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The Town and around
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The Stuart Highway becomes
Katherine Terrace
, the main street, as it passes through town. Along it lie most of the shops and services, including a big Woolworths, as well as a surprising number of galleries proferring anything from traditional Aboriginal to modern art, giving Katherine a compact - and unexpectedly busy - feel. The
Railway Museum
(Mon-Fri 1-3pm; $2), housed in the old station on Railway Terrace, isn't really worth the bother. If you want the full story on the town head 3km up Giles Street to the
Katherine Museum
(Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, Sun 2-5pm; $5), just before the old town site at Knotts Crossing, where a few original OTL pylons still remain upright. Inside are displays relating to Katherine's colonial history, including early medical instruments and a biplane from the time when the building did duty as a Flying Doctor base.
Three kilometres down Victoria Highway are some decidedly warm springs first right after the Red Gum Caravan Park . From here, it's just a short walk to the Low Level Nature Park , a pleasant spot for a stroll, swim or canoe along the pandanus-fringed river, seasonal floods permitting. Springvale Homestead , at the end of Shadforth Road, 8km west of the town centre, is a tourist resort based around the oldest homestead in The Territory, built in 1884. The station was at one time run by Ted Ronan, a writer of the wry and romantic school, who helped mythologize the Outback with novels such as Vision Splendid . There are free, half-hourly tours of the homestead (May-Oct daily 10am & 2pm); you can eat here, too.
Cutta Cutta Caves
, 27km south of town, offer guided tours (hourly 9-11am & 1-3pm; closed at the height of the Wet; $9.50; tel 08/8972 1940) of the Limestone Cave and Cutta Cutta. These caves display extraordinary subterranean karst features as diverse as they are delicate. Cutta Cutta is the more visually impressive and is also the home of the rare orange horseshoe bat and rather alarming stalactite-climbing brown snakes. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Australia,
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