Kakadu & Arnhem Land: There's plenty to do on the Cobourg Peninsula

Cobourg Peninsula, right at the top of the Northern Territory, has much to offer

Victoria Settlement

A 45 minute boat ride from Black Point on the Cobourg Peninsula takes you to Victoria Settlement. Established in 1838 it was the third attempt by the British to stake a claim to the northern coastline in response to Dutch and French expansionism.

It was a grand plan. Victoria Settlement was going to be another Singapore, the main defence base and trading port in Australia´s north. What went wrong? Lots. If you take your own boat, hire one from Jason or Brenda at the Black Point store, or get Jason to take you, you´ll soon see how misguided the whole Victoria Settlement plan was.

The ruins of the main buildings are spread out over a large area, simply because the plan envisaged hundreds of houses and shops ? which never eventuated ? in the vacant land between them. The 4 km walk around the ruins takes about two hours.

It seems that, in the first few years at least, the settlers, officers and men put in a typically British pukka effort to get the place off the ground. They built that most important symbol of empire ? a Government House ? which in 1839 was blown off its piers by a cyclone and deposited three metres away.

The married men´s quarters, hewn from ironstone, still stand in a row. Well, their Cornish style chimneys are still there. Just what you need when temperatures rarely fall below 20 degrees.

Remains of the kiln, hospital kitchen, quartermaster´s store, cemetery and blacksmith´s forge can also be seen, along with the sunken magazine.

However the settlers were so isolated ? supplies came from Brisbane ? and unused to the tropical conditions that their problems just got worse and worse. They had no fresh water supply, so in the dry season their only water was stored in wells, which had to be dug by hand through unyielding ironstone. They were always short of supplies, as many ships coming from the south were turned back by cyclones. Their attempts at subsistence agriculture were unsuccessful, and they lacked knowledge of bush tucker.

Dysentery, diarrhoea, malaria ? which killed 25 per cent of the settlers ? influenza and scurvy were endemic.

In 1849, Victoria Settlement´s 11 years of misery was ended when it was abandoned, with mixed feelings on the part of its residents

Now the bush has taken over again. As you walk around this remote, tropical wilderness, you can´t help but wonder what possessed them to try living here in the first place.

Cobourg Coastal Drive

Back at Black Point, you can see what a real northern Australian coastal wilderness looks like on a drive around the coastal track, which runs for around 25 km south east from the airstrip to Stewart Point, then cuts back west for a few kilometres to form a loop with the main Garig Road. It´s very tight and twisting in places, and you have to gently ease your 4WD between the trees, but otherwise it´s quite easy going in 4WD.

Allow two to three hours to drive it, which gives you plenty of time to stop and look around en route. In places, the track is just above the beach, on firm sand; occasionally it cuts briefly in from the shoreline, crossing small creeks and winding its way around the billabongs. If you´re lucky, you may see a crocodile lying on the beach. Don´t, for obvious reasons, go for a swim, tempting though it may be.

Greenback, Hawksbill, Olive Ridley and Leatherback turtles nest on the beaches in June and July. You´ll also see beautiful red tailed black cockatoos, banteng cattle and perhaps a dingo or two. Agile wallabies are common.

Thick coastal forest features pretty salmon gums, and coastal casuarinas near the shoreline. Bush tucker plants include the Kentia palm, billy goat plum and cheeky yam, plus freshwater lilies in the billabongs.

As you rejoin the Garig Road, turn right then immediately left on another track, which runs for a couple of kilometres to the mouth of Cayman Creek. Here, aboriginal people still hunt in the traditional way for dugong, which feed in the grass beds and are vulnerable at low tide.

It´s a primeval, foreboding place. As you stand on the hill looking over the creek mouth, try to spot the large crocodile who owns this territory, and his female cohorts. Jabiru and egrets strut along the beach, picking in the shallows. Some intrepid fishos head down to the creek itself to try their luck, but the locals advise that it´s not a good idea to get distracted by what´s on the end of your line, because you may end up being caught yourself.

THE BIG ONE!

Still, fishing is the number one sport ? the only sport ? on Cobourg, and even those people who consider themselves totally useless at it (such as this writer) can get a result in Port Essington´s water.

Serious fishos bring their own boat. You can also hire one at the store ? a 4 metre Dory with a 20 hp outboard ? or, if you´re new to the game, Jason can take up to 15 people on his fully equipped charter vessel. He´ll show you how it´s done, supply all your tackle, bait and, of course, ice for keeping your catch fresh.

We spent a few hours with Jason, fishing with trolling lines and on the shallower reefs about half an hour from Black Point. What did we catch? Two beautiful golden snapper, which we kept for dinner. Yum-oh.

However it was the larger fish which really made the experience a thrill. Get a queenfish on the end of your line and you have to work real hard to reel it in. At one stage, I hooked something big, strong and fast. It took off in a straight line and about 100 metres from the front of the boat we settled in for the contest. All of a sudden, a big bronzed dorsal fin broke the water and the line went slack. A Tiger Shark got in first.

Barracuda, sweetlip and sea bass provided plenty of entertainment for the afternoon. More than 250 species live around Cobourg, including the holy grail ? barramundi ? in the tidal creeks and estuaries. Trevally, coral trout and Spanish mackeral are prolific; marlin and sailfish are also caught in open waters.

If you think Rex Hunt and his followers are plain weird, try fishing on the Cobourg Peninsula and you´ll understand their passion for the sport. It´s great fun, and you get a superb feed at the end of the day.   

Story by Bill McKinnon, August 2004. Image courtesy Tourism NT.

All information was correct at the time of writing but may change without notice.