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Kakadu National Park

 

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CHRIS MENY & STEVIE RYER
chris@yourtravelsource.com
stevie@yourtravelsource.com
(707)425-8157
DONNA COLLINS BEAUCHESNE
donnab@yourtravelsource.com
Donna - 509-525-1230
For all:  (800) 597-0594
CST #:   2037874-40

You haven't been Down Under 'til you've been Outback!

The World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park is more than 2 billion years old and is located 161 miles east of Darwin.   The park is a 3 1/2 hour ride from Darwin and is Australia's largest national park, covering over 4,388,000 acres.  It is home to many different species:  1,600 plant, 275 bird, 75 reptile, 25 frog, 60 mammal, 55 different types of fish and an estimated 10,000 species of insects.  Within the park, 5,000 aboriginal cultural sites have been identified, but the aboriginals only allow access to three rock sites:  Nourlangie, Ubirr and Nanguluwur.  The aboriginals and their art date back 40,000 years and you can learn about the culture of the aboriginal traditional land owners of Kakadu by visiting two visitors' centers - Bowali Visitor Centre and the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre.  You can take a day trip into the park, but the recommended way is to spend two or three days exploring.  Kakadu National Park is managed jointly by its aboriginal traditional owners and the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage.   Click on the buttons above to explore this amazing  World-Heritage Park. 

From a writing by Jonathan Nadji.

"I am Yarramarna J. Nadji.  I am of the Bunitj clan. 

Bininj translates from our language into man, us from this region.  If you were not born into this country, you are not Bininj.  Kakadu stems from the name of one of our local languages - Gagadju.

It is our belief that our world was brought into being, into life by the creation forces of our ancestory.  We call this initial force earth mother or Warramurrungundji.  She emerged to this country with sacred dilly bags of love and knowledge.  She gave birth to the first of us and shaped the landscape we live on.  She still has presence in this country and as we are from this land we have within us her eternal essence.  During the times of these first mornings other powerful creator beings helped shaped the landscape and our way of life.  There is the Rainbow Serpent, the Lightning Man, people that transformed to animal and animal that turned into man.  During these time Indjuwanjdujwa came across these northern plains and told us how to hunt and like all of these creation ancestors, when they had finished their work stayed in the country manifest as sacred stones, as paintings on rock surfaces or under the deep plunge pools of our waterfalls.
 
Today we live by other sets of law also but most importantly we still live on the land we were born to.
I live with my families on my fathers fathers country.  Some of this land is on the Kakadu National Park Lease.  We traditional owners play active roles in the joint management of the Park and govern the Indigenous Assocations that cater for the various needs of us Bininj."

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