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Kakadu National Park Facts

Kakadu National Park Facts
Kakadu National Park is a 7,646 square mile park located in Australia's Northern Territory in the Alligators River Region. Aboriginal peoples in Australia have occupied the park's region for at least 20,000 years, although some believe it has been as long as 40,000 years. Aboriginal culture can be seen in more than 5,000 sites in the park. There are roughly 500 Aboriginal people living in the park, and the land is either under claim or protected by Aboriginal land rights. Kakadu National Park was established as a national park in 1979, and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in three stages beginning in 1981.
Interesting Kakadu National Park Facts:
Roughly 50% of Kakadu National Park is protected as Aboriginal Land under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1976. The remaining portion is mostly under land claim.
Kakadu National Park is a Commonwealth Reserve. The Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage manage the park along with the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land.
It is believed that the name Kakadu is derived from the Aboriginal language called Gagudji, interpreted by the Europeans.
Kakadu National Park was listed as a UNESCO site in three stages that took place in 1981, 1987, and the third stage in 1992.
The landscape in Kakadu National Park includes floodplains, billabongs, rainforests, plateaus, escarpments, and woodlands.
The diversity of species in Kakadu National Park is immense. There are more than 10,000 insect species, 280 species of birds, 60 mammal species, 53 species of freshwater fish, 1700 plant species, and 117 species of reptiles.
One third of all bird species found in Australia can be found in Kakadu National Park.
There are species of animals found in Kakadu National Park that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
The species of weeds in Kakadu National Park are very limited and less than 6% of the plant species in the park are weeds, which makes it one of the world's least weedy parks.
Saltwater crocodiles live in most of the water in Kakadu National Park, but some people still swim in plunge pools or gorges.
Kakadu National Park has two seasons - wet and dry. The dry season runs from April to September and the wet season runs from October to April.
Animals that can be found in Kakadu National Park include the black wallaroos, antilopine kangaroo, short-eared rock wallaby, saltwater crocodile, dingoes, brown bandicoots, black flying foxes, dugongs, and northern quolls.
Reptiles found in Kakadu National Park include eastern brown snakes, death adders, goannas, cane toads, and frill-necked lizards.
Two crocodile species are found in Kakadu National Park, which include the saltwater crocodile and the freshwater crocodile. Saltwater crocodiles can reach up to 6 meters in length.
Termite mounds in Kakadu National Park can reach very large sizes and are impressive to see.
The largest waterfall in Kakadu National Park is Jim Jim Falls.
When South Alligator River was named the man who named it did not know the difference between crocodiles and alligators. There are no alligators in the park.


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