What is Kakadu National Park?

Kakadu National Park is a major national park in the Northern Territory, covering about 19,800 square kilometres of tropical wetlands, savanna woodland, and stone country in the Top End. It is roughly the size of Slovenia and the largest terrestrial national park in Australia.

Kakadu was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981 and again in 1987 and 1992 for both its natural and cultural values, one of only a handful of properties listed for both criteria worldwide. The park is jointly managed by Parks Australia and the Bininj and Mungguy Traditional Owners, who hold freehold title to most of the park and lease it back to the federal government for use as a national park.

The park is home to outstanding rock art galleries, including Ubirr and Nourlangie (Burrungkuy), where layers of paintings record human occupation of the area for more than 20,000 years. Some art records the appearance of European ships and rifles, providing rare visual records of contact between Aboriginal Australians and outsiders. The park contains six landform regions (stone country, savanna woodland, hills and basins, southern hills, floodplains and tidal flats, and estuaries) and protects more than 1,600 plant species, 280 bird species, and 60 mammal species.

Kakadu also has a controversial mining history. The Ranger uranium mine operated within the park boundaries from 1981 to 2021 under a special excision, with rehabilitation continuing through to 2026. The neighbouring Jabiluka deposit was approved for development in the 1990s but blocked by Mirarr Traditional Owner opposition and is no longer planned for mining. The park attracts about 250,000 visitors a year, mostly during the dry season from May to October.