Welcome To The Top End Safari Camp

Whether you’re in Darwin for 1 day or longer, there are a range of safari tours, national parks, and overnight experiences for all ages at the Top End Safari Camp by Matt Wright Wild Territory.

Welcome To The Top End Safari Camp

Whether you’re in Darwin for 1 day or longer, there are a range of safari tours, national parks, and overnight experiences for all ages at the Top End Safari Camp by Matt Wright Wild Territory.

Why Take a

The Top End’s tropical climate allows for a year-round outdoor lifestyle, which locals and visitors are renowned for making the most of. The dry season, from April to September (when southern Australia is freezing through winter), brings warm, sunny days and cool nights.

That sees a packed Top End calendar of outdoor festivals and events, people cruising on the Darwin Harbour fishing for barramundi, and waterfront restaurants and outdoor bars that invite a good time. The Top End is also known for its rich wetlands, wild rainforests, and cascading waterfalls, which are all on show at the nearby Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. Birds congregate in their thousands around the Top End’s wetlands, as do other iconic animals like the saltwater crocodile.

There are plenty of opportunities to encounter crocs in the Top End – safely, of course – especially on our Darwin Adventure Boats, at dedicated crocodile parks or on our Overnight Top End Safari Camp.

And at the end of a fun and exciting day, guests can relax and experience luxurious glamping accommodations when they retire for the night.

Whether you’re taking an overnight tour or a day tour in Darwin, our guided tours are the perfect way for you to experience the Top End in all its glory. Read our Top End Safari Camp guide to find out what else you can do during your stay at the Top End.

Barramundi Fishing Seasons In Darwin

You can go fishing all-year-round in the Northern Territory, especially in the Darwin area. Some species, such as barramundi, can be caught throughout all four fishing seasons. Our Helifishing Adventure can take you to remote, pristine, and exclusive fishing locations around the Top End or stay at our Tiwi Island Retreat for an extended expedition.
Fishing Seasons:
Wet Season – January to mid-March The wet season’s monsoonal rains bring the landscape to life. At this time of year, barra are sometimes on the bite in the tidal rivers, even if they are flooded, though hooking a barra can take quite a bit of hunting around before you locate a patch of feeding fish.

Bluewater fishing is totally dependent on the weather conditions during the wet season. However, in between monsoons, conditions can improve and anglers have the opportunity to catch quality fish offshore, especially reef fish such as golden snapper, black jewfish, tricky snapper, cod, coral trout and red emperor.

Run off – March to April Supposedly the best season for barramundi fishing around the mouths of creeks and on the rivers in the Darwin region.

The barra still up on the plains or in the channels start to move out before water levels get too low, and their exit points into the main river are the creek mouths. The run-off is very popular with locals, who have often been biding their time over the wet to get into some serious barra action. Thousands of interstate anglers also descend on the Top End during the run-off. Depending on the extent of the wet season on different river floodplains, the run-off is usually over by the end of April.

March and April are great months for bluewater fishing across the Top End. With the strong northerly winds of the wet season finished, and the easterlies of the dry season yet to start, calm seas often prevail.

Fishing Seasons:
Dry Season – May to September Clear blue skies, south-easterly breezes, and sensational sunsets mean great bluewater and tidal river fishing.

Longtail tuna, cobia, queenfish and giant and golden trevally commonly travel side-by-side as they work the bait schools. For the dedicated fisherman, this time of year presents the opportunity to land a host of exciting species.

Reef fishing for quality table fish also heats up during the dry season. Popular species like the golden snapper, tricky snapper, black jewfish, coral trout, and red emperor are readily caught on both inshore and offshore reefs.

Build up – October to December. The pre-monsoonal ‘build-up’ can produce the best fishing of all the seasons in the Top End and in Darwin. The barramundi breeding season begins in around October each year, which brings big female breeders and the smaller mature male fish to congregate around river mouths and estuaries to spawn. For the bluewater angler, offshore conditions are generally the calmest of the year between October and December, so it’s often possible to travel longer distances in large trailer boats, targeting the Top End’s abundant sport and reef fish species. These calm, windless conditions are also perfect for fly fishing.

Information provided on this page has been sourced from Northern Territory

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Matt Wright

Matt Wright's unique outback lifestyle and knowledge of helicopters, boats and airboats has led him to develop some of the most unique tourism experiences in the world, in Matt’s Wild Territory series

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