even used their scales as breadplates !!!!

Back to your survey ............... there is no way that I wouldn't jump at the chance of getting back there again ...... personally, I think that the nay-sayers need to accept the fact that it is now a true tourist attraction and as such cannot help but become commercialised ............. which is what I gather is causing the criticisms.

The magnificent scenery don't change, the getting there don't change, [well, much anyway] the facilities probably will have changed a lot, the weather and sunsets and wildlife won't change,[we found a hippy style VW wagon with four delightful cuddly backpacker wild ones living in it ............ we fed and watered them for several days and they were just so ...........................but I digress here!]
.............. 'twas just the best time ??

My opinion : Kakadu is a/the ?? premier 'must-see' destination in Australia and should be on every-ones agenda, 'cos there will come a time very soon when it will end up like Ayers Rock : look but don't touch !
It is simply a matter of inevitability. And yes, there-in lies the quandary: should it be open slather for every-one, when the sheer volume of visitors will create the problem of increased commercial and restrictive limitations
or should it be gradually restricted to said visitors in order to preserve it for the future generations, should they be able to tear themselves away from the iPods and mobile phones and TV/DVD/WWW and all the other wizardry sapping their wee minds ?? Which, as some-one recently pointed out ... we actually invented for them
Whoooops ...... went a bit off-track there, but what the hell ??

For those in people in Parks Australia North :
PLEASE plan it so that everybody who goes there can say ......
'twas the best time!!

Gday
I was there for three mths in 1968,, and the bloke that i worked for wasn't happy back then.The falls were free and the pub at Jim Jim (Cooinda) was a ball on Saturday nights..The lagoon was full of fish as was the South Alligator river. Winching in the fish is no bull..We used an old Jeep that was my company car.No tourists unless a special trip was organised, then seats went on the back of the Jeep...We slept in aluminium huts with buff crapping on the door step just for fun, just great in the middle of the night when out for a nature walk.

I must go back some time

Steve

A closing line in my article published in 4x4 Australia Mag(and on my website under heading Kakadu) in 1987 states:

"Kakadu National Park is a wonderful place that has been saved from the ravages of mankind for all Australians and overseas visitors to experience and enjoy."

Although I havent been back there for some years now I doubt if the real Kakadu has changed much. That is, if the tourist wishes to look at natures gift and not to what he/she can get out of it.

There used to be career public servants(ex Canberra) managing the park from the early days. Some of them might still be there. They went against recommendations from locals and the Traditional Owners in the beginning. Maybe the whole thing was political. Who knows. I had several skirmishes with one particular bloke there. But then again I have skirmishes here on ExplorOz...lol

To me the South Alligator Floodplain and the Escarpment Country is one of the most magical places in Australia.

Cheers

Steve, I went there with my family in the days when you didn't pay to get in. We throughly enjoyed the whole scene.
But there is one thing that still stands out in my memory, and in those of my now grown up children. One thing that we didn't see anywhere else in Australia. One thing that made us stop and say"Geez, that's different." Only a small thing. Trivial to most I guess, but huge to us. If it's still there, please don't change it.
At the ranger station was an exhibit with a sign;

"PLEASE TOUCH"

Having lived in Darwin on and off for about 6 years, I always enjoyed going to Kakadu. We met a number of transients (like ourselves) who would live in the top end for two years or more and had NEVER visited Kakadu. Most quote the old 'Litchfield is just as good' line. Litchfield is a fantastic place to visit and has a number of advantages over Kakadu, however it is not Kakadu.

BUT, regardless of tourist numbers, commercialisation, etc, Kakadu is just one of those places which has a certain magic that transcends any human attempts to stuff it up. Uluru is another. I remember the first time I watched an Uluru sunset, just me, the family and about 4,000 other tourists. I was a bit put off by the numbers, but having sat and watched the Rock's transformation as the sun went down, the other tourists may as well not have been there. It is an awesome and, dare I say, a spiritual experience.

To me Kakadu rates the same way. It is easy to bitch and complain (with some justification) about closures, tourist numbers, commercialisation and so on, but take a step back and look at the place. It is like nowhere else in the world. Pretty special in my opinion.

Matt.

