Mataranka & Elsey National Park

Mataranka Thermal Pools, NT. Photo credit: Tourism NT

Mataranka & Elsey National Park

People use Mataranka as a base for exploring the nearby Elsey National Park and taking a dip in the thermal pools. Yet there’s history here too – and it would be a shame to miss it.

Travelling to Mataranka
Head 100km south of Katherine along the Stuart Highway.

Things to do in Mataranka

Never Never Museum
History here has an appealingly local flavour. Just existing was a challenge, as displays about the Overland Telegraph Line, Northern Australian Railway, and WWII demonstrate.

Elsey Homestead
This replica was built for the film adaptation of a novel (see sidebar), but it’s authentic enough to give you a powerful insight into the lives of the people living here in the early 1900s.

Rainbow Springs
Travel 10km from the Mataranka, on the border of Elsey National Park, you’ll find Rainbow Springs.

They’ve been ‘upgraded’ (by which we mean they’ve added concrete walls and stairs) which makes the place look and feel like a nature lover’s outdoor swimming pool. It’s fine if you don’t mind the artificiality of it all, but it does tend to be one of the busier things to do in Mataranka, especially when compared with the more natural beauty of…

Bitter Springs
Unlike Rainbow Springs the waters here have remained ‘unenhanced’. Not that they’d need it. The unusual blue-green colour of the water is due to the high limestone content. It’s a balmy 34°C and doesn’t attract big crowds.

Elsey National Park
Named after Elsey Station, the Park boasts lush rainforest walks and good fishing along the Roper and Waterhouse Rivers.

The Roper River walk will lead you to the Mataranka Falls and the scenery and wildlife on the way are always impressive. Canoes (available for hire) are a great way to get a different perspective on the area.

Although people do swim here we wouldn’t recommend it. Saltwater crocs can access the rivers and are very good at arriving unnoticed…

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Never Never Land

You’ll find Mataranka referred to as ‘the capital of the Never Never’.

The term comes from a novel ‘We of the Never Never’ by Jeannie Gunn. In 1902 she wrote the autobiographical story of a woman working on the Elsey Station (‘Station’ is the term for a large landholding, usually used for rearing cattle).

The tale has since become a part of Australian folklore.