Australia - Top End - Katherine
Katherine is a town with a population of around 10,000 situated 320 km southeast of Darwin.  It is the third largest settlement in the territory after Darwin and Alice Springs. The town was given its name after the daughter of one of the sponsors of John McDouall Stuart who first saw the area in 1862. A narrow gauge train line south from Darwin to Katherine was completed in 1926. It fell into disuse. In 2003 the line was replaced with standard gauge as part of extending the line to Alice Springs north to Darwin. Katherine is now the only stop of The Ghan between Alice Springs and Darwin.

The Nitmiluk National Park near the town has many caves full of ancient rock paintings. These caves often become flooded during "the wet" as the river can rise 18 m in the narrow passage. In a particularly wet season, the caves higher up can become flooded, damaging these ancient treasures forever. The central attraction of the Nitmiluk National Park is the magnificent twelve-kilometer Katherine Gorge, carved by the Katherine River through the Arnhemland plateau. Often described as thirteen gorges, it is in fact one continuous cleft, turning left and right along fault lines and separated during the dry season by rock bars. The spectacle of the river, hemmed in by orange cliffs, makes for a wonderful cruise or canoe trip and, unlike Kakadu, Nitmiluk also welcomes bushwalkers along its many marked trails.