Hotels in Katherine, Australia

A little about Katherine...

Katherine is a town situated 320 km southeast of Darwin in the "Top End" of the Northern Territory, Australia. It is the third largest settlement in the territory after the capital Darwin and Alice Springs. At the 2001 census, Katherine had a population of 6,488.

Set in promising grazing and future agricultural country, the town's main economic source has often been gold, but this has lessened after the closing of the mine at Mt Todd. There is increasing tourism and the RAAF Base Tindal 17 km southeast of town is also contributing to the economy. The town has several churches, sporting clubs, parks, a well kept golf course, and a showground.

The well known and spectacular Katherine Gorge in the Nitmiluk National Park near the town has many ancient rock paintings. These often become flooded during "the wet season" as the river can rise 18 m in the narrow passage. In a particularly wet season, the paintings higher up can become flooded, damaging these ancient treasures.

The Park features many activities such as camping, swimming, fishing (lures only), sightseeing, canœing, boat cruises and bush walk trails. Butterfly Gorge, within a 6km walk across the escarpment from the visitor centre, features a large valley filled with lush tropical rainforest/jungle that extends down to the river.

The town was given its name after the daughter of one of the sponsors of John McDouall Stuart who first saw the area in 1862. The original inhabitants of the area belong to the Jawoyn, Dagoman and Wardaman language groups.

Katherine town and surrounds provide plenty of park and garden areas. Dakota Park, Giles Park, Jurassic Cycad Gardens, Jukes Park and O’Shea Park are in the town. Tourist attractions include Nitmiluk National Park and Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park, Kintore Caves Nature Park with it's populations of endangered cycads, Low Level Nature Park, Springvale Homestead and Katherine Hot Springs.

Along Riverbank Drive on the Katherine River, Katherine Hot Springs provide swimming, shaded picnic tables and BBQ facilities set amongst monsoon forest and tall paperpark trees.

Fishing for barramundi and sooty grunter is also popular along the Katherine River.

Leisure and entertainment activities in Katherine are mostly nature-based. Katherine Hot Springs, Mataranka Hot Springs, canœing in Nitmiluk Gorge on the Katherine River, hunting, bushwalking, camping and fishing on the Victoria, Daly, Roper or Katherine Rivers are all popular leisure activities. Although attempts are made to safely relocate saltwater crocodiles from areas of the river popular to tourists, these crocodiles do inhabit most of these river systems and extreme care should be taken in and around the water at all times. The town also has a nightclub, a few pubs and sports/social clubs.