Arnhem Land is like nowhere else in Australia. Seriously remote and undeveloped, it’s a place few travellers ever get to. One of the country’s last great untouched wilderness areas, it’s a vast area that stretches across the top of the Northern Territory, covering 100,000 square kilometres and with a population of just over 16,000.
Arnhem Land is Aboriginal land, which means you’ll need a permit to visit. If you’re travelling on a tour the permits are usually included in the package but if you’re planning a do-it-yourself adventure you’ll need to organise permits before you travel.
You can fly into Arnhem Land from Cairns and Darwin, but if you’re driving you’ll need a four-wheel drive and keep in mind that roads are impassable in the wet season (Nov-April) and no caravans are allowed – our guide to Revealing Arnhem Land has lots of driving tips and everything else you need to know about getting there.
However you decide to travel, get ready to leave all expectations behind, open your eyes and embrace a new perspective. You are coming, at long last, to Australia’s final frontier.
Susan Gough Henly thinks she might have seen the best Indigenous art in the land. Welcome to Arnhem Land's Mount Borra...
Join a luxury 4WD cultural safari and visit remote communities and art centres in eastern Arnhem Land and the Gove Peninsula, or head to the western side and glamp it up on the Cobourg Peninsula and explore the ruins of Victoria Settlement, a town forgotten, abandoned and smothered by monsoon forest.
There is no well-worn tourist trail up here, but if you really want to get off the beaten path head off shore to Groote Eylandt – only a handful of people visit each year, but those that do find one of the world’s premier game fishing destinations as well as waterfalls and many-millennia-old cave paintings.
Seriously quiet and seriously remote, tiny Bremer Island is inhabited only by a small number of Yolngu people and is accessed via a 15-minute flight from Nhulunbuy. You can learn about the Yolngu people through basket weaving, spear making and catching crabs with local fishermen.
We all want to go there, but most have no idea where to start. So get ready to leave all expectations behind, open your eyes and e...
On an island in the remote far reaches of the Northern Territory is a journey not only through a remarkably wild and dangerous nat...
This vast, 97,000km2 region has just 18,000 inhabitants, with the majority continuing to live a traditional lifestyle on isolated homelands. The connection to country is strong, and traditional hunting and gathering activities are still practiced. Authentic local tours are a great way to immerse yourself in the culture of the Aboriginal inhabitants and the environment, both of which remain mysterious and unknown to most outsiders.
Australian Aboriginal Art is famous throughout the world, and, to truly appreciate it, you need to travel to its source and immerse yourself. Mount Borradaile, in western Arnhem Land, can be visited both in the wet and dry seasons and offers a remarkable body of rock art including an enormous rainbow serpent, expansive contact galleries, early naturalistic animals, dynamic figures and X-ray art.
The Garma Festival, held each August near Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula at a place called Gulkula, is the nation’s largest annual celebration of Indigenous culture, with four days of storytelling, dance, musical performances and Indigenous films.
Buku-Larrnggay Mulka, also near Nhulunbuy, may be the best Indigenous art centre in the country, thanks to its powerful variety of Yolngu bark paintings, weavings and jewellery. It also houses modern artefacts critical to Yolngu law and spirituality, headed by the Yirrkala Church Panels. The two four-metre-tall painted boards (one for each moiety, with all clans represented) are akin to a constitution.
Arnhem Land is washed by some of the most unfished waters in the country – if you love to fish you’ll love Arnhem Land. There are fishing charters available in Nhulunbuy and on the Cobourg Peninsula, and your mates at home won’t believe the size of the fish. With barramundi over a metre long, there’s no need to exaggerate.
featured post
Join the Yolngu nation in the NT’s remote North East Arnhem Land to feel the heartbeat of the country at its most impo...
East Arnhem Land’s vast and remarkable wilderness is alive with indigenous culture, where a traditional way of life is thriving....
If you’re searching for a “real” outback experience, you can’t get much more authentic than Mount Borradaile. It’s a saf...
East Arnhem Land is a stunning wilderness bound together by pockets of rich Yolngu culture, well worth a journey, if only to see t...
Sure, you’ll get bragging rights for holidaying somewhere so far-flung, but there are many more reasons to travel to this specta...
Delve deep into one of Australia’s most fascinating and remote regions on this epic road trip through Kakadu and Arnhem Land. ...
If you’re in search of a “real” outback experience, you can’t get much more authentic than Mount Borradaile. It’s a safari camp run by Max Davidson, who came to Arnhem Land in search of buffalo and instead found a strong affinity with the land and its traditional owners.
Rustic cabins and safari tents perch on white sand dunes, giving way to glorious untouched beaches at Banubanu Wilderness Retreat on Bremer Island, while the staff at Groote Eylandt Lodge can arrange all your tours, including cultural tours and fishing charters. Safari operators such as Venture North also offer luxury safari camp accommodation as part of their tours.
You don’t have to splurge out on a luxury tour, though. Arnhem Land has superb beachfront camping spots where you can wake up to million dollar views and the cost of camping is often included in the price of your permit. Keep in mind that no caravans are given permits to drive the Arnhem Highway, although camper trailers and small campervans are OK.
Most of the lodges and safari camps in Arnhem Land include meals as part of the package, but the real thrill of eating out here is that your meal is often bush tucker you’ve caught or foraged yourself. Nothing beats sashimi carved from a fish you’ve just hauled out of the sea on a charter– or a mud crab you’ve just learnt how to stalk and spear.
With the waters teeming with fish, expect plenty of super fresh seafood on the menu, but if you are on a cultural tour don’t expect it to be like eating at home – hunting and eating turtles and dugongs, for example, is integral to Yolngu culture, so you’ll need an open mind.
For the 
best travel inspiration delivered straight to your door.
