The Jim Jim Falls ( Aboriginal: ''Barrkmalam'') is a plunge waterfall on the Jim Jim Creek that descends over the

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

escarpment within the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritagelisted

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 ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The Jim Jim Falls area is registered on the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

Etymology

The English name "Jim Jim Falls" comes from the local Kundjeyhmi word ''andjimdjim'', referring to the water

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 ...

(''Pandanus aquaticus''), a native plant. ''Andjimdjim'' (or ''mandjimdjim'' in the neighbouring Kunwinjku language) lines the creek below Jim Jim Falls.

Location and features

The waterfall descends from an elevation of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

via one drop that ranges in height between into a

plunge pool A plunge pool (or plunge basin or waterfall lake) is a deep depression in a stream bed at the base of a waterfall or Shut-in (river), shut-in. It is created by the erosion, erosional forces of cascading water on the rocks at formation's base wher ...

within the creek. The falls are located near the eastern boundary of the national park and south of . In the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

, access from the

Kakadu Highway The Kakadu Highway is 209 kilometres long and extends from Pine Creek to Jabiru, entering Kakadu National Park as the highway crosses the Mary River. The highway is signed and mapped as State Route 21.four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

vehicles only. However, during much of this period the falls dry up and do not flow. In the

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

when the falls are at their most spectacular, it is impossible to drive any vehicle into the area and are best viewed from the air together with the nearby Twin Falls. 140 million years, ago much of Kakadu was under a shallow sea. The prominent escarpment wall formed sea cliffs and the Arnhem Land plateau formed a flat land above the sea. Today the escarpment, which rises to above the plains, extends over along the eastern side of the national park and into Arnhem Land. It varies from vertical cliffs in the Jim Jim Falls area to stepped cliffs and isolated outliers in the north.

In popular culture

"Jim Jim Falls" is the first track on English singer

Morrissey Steven Patrick Morrissey (; born 22 May 1959), known professionally as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then ...

's album

I Am Not A Dog On A Chain ''I Am Not a Dog on a Chain'' is the thirteenth solo studio album by Morrissey, released through BMG on 20 March 2020. It is Morrissey's first album of original material since 2017's ''Low in High School''. It was produced by Joe Chiccarelli, and ...

References

External links

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Tourist Information
Kakadu National Park

Map of Kakadu National Park with major camp sites {{Australian Waterfalls , state=autocollapse Waterfalls of the Northern Territory Kakadu National Park Arnhem Land Plunge waterfalls

Etymology

Location and features

In popular culture

See also

References

External links