The fourth largest settlement in the Northern Territory, Katherine was named after the Katherine River, which was named by John McDouall Stuart during his fourth and successful crossing of Australia from south to north in 1862. He named the river after Catherine Chambers, the second daughter of his principal patron, James Chambers. Stuart crossed the river approximately 30 miles east of the present town site during this expedition. ¹

Katherine owes much of its existence to the Overland Telegraph, as well as the road link to Western Australia. In 1927, the bridge over the Katherine River for the North Australia Railway (which linked Adelaide and Darwin) railway was constructed ², then later superseded by the Adelaide-Darwin railway line, several kilometres from the town centre.

The first inhabitants of the area were indigenous Australians; the Dagoman people. The town is home to gold mining, a RAAF Base, and is also provides access to the tourist attractions of nearby Nitmiluk National Park, Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge and its many ancient rock paintings.

Population:

5980 ³

Postcode:

0850

Location:

271 km southwest of Darwin

Main Roads:

Stuart Hwy (A1) and Victoria Hwy (A1)

Radio Stations:

FM:

ABC Darwin (91.7 MHz and 106.1 MHz), ABC News Radio (105.3 MHz), CAAMA Radio (104.5 MHz), KatCountry 88 FM (88.0 MHz), Katherine FM (90.1 MHz and 101.3 MHz), Mix FM (106.9 MHz), RadioTAB (103.7 MHz), Triple J (88.5 MHz) and Vision Christian Radio (87.6 MHz)

AM:

ABC Radio National (639 kHz) and Hot 100 (765 kHz)

Click or tap the map to enable panning and zooming

Town Centre:

View of the Katherine town centre, at the corner of Stuart Hwy (Katherine Tce) (A1) and Giles St, 2003.

Image © Jamie Scuglia

Town Centre:

View of the Katherine town centre, along Stuart Hwy (Katherine Tce) (A1), 2003.

Image © Jamie Scuglia

Town Centre:

View of the Katherine town centre, along Stuart Hwy (Katherine Tce) (A1), 2003.

Image © Jamie Scuglia

Town Centre:

View of the Katherine town centre, along Stuart Hwy (Katherine Tce) (A1), 2003.

Image © Jamie Scuglia

Town Centre:

View of the Katherine town centre, along Stuart Hwy (Katherine Tce) (A1), 2003.

Image © Jamie Scuglia

Katherine River:

Low level crossing of the Katherine River at Cossack, southwest of the Katherine town centre, 2003.

Image © Jamie Scuglia

Nitmiluk:

View of Nitmuluk (Katherine Gorge), 2003.

Image © Jamie Scuglia

Katherine River:

View of the Katherine River from Nitmuluk, 2003.

Image © Jamie Scuglia

¹ NT Government, NT Place Names Register, Place Names Register Extract, Katherine (suburb).
² NT Government, NT Place Names Register, Place Names Register Extract, Katherine (town).
³ Australian Government, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census Data, 2021, Katherine, Census All persons QuickStats, Urban Centres and Localities, UCL714001.