KAKADU NATIONAL PARK, A WORLD

OF WONDER. ANALYSIS OF THE

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

Figure 1: Sun sets over Kakadu National Park, Source: Tatham, H Four Corners (2021)

GEOG11023, Lecturer: Dr Jiaping Wu, Due Date: 2/6/2023

Evangelina Crew, 12116901

Word Count:
KAKADU NATIONAL PARK, A WORLD OF WONDER.
ANALYSIS OF THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

Introduction
Kakadu National Park is part of a vast area of land owned by the Aboriginal Land Trust who leased
the land as a national park to the Director of National Parks in 1979 in an effort of conservation
(Director of National Parks 2015). The park is home to one of the largest and diverse population of
endemic and endangered wildlife in Australia (Department of the Environment 2014). Due to the
abundance of endemic and endangered species of flora and fauna and vast Aboriginal rock art sites
the park has been recognised internationally as a world heritage site in 1981 (UNESCO World
Heritage Convention 2011). In this paper, the regions physical geography will be described and
discussed. The paper will focus on individually summarising the characteristics of five major elements
of the region’s physical geography. Including the geology, climate, geomorphology, soils and
biogeography. Additionally, the primary processes that influence the characteristics of the elements
and how they have shaped the physical environment will be examined and described succinctly.
Being home to one of the largest populations of endemic and endangered species in Australia and
housing an extensive array of Aboriginal rock art and sacred sites. The importance of gaining
knowledge about the physical geography of the park is paramount to the success of the management
and conservation efforts to protect this unique landscape and the abundance of life that it protects.

Defining the Region

Kakadu National Park lies approximately 240 km east of Darwin and is part of the Alligator Rivers
Region in the Northern Territory Australia, see Figure 2 (Federal Register of Legislative Instruments
1995). Being a national park, Kakadu has a plotted perimeter (Federal Register of Legislative
Instruments 1995). Moreover, the park is surrounded by a diverse range of natural boundaries. In the
north, the park is confined by the turquoise beaches of the Van Diemen Gulf and the mangrove-lined
estuaries of the Alligator rivers. The north-western border begins by following the bank of the
Wildman Creek, before deviating south-west towards the western lowlands. The western lowlands
consist of vast, grassy, sandy plains of open Eucalyptus woodland dotted with small shallow valleys.
As the border approaches a south-east direction it begins to hug the banks of the Mary River. The
Mary River is diverse in landscapes as the park itself with monospecific paperbark forest, lily covered
billabongs, woodlands, and floodplains. The southern border is distinguished by the sandy plateaus
of Nitmiluk National Park and the deeply dissected sandstone of the western edge of the Arnhem
Land plateau (Story et al. 1979, Gunn, Douglas & Whear 2017). The Arnhem Land Plateau extends
along most of the eastern border of the park creating a steep perimeter of sandstone escarpments
and deep gorges (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water 2022, Parks
Australia n.d, Geoscience Australia 2023). The park is Australia’s largest national park encompassing
an area of 19,804 km2, at approximately 100km east to west and 200 km north to south (New World
Encyclopedia n.d).
 Figure 2: Map of Kakadu national park, showing
general location in Australia and Park Boundary.
Source: Parks Australia

Geology

General Features

The western region is home to ancient beds of Pre-Cambrian schists, gneisses, and clay-slates, as well
as Cambrian limestones (Story et al. 2010, Bowman et al. 2010). These beds can also be found
scattered throughout park. In Moreover, various type of intrusive dikes, including dolerite, diorite,
greisen, and granite, are scattered throughout the interior lowlands that covers nearly 70% of the
park (DCCEEW 2022). The park is dominated by sandstone features and conglomerates. The
sandstones and quartzites are typically horizontally bedded and conglomerates are mostly pebbles
and boulders of micaceous quartz (Story et al. 2010).
The Arnhem Land plateau occupies a large portion of the eastern part of the area (see figure 3). It is
composed of gently sloping Kombolgie formation quartz sandstone from the Proterozoic era
(Wyrwoll 1992, Story et al. 2010).
Isolated outliers (see figure 5) of the Kombolgie formation are found along the east of the interior of
the park. Additionally, small areas of subcircular basins, rises, and valleys that have been carved
through the sandstone to expose the underlying metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous rock (Story
et al. 2010). In the south there is a small area with ridges on folded sedimentary rocks, volcanics, and
dolerite as well as dissected stony country on granite and schistose rocks. (Heimsath, Fink & Hancock
2009, Story et al. 2010).
 Figure 3: Field map of Alligator Rivers region with the Arnhem
Land plateau shaded in grey. Source: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Figure 4: Arnhem Land plateau escarpment. Source: David Wall.

Figure 5: Isolated outliers separating lowland

plains Kakadu National Park. Source: Flicker.com
Processes

Kakadu lies on the North Australian Craton and is part of the McArthur Basin and the Pine Creek
Orgogen (see figure 6). Neoarchaean inliers within the craton suggest the presence of widespread
Archaean basement. Neoproterozoic to Palaeozoic sedimentary basins cover large areas of the park,
forming shallow platform cover in the north and thicker, more deformed sedimentary successions in
the south (Ahmad & Scrimgeor 2013). 140 million years ago, most of Kakadu was covered by a
shallow sea that contributed to the
formation of the Kombolgie formation
quartz sandstone that dominates the
composition of most of the sedimentary
rock found in the park (Ahmad &
Scrimgeor 2013). The outliers that are
scattered throughout the park were either
islands in this ancient sea or pieces of the
Arnhem Land plateau that were separated
by erosion (DCCEEW 2022, Bowman et al.
2010, Heimsath, Fink & Hancock 2009).
With the retreat of the Arnhem Land
plateau, some areas of sub-Cretaceous
surface are now being exposed. These
exposed areas reveal a gently undulating
surface that cuts across Precambrian rocks
and slopes downward towards the north Figure 6:Map of Australia showing craton boundaries and major
(see figure 7) (Hollis, Carson & Glass 2009, regions of Archaean and Palaeo-Mesoproterozoic rocks. Source:
Wyrwol 1992). Hydraulic erosion has created Geological Regions of Australia.
deep dissections across the sandstone tablelands (Story et al. 2010). Wright (1963) named this
extensively weathered land surface the Bradshaw Surface after describing how weathering caused
minor bevelling of the Cretaceous sediments and older rocks. This denudation surface is believed to
be represented today by the summits of the dissected foothills and the Arnhem Plateau (Hollis,
Carson & Glass 2009, Wright 1963). The Bradshaw Surface is thought to be older than mid-Miocene.
During the Miocene, slow uplift led to the dissection of the older weathered surface and the
formation of a weathered land surface that covers much of the plateau hinterland (Hollis, Carson &
Glass 2009, Wright 1963). A Geological timescale is summarised in table 1.

Figure 7: Schematic summery from Arnhem Land Plateau to coastal and estuarine plains. Source:
Wyrwoll.
Table 1: Summery of geological timescale of Northern Australia. Source: Wywoll
Climate

, the El Nino Southern Oscillation, and the Madden-Julian Oscillation. These processes drive weather
patterns such as monsoons and tropical cyclones, as well as high sea-level variability.
Geomorphology

Processes

The region's modern landscape has been predominantly shaped by millions of years of climatic
weathering (Hollis, Carson & Glass 2009, Bowman et al. 2010, Heimsath, Fink & Hancock 2009). Since
the Late Proterozoic, the region has undergone a long period of subaerial weathering, resulting in a
landscape with little relief, even before the Quaternary period's glacial cycles around 100 mya
(Wyrwoll 1992, Hollis, Carson & Glass 2009).