The Northern Territory

Indigenous Australians make up almost a third of the Territory's population, and their presence reaches back tens of thousands of years: Kakadu's rock shelters hold some of the oldest evidence of human occupation in Australia. The Yolngu of north-east Arnhem Land traded for centuries with Makassan fishermen from Sulawesi, who sailed south each year to gather trepang, or sea cucumber.

British outposts on the northern coast in the 1820s and 1830s failed, and the Territory was administered by South Australia from 1863. Darwin, first called Palmerston, was founded in 1869, and the Overland Telegraph line through Alice Springs connected Australia with Britain in 1872. Pastoralists took over the land with violence; at Coniston in 1928 police-led reprisals killed dozens of Warlpiri, Anmatyerr and Kaytetye people. Children of mixed descent were taken to institutions such as the Kahlin Compound in Darwin and the Bungalow in Alice Springs. The Commonwealth took control in 1911, and on 19 February 1942 Japanese aircraft bombed Darwin, the largest attack ever made on Australia.

The land-rights movement grew here. The Yolngu sent the Yirrkala bark petitions to Parliament in 1963, and in 1966 Gurindji stockmen led by Vincent Lingiari walked off Wave Hill station. The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 followed, and about half the Territory is now Aboriginal land; Uluru was handed back to its Aṉangu owners in 1985. Cyclone Tracy destroyed much of Darwin on Christmas Day 1974, and the Territory gained self-government in 1978. The federal Intervention of 2007 remains contested, and in the 2023 Voice referendum the Territory voted No overall.

Territorians see themselves as frontier people, informal and self-reliant, and the population turns over quickly as workers and public servants come and go. The Top End and the Centre feel like different places: Darwin looks towards Asia, while Alice Springs is an outback town.

Aboriginal culture is part of daily life. More than 100 Aboriginal languages and dialects are spoken, including Yolŋu Matha, Warlpiri, Arrernte, Pitjantjatjara and Kriol, an English-based creole used widely in the north. The Western Desert art movement began at Papunya in 1971, when senior men began painting their Dreaming stories on boards, and the Arrernte watercolourist Albert Namatjira painted the MacDonnell Ranges from the 1930s. The Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land and the Barunga Festival bring together music, dance and discussion of Indigenous affairs.

The calendar has its eccentricities: Alice Springs' Henley-on-Todd Regatta, raced in bottomless boats on the dry riverbed, and its Camel Cup; and Darwin's Beer Can Regatta, raced in boats built from empty cans. Australian rules football is played with passion on the Tiwi Islands, whose players have starred in the AFL.

The Northern Territory has about 260,000 people, fewer than half the population of Tasmania. Greater Darwin, including Palmerston, has about 150,000 residents, and Alice Springs is the largest inland town; Katherine, Nhulunbuy and Tennant Creek are the other towns, and many Aboriginal people live in remote communities and outstations.

The economy rests on gas exported through Darwin, mining, cattle stations, tourism, defence — United States Marines rotate through Darwin each dry season — and government services. Darwin has a large Greek community and many residents of Filipino, Chinese, Indonesian and Timorese descent.

The Territory's problems are serious and debated nationally: the gap in health, housing and life expectancy between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Territorians, overcrowding in remote communities, alcohol restrictions, youth crime and imprisonment rates. Heat, cyclones and the wet season shape the rhythm of the year.

Territory food begins with the catch. Barramundi, a large native fish caught in rivers and estuaries, is the signature dish, along with mud crab and saltwater prawns. Crocodile, water buffalo — descended from animals introduced in the 19th century — and camel appear on menus, and magpie goose is hunted and eaten in Aboriginal communities.

Bush foods have been gathered for tens of thousands of years: in the Centre, the bush tomato, wattleseed and witchetty grubs, large moth larvae eaten raw or cooked; in the Top End, the Kakadu plum, a small green fruit very high in vitamin C, along with yams, turtle and long-necked turtle eggs. Aboriginal enterprises increasingly harvest and sell these foods.

Darwin's markets reflect its proximity to Asia, and the stalls at Mindil Beach and Parap serve laksa, satay, Thai papaya salad and Filipino barbecue. The Top End around Darwin and Katherine grows many of Australia's mangoes, harvested from about September. The Darwin Stubby, a 2.25-litre beer bottle, is a Territory curiosity.

In the Red Centre, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has the base walk around Uluru, Kata Tjuta's Valley of the Winds, and the cultural centre explaining Aṉangu law. Kings Canyon, in Watarrka National Park, is walked along its rim, past the domes and the pool called the Garden of Eden. Alice Springs has the Telegraph Station, the Royal Flying Doctor Service base and the Alice Springs Desert Park, and the West MacDonnell Ranges beyond have Simpsons Gap, Standley Chasm, Ormiston Gorge and the Larapinta Trail. Further north lie the granite boulders of Karlu Karlu (Devils Marbles).

In the Top End, Darwin has the Mindil Beach Sunset Market, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and wartime sites around the harbour. Litchfield National Park has Florence Falls, Wangi Falls, Buley Rockhole and fields of magnetic termite mounds. Kakadu National Park, another World Heritage Site, offers the rock art of Ubirr and Burrungkuy (Nourlangie), wetland cruises on Yellow Water, and the Jim Jim and Twin Falls. Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) and the thermal pools at Mataranka lie to the south.

Arnhem Land, entered by permit, holds the rock art of Injalak Hill at Gunbalanya and the Yolngu country around Nhulunbuy, while the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin are known for their art centres.