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Climate variability
Soils
Flora and fauna
Economy
Proposals for development of Northern Australia
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Northern Australia
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the former administrative subdivision, see North
Australia.
Northern Australia
Area
A map showing the extent of the area
A map showing the extent of the area
The geographic term Northern Australia is defined by
Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Act 2016 as all of
the Northern Territory and those parts of Queensland and
Western Australia that intersect with the Tropic of Capricorn,
including the Australian Indian Ocean Territories of
Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.[1][2] Those
local government areas of Western Australia and Queensland
that lie partially in the north are included.
Although it comprises 53% of the total area of Australia,
Northern Australia has only 5.2% of the Australian population
(1.4 million).[1] However, it includes several sources of
Australian exports, being coal from the Great Dividing Range
in Queensland/New South Wales and the natural gas and iron
ore of the Pilbara region in Western Australia. It also includes
major natural tourist attractions, such as Uluru (Ayers Rock),
the Great Barrier Reef and the Kakadu National Park.
Geography and climate
Further information: Climate of Australia and Geography of
Australia
A billabong in the Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory.
The monsoon climate of northern Australia is hot and humid
in summer.
A banana farm in Far North Queensland, 2018
A crocodile in Danggu Gorge National Park in the Kimberley,
2008
Almost all of Northern Australia is a huge ancient craton that
has not experienced geological upheaval since the end of the
Precambrian. The only exception to this generalisation is the
Wet Tropics of northern Queensland, where active volcanoes
have been present as recently as the Pleistocene.
The vast craton in the north and west contains a number of
quite rugged mountain ranges, of which the highest are the
MacDonnell and Musgrave Ranges on the southern border of
the Northern Territory. These rise to over 1,500 metres (4,900
ft), but the most spectacular features are the deep gorges of
rivers such as the Finke. Most of the craton, however, is
distinctly flat and generally low-lying with an average
elevation of around 400 metres (1,300 ft), whilst in the Lake
Eyre Basin most of the land is not far above sea level.
Northern Australia is known for its abundance of pristine
beaches.[3] These beaches have seen an increase in marine
debris floating in from Asia.[4]
Major settlements in the region include Darwin, Cairns,
Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Mount Isa.
The climate of the north of Australia ranges from arid
(Köppen BWh) in the south to monsoonal (Köppen Aw) in the
Top End and Kimberley. On the eastern coast, however, the
climate is much more humid and ranges from humid
sub-tropical (Köppen Cfa around Brisbane and Cwa further
north) to humid tropical (Köppen Am and Af) in the Wet
Tropics. Except in the western part of the Pilbara and
Gascoyne where the heaviest rain often occurs from May to
July under northwest cloudbands, rainfall is heavily
concentrated in the "summer" months from November to
March. For instance, in Burketown, the months May to
September are rainless in over fifty percent of years, with
over eighty percent of Augusts having no rain.[5]
Temperatures in summer are generally unpleasantly hot apart
from the eastern coastal belt. Maximum temperatures
elsewhere between October and April range from 30 °C (86 °F)
in the south in April to around 40 °C (104 °F) in the inland
Pilbara and Kimberley before the wet season breaks. Further
north, maxima are consistently around 32 °C (90 °F) but
extreme humidity makes conditions very unpleasant. On the
coast, maxima in January range from 29 °C (84 °F) in the south
to 32 °C (90 °F), with minima generally around 21 °C (70 °F).
In July, temperatures show a wider range, from 31 °C (88 °F) in
the north to around 19 °C (66 °F) in the south, where minima
can be as low as 5 °C (41 °F) in Alice Springs in June and July.
Climate variability
The above generalisations, however, mask the immense
variability of the climate throughout the whole region. With
the exception of the extreme north of the Northern Territory,
rainfall variability throughout Northern Australia is quite
markedly higher than most comparable climates in other
continents.[6] For example, at Charters Towers, the rainfall
over the wet season can vary from less than 100 millimetres
(3.9 in) in 1901/1902 to over 2,000 millimetres (79 in) in
1973/1974. The chief cause of this very high variability is
erratic tropical cyclones, which occur from December to April
and in many places can deliver as much as 350 millimetres
(14 in) of rain over a day or two, causing extremely large
floods in the region's rivers. For example, in April 1898, a
tropical cyclone gave 740 millimetres (29 in) in one day at
Whim Creek in the Pilbara, but for the whole of 1924 that
same station recorded only 4 millimetres (0.16 in) for the
whole year. Tropical cyclones may cross the coast anywhere
in Northern Australia but are most frequent between Derby
and Onslow on the west side and between Cooktown and
Rockhampton on the east. Inland, variability of rainfall is
related to the penetration of the summer monsoon, with high
rainfall in seasons like 1973/1974, 1975/1976 and from 1998
to 2001 when the monsoon is most powerful.
