Graham Erbacher visits the Top End’s new private retreat ‘The Jabiru Retreat’ at Bamurru Plains and shares his immersive experience in the wild wonders of the Northern Territory. 

“Of place I am certain, but of time, that’s an entirely different matter. I’m staying in a new Jabiru Retreat bungalow at Bamurru Plains Wild Bush Luxury lodge, which is about as Top End of the Northern Territory as it gets, half an hour in a Cessna east of Darwin across serpentine waterways flowing into the Arafura Sea. 

The lodge is set on the 300sq km Swim Creek Station at the edge of the Mary River wetlands and it is breathtaking in its wildlife and beauty. It’s a world apart. But precisely what day of the week it is, I have to think hard and count. This place is intentionally off the digital dial (though not in cases of emergency, I am told with a reassuring nod) to allow guests – 26 at any one time – to appreciate untamed wonders away from contemporary concerns. Time is punctuated in other ways than 9 to 5, weekday-weekend. There’s the arrival of dawn, heralded by what sounds like a dog, but is in fact a barking owl. Note that it’s a bird; they’re going to play a big part in the Bamurru Plains experience”.

Subscribers to The Australian can read the full article here, or to view the PDF version, click here.