Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day 13th Edition - To Parent Directory

KATHERINE 419
ABORIGINAL CULTURE TOURS, HOT SPRINGS & MORE
On a 1-day visit to the Manyallaluk Aboriginal community , a 90-minute
drive southeast from Katherine, you chat with Aborigines about how they balance
traditional ways with modern living; take a short bushwalk to look for
native medicines and bush tucker like green ants (they’re refreshing!); try lighting
a fire with two sticks, weaving baskets, throwing spears, painting on bark,
and playing a didgeridoo; take a dip in a natural water hole; and buy locally
made Aboriginal art and artifacts at better prices than you may find elsewhere.
Lunch is a barbecue featuring stuff like high-grade kangaroo filet, kangaroo tail,
Scotch filet steak, or barramundi cooked on hot coals. Some visitors rush into
these tours and expect the community to be a kind of Aboriginal Disney World
theme park with a new attraction every 10 minutes, but that’s not how it is. It’s
an unstructured experience (this is the community’s home), so it’s up to you to
take part. A 1-day tour from Katherine costs A$143 (US$93) for adults and
A$79 (US$51) for children 5 to 15, or A$110 (US$72) adults and A$67
(US$44) for kids if you drive yourself. There are basic camping facilities including
tent sites and powered and unpowered sites. The last 35km (22 miles) of
road is unsealed (unpaved), for which rental cars will be insured only if they are
4WD. The tour runs Monday through Friday in July and August, and Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday from October to mid-December, but hours may be
reduced, or the place may close, in the Wet. Call ahead before setting off no matter
what the time of year, as sometimes the place closes for ceremonies or other
cultural reasons. Call Manyallaluk—The Dreaming Place (& 08/8975 4727),
or book through Travel North, above.
In the 500 million-year-old Cutta Cutta Caves (& 08/8972 1721), 29km
(18 miles) south of Katherine off the Stuart Highway, you will see limestone stalagmites
and stalactites and maybe glimpse the resident Orange Horseshoe and
Ghost bats. You must take a 1-hour tour to see the caves; they depart six times
a day from 9am and cost A$12 (US$7.80) for adults, A$6 (US$3.90) for children
5 to 15.
One-hundred-and-ten kilometers (69 miles) south of Katherine on the Stuart
Highway is the town of Mataranka (pop. 665), where you can soak at the
Mataranka Thermal Pools . These manmade pools are fed by 93°F (34°C)
spring water, which bubbles up from the earth at a rate of 16,495 liters (4123 3 ⁄4
gal.) per minute! It’s a little paradise, surrounded by palms, pandanus, and a
colony of flying foxes. The pools are open 24 hours, and admission is free. They
are 7km (4 miles) along Homestead Road, which is off the highway 1.5km (1
mile) south of Mataranka township. The pools are within the grounds of
Mataranka Homestead Tourist Resort (& 08/8975 4544), which is less a
resort than a low-key collection of motel rooms, cabins, campgrounds, a restaurant
or two, and a very casual bar. While you’re here, inspect some re-created
Aboriginal “gunyahs,” or bark shelters, and a replica of the slab-hut Elsey Homestead.
The homestead and pools lie within the 13,840-hectare (34,185-acre)
Elsey National Park. A sealed road winds from the homestead along the banks
of the Roper River, where there are swimming holes and walking trails, including
a shaded 4km (2.5-mile) trail into Mataranka Falls. Note: Ask the homestead
to direct you to croc-free swimming areas. The homestead sells handlines
to fish for barramundi and rents canoes.
Back in town, you can soak your cares away at the pleasantly warm Katherine
Hot Springs, under shady trees 3km (2 miles) from town on Riverbank Drive.
Entry is free. At the School of the Air, Giles Street (& 08/8972 1833), you can