Hiding tropical waterfalls, lush monsoon rainforests and postcard-perfect swimming holes, Litchfield National Park is a Northern Territory oasis. It’s a fantastic place to experience Australia’s Great Outdoors, with opportunities to swim, camp, hike, bushwalk, birdwatch and more. The park is peppered with sacred sites, with the native Mak Mak Marranunggu, Werat and Waray people believing that Ancestral Spirits formed the landscape.
The park is fed by water from the Tabletop Range, a sandstone plateau famous for its cascading waterfalls and magnetic termite mounds. The park covers an area of around 1500 square kilometres and is renowned as one of the Northern Territory’s most enigmatic natural wonders.
Just 130 kilometres south-west of Darwin, Litchfield National Park is an easy drive from the Northern Territory capital. Some visitors choose to day trip from Darwin or Katherine, though staying overnight at one of the campgrounds is also a popular option. Commercial accommodation is also available outside the park. The park is accessible by car, though more remote areas are connected by a network of 4WD tracks.
The park draws its name from Frederick Henry Litchfield, a Northern Territory pioneer who explored iconic sites like Escape Cliffs and the Daly River. While the park was founded in 1986, Indigenous Aboriginal people have lived in the area for thousands of years. For a fascinating glimpse at their way of life, the nearby township of Batchelor is home to unique attractions like the Coomalie Cultural Centre.