One of Australia’s last unspoiled wildernesses and Aboriginal art sites. By Elaine Meyers

Australia is known for its great outdoors, but this area of wilderness is special even when compared to all the other spectacular wild places this continent has. Arnhemland—a sprawling national park in the rural Northern Territory state, east of capital city Darwin. It is heavily protected, with access to visitors strictly limited and by permit only. It is so remote that, to get there, you either fly one-and-a-half hours by light aircraft from Darwin, or drive two hours from Jabiru, a small town outside of Darwin, which is only possible during the dry season.

Most visitors to Darwin don’t even make it as far as Arnhemland, heading instead to the closer Kakadu National Park, which is more accessible and has more visitor services (but is less impressive). In Arnhemland there are no paved roads, no land phone networks, no modern settlements—but plenty of bird and animal life; Aboriginal sacred sites, drawings and burial grounds that date back thousands of years; and pristine wilderness as far as the eye can see and beyond. Here you will experience what Australia might have been up to when the British settled here, get a glimpse of the beautiful richness and mysticism of Aboriginal culture and begin to understand why this land inherently belongs to them and they to it.

Mount Borradaile

There are two places that visitors to Arnhemland can stay. One is the Coburg Peninsula where luxury resort, Seven Spirit Bay (PMB 261 Winnellie, NT0822, 61-8-8979-0281, www.sevenspiritbay.com), is located. At Mount Borradaile is Davidson’s Arnhemland Safaris (PO Box 41905, Casuarina, NT0811, 81-8-8927-5240, www.Arnhemland-safaris.com) run by former buffalo hunter and Arnhemland specialist Max Davidson. While Davidson’s is basic—you sleep in permanent tents and bathrooms are shared—it is a great place to stay because it is small and very low key, which means you can get to know their friendly staff and your fellow campers well. Max himself spends a lot of time here, taking guests on walks and expeditions, sharing his priceless knowledge and passion for the area. Some of the world’s best preserved and most amazing Aboriginal art is found on Mount Borradaile. The art sites are numerous—ranging from small, simple works to huge, awesome murals. What you get to see is only a small portion of what there is; many art sites are on sacred ground that only Aboriginals have the right to access. Davidson’s camp itself stands on sacred ground, says a sign at the entrance to the camp, and that fact grows on you more and more as you spend time there and absorb the magic of the place.

Aboriginal Art

To understand the significance of Aboriginal art, you need to have a grasp of Aboriginal mythology and belief. In a nutshell, Aboriginal culture believes that the world was created during a distant era known as Dreamtime, when creator spirits, the First People, traversed Australia and left natural formations, humans, animals, birds, plants and fish in their wake. Major Aboriginal spirits include the Rainbow Serpent, Baiame the Hero, and Bunjil the Eagle. Stories about the travels of these creator spirits abound in Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal art depicts these stories in a variety of media and techniques.

A short drive by Land Rover from the Davidson camp is a magnificent Rainbow Serpent site. From where the Land Rover stops, you hike about 15-20 minutes, looking at some small drawings and a lovely cave dwelling on the way, before you get to the Rainbow Serpent. Drawn on the ceiling of a cave, this Rainbow Serpent is huge and very detailed, and is the best example of a Rainbow Serpent in this area. Another interesting thing about this site—it is home to the very rare and strikingly iridescent blue-and-orange Leichhardt grasshopper. If you spot it, take a photo—it’s so rare that when it was first discovered, people didn’t think it was real.

Further afield, about 20 minutes drive from the camp, is the Major Art Site. So called because of its big artworks, this site is located in an escarpment that takes over an hour and several kilometers to explore. The hiking is tougher here, involving climbing some quite steep rocks and squeezing through narrow caves, but oh my goodness is it worth it. You get to see burial grounds with real human remains, tools, cave dwellings and several art sites, including a huge one with floor to ceiling paintings—left exactly as they were found, and probably how they’ve been lying for hundreds of years. Take pictures of anything you want, except burial grounds and bones. Mount Borradaile is essentially private land—Max has the concession, which he pays the Aboriginal community a tidy sum for—which means that you can get much closer to Aboriginal sites than you ever could at the more heavily visited Kakadu National Park. The natural scenery and wildlife here too is really amazing. You’ll learn about paper bark trees whose soft, papery bark Aboriginals use to make bedding, see hundreds of bats in caves, hear bird calls, spot wallabies and snakes if you’re lucky, and, from one side of the escarpment, get an absolutely breathtaking view of the billabong. The sense of vastness, peace and solitude is just sublime.

The Billabong

Beyond Aboriginal art, there is the breathtaking billabong (that’s Australian for lake). Davidson’s has a collection of boats that take guests out onto the billabong, most popularly for sunset sails. Out here you are in National Geographic territory—a multitude of bird species inhabits marshy terrain, rocky escarpments jut into the sky, fat barramundi slice through the surface of the water, and the king of the billabong, what everyone comes here to see, the crocodile, floats innocently past. From the billabong one can also see Mount Borradaile, and from one vantage point can look into the mouth of a large cave with many times the amount of art and artifacts the Major Art Site has. This is the mother of all Aboriginal sites here, but is off limits to visitors because it is so sacred. Nevertheless just sailing past is inspiring, and there is plenty of wildlife in the billabong to keep one riveted. With travelers getting more experienced (and jaded), it is harder and harder to find places that still impress. But Arnhemland is one of them. Its raw beauty and unspoiled Aboriginal sites makes it one of the few corners of the Earth that is in its natural state. And with Arnhemland accorded the heavy protection that it is by the Australian government, it looks set to stay this way. Thank goodness.