Victoria River Roadhouse

Visited: very late dry season

Recommendation: Definitely worth a stop if you are travelling between Katherine and Broome. The roadhouse has a pleasant caravan park and there are plenty of wildlife hotspots close by.

The Victoria River Roadhouse is not much further west than the Sullivan Campground and a welcome purveyor of ice creams in brutal heat. I knew that the Purple-crowned Fairywren were in the area and I was desperate to see them. They are only found near to water in a small strip of territory across the Top End. 

I had a tip that the fairywren could be found by the bridge over the river just before the caravan park. But there is actually an old bridge, that is much smaller than the new one. It runs right next to the new bridge and while you can't drive over it, you can walk it. This was where I headed and spent a good amount of time while I stayed here. There was a lot of activity with most of the noise coming from several Pheasant Coucal. The Dollarbird came in second place with its craw call. 

Being a lot more quiet were the Brown Goshawk who soared between the bridges scouring for prey and in the long grasses were lots of Crimson Finches. I always like seeing the juveniles with their rich brown plumage and rather sad expressions.

It took me some time to find the Purple-crowned Fairywren. They seemed to come regularly to the edge of the long grass and then they would disappear again for a couple of hours. I saw the female first (photo on the right) and I thought she was very pretty but when the male arrived, he definitely stole the show. It was worth standing out in heat approaching 40 degrees! 

Purple-crowned Fairywren (Malurus coronatus)