Lonely Planet South Australia & Northern Territory , livre ebook

South Australia & Northern Territory

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to South Australia & the Northern Territory
South Australia & the Northern Territory's Top 12
Need to Know
First Time South Australia & the Northern Territory
If You Like
Month by Month
Itineraries
South Australian Food & Wine
Your Outback Trip
Travel with Children
Regions at a Glance

On The Road

Adelaide & Around
Adelaide & Around Highlights
Adelaide
Sights
Activities
Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Adelaide Hills
Tours
Festivals & Events
Hahndorf
Stirling Area
Gumeracha, Birdwood & Lobethal
Mt Barker
Fleurieu Peninsula
McLaren Vale
Willunga
Gulf St Vincent Beaches
Victor Harbor
Port Elliot
Goolwa
Kangaroo Island
Penneshaw & Dudley Peninsula
American River
Kingscote
North Coast Road
South Coast Road
Flinders Chase National Park
Barossa Valley & Southeastern South Australia
Barossa Valley & Southeastern South Australia Highlights
Barossa Valley
Tanunda
Nuriootpa
Angaston
Clare Valley
Auburn
Mintaro
Clare
Murray River
Murray Bridge
Mannum
Waikerie
Barmera & Around
Loxton
Berri
Renmark & Paringa
Limestone Coast
Robe
Meningie & Coorong National Park
Mount Gambier
Penola & the Coonawarra Wine Region
Western South Australia
Western South Australia Highlights
Yorke Peninsula
West Coast
East Coast
South Coast & Innes National Park
Eyre Peninsula & the West Coast
Port Augusta
Port Lincoln
Coffin Bay
Streaky Bay & Around
Ceduna
Ceduna to the Western Australia Border
Outback South Australia
Outback South Australia Highlights
Flinders Ranges
Southern Ranges
Quorn
Hawker
Flinders Ranges National Park
Blinman & Parachilna
Leigh Creek & Copley
The Outback
Woomera & Around
Coober Pedy
Oodnadatta Track
Birdsville & Strzelecki Tracks
Darwin & the Top End
Darwin & Around Highlights
Darwin
Sights
Activities
Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Around Darwin
Tiwi Islands
Arnhem Highway
Berry Springs
Batchelor
Litchfield National Park
Daly River
Pine Creek
Kakadu National Park
Ubirr & Around
Jabiru
Nourlangie
Jim Jim Falls & Twin Falls
Cooinda & Yellow Water
Southwestern Kakadu
Arnhem Land
Gunbalanya (Oenpelli)
Cobourg Peninsula
Eastern Arnhem Land
Uluru & Outback Northern Territory
Uluru & Outback Northern Territory Highlights
Katherine
Around Katherine
Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park
Katherine to Western Australia
Mataranka
Beswick (Wugularr)
Barkly Tableland & Gulf Country
Roper Highway
Carpentaria & Tablelands Highways
Borroloola
Central Northern Territory
Daly Waters
Tennant Creek
Devil's Marbles & Around
Tanami Track
Alice Springs
MacDonnell Ranges
East MacDonnell Ranges
West MacDonnell Ranges
Northern Territory's Far South
Old South Road
Rainbow Valley Conservation Reserve
Ernest Giles Road
Lasseter Highway
Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
Yulara
Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

Understand

Understand South Australia & the Northern Territory Today
South Australia & the Northern Territory Today
History
Aboriginal Australia
Indigenous Visual Art
The Outback Environment

Survive

Deadly & Dangerous
Environmental Hazards
Infectious Diseases
Directory AZ
Accommodation
Customs Regulations
Discount Cards
Electricity
Food
Health
Insurance
Internet Access
Legal Matters
LGBTI Travellers
Maps
Money
Opening Hours
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travellers with Disabilities
Visas
Volunteering
Women Travellers
Work
Transport
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers

Special Features

Ultimate Outback
Indigenous Art & Culture
Welcome to South Australia & the Northern Territory

Welcome to Australia’s epic heartland, the country's Indigenous homeland, a wild and beautiful land tamed only by wineries and remote desert trails.


The Wild Interior
Call that Australia? This is Australia. Ever since Crocodile Dundee brought Kakadu to the world's attention, the outback and Top End have been on the radar for their impressive portfolio of quintessentially Aussie land forms: Uluru and Kata Tjuta rising improbably from the desert; the great sandstone escarpments and pristine coastline of Arnhem Land; the soulful Flinders Ranges; the vast stretches of outback with sand dunes and flood plains and monsoonal mangroves. All providing a stirring backdrop to some of Australia's best wildlife watching, from crocs to kangaroos. It's hard to escape the feeling that in this land lies eternity...

