Order Online Today

Northern Territory

As you close your eyes, think Northern Territory, think reptile. What do you see? Is it that big fella with teeth (male estuarine crocodiles are generally larger than females) that lives along the Territory’s narrow stretch of coastal fringe? Oris it the smaller one with knobs and spikes that steps slowly through the sand plains that cover such a large area of the central Australian landscape?

Darren Jew photographed this distinctive Australian reptile at Kings Canyon in Watarrka National Park southwest of Alice Springs. For more about thorny devils and Kings Canyon, see ‘The quick and the quiet’, pp 14-19. For more about the beaches and wetlands, the parks, the programs and a whole wonderful array of Territory wildlife — welcome to the Spring 2005 issue of Wildlife Australia.

By Michael Snedic

Cruising up on wildlife with an expert touch - dedication pays off with intimate insights and unusual perspectives.

It is difficult to hold the camera steady, but nonetheless, the best way to see a spectacular wetland is from the water.

By Lee K. Curtis

Bored by desets?

Overwhelmed by the tropics?

These two tantilising Northern Territory parks could change the way you see these ecosystems.

By Saren Starbridge

It's a wonder that anything can live here. Rainfall is low and erratic. Temperature extremes are breathtaking. For more than half the tyear, daytime temperatures can soar above 50°C - and yet winter nights can drop below freezing.

Watarrka National Park: It's a landscape full of stories: ancient, contemporary and always changing.

By Martin Blaszczyk

As scientists produce more solid evidence of the toxic cane toad's impact on Australian ecosystems, territorians are drawing battle lines agasint a rapidly approaching plague in a bid to protect their pets, their lifestyle, and their native flora.

Spreading at 30-60km per year, cane toads crossed the border into the Northern Territory in the 1980s, and reached World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park in March 2001. Today, the frontline of the toad invasion stands just 30-40km from Darwin.

By Chris Pavey

When the overland telegraph was engineered in the 19th century, suddenly news could travel with astonishing swiftness but the environmental news was devastating.

Fron a haunted past to cautiously optomistic future, Chris Pavel looks at the conservation of threatened species in the arid and semi-arid parts of Northern Territory.

By John T Rigby

A painter renowned for his use of colour finds the Northen Territory heats up his pallette.

'When painting, I prefer to be on the spot, surrounded by the environment. Although I have painted in many parts of the world, the Queensland's tropical north and th Northern Territory have particulary appealed to me'. Share John Rigby's inspration as he puts brush to canvas across this specatcular landscape.

By Martin Blaszczyk

Working with turtles on Darwin's beaches hatches a vaulable hands-off wildlife project.

'Kids, your mission ... is to protect your turtle! Make sure it reaches the water safe and sound.' These are not the instructions on a new nature-inspired video game, but the voice of Ray Chatto, Senior Wildlife Officer with Northern Territory's Parks and Wildlife Service talkign to children and parents just before the release of flatback turtle hatchlings on Darwin's Casuarina Beach... where else can you find marine turtles as back-yard wildlife?

• Frogwatch
• Savanna
• Marine turtles
• IOSEA Marine Turtle MoU
• Euro Turtle
• Alice Springs Desert Park
• Northern Territory Wildlife Park

Editorial, Comment, City Animal, NatureWatch, Books Reviews, Spring Skies, Young and Wild, Wildside, Scratchings and Rustlings, WPSQ in Action, Swamp Cartoon and our regular environmental crossword.

Subscribe to Wildlife Australia today - your subscription helps many worthwhile wildlife projects and contributes to a successful education campaign that has been an effective voice for Australian wildlife since 1963.