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Visited: dry season
Recommendation: This is a great alternative to staying in Katherine itself. Spacious, shady and right on the banks of the Victoria River, wildlife is abundant and accessible.
On the banks of the Katherine River and just 12 km from Katherine, the caravan park is a unique hideaway rural retreat. This working cattle property has a caravan park with shady, well grassed, large sites and free BBQ facilities.
Covering a large area, Manbulloo Homestead Caravan Park is a place where you can enjoy your stay in a peaceful rural environment unspoilt by crowded conditions. Best of all, access to the Katherine River is close by and birds and animals can be found in abundance.
Manbulloo is a lovely caravan park. One of the best things about it is the owner. He is a wildlife enthusiast and he knows the area incredibly well and he will share any information he can with you. He gave me so many tips about where to go as I headed towards Darwin. He also took me out in his buggy to look for the bustards which if you are lucky you can spot in the paddocks surrounding the caravan park and if you are really, really lucky you can get close to them because he knows where they are.
Australian Bustard (Ardeotis australis)
My first sighting within the caravan park was a snake. I was just walking across to the toilets and a lady was staring at something and that's always a good sign. I walked closer to her and she motioned me towards her. She was staring at a snake that was moving across the ground. So I grabbed my camera, as you do, and photographed it. It turns out to be a Mulga Snake which are very venomous and it was a timely reminder that when you're out in the Australian outback or bush never put your feet somewhere where you can't see the ground and never tread in leaf litter because these things will kill you.
Mulga Snake (Pseudechis australis)
Blue-faced Honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis)
Australasian Figbird (Sphecotheres vieilloti)
Throughout the shaded area of the caravan park were lots of different birds and it was quite difficult at times to see them but there were some lower level bushes where the honeyeaters would come in and feed. At those times you could get a better look at them. This juvenile Blue-faced Honeyeater and the Figbird were abundant in the area and it's always great to get their photographs, they're both photogenic.
Making the most noise as usual was the Blue-winged Kookaburra and the Dollarbird but they aren't very cooperative in terms of photography, tending to sit up quite high. That's where a long lens is handy.
Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis)
Blue-winged Kookaburra (Dacelo leachii)
Sitting on the fence lines and the water pipes, the sprinklers, was a good place to catch birds. The owner had told me that the Northern Rosella come in in the afternoons to sit on the fences. I hadn't seen them as of yet so I was really keen to find them, parking my campervan close up. As it was I only saw two and I just managed to get a couple of shots of them and I'm only sorry I couldn't stay there longer to find them.
Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis)
Northern Rosella (Platycercus venustus)
Great Bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis)
The trees that line one side of the caravan park, had a glorious yellow blossom which the lorikeets loved. The Varied and Red-collared Lorikeet were active here. Again they would stick into the depths of the foliage and only peaked out every now and again to get something to eat before they ducked back in.
But what was more friendly and more much more cooperative was the Pheasant Coucal. They just wandered totally unconcerned through the there was several males and several females and I was on the track of finding their nests but I didn't want to go poking around too much in the bush, especially after seeing a Mulga Snake around.
On the road to the park was a stunning bower that was very carefully attended to by the male Great Bowerbird.
Red-collared Lorikeet (Trichoglossus rubritorquis)
Pheasant Coucal (Centropus phasianinus)
Freshwater Crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni)
Very close to the park is a track which leads down to the Victoria River. There, you can walk along the river when it's low, which it was when I visited. The banks are sandy and there's more to see down there. But I took some time to sit on some benches that the caravan park owner had placed down there and watch the crocodiles. Only freshies now, they don't bother Australians too much but it's still another warning about how some of the wildlife around here is not friendly.
The beautiful Rajah Shelducks were here in numbers both down on the water and in the caravan park. Every afternoon one of the residents would feed them and it was quite interesting to see this normally shy duck running around a caravan park I'm not sure whether I agree with it or not but there you go.
Radjah Shelduck (Tadorna radjah)
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