Kakadu National Park, Australia

Abstract

Kakadu National Park in northern Australia is a mixed World Heritage site, inscribed in the list of sites of humankind outstanding values by its cultural and natural characteristics. It is the largest national park in Australia and one of the largest in the world’s tropics. It is characterized by the presence of extensive areas of savanna woodlands, open forest, floodplains, coastal areas, islands, mangroves, tidal mudflats, and monsoon forests. It has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 40,000 years, providing a window into human civilization in the days before the last ice age. The hunting-and-gathering tradition illustrated in the art and archaeological record continues today. The park also has a huge diversity of flora and is one of the least impacted areas of Australia. It is a unique archaeological and ethnological reserve covering almost the entire catchment of a major tropical monsoonal river system.