The story of a place
A living cultural landscape shaped by dramatic seasonal change.
Kakadu combines wetlands, escarpments, woodlands and an exceptional record of rock art. Aboriginal connections to Country are fundamental to understanding the landscape and appropriate visitor behaviour.
The seasons change water, wildlife and access so substantially that there is no single year-round version of the park. Plan around a few priorities rather than expecting every road and waterfall to be open.
The essential experience
Make time for this.
Combine an authorised rock-art visit with a guided wetland or landscape experience.
Explore the highlights
Look a little closer.
Kakadu’s rock art and wetlands reveal different parts of a living cultural landscape.
Rock-art contexts
Notice surfaces and settings without touching.
Wetland life
Observe seasonal changes in birds and water.
Escarpment forms
Compare high stone country with the plains below.
For the curious reader
History, landscape
and context.
Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km (106 mi) southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded living there in the 2016 Australian census. Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory, covering an area of 19,804 km2 (7,646 sq mi), extending nearly 200 kilometres (124 mi) from north to south and over 100 kilometres (62 mi) from east to west. It is roughly the size of Wales or one-third the size of Tasmania, and is the second-largest national park in Australia, after the Munga-Thirri–Simpson Desert National Park.
Background reading: an abridged extract from Kakadu National Park, by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Paragraphs have been selected and shortened for this guide. Retrieved 22 September 2026. Source revision ↗.
Turn curiosity into a visit
Plan your visit.
- Physical demands
- Heat, uneven paths and potentially remote travel.
- The practical detail
- Swim only where current official advice explicitly permits it; appearance is not a safety guide.
Before you set off.
Your ticks stay in this browser.Through the seasons
A place in the world
Find your bearings.
Select the pin to open a detailed map. Use Closer look to see the surrounding region. Drag to move a zoomed map.
Map: Natural EarthA closer view.
Load the local map to explore the surrounding area. Map tiles require an internet connection.
- 1Kakadu National ParkOpen directions ↗ · Location reference ↗
A sense of place
In pictures.
Keep looking.
10 photographs, with full-size views and individual credits.
Go a little further
Sources & further reading.
The UNESCO link names the specific inscribed property. A broad entry in this project can extend beyond that property’s boundaries.
