Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hosted Country

The journey in one line

11 places on this journey in Australia so far. The first rung is 4 of them, and the list keeps growing.

Australia has hundreds of Aboriginal nations and the Torres Strait Islands have their own peoples again. This list names the specific people for every place, because Aṉangu, Jawoyn, Bininj, Adnyamathanha, Gunditjmara and Kuku Yalanji are not interchangeable. The places here share one thing: the Traditional Owners have said yes to visitors, in a defined way. Some are jointly managed national parks leased back to the Commonwealth. Some are businesses owned by the community. Some are cultural centres in town. In every case the host decides what is shown and what is not. The places they have not said yes to do not appear here, and never will. Sacred sites, ceremony grounds and restricted country are not targets.

The Budj Bim eel traps of the Gunditjmara are among the oldest aquaculture systems known anywhere, built in stone and running for thousands of years. Mungo carries burials of about forty thousand years, returned to the Barkandji, Ngiyampaa and Mutthi Mutthi people in 2022. Ubirr's rock art records a food economy that changed as the sea rose. This is the longest continuous human story on earth, and until recently Australian visitors were mostly told the rocks were pretty. Being hosted by the people whose ancestors did all of it is the correction.

The tropical north runs on wet and dry seasons. Kakadu and Nitmiluk are best from May to September, and roads and plunge pools close in the wet. Central Australia and the Flinders Ranges are hot from December to February. The Torres Strait is reached by flight to Horn Island and then a ferry. Some places need a permit or an organised tour to enter at all, notably the Tiwi Islands and Aboriginal land more generally in the Northern Territory. Book cultural tours ahead, since many run once a day and fill.

Where it goes

The places on this journey

What a visit means here. A visit means the host's public visitor area, cultural centre, or a tour they authorise. Restricted sacred sites are never part of a visit.

1. 1

   Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa authorised visitor areas

   Uluṟu

   Yulara, Northern Territory, Australia

   

   Aṉangu are the Traditional Owners of this country and have lived here for tens of thousands of years. The park is owned by Aṉangu and leased to the Commonwealth, managed by a board with an Aṉangu majority. Tjukurpa, the law and knowledge that holds the place together, is the reason certain areas are closed and certain things are not explained to visitors.

   What counts as a visit

   The base walks, the Cultural Centre and the marked viewing areas inside the national park.

   Access

   Park entry fee applies. Climbing Uluṟu has been prohibited since October 2019. Sensitive areas are signed and must not be photographed. Summer heat closes walks by mid morning. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Travel advisoryA place of reflection

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

2. 2

   Tae Rak, Budj Bim Cultural Landscape

   Tae Rak

   Lake Condah, Victoria, Australia

   Gunditjmara people engineered channels and weirs across this lava flow to farm short finned eels, kooyang, and lived beside them in stone houses. The system is thousands of years old and was listed as World Heritage in 2019 for that reason. Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners run the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre and cafe on the lake.

   What counts as a visit

   The Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre, the lake shore walk and the Gunditjmara cultural tour.

   Access

   The eel traps and stone house sites are seen on a cultural tour with a Gunditjmara guide, not on a self guided walk. Tours run on set days. Checked 2026-09-16.

   By invitation

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

3. 3

   Ubirr

   Ubirr

   Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

   

   Bininj people of the East Alligator region are the Traditional Owners of Ubirr, and the park is jointly managed under their lease. The main gallery holds x-ray paintings of barramundi, mullet and wallaby from the freshwater period of the last fifteen hundred years, and contact art showing a European with hands in his pockets. Ranger talks are given by Bininj staff.

   What counts as a visit

   The one kilometre art site circuit and the Nadab lookout.

   Access

   Park pass required. Ubirr closes in the wet season when the floodplain covers the access road, usually around November to April. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Seasonal

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

4. 4

   Burrungkuy (Nourlangie)

   Burrungkuy

   Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

   A rock shelter used by Bininj families for tens of thousands of years, with the Anbangbang gallery repainted in 1964 by Nayombolmi, a named artist whose work is still there. The Traditional Owners chose which parts of the story the signs tell, and the rest stays with them.

   What counts as a visit

   The Burrungkuy art site walk and the Nawurlandja and Gunwarddehwardde lookouts.

   Access

   Park pass required. Access can close during the wet season and for cultural reasons. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Seasonal

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

5. 5

   Nitmiluk National Park

   Nitmiluk

   Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia

   

   Nitmiluk means the place of the cicada dreaming. The Jawoyn people won title to this country in 1989 and lease it back as a national park, and Nitmiluk Tours is wholly owned by the Jawoyn Association. The thirteen gorges of the Katherine River run through sandstone that has been Jawoyn country for a very long time.

   What counts as a visit

   The Nitmiluk Visitor Centre and the gorge, by cruise, canoe or the marked walks.

   Access

   The gorge cruises and swimming close in the wet season for flooding and saltwater crocodiles. Best from May to September. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Seasonal

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

6. 6

   Mossman Gorge Centre

   Mossman, Queensland, Australia

   

   The gateway to the southern Daintree, run as an Indigenous ecotourism centre with the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people, whose country this is. The Ngadiku Dreamtime Walk is guided by Kuku Yalanji people through rainforest their families have used for food, medicine and ceremony.

   What counts as a visit

   The Mossman Gorge Centre, the shuttle to the gorge, and the Ngadiku Dreamtime guided walk.

   Access

   Private vehicles cannot drive to the gorge; a shuttle runs from the centre. Guided walks are booked and run to a timetable. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

7. 7

   Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park

   Ikara

   Hawker, South Australia, Australia

   

   Ikara means meeting place, the Adnyamathanha name for the basin that maps call Wilpena Pound. The park is co managed with the Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association, and Adnyamathanha guides run the Ikara cultural walk that explains the two akurra, the serpents whose bodies form the walls.

