Litchfield - 24 to 27 September 2009

We arrived in Batchelor on the 24th September and stayed at the Batchelor Caravillage. They feed the parrots each evening.

Batchelor was initially an experimental farm. The farm was named for the South Australian Politician Egerton Lee Batchelor, although given its history it could well have been a reflection of the marital state of the many thousands who have called it home over the years.

An airport was developed in 1933 and due to the outbreak of World War II it was extended in 1941 to enable B-17's to land. From December 1941 it played an important role as the base for General MacArthur's bombing force and thousands of men were stationed here.

Uranium was discovered in 1949. Batchelor then became the service town for the Rum Jungle Uranium Mine. The miners stayed in town and were bussed to the mine.

Of the many stories about the naming of Rum Jungle the best and most likely concerns the bullock team carrying the rum rations for the construction workers on the Overland Telegraph in 1870. Why all the rum was shipped in one lot is a mystery, but not surprisingly it got bogged in the East Finiss River, and the only solution was to lighten the load. The bullockies drank the rum, having one of the better binges in history and leaving the name Rum Jungle behind them.

The mine is inactive now and the pit has become a lake.

Nowadays Batchelor is the entry point for the Litchfield National Park. Litchfield is on the escarpment and has a lot of waterfalls.

We visited Florence waterfall and plunge pool, Buley Rockhole, Tolmer Falls and Wangi Falls

We swam at Wangi Falls plunge pool and walked the rain forest canopy walk.

We can highly recommend the Butterfly Farm Restaurant in Batchelor which has excellent fresh, well cooked local food. A lot is grown on the premises.

We dined there a number of times.

We visited the Termite mounds. [We are not keen on termites as they ate some of our house once, although it did enable us to do some remodeling so it wasn't totally bad]

After listening to the Ranger, a complete enthusiast, we felt much more positively disposed towards them. There are many different species of which about 400 reside in the Top End of Australia. They clean up debris, animal and vegetable depending on the termite, bringing the nutrients into the mound. When their mounds are no longer occupied and fall down they contribute to the ecosystem by liberating these nutrients into the soil. As tropical soils are nutrient poor this is a very positive benefit.

Tree pipe termites make hollow branches which can be used as homes by other animals and as didgeridoos.

Magnetic Termites orient their mounds on a North South axis to keep the mound at an even temperature. Their mounds look like tombstones.

We also visited the lost city. This kind of rock formation occurs as the Sandstone fractures at right angles. As it erodes it give the impression of walls remaining.

We visited Blyth Homestead built in 1929 as an outstation of Stapleton Station, owned by the Sargent Family. This is a typical pioneering homestead or camp of the era. There once were many houses like this but for obvious reasons not many remain. We think it shows how tough it was for the early settlers in this area and the difficult conditions they worked in.