Steve,
You won't be able to keep everyone happy. We went there a few years ago and left after a few days. Scenery was great, lots of things were closed still as it was early in the season. Of course these were the places we wanted to go. Discovering this after having rung a week prior and told most areas were open did not help a lot. It is run as a commercial venture. This gives it a certain feel. If this is not what you are into you are not going to like it much. We tend to do the more remote so is not really in line with areas we normally go to. On top of that we were having issues with other visitors. Even though there was hardly any one in a lot of the camping areas 90% were obnoxious in the extreame. Example: We were in a camping area with one other couple. It was huge and every one was happy. We each left plenty of room for each other. Next day a sets of 3 cars and vans turn up. They set up camp right on top of us basically camping all around us. We then have them up all night drinking, walking through our camp kicking over chairs, urinating on the tree a couple of feet from our tent. Why? Who knows. Give up and go somewhere where people are more civilised.

I don't advise people not to go, in a lot of ways it is a great place, but I do say to have a plan B if they don't like it. It is interesting that a lot of people who are not keen on Kakadu really like Litchfield. Horses for courses I suppose.

Before people start shooting me out of the water: This is MY view. I don't have to like the places others do. The same as I don't expect others to like the things I do. We are all individuals, that is why the world is an intersting place.

Steve

We enjoyed our experience there (and Litchfield), could have spent a little longer than we did.

Some lasting images for me,






Kind regards

We did a quick tour in 06 and liked the bits that we saw..... we learned that we will need to go back and spend more time there, and probably hunt up some 'out of the way spots' - like many, we are better off away from the mainstream tourist haunts.The mozzies are horrendous but. The one 'touristy thing' we did was to do a Yellow Waters boat tour - wonderful - the guide (Murray) was top shelf - very informative re the birds and other wildlife . Apart from the mozzies just after sun down (but hell.... they live there - not us) the one thing that did give us the sheets big time was small tour buses tearing along the dusty,corrugated gravel roads, overtaking all and sundry without due regard for safety and showering other road users with stones - would they be your people Steve ? Should they do that to me on the next trip and then should I say, find them on the roadside changing a wheel, I'd be inclined to back up and then roar past, showering them with stones - it sort of does that to me..... and I'm not alone.

We went in 1998. It was early in the dry. We pulled up to the gate in our rented RAV4 and the ranger said, "Don't think about going on 4WD tracks in that thing. It's just a toy." But the man in Darwin had said it would go anywhere, we thought!!! Anyway some tracks (e.g. Twin Falls & Jim Jim) were still closed, so the lack of a real 4WD didn't really matter hugely.

Kakadu was one of the most magical places I have ever been (on 4 continents). I have forgotten about the mozzies and the stinking heat and the smoke and the crappy motels and the crowds at Yellow Waters; all I think about is the wonderful environment. Grass owl by the roadside. Barking owl on a clothes line. Python crossing the road. Picture of a thylacine from 5000 years ago. The spectacular escarpment from the air. Green ants. Hibiscus. The lightning man. Water lilies. The magnificent flood plains from Ubirr. Etc etc. Wow!!

Hope the cane toads haven't changed the place much.

Who said romance is dead? You haven't been zapped by Lightning Man yet either!

The park ...is being screwed by the tourists and their dollars ... and we are all to blame ...the more people visit the place ...th e more it gets 's'ucked up ....

Keep on going there ... and it gets worse ...so cheer up ...if you have been there ..remember , ...if not ...put up and shut up !!! It's a bleep of a place really ...all you see are those lard arsed Sheilas and Waynes 's ... swaggering with their wallets boring holes in their Stubbie shorts ..faded of course ..spitting , cursing and talking about themselves.....all you need as a backdrop in Kakadu !!!

Evening Steve
Have been there twice first time in 91 on guided tour stayed at croc motel etc. great place. Went back last year in 4wd still a great place only disappointment was the shopping area at Jabiru, very run down and dirty in comparison to 91. We found areas this time that we did not get the chance to see before. We also visited Litchfield but it is not the same as Kakadu and I don't feel it does justice to either park to try and compare them as they are completely different demographics to each other.

Some of the explanation signage needs replacing (hard to read) at some of the 'art' areas thou.
Thanks for the opportunity to voice some opinions on this great area.