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Katherine to Tennant Creek - Northern Territory
The Pebbles, Kundjarra, near Tennant Creek © Tourism Northern Territory
Scroll down for details on Katherine, Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park, Stuart Highway to Tennant Creek

Katherine to Tennant Creek - Introduction
It is 1100 km from Katherine to Alice Springs on the Stuart Highway, with Tennant Creek roughly at the half way point, and Katherine itself is 320 km south east of Darwin. The Katherine region is known as the ‘Never Never’, made famous by the Jeannie Gunn book We of the Never Never, and runs all the way to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Intrepid, independent travellers do drive the Stuart Highway all the way from Darwin to Alice and Uluru. However, visitors with less time to spare tend to take in Nitmiluk National Park with Kakadu on a Darwin based tour of 4 or 5 days and then take a domestic flight to either Alice Springs or Uluru to explore the Red Centre. Another option is to take one of the escorted coach tours on offer from Darwin southwards to Alice Springs and Uluru, taking in sights along the way, and flying out of Uluru or Alice Springs. Greyhound buses www.greyhound.com.au are also a useful budget transport option with daily services.

Katherine

Rock art near Katherine - 'Dog and Devil' © Tourism Northern TerritoryKatherine is built on the banks of the Katherine River, roughly 340 km from Darwin on the Stuart Highway, and is the third largest town in the Northern Territory.  Long before the explorer Charles Stuart named it in 1862, it was an important meeting place for the aboriginal tribes of the area. 
Katherine has full shopping facilities with a supermarket, cafes, motels, hostels and pubs.  The opening of railway track between Alice Springs and Darwin in 2004 has increased the focus on the town as Katherine is now a stop on The Ghan train.

Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park
Nitmiluk National Park www.nt.gov.au/nreta/parks/find/nitmiluk is 32 km east of Katherine and the Edith Falls part of the park is 62 km north east of Katherine in the north west of the park, accessed from further north on the Stuart Highway. Both parts are accessed by sealed roads open all year round.
Cruising on Katherine Gorge © Tourism Northern Territory Nitmiluk Gorge (Katherine Gorge), where the Katherine River has cut into the Arnhemland plateau, is 12 km long and actually made up of a series of gorges. The gorge is spectacular to cruise or canoe along although there may be boating restrictions in the wet season when flooding can make the river dangerous. In the dry you will have to carry your canoe between gorges when dry rock bars are exposed across the gorge, dividing it up into sections.
The park has prolific bird and animal life and the vegetation is often dense, particularly around water. There is good bushwalking in Nitmiluk National Park and there are bushwalking trails of varying lengths in both sections of the park.
There are camping facilities in both sections and rough bush camping is also allowed with a permit available from the Park Visitor Centre.

Stuart Highway: Katherine to Tennant Creek and on to Alice Springs
It is 1100 km from Katherine to Alice Springs on the Stuart Highway, with Tennant Creek roughly at the half way point.Swimming in Mataranka thermal springs © Tourism Northern Territory
MATARANKA 
Mataranka is 100 km south of Katherine and best known as the capital of the ‘Never Never’ region. Nearby Mataranka Homestead offers a variety of accommodation plus camping, with a popular thermal pool ajacent to it. The pool is actually in neighbouring Elsey National Park which offers it own quieter camp site. The Roper River runs through Elsey National Park. After Mataranka there is a string of very small settlements and road houses on the way to Tennant Creek including:
Larimah Daly Waters Newcastle Waters Elliott Three Ways Aileron
TENNANT CREEK 
Devils Marble near Tennant Creek © Tourism Northern TerritoryTennant Creek had a gold rush in 1933 and is now a small outback town with several motels and hostels and also camping facilities plus a domestic airport. From Tennant Creek, it is still another 500 plus km down the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs.100 km south of Tennant Creek are the Devil’s Marbles, a series of big, egg shaped rocks.
Onwards from Tennant Creek towards Alice, more isolated roadhouses are strung out along the Stuart Highway including:
Wauchope Wycliffe Well Barrow Creek Ti Tree aboriginal community
 
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Truly Australia have attempted to give an honest and objective description of the topics covered on this page and have deliberately avoided regurgitating tourist office media releases. The information shown has been compiled from a variety of reputable sources and our own experiences. We check and review this information from time to time, but we assume no responsibility for the absolute accuracy of the details given.