Australia Eguide - Travel Guides

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Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is the most isolated area of Australia, and one of the most isolated
places in the world. The Territory covers an area of 1,349,000 square kilometres, making
it the third largest of the Australian states and territories. There are but two main centres -
Darwin in the north and Alice Springs in the south - and there is a road distance of 1,500
kilometres between these two.
The Territory is an area of majestic grandeur, where nature is strong and those who trifle
with her put themselves in peril. It is not an area of a single climate, though, for Darwin,
in the north, is a tropical city, with Wet and Dry seasons, the Wet bringing torrential
tropical rain and the Dry converting the landscape to parched red earth. Alice Springs,
near the south, by contrast, has an arid semi-desert climate, with annual rainfall of only
about 350 millimetres and night temperatures falling below freezing in the winter
months.
The Northern Territory is the last refuge of the Australian aborigine. Approximately 25%
of the population is of aboriginal descent and more than 10,000 full-blooded aborigines
survive here. Large tracts of land are Aboriginal Reserves, which cannot be entered
without a permit, although where roads pass through it is sometimes permissible to travel
those roads without formality.
It is either time-consuming or expensive, or sometimes both, to reach the Territory, so
many visitors place it low on their list of priorities. Indeed, a substantial number see
nothing but the east coast and leave thinking that they have seen Australia. However, in
recent years an increasing number have made the effort to get here and have been well
rewarded for doing so. In fact, the new National Parks, Kakadu in particular, have
become so popular that they are beginning to suffer some of the minor symptoms of
over-tourism.
Throughout Australia, the people have a feeling of state superiority. Somebody from
Sydney has a natural suspicion of somebody from Melbourne and vice versa, but a
Territorian is nobody’s enemy and is respected and welcomed everywhere. A Territorian
is the nearest that Australia has to a real-life Crocodile Dundee. The Northern Territory is
indeed a great little place.
Whilst on the topic of size, and to put matters into perspective, the Northern Territory is
about six times the size of Great Britain, and has a total population similar to that of, as
an example, Hobart. The total population of the Northern Territory would fit into Sydney
twenty times, and nearly half of those live in Darwin, which does not leave many people
for the rest of the Territory.
Until 1911, the Northern Territory was a part of South Australia, but then the
Commonwealth Government assumed responsibility. In 1978, the Northern Territory was
granted a large measure of self-government and given its own parliament, and in 1994 the
impressive new Parliament House in Darwin was opened.
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