Delve into a rich history of gold rush mining towns, 19th century police stations, heritage-listed architecture, and true frontier communities.
Katherine is home to fantastic museums showcasing the region’s history and offering insight into what makes it such a unique and exciting destination.
As well as Aboriginal artefacts from the region, the Katherine Museum houses photographs, furniture, home wares and tools from the late-19th to mid-20th centuries. There’s also a collection of exhibits illustrating a rich heritage of engineering ingenuity in rural and domestic machinery.
On the rails
The Larrimah Museum, behind the township’s old railway yards, looks at the railway during World War II and its post-war operations in the transport industry. The museum highlights the impact of the railway as well as the World War II Gorrie Airfield, through photographs and interpretive text.
Museums around Katherine
Gold fever
Set in Pine Creek, the only mining town remaining from the Top End’s gold rush era of the 1870s, the National Trust Museum also houses the town library and is the oldest surviving prefabricated structure in the Territory. Browse the building and learn about the gold rush, local Chinese history, buffalo hunters and the Overland Telegraph Line.
Blue & white
Constructed in 1886, Borroloola Police Station Museum is the oldest surviving example of an outpost station in the Northern Territory and tells of a bygone era. The Timber Creek Police Station Museum, now on the National Trust Heritage list, was originally built in 1908 and used as the district police station until the late 1930s.
Memories of the War
Visit the O’Keeffe Residence, now a museum of local history, which was built as a recreation hut by army officers during World War II and is one of the very few surviving World War II-era structures. After that, get a glimpse of pioneer life at the Springvale Homestead, the oldest original homestead in NT featuring displays of photographs and information on its early history.