Climate change has seen increases of up to fifty percent in
annual rainfall since 1967 over the western half of Australia's
tropics, but has not seen any increase over the east. The
increase over the west is sometimes attributed to aerosol
pollution over industrialising areas of China and India, but
may be related to global warming.
Frosts are common in the southern inland during the winter,
but in some years, such as 1998, they are much less frequent
due to the recent incidence of warm pools in the Indian
Ocean.
Soils
Except in the Lake Eyre Basin and adjacent areas to the east,
the soils of Northern Australia are quite remarkable in global
terms for their low fertility and difficulty of working.[citation
needed] Most of them consist chiefly of hard laterite
developed during period of climate much more humid than
even that of Darwin today. Since there has been no mountain
building in the region since the Precambrian and no
glaciation since the Carboniferous, the region's soils have
generally been under continuous weathering without renewal
for over 250 million years, as against less than ten thousand
for most soils in Europe, Asia, North America and New
Zealand which have been formed from recent mountain
building or glacial scouring of the land.
This immensely long weathering time means that nutrient
levels in Northern Australian soils are exceptionally low
because practically all soluble minerals have long been
weathered out. The major constituents of most soils in
Northern Australia are iron and aluminium oxides, both of
which are not only very insoluble but also serve to reduce the
soil pH and remove phosphorus from the soil as insoluble
iron and aluminium phosphates. The insolubility of these
metal oxides also serves, under the extremely harsh
conditions during the dry season in the north and generally
in the south, to create massive sheets which are impossible to
plough.[citation needed]
In the Lake Eyre Basin, deposition from volcanic regions to
the east has produce cracking clay soils of quite high fertility
which are still often fairly low in phosphorus but have very
good levels of potassium, calcium and sulfur. These soils
provide the best grassland for grazing in the region. The
youthful, volcanic Wet Tropics has a number of areas of
fertile alluvial soils that support intensive
horticulture.[citation needed]
Flora and fauna
Daintree National Park, 2019
Lee Point, Northern Territory, 2019
The extreme soil poverty of most of Northern Australia has
the effect of confining large herbivores such as the kangaroo
to the better soil in the dry grasslands since they cannot
digest the extreme poor fodder from the northern monsoonal
regions. However, the frequency of fires during the
desiccating dry season from May to September means that
forests cannot establish themselves except in sheltered
places. This has created a unique type of tropical savanna
environment in which fires play a crucial role in elevating the
extremely low nutrient levels and aiding growth during the
wet season.
The many large rivers of the region such as the Mitchell,
Gilbert-Einasleigh, South and East Alligator, Daly, Ord and
Fitzroy support populations of the saltwater and freshwater
crocodiles, which are by far the best-known animals of the
region. There are also a number of species of python. Further
south, where rivers are not adequate to support crocodiles,
there exist a number of quite unique lizard species.
The Wet Tropics, like all tropical rainforests, is very rich in
unique species, and importantly contains some of the most
primitive flowering plants in the world.
Rangers are employed to monitor protected areas.[3] Reports
of illegal foreign fishing boats in Australian waters were
increasing in 2025.[3]
Economy
Northern Australia faces major challenges to economic
growth. Although the climate and soil poverty have defied all
attempts to develop large-scale agriculture in large parts of
Northern Australia, some agricultural and horticultural
industries have seen strong growth. For example, in the Wet
Tropics, mango, sugar cane and banana growing are major
industries.
Notable failures in ventures into attempting rice cultivation
have occurred in both the Ord River area in the Kimberley
region of Western Australia, and the Humpty Doo Rice Project
in the Northern Territory.
