Kakadu National Park

Kakadu National Park is located 260 kilometers east of Darwin, within the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory.  It covers an area of 4,894,000 acres.  For over 50,000 years this area has been home to Aboriginal people.  As a culturally diverse region, there were a number of different clans inhabiting the area, all speaking their own language and with their own set s of traditions

Throughout the site there are many examples of the rock paintings, many of which illustrate animals that are now extinct on the Australian mainland such as the long-beaked echidna  (extinct around 15 000 years ago), the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) and the Tasmanian devil (extinct around 2000 to 3000 years ago).

Archaeologists have found a wide variety of Aboriginal artefacts at old camping grounds throughout the Park, particularly in the escarpment and floodplain country.  Among the artefacts associated with the sites are flaked-stone tools, ground ochre and grindstones.  Of particular significance is the concentration of rock art which is thought to range from 20,000 years to the present.  Experts have identified eleven main art styles which span three environmental periods.