Cutta Cutta Caves National Park about 27 km south of Katherine via the Stuart Highway. Daily guided one hour tours of the unique cave system plus 20 minute 'Tropical Woodland Walk' directly off car park. Check tour times before you visit.
North Australian Helicopters - Lot 1224 Victoria Highway. Tel: +61-8-8972-1666. Scenic flights.
Smitt Rock, Katherine Gorge, Nitmiluk National Park
Swim Seek local advice from the tourism information about swimming in Katherine, as crocodiles are present in these parts. Popular swimming spots like Low Level Crossing and pleasant for cooling off, but watch out for the current, and for snags. The Katherine river is patrolled for crocodiles in the dry season and it is usually safe to swim in the Katherine Gorge in the dry season.
Mataranka is a small township that sits on the upper reaches of the Roper River, an hour’s drive south-east of Katherine. The tropical wayside stop of Elsey National Park is on the Explorer's Way tourism drive, the main artery that connects Adelaide and Darwin, and is renowned for the Mataranka Hot Springs thermal pool – a sandy-bottomed lagoon fringed by palm forest and a rejuvenating swimming spot for weary travellers up and down ‘the track’. You can swim in the hot springs, which are dammed to form a swimming hole. You can also swim in the river where the springs flow into the river, giving a 30cm hot layer on top of an otherwise quite cold river. There’s a good range of camping grounds, accommodation and a supermarket. Attractions around town include the Stockyard Gallery that exhibits local Aboriginal art, barramundi hand-feeding tours and the Never Never Museum that displays the local Aboriginal history.
Douglas Hot Springs are around 130 km north of Katherine, and are a deviation off the road north to Darwin at Hayes Creek. The springs where they flow are too hot to swim, but you will see people sitting where the hot water meets the cold river. For a idyllic place to swim cross the hot stream, follow the path across the next small river, and continue on and you will find a large natural pool, at a constant 31 degree temperature, which is deep, still and surrounded by tropical vegetation. Five star hotels have spent millions trying to build a lagoon pool like this, and here is it, naturally formed.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Katherine
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Katherine - updated May 2024
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Katherine Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
