Editor John Ford recently explored the less-travelled East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory to discover pristine landscapes, remote beaches and ancient culture.
The recent growth of outback travel has seen many distant and relatively hard-to-reach places become so popular that some of the joy has been sucked out of the experience. Cape York, the Gibb River Road, the Birdsville Track and Ningaloo are treks that verge on being loved to death. So, our recent travels into East Arnhem Land revealed a place of fewer crowds, pristine landscapes, remote beaches and ancient culture.
Arnhem Land extends across the top of the Northern Territory between Kakadu National Park in the west and the Gulf of Carpentaria in the east. Its name comes from the ship Arnhem or Aernem, which took Dutch navigator Willem Van Cartensoon to the coast in 1623. The land was declared an Aboriginal Reserve in 1931, but the 1976 Land Rights Act handed ownership to the Traditional Owners to become privately owned Aboriginal land.
For most people, Arnhem Land is an impression from movies such as Ten Canoes or Charlie’s Country, both steeped in the living culture of the local Yolngu people. The yidaki (didgeridoo), traditional bark painting, the modern land rights movement and the Yothu Yindi anthem Treaty originated here.
Most of the population of around 12,000 lives in homelands and outstations scattered across the mainland and nearby islands. However, in 1971, heavy industry moved to the Gove Peninsula with the controversial establishment of a bauxite mine and smelter.
On the way to Nhulunbuy
What to know before you go
Your visit needs a free permit through the Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation or the Northern Lands Council, and while they are easily obtained online, you must have accommodation in place and camping sites are limited. So, because visitor numbers are restricted and there are strict rules on where you can go, the impact of tourism is minimised.
Access is along the Central Arnhem Road, 50km south of Katherine and then 660km to Nhulunbuy. Most of the journey is on a dirt road, with conditions varying in quality according to the weather and how long since the grader has been through. Camping along the Arnhem Highway is restricted to Mainoru Outstation Store for campers and caravans and Guwatjurumurru (Giddy River), which doesn’t allow camper trailers or caravans. Hence, you need to plan your trip to suit.
Mainoru Outstation Store camping
Travel in the dry season (May to October) for the best experience and to avoid getting bogged for days on the road in. You will need a capable 4WD and a heavy-duty camper or caravan, and ensure you have plenty of fuel and water because traffic is sparse. We had a spare diesel jerry can, which was lucky because the fuel depot at Mainoru was dry. We saw only four vehicles between the Stuart Highway and the mine about 30km out of Nhulunbuy, where road trains of ore join the party.
Driving the Central Arnhem Road
After heading down from Darwin, we stayed in Katherine at the Riverview Tourist Park and had an early morning swim at the thermal pool, a short stroll down the hill from the park.
(Click here to read a more detailed account of our trip from Darwin to Borroloola.)
By the time we fuelled up and had some breakfast, it was mid-morning when we reached the turnoff to Nhulunbuy. The first 60km is a well-formed tar road, so we made good time to our first stop at Beswick, but the Djilpin Arts centre was closed. So, although we missed out on seeing the Blanasi collection of West Arnhem paintings, visitors are usually welcome, so be sure to call in.
Not far out of Beswick, you climb slowly through low hills to the scenic Conway’s Lookout at Jurassic Park. There are no signs, so watch for the views across the escarpment through the trees.
Great views at Jurassic Park
Another 80km further on was our overnight stop at the Mainoru Outstation Store campground, a roomy, grassy oasis on the bank of a freshwater creek. The campground has glassy, clear swimming holes within an easy walk. Facilities include showers, toilets and a cafe.
It’s another 460km of winding road to Nhulunbuy through tropical savannah woodlands of mainly stringybark and woollybutt with traces of monsoonal rainforest in low gullies. Corrugations, bulldust, shallow river crossings and rocky sections kept the pace fairly slow, but the few locals we encountered coming the other way travelled at warp speed, so keep an eye out.
After turnoffs to the Rio Tinto Mine and the airport, a long 80km/h tarred section heralds your arrival into Nhulunbuy, which spreads along a corridor of worker accommodation to a compact administration and retail hub. Established in the 1970s on the back of bauxite mining and a large smelter, the area had a peak population of around 4000.
Loading bauxite from the mine
However, the smelter closed a decade ago, and work to dismantle the smelter is expected to continue for another five years. The mine will shut down in 2030, so the local community and government are working on plans to establish new business opportunities for a sustainable future.
Where to stay in Nhulunbuy
The town is a great base from which to explore the local area. The Walkabout Lodge has rooms and a caravan park in the middle of town. For a spot close to the water, the Manyimi Campground adjacent to Gove Boat Club has 24 powered sites about 10km away on a tarred road. None of the local camping areas allow caravans, so you can store a van here for a few days while you go off and explore. The Roy Marika Lookout is a short drive to the top of the hill and an excellent place to get the lay of the land with panoramic views out across the Arafura Sea in the late afternoon sunshine.
Gove Boat Club in Nhulunbuy
After booking into the Manyimi Campground, we had dinner at the club, a popular watering hole for locals and a good source of fishing tips. Although the water looked inviting, we were warned about saltwater crocodiles, which are common all across the northern coastline.
Day trips to pristine beaches
From Nhulunbuy, spectacular coastlines are within an hour’s drive. Town Beach and the ironically named Gove Peninsula Surf Life Saving Club are only minutes away. There’s rarely a surfable wave, but other hazards include stingers (Irukandji), crocodiles, buffalo and exposure. The surf club patrols the local beach and other remote areas on Sundays between June and October and is open most Friday nights.
