Cutta Cutta Caves

Useful Information

Location:	25 km southeast of Katherine via Stuart Hwy. (-14.578904, 132.469344)
Open:	MAY to OCT daily 9-15, tours hourly on the full hour. Online Booking mandatory. [2025]
Fee:	Adults AUD 40, Children (6-15) AUD 28, Children (0-5) free. [2025]
Classification:	Karst Cave Stone Forests Living Isolated Underground
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:	L=750 m. Tindal Cave: L=1,700 m.
Guided tours:	D=1 h, L=1,500 m, Max=30. V=34,000/a [2000]
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	n.a. (2000): Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park Plan Of Management November 2000 Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory. pdf Chester Shaw (2001): A Visit To Cutta Cutta, ACKMA Journal 45 December 2001. pdf Ben Deer (2021): Cutta Cutta Cave (and Gunns Plains Caves), ACKMA Journal 124 September 2021, p. 8. pdf n.a. (2021): The Ups’ & Downs of Covid-19 and the Cutta Cutta Caves Northern Territory, ACKMA Journal 124 September 2021. pdf W. P. Walsh (1964): Unexplained Markings in Kintore and Cutta Cutta Caves, Northern Territorry, Australia, HELICTITE 2(3), April 1964, pp 83-91. pdf A.D. Skinner (2012): Mass Recreation at Ida Bay, The Development of Exit Cave, Southern Caver, No. 66, August 2012. pdf
Address:	Cutta Cutta Caves, Katherine, NT, 0850. Tel: +61-89-72-3633 or +61-89-72-1940. Nitmiluk Tours Pty Ltd., Gorge Rd, Nitmiluk, Northern Territory 0852, Tel: +61-1300-146-743, Tel: +61-8-8971-0064.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1900	main cave discovered by a stockman named Smith and named Smith’s Cave.
World War II	regularly visited by servicemen based at the Venn and Tindal airstrips and named Sixteen Mile Caves.
1962	used for a Living Isolated Underground record attempt.
1967	caves placed under the management of the Northern Territory Reserves Board and declared a reserve.
1967	ranger-guided underground tours of Sixteen Mile Caves started.
1975	Ranger permanently employed by the park and takes over the complete management of the park, including cave tours.
1979	name of the park changed to Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park.
1991	Tindal Cave opened to the public, private concession operation takes over the tours.
JAN-1998	during record rains numerous caves were flooded with high levels of sedimentation in some areas.

Description

Cutta Cutta is actually the only show cave in the Northern Territory. Quite funny are thus pages which state that it is "one of the most popular tourist caves in the Northern Territory". It is definitely the most popular, and at the same time it is the least popular, as it is the only one.

The park is conveniently located at the famous Highway 1 or Stuart Highway, only 25 km southeast of Katherine. It is a small park, the highlight are the show caves, but it also offers bushwalking and birdwatching. There are around 170 species of birds, including the Hooded Parrot and the endangered Gouldian Finch. Beneath the walk to the cave there is a Woodland Walk and a Karst Walk. But the cave tours are only available by online booking, so please book your tour in advance and be at the Visitor Center at least 10 minutes earlier. Unlike most other parks in the Northern Territory there is no day fee for the park, but there is a rather steep fee for the tours.

The tour starts at the Visitor Center with a 600 m hike on the Karst Trail to the cave. Both the hike on the surface and the underground tour are warm or even hot, so the most important equipment for the cave tour are hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, drinking water and fully enclosed shoes. The caves are humid and warm, so its essential to dress appropriately. There is a raised metal mesh pathway with railings, which is about 240 m long. It was obviously installed because of the floods, so it was possible to have tours even with water on the floor. This is not required any more, as the cave is completely closed during wet season. But it seems this was one of the origins of modern cave conservation concepts for show caves, which generally include raised pathways. There are some narrow sections as well as low sections which require stooping. From the end of the trail the visitors return on the same trail. At the end of the 700 m long passage is a sump, and there are also thermal springs in the cave, which increase the temperature further. This is obviously a natural thermal spa, unfortunately it is not accessible for visitors.

