Our home tonight is one of Cooinda’s new Yellow Waters villas,a short after-dinner stroll away. Each of the five villas is named for an Indigenous animal from the region,and ours isgabor (green ant). Kundjeyhmi language is everywhere,as it should be.
It’s already quiet at 10pm. Holidaying in Kakadu is an early-morning scene and most guests have already bedded down in humble tents,kitted-out caravans,pimped motorhomes or motel rooms.
Set apart from the vans,the pool,the restaurants and the reception,the villas’ closest neighbours – physically and evolutionarily – are the 20 air-conditioned Outback Retreats,which are neat canvas tents set on low platforms with a shared amenities block.
In comparison,our villas are fully self-contained,with a kitchen,bathroom and a barbecue on the deck. Raised on high platforms,gabor looks into the scrub and the small,undoubtedly croc-riddled,Home Billabong beyond.
It’s the (alleged) cool season but as a southerner,I giggle in disbelief as it’s in the mid-20s. We forgo the aircon and pull only the screen doors closed to listen to the bush,which creaks and snaps with the calls and footfalls of night creatures.
Then,our party of two – me and my Darwin-born sister-in-law – pull out the robes,slippers and the welcome bottle of wine waiting in the fridge. We’re too full for the complementary dessert platter,instead saving it for our planned barbie on the deck tomorrow night.
A stack of books sits on the small desk with some big names,including Marcia Langton and Bruce Pascoe. There’s also Ben Tyler’s children’s book,Walking in Gagadju Country and a bright orange self-published book by Judy Opitz,Kakadu’s so-called “English rose”,who is said to have been the blueprint for Nicole Kidman’s character in Baz Luhrmann’s outback epic,Australia. In the 1960s,the 10-Pound Pom married a local croc-hunter and set up a small store at nearby Jim Jim billabong that paved the way for tourism in Kakadu.
It’s the sort of read you’d rip through in a long soak,and there is a deep bathtub out on the open deck. The only problem is that these villas are so new,the screening hedges have not yet been planted,so modesty trumps luxury and instead,I read of Judy and husband Tom’s wild adventures from the comfort of the king-sized bed. It’s no second best:there are Bose speakers for our music,and the many throws and cushions are from Better World Arts in Adelaide,which I love for its decades-long support of the arts in Australia’s remote Indigenous communities.
The next morning,we flip the sign on our door to “gone walkabout” and head to the buffet breakfast at the main restaurant. To shake down the bacon and eggs,we take a gentle bushwalk through the art galleries at Burrungkuy/Nourlangie Rock,while away an hour at the Warradjan Cultural Centre,and then shop the Indigenous-owned and created handcrafts,art,earrings and organic oils and candles I spied at our Dird dinner. They’re made by Kakadu Organics,which also supplies our villa’s soaps and lotions,scented with tea tree and lemon balm.
We then join Mandy Muir,descendant of the Murumburr people,on a boat for one of the Territory’s signature experiences,a cruise down Ngurrungurrudjba (Yellow Water) billabong. Mandy is Ben’s older sister and the longest-serving guide here in Kakadu,and runs a funny,very dry exploration of Kakadu’s most popular adventure.
Like most billabongs here,it’s choc-full of crocs who steal the show as they line up on the riverbanks,and everyone snaps the snappers. But we also spy herds of buffalo and wild horses,black-headed storks,ibis,egrets,kingfishers and thousands of ducklings who wander – ignorant in their youth – past the open jaws of cooling crocs.
On our second and final night in the villa,we’ve planned a barbecue on the deck,but our fallback plan is Cooinda’s tasting plate from the restaurant. Stacked with salt&pepper crocodile,buffalo fillet,paperbark-wrapped barra and condiments spiced with quandong,bush tomato or lemon myrtle,it’s perfect if your visit doesn’t coincide with the Dird feasts.
Otherwise,Ben suggests going out on country with one of the local tours,such as Animal Tracks Safari or Mandy’s Kakadu Billabong Safari Camp,to wild harvest and cook on the land.
With less than half the visitors of Uluru,Kakadu is a different beast – less accommodation,less structure and less tourism industry. But I feel grounded in this landscape;it surrounds me and draws me in,rather than remaining aloof and waiting to be admired.
And just three hours’ drive from Darwin,Kakadu is only a mini-roadtrip on sealed roads. Yet our days have been filled with sacred art,rare foods and stories. And the sublime scenery of another more beautiful,peaceful world.
The writer travelled courtesy of NT Tourism. See northernterritory.com
THE DETAILS
DRIVE
Cooinda Lodge is three hours’ drive from Darwin via Jabiru.
EAT + STAY
Yellow Water Villas from $950 a night (sleeps two adults + two children),B&B. Dird Full Moon Dinners are held six times a year at Cooinda Lodge,April-October,$189 a person. See kakadutourism.com
TOUR
Yellow Waters Billabong cruises run from dawn until dusk,from $109.