Natural Park

The Litchfield National Park is a national park located in the northern part of Australia. Located near the small town of Adelaide River it has a population of just a few hundred people. It is about seventy miles south of Darwin, a much larger town. To the north of the town of Adelaide River is the Adelaide River Australian Military Cemetery which is dedicated to the lives lost in World War II. The Litchfield National Park is the most popular park in the Darwin regional area and attracts more than 250,000 visitors annually. The park is about a two hour drive from Darwin and is definitely more along the lines of gentle more than the rugged nature of Kakadu.

Litchfield encompasses 350,000 acres/140,000 hectares of spectacular countryside. Although it''s just two hour's drive southwest of Darwin, the park provides big samples of varied environtment: open woodlands, scenic waterfalls, rugged gorges, intriguing rock formations, and blossoming meadows beneath broad, cloud-scrubbed skies. The land uses the flat sandstone plateaus of tabletop range as a base, from where the grasslands and low shrubs tumble sharply into dazzling cliffs, and where thin, clear streams sizzle down the dark rock races in misty cascades.

Perhaps the most unusual and best-know park feature is the collection of tall, sharply-cut, grey-and-beige sandstone pillars know as Lost City. Here dozens of jagged, towering formations dot the lush, grassy fields, seemingly carved into human-shaped figures, mythical creatures, and castle turrets and stairways. Erosion was the artist at work here, the spires and arches hewn over eons of annual wet-season deluges and dry-season winds. Pas the Lost City, the rough four-wheel-drive track continues to Tjaynera (Sandy Creek) Falls. You can get to the area by way of the Batchelor entrance; the turnoff is along the main road, about 4.2 mi/seven km past the lane to Florence Falls, and then 4.8 mi/eight km of rugged road farther. Another amazing sight occurs in the midst of the flat bush, where odd, orange and white, bone-like formations just straight up magnetic termites, who managed to build the sky-high pillars over years of recycling the plant matter around them. The name comes from the direction they all face, which provides the most sunrise light to keep interios of the mounds warm throughout the day.

From Batchelor, you can drive right into the park 11 mi/18 km to the turnoff for Florence Falls, one of Litchfield's most popular attractions. These 678-foot/212-m-high cascades, the highlight of an easy three-mi/five-km trail, provide a wide double shower of spray that thunders down steep, rocky cliff walls into a beautiful blue, crystal-clear pool. The area is shaded by spindly eucalyptus, and it's a beautiful picnicking and swimming spot on a hot afternoon. To view more waterfalls, continue down the main road 11 mi/18 km farther to reach Tolmer Falls. Surprise Creek falls, a less-visited section of rockpools, is also accessible only by four-wheel-drive on a track from Daly River Road.

Another intriguing site in the park is the historic Bamboo Creek Tin Mine. A former tin-processing mill that handled local tin lodes from 1906 to 1955, the structure and machinery now lie in delapidated ruins and are an example of mines a century ago. The Blyth Homestead, constructed by the Sargent family in 1929 and left to rot three decades later, has another ramshackle tin mine on site. It's located off Sandy Creek Road and open daily to visitors. From Darwin, it's 75 mi/122 km southwest to Litchfield.

You can enter Litchfield from Batchelor, a pioneer-era mining settlement 53 mi/85 km south of Darwin, where the Parks and Wildlife Commission office can help with details. From town, the paved main road leads right into the park, linking up with the northern exit along the unpaved Berry Springs-Cox Peninsula Road to create a nice loop tour of the area. There's a Visitors Centre at Wangi Falls, as well as a new entrance in the south at the Walker Creek/Bamboo Creek area, and a new entrance and visitor facilities at Cascade Creek.