Northern Territory

In this side of the country you can find the untamed wildlife, the desert, and a multitude of animals who always have been so fascinated to people's imagination, because of their strangeness, or lethality. The territory is home to many of the world’s completely unique national parks, the huge red rock can be found here as well, Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock.

Northern Territory Figures

The largest cities in Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine
Area: 1,420,970 km2
Population and population density of 229.675 people - 12:17 inhabitants / km2

Weather and Geography

Two distinct climates dominate in the Northern Territory: typical arid in the south with very little rainfall and the tropical in the north with two seasons, the rainy and dry.
The Northern Territory is bordered with three other states: Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, and Queensland to the east. The boundaries, which were drawn relatively late, precisely follow longitude and latitude degrees in all three sides.
The southern desert region is rich in natural resources and in specialties; the most famous is rightly Uluru, which is part of the world heritage – its English name is Ayers Rock – which can be found in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park that is located in Alice Springs area.

Transportation

We would surely fib if we said that it is easy to get into a traffic jam on the Northern Territory highways, but in this area there are two, well-maintained, high quality interstate highways going through north-south and east-west directions. For a long time there was no speed limit on the roads in the Northern Territory, but now there is 130 km / h speed limit in residential areas. There is relatively new railway line in the area that connects Adelaide and Darwin. The train called Ghan is in service here, which transports passengers nearly 3,000 miles long between the northern and southern part of the continent, through Alice Springs also.
The only international airport of the Northern Territory is located in Darwin but there are several smaller local airports in other cities, like in Alice Springs, or near Ayers Rock.

Interesting Sights

Uluru is undoubtedly the most important tourist destinations in the area. There are many myths and legends tied to Uluru. It is regarded as one of the worlds the most sacred places. The original owners of the land are the Anagus and the central part of their religion is the rock, so much so that it is prohibited to take photo of some parts by the visitors.
Furthermore, it became very widespread belief that those who dare to take a pebble from Uluru will be penalized with a hoodoo curse. There are several known cases when they tried to take pebbles back to their original location through a foreign agency, only to get rid of the curse.

History

Even if you do not count the history of aboriginals that goes back to the ancient times, the history of the Northern Territory is rather vicissitudinary comparing to the others in Australia.
Initially, the British crown showed some kind of interest in the area but only because this part of the continent was found to be important in strategically point of view to protect the colony. The north coast would have offered an excellent starting point to a possible Dutch or French invasion.
So, the British built a few small forts along the coast but they were not too long-lived: on the one hand they have never been attacked by an invasion fleet, on the other hand, the barren area did not give favorable conditions - not like in New South Wales, for example – for the settlements around the forts.

General disinterest in the surrounding states is well illustrated by the fact that South Australia attached the area to himself without trouble in 1863.
This move brought a boom, which began as a huge stud and sheep mob were grazed in the Northern Territory, which is due to the textile industry boom finally paid off quite constituted. Once this bit wilde western life evolved, almost compulsorily the gold rush has arrived on the Northern Territory as well. Although reefs were not too great, the mining activity has revealed the true values because one of the Earth's richest mineral deposits is located here. Mining has also attracted the colonists eventually, cities were built, and - surprisingly late - in 1976, the Australian Government has recognized the independence of the territory, giving it back to its rightful owners, the Australian Aboriginals.