The plural in Cutta Cutta Caves is actually a case of Smile Pluralis Absurditatis, although there are two show caves, because it’s the name of one of those caves. In this case it’s actually twice nonsense: the name of the cave is of aboriginal origin, and thus it is Cuta Cutta without the "caves". The second cave, Tindal Cave, was opened to the public in 1991. But while it is equipped with electric light and trails it is closed for decades now. The reasons for this decision seem to be rather embarrassing as they were never made public. Actually the various descriptions of the cave including the official management plan lack numerous quite basic infos. They don't give the temperature of the cave, which is obviously quite high and humid, so this would be quite interesting. We don't know when and why the second show cave was closed. We do not even know when Cutta Cutta was developed with trails and electric light, all accounts tell that tours started in 1967, but it seems the actual development took place later. Also, its unclear if the tours were guided by rangers or by a private operator. Until 1971 no visitor numbers exist and the cave was open irregularly. It seems regular open hours started in 1972, which we guess is the year when the cave was opened with trails and electric light. But they had only 4,500 visitors in this first year, and as far as we understand they had coloured light at that time. Again, we can only guess they are ashamed to tell such basic facts for some reason.

The main cave was discovered around 1900 by a stockman and named Smith’s Cave after him. During World War II, servicemen called the cave 16 Mile Cave, we guess because the cave is 16 miles from Katherine. They were based at the Venn and Tindall Airstrips and frequently spent their free time at the cave. The name is still in use locally. In 1967 the Sixteen Mile Caves Reserve was formed and managed by the Northern Territory Reserves Board, which is today the Parks and Wildlife Service of the Northern Territory. At the same time the first guided tours started, either by rangers or by concession operators. The name Cutta Cutta is the original name by the local Jawoyn Indigenous people, who knew the cave for thousands of years and used to hunt in the caves. Cutta Cutta is a Jawoyn word meaning "many stars", after the legend which says that the stars rest in the underground during the day. It’s easy to understand that aborigines entered the cave with flickering lamps, the calcite crystals in the speleothems reflected the light and shone like stars. We also read the name Katherine Caves, but this seems to be a descriptive term for the “caves near Katherine”.

The cave is home to wildlife including six species of bats, Little Cave Eptesicus, Dusky Leafnosed Bat, Common Sheathtail Bat, Common Bent-Wing Bat, Ghost Bat (Macroderma gigas), and Orange Horseshoe Bat (Rhinonicteris aurantius) as well as interesting invertebrate fauna. The caves were also home to numerous snakes such as the harmless brown tree snake (Boiga irregularisis). In the Visitor Center, a snake and a bat have been preserved in alcohol and can be viewed up close in a glass. During the last years the poisonous Aga toad invaded and wiped out almost all the snakes and lizards in the cave. Two species of tiny blind shrimps, Parisia ungius and Parisia gracilis also live in the cave. They are endemic for Australia and Madagascar, which is considered an evidence for continental drift.

The climate in the northern part of Australia is tropical or subtropical, with a rainy season between November and April. As the caves are subject to flooding after heavy rains, there were always disturbances and the cave had to be closed weather dependent. An extremely high flood in 1998 actually convinced the management to change some details. Today the cave is completely closed during the wet season. This is rather unfortunate as this is late summer, the main tourist season on the Southern Hemisphere. The cave tours are operated by Nitmiluk Tours Pty Ltd., owned and operated by the local Jawoyn People, who also manage nearby Nitmiluk Gorge.

Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park covers 1.5 km² of karst landscape with open woodland and small clusters of rainforest thickets. The rocks are Tindal Limestone, a member of the Daly River Group formed on the eastern rim of the Daly Basin in the middle Cambrian period more than 500 Ma ago. The limestone forms karren and even stone forest like structures on the surface, which provides shelter for the wildlife during the heat of day and protection for fire sensitive plants and rainforest species. There are Hairy-fruited Banyan trees and other rainforest plants which grow in a dry landscape because their roots find water in the caves below.