Explore Australia’s wild Northern Territory: jumping crocs and billabongs in the tropical ‘Top End’
- Giant saltwater crocodiles, Aboriginal rock art, open skies and national parks the size of nations are among the Top End’s attractions
- A trip into the wetlands reveals a host of beautiful and sometimes deadly wildlife
“This billabong is home to Big Ass – he’s called that because he is a big ass croc”, ranger Rowan “Rowdy” Sutton tells us as we push off from the banks of the water inlet in a tin boat in search of the prehistoric creature.
Billabongs – an Aboriginal word for bodies of water that form after the wet season – dot this tropical northern part of Australia known to locals as the “Top End”; the vast wetlands rising and receding with the seasons.
The Northern Territory, known to most simply as the NT, is a land of extremes. This lush Top End is a far cry from the arid outback, known as Australia’s “red centre”, which is home to Uluru, the famed sandstone monolith rock formation.
As the sun starts to rise above the tree line in the Mary River wetlands, the wildlife makes the most of the crisp morning before the heat takes hold: the juvenile jabirus (black-necked stork) fight over food scavenged by their parents, the tail of a barramundi can be heard slapping the water, while small bubbles break on the surface of the billabong trailing our boat, signalling the presence of a curious submerged croc.