Northern Australia produces more than 93% of Australia’s
mangoes,[7] more than 94% of Australia’s bananas,[8] and
more than 95% of Australia’s sugar.[9] Sheep and beef cattle
are also raised successfully across Northern Australia, usually
on extremely large properties. Northern Australia accounts
for 64% of Australia’s national beef cattle herd.[10] The
geological factors that make Northern Australia's soils so
unsuited to traditional agriculture, however, make it
extremely rich in ores of abundant, insoluble lithophile
metals such as aluminium, iron and uranium. It has the
world's largest deposits of all these metals, and as less
reactive chalcophile metals have been depleted Northern
Australia has become very important to the economies of
mineral-poor Asian nations. It was Northern Australian iron
ore that fed the Japanese post-war economic miracle and the
Four Tigers of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and
Singapore. At 2015, Northern Australia accounted for over
70% of Australia’s known resources of iron ore, lead, and
zinc.[11]
Sawpit Gorge, Western Australia, 2021
During the 1950s and 1960s, the government of Robert
Menzies attempted to develop farming in Northern Australia,
but pests made this impossible even when varieties of rice
suited to the soils were developed. Today, however, sugar
cane growing has expanded into the Ord River basin without
surpassing cattle and tourism as the main industries of the
region.
Proposals for development of Northern Australia
Proponents for the development of Northern Australia have
been found since before Federation and include:
Alfred Searcy
George Pearce[12]
Gina Rinehart in Northern Australia and then some: changes
we need to make our country rich (2013)[13] and through
Australians for Northern Development and Economic
Vision.[14]
The previous iteration of these proposals is found in the Our
North Our Future: White Paper On Developing Northern
Australia published by the Abbott government on 18 June
2015.[15][16]
Built on this 2015 White Paper, The Northern Australia Action
Plan 2024-2029 outlines the Australian Government's
economic development plan that leverages the region's
comparative advantages of natural resources, strategic
location, environment and cultural heritage.[17]
See also
flag Australia portal
Eastern states of Australia
North West Australia
Southern Australia
References
"The Northern Australia Action Plan is now available". Office
of Northern Australia, Australia Government. Archived from
the original on 7 June 2025. Retrieved 27 June 2005.
"Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Act 2016". Federal
Register of Legislation, Australia Government. Archived from
the original on 6 May 2025. Retrieved 27 June 2005.
Ellis, Victoria (9 February 2025). "Rangers use drones to
survey north Australia coastline for ghost nets". ABC News.
Retrieved 13 February 2025.
Garrick, Matt (23 July 2022). "Northern Australian beaches
inundated by thousands of tonnes of plastic waste from
Asia". ABC News. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
Willcocks, Jacqui; Queensland's rainfall history: graphs of
rainfall averages, 1880-1988; published 1991 by Queensland
Department of Primary Industries
Geographical Patterning of Interannual Rainfall Variability in
the Tropics and Near-Tropics
"New project to transform north's mango industry | CRCNA".
Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern
Australia (CRCNA). Retrieved 9 December 2021.
"Key facts | Australian Banana Growers". 23 December 2016.
Retrieved 9 December 2021.
"Sugar - DAWE". [Link]. Retrieved 9 December
2021.
"Northern Australian beef production". Angus Australia.
Retrieved 9 December 2021.
Austrade (2015). "Northern Australia – Emerging
Opportunities in an Advanced Economy" (PDF). Austrade.
Retrieved 9 December 2021.
Beddie, B. (1988). "Pearce, Sir George Foster (1870 - 1952)".
Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of
Biography, Australian National University. ISBN
978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943.
Retrieved 2 October 2018.
Rinehart, Georgina (19 August 2023), Northern Australia and
then some : changes we need to make our country rich,
Melbourne, Victoria Executive Media (published 2013), ISBN
978-1-921345-25-8
"Home page". Australians for Northern Development and
Economic Vision. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
"Our North Our Future: White Paper On Developing Northern
Australia" (PDF). Australian Government. 2015.
Massola, James (18 June 2015). "Northern Australia white
paper to create 'economic powerhouse': Tony Abbott". Sydney
Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
"Northern Australia Action Plan 2024–2029". Office of
Northern Australia, Australia Government. Archived from the
original on 13 June 2025. Retrieved 27 June 2005.
Further reading
Richards, Leslie P (2007), A guide to cruising Northern
Australia : anchorages Darwin to Carnarvon (4th ed.),
Adventure Yarns, ISBN 978-0-9751857-4-2
Categories: Northern AustraliaRegions of Australia
This page was last edited on 27 June 2025, at 18:26 (UTC).
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