The Finniss River is a river south of Darwin, running west from the flank of Mount Minza, passing north of

Litchfield National Park Litchfield National Park, covering approximately 1500 km2, is near the township of Batchelor, Northern Territory, Batchelor, 100 km south-west of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Each year the ...

and flowing into the sea at Fog Bay. The East Branch of the Finniss was heavily polluted during the 1970s due to uranium mining at Rum Jungle mine about 105 km south of Darwin. The Finniss River Land Claim was presented to Judge John Toohey in 1981 but the former Rum Jungle mine site, contained within Area 4 of the Finniss River Land Claim (1981) was excluded from the grant to the Finniss River Land Trust due to the concerns of the Kungarakany and Warai peoples who are joint traditional Aboriginal owners of that area.

Aboriginal heritage

The

Kungarakan The Kungarakany people, also spelt Koongurrukuñ, Kungarrakany, Kungarakan and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. They were called the "Paperbark People" by European settlers. Country Norman Tindale e ...

, Warai and Maranunggu peoples are

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

of lands in the Finniss River region. Alyandabu, who was born near the Finniss River, was a respected elder of the Kungarakan people.

European history

The Finniss River was named by Frederick Litchfield after Colonel

Boyle Travers Finniss Boyle Travers Finniss (18 August 1807 – 24 December 1893) was the first Premiers of South Australia, premier of South Australia, serving from 24 October 1856 to 20 August 1857. Early life Finniss was Birth aboard aircraft and ships, born at ...

who was appointed Government Resident of the Northern Territory in 1864.

Wildlife

The Finniss River is well known as a popular fishing spot to catch the famous and highly prized catching and eating fish the

Barramundi The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer''), Asian sea bass, or giant sea perch (also known as dangri, apahap or siakap) is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Carangiformes. The species is widely distributed in the I ...

. The river is also home to a large number of saltwater crocodiles. In July 1979 the river was also the home of Sweetheart, a 17 foot long saltwater crocodile. Rangers captured Sweetheart but he died of accidental drowning during transportation. He is preserved and exhibited in Darwin at the

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is the main museum in the Northern Territory. The headquarters of the museum is located in the inner Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin suburb of The Gardens, Northern Territory, The ...

2003 Crocodile Attack

In 2003 Brett Mann was killed by a 3.8m black coloured crocodile. Mann was swept away off a sand bar and downstream by rising river levels, and killed by a 3.8m crocodile. Two of his friends who were with Mann, jumped into the river to save him, and survived the ordeal by clinging onto the fork of a tree for 22 hours. The crocodile continued circling the pair all night until they were rescued by a helicopter. This incident inspired the 2007 movie Black Water.

Aboriginal heritage

European history

Wildlife

2003 Crocodile Attack

References

Further reading