Savannah Way - Cairns to Broome
The Savannah Way
The Savannah Way is one of Australia’s ultimate adventure drives linking Cairns in Tropical North Queensland with the historic pearling town of Broome in Western Australia via the natural wonders of Katherine in the Northern Territory. The route traverses some of Australia’s most spectacular scenery including 5 World Heritage Areas and over 15 National Parks and covers 3699km, an excellent length for a 14 day adventure across Northern Australia.
The route is designed to also accommodate shorter trips with linkages to other themed routes (the Matilda, Overlanders’ and Explorers’ Highways) and has the potential for fly / drive packages and to attract a significant number of visitors to the North Queensland region.
The Savannah Way is clearly positioned in the ‘last frontier’ style of tourism with the main attractions / characteristics being:
- Outback experiences (gravel, dirt and bitumen roads; small towns; mostly camping and caravan, pubs and motel accommodation; long distances, open spaces ; limited contact / interaction)
- Natural attractions (Gorges, waterholes, rugged landscape, birds, star gazing etc)
- Heritage / Culture (Indigenous, European – mining, agriculture, exploration)
- Adventure (distances from urban areas, fishing, hunting, survival, 4WD)
The Environment
Occupying 1.9 million square kilometres - or about a quarter of mainland Australia's land area - comprising 19 bioregions across 2 states and 1 territory, the tropical savannas are the landscapes of dense grass and scattered trees that stretch across northern Australia from Broome to Townsville. They are home to an extraordinary variety of plants and animals—and not just in the rainforest patches that dot the region, but also in the grassy woodlands. The tropical savannas are a refuge for biodiversity of world significance hundreds of species of native plants, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians and tens of thousands of different species of invertebrates. Many species in all these groups are found nowhere else in the world.
Along with the large areas of rainforest in North East Queensland, there are patches of rainforest scattered throughout the region. Apart from rainforest patches there are rocky gorges, arid regions, mangrove swamps, other wetlands and river habitats. These variations in the landscape support the biodiversity that makes the region such an attraction.
The tropical savannas are still home to a rich Aboriginal culture. Aboriginal land covers substantial parts of the region and Aboriginal people have a long association with the land over tens of thousands of years. However, Aboriginal people are involved in all aspects of land use in northern Australia: they are pastoralists, miners, tour guides, park rangers, entrepreneurs and community leaders.
The tropical savannas of northern Australia cover around 1900 km2 across the top of the continent. They lie in a tropical climatic zone characterised by two distinct seasons: the 'wet' and the 'dry'. The wet summer months, December to March, are hot and humid and contrast with the dry winter months of May to October. The drier months are characterised by low humidity, little rain and cooler, wider-ranging temperatures.
Much of the tropical savannas' annual rainfall arrives in heavy bursts from thunderstorms, widespread monsoon depressions or from the passage of associated tropical cyclones.
Fascinating Facts
- Compared to other tropical regions in the world, Australia's tropical savannas have a sparse population with slightly less than 350,000 residents – that is less than Tasmania.
- The largest crocodile ever captured was shot by Mrs Krys Pawlowski, a north Queensland taxidermist, in the Norman River, near Normanton Queensland in 1958. Named after its captor ‘Krys the Croc’ measured 8.63-metres and a replica croc now sits in the main street of Normanton in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
- Normanton is internationally recognised as an important location for an estimated third of Australia's migratory wading birds (eg brolga, sarus crane).
- Magnetic termite mounds found in Northern Territory are precisely oriented with their narrow edges in the north-south direction. They are built by tiny blind insects and oriented such that they get least sun at the hottest time of the day.
- The Argyle Diamond Mine in the far north of West Australia, is the world's largest diamond mine. The Kimberley area in Western Australia covers an area three times the size of England, and produces 35% of the world’s diamonds.
- The Sun Outdoor Picture Theatre in Broome is the oldest operational outdoor picture house in the world.
Facts of Nature
- Wedge-tailed eagles are impressive birds. The largest eagles in Australia, and among the largest in the world, they have wingspans of up to 2.5 m. The wedge-tailed eagle once carried a bounty on its head. Between 1927 and 1968, 150,000 bounties were paid in Western Australia and ten thousand were paid in Queensland in a single year.
- The bulbous boab tree found in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Boab tree stores water in itself and sheds its leaves when there is no water. It has its nearest relatives far, far away in Africa and Madagascar.
The first camel in Australia was imported from the Canary Islands in 1840, then in 1860 for the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition. There are now an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 head of feral camels in the Northern Territory (conservative 2001 census projections) this is almost half of all feral camels in Australia, and there are even more in Western Australia. Natural increase doubles their number about every 6 to 10 years.
