Ubirr and Bardedjilidji; a special Kakadu corner

It's quite a while (too long in fact) since I've visited Kakadu National Park, a park of world significance, as evidenced by its UNESCO World Heritage Site listing. Covering two million hectares it is Australia's largest national park and one of the largest tropical national parks in the world. It is one of only four Australian World Heritage Sites to be listed for both its cultural and natural values. It has been inhabited for around 50,000 years, the last 40,000 of them at least being a continual occupation. Nearly 25% of Australia's native mammal species are found here, and almost 35% of its bird species - I could go on, but even if you're not already familiar with all this, there is plenty of information readily available on line, including its UNESCO listing which you can find here. 

Kakadu is at the end of the red arrow in the Top End of Australia (very terse and literal),
east of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory.

I have reported previously on other aspects of the park eg here for a perspective of visiting in the wet season; at the end of that post you can find a link to a further posting on a more conventional visit in the dry. Today however I want to take you to a small corner of the park, in the far north-east, dominated by Ubirr, a mighty sandstone outcrop looking out over the vast Alligator River flood plain to the west, and the East Alligator River to the east. This will be a relatively brief post, but I think it's a part of the park - and the country - that's worth sharing.

By clicking on the image you'll be able to see Ubirr in the far north-east.
Map courtesy of Parks Australia.

The Bininj/Mungguy people (Bininj in the north, Mungguy to the south) are intrinsically involved with the management of the park, as of course they have been for millennia. I'm not going to say a lot about them, through respect. This isn't as contradictory as it might sound; their stories are not mine to tell. I couldn't interpret their culture or perspectives even if I was impolite enough to try. There is good information available, including through the Parks Australia Kakadu website. If you can do a ranger-guided walk (including at Ubirr), it is highly recommended.

To get to Ubirr, turn north off the Arnhem Highway - Oenpelli Road just before it crosses the East Alligator River at Cahill's Crossing; it is well-marked and you'll have a map anyway. The circuit walk past the spectacular rock art (an important factor in the World Heritage Listing) is only a kilometre and mostly pretty benign, though for full benefit you'll do a bit of an extra climb up to the sublime lookout over the floodplain. 

Looking down onto the Alligator River flood plain, above and below. The South Alligator River
flows into the Timor Sea (as does the nearby East Alligator) some 60km to the west.
We were there in September towards the end of the Dry; there wasn't much water
evident on the plain, but it was still very green.

 

This is the view back to the east, and the East Alligator River in the near distance.

Kakadu is a vast sandstone landscape, and Ubirr is a superb example of it. The Arnhem Land Plateau is dominated by the Kombolgie Sandstone Formation, laid down by countless floods along great rivers originating somewhere to the north-west. The sands consolidated into sandstone about a billion years ago.

Looking across the sandstone of the top of Ubirr.

A more tumbled and uplifted area of layered sandstone.

Overhanging sandstone cliff faces - like those which form the nearby galleries -
along the walk to Ubirr.

A fig growing on the cliff face. There are a couple of species present, and I can't say which this is.

In other places Pandanus (Pandanus spiralis) is common both as understorey and as tall trees.

Pandanus growing as an understorey above...

.... with a tall tree towering above other smaller Pandanus plants.

Which brings us to the gallery.

The main gallery is on the face of the outcrops in the foreground below us.

 Most of the paintings date from the late 1500 years, and many of them feature animals which were (and are) important food items, many of them fish.

Stingray (and human shape to the upper left).

Fish of course - Barramundi perhaps?
(I'm not very good at fish, especially in the Top End!)

I'm pretty sure this is a different fish though.

In places the images are superimposed; to the top left is perhaps a sawfish?

 

Here a fish is joined by a turtle.

And another turtle.

Above the stingray that I featured above, is a bird - perhaps an Orange-footed Scrubfowl,
or maybe a Magpie Goose.

 And kangaroos are only to be expected!

These could represent any of several species found locally, including the shy and
not often seen (in fact never in my case!) Black Wallaroo.

And finally an interesting historical sketch, reporting on the appearance of a whitefella in the area. It is suggested that he could have an early buffalo hunter from the 1880s.

He seems to have his hands in his pockets and to be wearing heavy boots.

A painting which I particularly wanted to see, but didn't, clearly features a Thylacine. This magnificent marsupial predator vanished from the mainland about 3,500 years ago, coinciding with the arrival of the Dingo. (They continued to thrive in Tasmania, where Dingoes didn't appear, until the 1930s when systematic hunting tragically drove them to extinction.)

Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

South of the highway and just before the Ubirr turnoff, is the access to the lovely Bardedjilidji sandstone walk, a 2.5km easy stroll among mighty sandstone pillars and through Pandanus and eucalypt woodland.

Dramatic columns such as this one are features.

Strongly layered sandstone in a grassy woodland.

Caves and overhangs such as this provide cool shelters from the sun, with fig roots
providing extra hiding places for small animals.

We were there during a warm day, so didn't see as much wildlife as we would have if we'd been staying on site, but there were some nice birds to be seen.

Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon Petrophassa rufipennis. This is very much an Arnhem Land
sandstone special, being found nowhere else. Its only close relation is the very similar
White-quilled Rock Pigeon from further west in the Kimberley area.

Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii, a common but always thrilling
big resident of the tropical woodlands.

And yes, it does have a truly impressive red tail when it deigns to show it!

Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove Ptilinopus regina, truly a lovely bird, here checking
to see if the figs were suitably ripe. It is found widely in monsoon forests across
northern Australia and in east coast rainforests, but more usually is hidden
in foliage high above the ground.

Finally, adjacent to all this is the East Alligator River, and the highway crosses it at the infamous Cahills Crossing. It is famous for the number of Estuarine Crocodiles which gather around here at the end of the Dry (ie when we were there) to feed on fish, especially Barramundi, which are pushed by the high tide into shallow water at the crossing. However it is infamous for breathtakingly foolish visitors who approach to the edge of the water and even enter it to compete with the crocs for the Barramundi. It is tempting to think of this as a classic case of Darwinian selection in action, especially as there are nice safe and effective viewing platforms provided.

We were there at low tide, so didn't get to enjoy the main crocodile spectacle.

However we didn't miss out entirely, and I'm sure the Striated Heron
actually knew what it was doing.

Next time you go to Kakadu, don't miss out on Ubirr - it is a very special corner of a very special park.

Thanks for reading.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 21 MARCH

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