Darwin is the capital of Australia's Northern Territory and a former frontier outpost. It's also a gateway to massive Kakadu National Park.
TERRITORY POP: 211,945
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GPS: 19.4914° S, 132.5510° E
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Its popular waterfront area has several beaches and green areas like Bicentennial Park. Also near the water is the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, displaying Southeast Asian and Pacific art, plus a pearling lugger and other seafaring vessels.
The Northern Territory (aka NT) is a vast federal territory in Australia famed for its Outback desert landscapes. In the arid Red Centre lie the iconic sandstone monolith Uluru (Ayers Rock), the red-rock domes of Kata Tjuta and the sculpted cliffs of Kings Canyon in Watarrka National Park.
Remote Alice Springs, the gateway town to the Red Centre desert, offers Aboriginal art galleries.
But further down into central Australia you will find one of the great wonders of the world in Uluru (previously called Ayres Rock). It is like the head of the nail that holds Australia onto the earth.
Uluru, or Ayers Rock, is a massive sandstone monolith in the heart of the Northern Territory’s arid "Red Centre". The nearest large town is Alice Springs, 450km away. Uluru is sacred to indigenous Australians and is thought to have started forming around 550 million years ago. It’s within Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, which also includes the 36 red-rock domes of the Kata Tjuta (colloquially “The Olgas”) formation.
Up until October 2019, visitors to Uluru were able to climb the monolith, however this has now stopped out of respect to indigenous Australians.
However, another reason to visit central Australia is the Field Of Lights that operates every night. As darkness falls and Uluru is thrown into silhouette, Field of Light illuminates.
As far as the eye can see gentle rhythms of colour light up the desert. The critically acclaimed Field of Light Uluru by the internationally celebrated artist Bruce Munro is on display and can be visited until 31 December 2020.
The exhibition, aptly named Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku or ‘looking at lots of beautiful lights’ in local Pitjantjatjara is Munro’s largest work to date. Overwhelming in size, covering more than seven football fields, it invites immersion in its fantasy garden of 50,000 spindles of light, the stems breathing and swaying through a sympathetic desert spectrum of ochre, deep violet, blue and gentle white.