Nhulumbuy

We were on the road by 9am, after saying bye for now to Pat and Rick.

The Central Arnhem Road (CAR) went from very, very good to goddam awful, with several memorable sections having extremely bad corrugations. Just when we thought that we could not drive over another corrugation, about 30kms from Nhulumbuy we drove onto the bitumen, and it was a smooth trip from then on.

Nhulumbuy (pronounced Nool-un-boy), is the name of the town and Gove is the name of the peninsula, the two names are often used. We are staying at the Manyimi Campground next door to the Gove Boat Club, which is about 10kms from township of Nhulumbuy.

Bit of history. Cape Arnhem is named after the ship the ‘Arnhem’ which sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1623. The ship was named after the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands.
Matthew Flinders met the Macassan trading fleet near Nhulumbuy when he was circumnavigating Australia in 1803.

In 1963 the Federal Government approved the use of the land for a bauxite mine and a deep-water port was established in the late 1960’s and was managed by Rio Tinto. The refinery closed in 2014. Rio Tinto’s mining operation in Gove will be done by 2030, the mining will be finished, and the bauxite machinery pulled down and scrapped. On our way in, we drove past large areas of open cut bauxite mines.

Nhulumbuy has a population of 3,500 people and is the fourth largest settlement in the Northern Territory.

We travelled such long way to get here. Nhulumbuy is 4000 kms from Melbourne as the crow flies, but we have been zig-zagging our way here and have covered nearly 12,000 kms so far. This is one of the most remote travel destinations we have been to in Australia, besides Cape York. As we were driving in, we felt that the road was worse that the road to Cape York although it is being continuously graded, and depending on when you travel depends on your opinion of the road.

We had a quick drive around the town, and we saw several schools including a Christian college, a primary and a high school, large hospital, medical services, Amcal chemist, Thirsty Camel and BWS, hotels, huge public swimming pool, bakery, several sports ovals, Centrelink, Government offices etc. Unfortunately, no Bunnings, but there is a well-stocked Woollies supermarket!

Our campsite at the Manyimi Campground was great. We have a waterfront view of the beautiful bay, we are right next door to the Gove Boat Club, where meals and drinks are available, and the day we arrived there was a car show and music, so we went over to the Boat Club to check it out and spent an hour or so chatting to locals. Great timing.

Pat and Rick are our next-door neighbours, and arrived shortly after us. They are here for 3 nights, same as us, so we will be in for a few drinks and laughs.

We are hoping to get the tinny out on the beautiful little bay. Danny the caretaker tells us that there is a small crocodile in the bay, but he stays on the other side. Danny also said he caught two coral trout in the bay in his tinny which is smaller than ours, so Theo is keen to get his boat in the water.
The water is so clear and a magnificent colour aqua-blue. It looks very enticing, but we always remember that there are warning signs and crocodiles are in the area. Fun fact: Since 1979 there have been 2 fatal crocodile attacks at Nhulumbuy.Read more