   What counts as a visit

   The national park, the Wilpena Pound visitor centre and Adnyamathanha guided walks.

   Access

   Park entry and camping fees apply. Summer is very hot and some walks are closed on extreme fire danger days. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Seasonal

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

8. 8

   Mungo National Park

   Buronga, New South Wales, Australia

   

   The Barkandji Paakantyi, Mutthi Mutthi and Ngiyampaa peoples are the Traditional Owners of Mungo. Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were buried here about forty thousand years ago, removed for study in the 1960s and 1970s, and returned to Country. Discovery tours are led by Aboriginal guides through the lunette dunes called the Walls of China.

   What counts as a visit

   The visitor centre, the Mungo lookout and boardwalk, and the guided Discovery tours.

   Access

   Unsealed access roads close after rain. The lunette itself may only be entered with a guide. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Travel advisoryA place of reflection

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

9. 9

   Gab Titui Cultural Centre

   Gab Titui

   Thursday Island, Torres Strait, Australia

   

   The first keeping place in the Torres Strait, run by the Torres Strait Regional Authority. Gab Titui means the morning star that guides seafarers. It holds returned artefacts, contemporary Islander art and the region's own account of pearling, the 1871 arrival of missionaries and the Mabo case that ended terra nullius in Australian law.

   What counts as a visit

   The gallery and keeping place on Thursday Island.

   Access

   Reached by flight to Horn Island and then a ferry. Weekday hours. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

10. 10

    Wurrumiyanga, Tiwi Islands

    Wurrumiyanga

    Bathurst Island, Northern Territory, Australia

    The Tiwi people call their islands Ratuati Irara, two islands, and their art, pukumani burial poles and printed fabric is distinct from mainland Aboriginal art. Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island holds the art centres, the museum and the football ground, and day tours are hosted by Tiwi guides.

    What counts as a visit

    The town of Wurrumiyanga and its art centres and museum, visited on an authorised tour or with a permit.

    Access

    The Tiwi Islands are Aboriginal land. A permit from the Tiwi Land Council is required unless you travel with an operator whose tour includes one. Checked 2026-09-16.

    Permit required

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

11. 11

    Brambuk, The National Park and Cultural Centre

    Gariwerd

    Halls Gap, Victoria, Australia

    Gariwerd holds the greatest concentration of Aboriginal rock art in southern Australia. Brambuk was built as a cultural centre by Traditional Owner communities, and Parks Victoria is working with Barengi Gadjin Land Council, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation and Gunditj Mirring towards its return to a Traditional Owner enterprise.

    What counts as a visit

    The Brambuk site at Halls Gap. The cultural centre building itself is the target once it reopens.

    Access

    The cultural centre is closed for redevelopment, with works continuing through 2026. The national park information centre beside it stays open. Checked 2026-09-16. A closed host does not block progress on this journey.

    Closed

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

Respect and access

Photography limits are real and posted. Aṉangu ask that sensitive areas at Uluṟu are not photographed, and climbing Uluṟu has been prohibited since 2019. Some rock art panels should not be photographed at all, and your guide will say so. Ask before taking pictures of people. Do not collect rocks, bones or artefacts. If a site is closed for ceremony or for sorry business, it is closed, and the app will never count that against you.

Permit required

Entry needs a permit, a booking or a ticket arranged in advance.

By invitation

Visitors come as guests of the community. There is no general public entry, and an invitation is not something a travel app can arrange.

Travel advisory

A government advisory currently applies to this area. Read the current advisory before planning anything.

Closed

The place is closed, temporarily or otherwise. It stays on this journey because the journey is a historical list, not a list of what is open today.

Seasonal

Access follows a season, a calendar or an event rather than being open year round.

A place of reflection

This is a memorial or a site of atrocity. Visitors are asked to be quiet, to follow the custodian's guidance on photography, and to treat it as somewhere people grieve.

Opening times, prices, permits and eligibility change. Nothing on this page is a statement about today. Follow the Check access link on a place before you plan around it.

Sources

• uluru.gov.auhttps://uluru.gov.au/ · checked September 16, 2026
• budjbim.com.auhttps://www.budjbim.com.au/visit/cultural-sites/tae-rak/ · checked September 16, 2026
• kakadu.gov.auhttps://kakadu.gov.au/things-do/activities/rock-art/ubirr/ · checked September 16, 2026
• kakadu.gov.auhttps://kakadu.gov.au/things-do/activities/rock-art/burrungkuy-nourlangie/ · checked September 16, 2026
• nitmiluktours.com.auhttps://www.nitmiluktours.com.au/ · checked September 16, 2026
• mossmangorge.com.auhttps://www.mossmangorge.com.au/ · checked September 16, 2026
• parks.sa.gov.auhttps://www.parks.sa.gov.au/parks/ikara-flinders-ranges-national-park · checked September 16, 2026
• nationalparks.nsw.gov.auhttps://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/mungo-national-park · checked September 16, 2026
• parks.vic.gov.auhttps://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/sites/brambuk-the-national-park-and-cultural-centre · checked September 16, 2026
• gabtitui.gov.auhttps://www.gabtitui.gov.au/ · checked September 16, 2026
• tiwilandcouncil.comhttps://www.tiwilandcouncil.com/permits · checked September 16, 2026

TravelDay selected and grouped these places. Naming a custodian, a government agency or UNESCO as a source is not a claim that any of them endorsed this journey.