Anbangbang Billabong lies in the shadow of Burrunggui (Nourlangie Rock) within

Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded liv ...

and is a good place to view a wide range of wildlife. Large numbers of waterfowl and wading birds inhabit the billabong and many

wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

can be found grazing around the water's edge. There is a walking trail around the circumference of Anbangbang Billabong with many picnic areas.

Geography

The Anbangbang Billabong is overlooked by the Nawurlandja and Burrunggui plateaux. In the wet season, it is fed by runoff from these, as well as by overflow from Nourlangie Creek; however during the dry season it is cut off.

Fauna

Like much of Kakadu, Anbangbang Billabong is home to a particularly large variety of bird life. The fluctuating water levels draw waterfowl such as

magpie geese The magpie goose (''Anseranas semipalmata'') is the sole living representative species of the family Anseranatidae. This common waterbird is found in northern Australia and southern New Guinea. As the species is prone to wandering, especially wh ...

pelican Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before s ...

darter The darters, anhingas, or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae, which contains a single genus, ''Anhinga''. There are four living species, three of which are very common and widespread while the fourth is rarer and ...

spoonbill Spoonbills are a genus, ''Platalea'', of large, long-legged wading birds. The spoonbills have a global distribution, being found on every continent except Antarctica. The genus name ''Platalea'' derives from Ancient Greek and means "broad", refe ...

s and

brolga The brolga (''Antigone rubicunda''), formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithologist John Gould in his ''Birds of Austral ...

. Other fauna known to frequent the billabong include

, file snakes,

long-necked turtle ''Chelodina'', collectively known as snake-necked turtles, is a large and diverse genus of long-necked chelid turtles with a complicated nomenclatural history. Although in the past, ''Macrochelodina'' and ''Macrodiremys'' have been considered se ...

dingo The dingo (''Canis familiaris'', ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (Basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage of dog found in Australia (continent), Australia. Its taxonomic classification is de ...

es and

goanna A goanna is any one of several species of lizards of the genus '' Varanus'' found in Australia and Southeast Asia. Around 70 species of ''Varanus'' are known, 25 of which are found in Australia. This varied group of carnivorous reptiles ranges ...

s. Mangroves lining the billabong support populations of

freshwater mussel Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater mollusc, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves that live in fresh water as opposed to salt water, which is the main habitat type for bivalves. The majority of species of bivalve molluscs ...

. Adjacent woodlands play host to a different ecosystem again. The nearby Nawurlandja plateau supports local populations of

short-eared rock-wallaby The short-eared rock-wallaby (''Petrogale brachyotis'') is a species of rock-wallaby found in northern Australia, in the northernmost parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It is much larger than its three closest relatives, the ...

and

chestnut-quilled rock pigeon The chestnut-quilled rock pigeon (''Petrophassa rufipennis'') is a dark sooty brown pigeon with a distinctive bright chestnut patch on its wing visible in flight. It has distinctive pale lines across its face curving above and below its eye. A sp ...

, among other species.

Flora

The swelling billabong promotes seasonal growth of

sedges The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

grasses Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

water lilies ''Water Lilies'' (or ''Nymphéas'', ) is a Serial imagery, series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionism, Impressionist Claude Monet (1840–1926). The paintings depict his Fondation Monet in Giverny, flower garden at Fond ...

, and freshwater mangrove line the water's edge. Swamp areas support many types of paperbark, in particular the weeping paperbark, silver-leaved paperbark and broad-leaved paperbark. The woodlands surrounding the billabong are a lush habitat with an abundance of plant species. Darwin woollybutt and Darwin stringybark dominate, with large populations of

fan palm Fan palm as a descriptive term can refer to any of several different kinds of palms ( Arecaceae) in various genera with leaves that are palmately lobed (rather than pinnately compound). Most are members of the subfamily Coryphoideae, though a f ...

s, the kapok '' Cochlospermum fraseri'', red apples, wattle and ''

Pandanus ''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with some 750 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. The greatest number of species are found in Madagascar and Malaysia. Common names ...

''.

Climate

Like much of Kakadu, the Anbangbang Billabong region's climate is monsoonal. The region's Aboriginal owners recognise six seasons, however these can be reduced to vastly differing dry and wet seasons where the billabong is respectively depleted and replenished.

Tourism

Anbangbang Billabong has a marked, circular walk, popular with tourists to Kakadu National Park, but accessible only during the dry season. It is a hotspot for bird watching during the late dry and early wet seasons due to the abundance of birdlife. The nearby Nourlangie plateau (Burrunggui) and Anbangbang shelter are of particular interest for their Aboriginal rock art and 20,000-year human history.

Aboriginal belief and toponomy

A creation story of the people of the area tells that the Anbangbang Billabong landscape was formed by a pair of short-eared rock-wallabies, known in a local language as , who are responsible for cutting crevices in the rock and parting the trees for the billabong. This origin tale is commemorated in an Aboriginal name for nearby Nourlangie Rock, , more often known as from the Kundjeyhmi language name. The meaning of the name ''Anbangbang'' is not known.

References

External links

Aboriginal Art
Learn more about Aboriginal culture in Kakadu

Map of Kakadu National Park including art sites {{coord, 12, 51, 52, S, 132, 47, 49, E, region:AU-NT_type:waterbody_source:dewiki, display=title Kakadu National Park