East Woody Beach is also within easy access, and it was a pleasant stroll towards Dhamitjinya (East Woody Island) across the sand spit at low tide. If you’re inclined and the tides are favourable, it’s possible to watch a sunrise and a sunset over the water from the island. Other nearby recreation areas include Gumuniya (Buffalo Creek) and Crocodile Creek. Your permit also lets you explore some of the camping areas, but you need an additional permit to camp. A group of these significant camps are along a dirt track about 15km south of town on the main road out to the coast.
Barinjura (Little Bondi Beach) is probably the most popular, and the track winds down through open eucalypts through coastal monsoon vine forest to a secluded, crescent-shaped beach where you should check the clear water for crocs before a quick dip. Five campsites here have composting toilets.
Garanhan (Macassan Beach) also has five campsites but was open to the trade winds, which blew late into the night when we camped there. The Macassans visited the local coastline from Sulawesi each year for centuries to trade trepang (sea cucumber). The area is significant to the local aboriginal people, and you can find stone arrangements depicting Macassan boats, camps and ovens.
Camping at Garanhan (Macassan Beach)
Banambarrŋa (Rainbow Cliff) is a truly spectacular section of coastline as the coloured 40m rockface tumbles into the turquoise water. You’ll need a 4WD to get there, but once you arrive there are four campsites, some with places for up to 15 people.
Beautiful coastline at Banambarrna (Rainbow Cliff)
For a relatively safe freshwater swim, head to Wathawuy (Latram River and Goanna Lagoon), where a stream runs through an open forest with several natural swimming holes with clear sandy bottoms. There are nine campsites here with composting toilets and some picnic tables.
Wathawuy (Latram River and Goanna Lagoon)
Some of Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation’s recreation area sites are especially culturally and environmentally significant, and you can only visit with a camping permit. Ganami (Wonga Creek), Manaŋaymi (Scout Camp) and Gapuru (Memorial Park) are laid out along freshwater streams, and the booking system ensures campers have a degree of exclusivity and the pristine landscape is protected.
We booked into the coastal camping-only site at Wanuwuy (Cape Arnhem), about 50km through the forest from Nhulunbuy, down the escarpment to sandhills and along spectacular beaches to the cape. The sand rises 60m in places, and the sacred limestone outcrops at Twin Eagles are remarkable. We met several rangers along the track, some cleaning flotsam from the beaches and another group who shared freshly cooked turtle eggs.
Only 10 vehicles a day are permitted to Cape Arnhem, and there are annual closures during turtle nesting.
Fantastic fishing and a long lunch
Northern Australia has some of the best fishing anywhere. We managed to hook up with local charter operator Shaun at OBJ Adventures Nhulunbuy for a combination of fishing, sightseeing and a gourmet lunch at Bremer Island Banubanu Beach Retreat. Fish were plentiful, and the island was a tropical paradise with unsurpassed hospitality. You can book a boat ride, fly in on a charter flight for the day and stay in the beachside cabins. Despite being seriously outfished by Heather with a queenfish that made a joke of my King Ash Bay minnow, the day was one to relish. By law, you must keep all the fish you catch, so there was plenty to fill the freezer and share with friends.
Heather with her winning queenfish
Bremer Island Banubanu Beach Retreat
A living Aboriginal culture
A visit to Nhulunbuy is steeped in the Yolngu lifestyle, and there are many ways to experience Aboriginal culture. Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre is among our most celebrated Indigenous art centres. Located in the Yirrkala community, only 20 minutes out of town, it represents 25 homelands across East Arnhem Land in unique displays of bark painting, memorial poles, yidaki, carvings and more. Collectors worldwide recognise the high value of the unique art, and it’s easy to see why. We bought a beautifully painted ceremonial pole, which was too big to pack in the car, but the centre arranged transport at a very reasonable cost.
You will often see artists at work, and many take traditional designs in new directions. We were lucky to find celebrated Ngaymil mixed media sculptor Gunybi Ganambarr, working traditional design into a discarded metal satellite dish. Ganambarr took out the 2018 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art award and is represented in galleries worldwide. In another room, senior printmaker Bitharr Maymuru made finishing touches to her linocut Possum and the Milky Way.
The centre’s museum also houses significant traditional artifacts, including the Yirrkala Church Panels, which play an important role in Yolngu culture.
Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre is one of Australia’s most celebrated Indigenous art centres
Ngaymil mixed media sculptor Gunybi Ganambarr at work
If you are looking for a close cultural experience with the local Aboriginal people, then I highly recommend a visit to the Bawaka homeland, a couple of hour’s drive south of Nhulunbuy. The track follows a beach with soft sand, so a 4WD with reduced tyre pressures is needed. Timmy Burarrwanga and his family have established a resort with a genuine Yolngu flavour on the shoreline of the wide Port Bradshaw.
The family shares traditional skills, such as weaving, guided tours and music. Get up close to the resident crocodile Nike, and try your luck with fishing, but the highlight is a drive or a walk for a swim at Ŋalarrk (Lonely Beach), a stunning stretch of sand hidden in the rugged coastline.
Bawaka homeland is only a couple of hours south of Nhulunbuy
Ŋalarrk (Lonely Beach)
The best time to visit Nhulunbuy
Like most of northern Australia, access by road into Nhulunbuy during the wet season (December to May) is challenging as roads are cut and the humidity is extreme. So, it’s best to travel between May and late October during the dry. The Garma Festival runs here in early August, and as one of the premium Indigenous events on the calendar, roads and accommodation spots are busy.
Planning a visit is essential because East Arnhem Land is remote, and you must pre-book accommodation for your visitor access permit. Working through the booking process to get into the camp you want can be tricky, but it’s all worthwhile once you encounter the unique experiences of Nhulunbuy and the surrounding area.
Permits are a must
Travel planner
Permits
Where to stay
Bremer Island Banubanu Retreat
P: 08 8987 8085
W: banubanu.com
P: 08 8939 2000
P: 0467 581 547
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