Indigenous Culture
If wildlife animates the Australian outback, it is the Indigenous population of the Northern Territory (NT) that gives it soul. These are a people whose lives remain inextricably tied to a land that their people have inhabited for millennia. And, unlike elsewhere in Australia, in the NT it's relatively easy to cross the cultural frontier and meet Indigenous Australians on their terms: it could happen on an intimate exploration of country led by an Indigenous guide, in quiet conversation with artists at work in one of the NT's many art centres, or in the timeless rituals and ceremonies of a festival.

The Sophisticated South
When you imagine outback Australia, Adelaide and its nearby wine regions are hardly the first things that spring to mind. But here on the outback's fringe in South Australia (SA) are some big-ticket attractions. Take, for example, some of the country's premier wine-producing regions (perfect for slaking that outback thirst), among them the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Clare Valley and the Coonawarra. There's also wonderful Kangaroo Island and, at the heart of the south, is Adelaide, where you can experience a torrent of creative energy through its amazing festivals, arts scene, pubs and foodie culture.

Outback Dreaming
While it's easy to identify the more obvious elements of the outback's appeal, there's one thing that's less easy to quantify: its strange, almost mystical allure. There's something about this place, an intangible call that defies easy explanation, something spiritual that echoes through so many moments out here. Perhaps it will touch you when you first lay eyes on Uluru. Or as the sun dips below the horizon beyond the escarpments of Kakadu. Or when you pull off the road in the middle of nowhere and find yourself enveloped by silence. In such moments lies the mysterious call of the outback.

Driving the Old Andado Track | Peter Walton Photography/Getty Images ©


Why I Love South Australia & the Northern Territory
By Anthony Ham, Writer
God I love this place. There is something in the outback wilds that call to me in ways I barely understand. It happens out on the lonely Carpentaria Hwy or down by the Victoria River near Timber Creek. It grips me every time I pass a turn-off out into the desert and find myself longing to take it. It's the possibility that a fabulous sighting of wildlife could happen at any moment. Boiled down to its essence, it is this: this is a wild land whose natural and human history are writ large on an impossibly beautiful canvas.
South Australia & the Northern Territory's Top 12

Kakadu National Park, NT
Kakadu is more than a nature reserve: it’s an adventure into a natural and cultural landscape like no other. Weathered by successive seasons of Wet and Dry, the sandstone ramparts of Kakadu and neighbouring Arnhem Land have sheltered humans for aeons, and an extraordinary legacy of rock art remains. Represented are mysterious figures of the Dreaming, hunting stories, zoological diagrams, and ‘contact art’ – records of visitors from Indonesia and more recent European colonists. Kakadu’s Ubirr and Nourlangie galleries are of World Heritage significance and are accessible to all.

Ubirr at sunset | Peter Eve/Tourism NT ©


Top Experiences
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, NT
Australia’s most recognized natural wonder, Uluru (Ayers Rock) draws pilgrims from around the world like moths to a big red flame. No matter how many postcard images you have seen, nothing prepares you for Uluru’s immense presence, character-pitted epidermis and spiritual gravitas. Not far away is a mystical clutch of stone siblings known as Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). Deeply cleaved with narrow gorges and decorated with tufts of vegetation, these 36 pink-red domes majestically flaunt their curves and blush intensely at sunset.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, NT | Tetra Images/Shutterstock ©


Top Experiences
Wine Regions, SA
If you're into wine, get into South Australia. Persecuted Lutherans on the run from Prussia and Silesia first had the bright idea of planting vines here. Lo and behold – one of the world's great wine societies was born! Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale shiraz, Adelaide Hills sauvignon blanc, Clare Valley riesling... The quality is sky-high, and the experience of wobbling between cellar doors and their adjunct restaurants and B&Bs is an indulgent delight. Put simply, it's one of Australia's premier wine regions and a pleasure to visit.

Vineyard, McLaren Vale | Wendy Meder/Shutterstock ©


Top Experiences
Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park, NT
Paddling a canoe upstream, through one gorge and then another, leaving the crowds behind, you will be drawn into the silence of these towering cliffs that squeeze the waters of the Katherine River. Take a break on a sandy river beach, walk up to a viewpoint or take a helicopter flight for an eagle's-eye view. The surrounding Nitmiluk National Park has even more to offer, such as the Jatbula T