Let's travel to Kakadu National Park in Australia's Outback

We may be bound to our own home state at the moment but that doesn’t mean that we can’t take this time to plan our next holiday destination and create a bucket list of places that we would love to visit.

Australia has some of the most unique  places to visit in the world and I have always said that before travelling overseas that I would love to see all of the major sites right here in Australia first! 

A state that springs to mind immediately is the Northern Territory and more specifically is the Kakadu National Park which is situated in the town of Jabiru. It  is a vast, biodiverse nature reserve with various terrain such as wetlands, rivers and sandstone escarpments. in Australia’s Northern Territory.

The significant flora and fauna found within the Park is iconic to Australia. 

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is one of Australia’s biggest icons and the traditional home of the Anangu people. The caves of Uluru contain many outstanding examples of historic Aboriginal rock but it's not the only site these ancient works of art can be found.

Prehistoric Aboriginal rock paintings can be viewed at certain sites adding to the value of keeping such a special place sacred. 

Indigenous Australians applied red, yellow, white and black pigments to rock as early as 50,000 years ago. Over time, they illustrated hunting methods, laws, ceremonies and early contact with Europeans.

Injalak Hill, located to the east of Kakadu National Park

The original Crocodile Dundee movie added to the tourism appeal of Kakadu with six weeks of filming taking place in Jaja (an abandoned uranium mining camp). A significant memory I have as a child is watching the movie at the cinema when it first hit the big screen and every time that I watch it with my children now it transports me to the outback of Australia!

The Life of Colour Earth colours are the perfect selection for painting some fauna found in Kakadu, animals include -Black wallaroos, Agile wallaby and wallaroos, Short-eared rock-wallaby, Flying fox, Northern quoll, File snake, Plumed whistling ducks, Black-necked stork, Brolga and magpie geese, Australian darter and of course the Saltwater crocodile.

Massive flicks of birds gather within the Kakadu National Park and I would absolutely love to see the flocks of Brolgas hunting around the wetlands, trumpeting their call and dancing an elaborate courtship.  

Dancing Brolgas in Kakadu

Step one: Pick a destination and a setting! Our rock is set in the wetlands of Kakadu National Park.

Step two: Create a patch of dark and deep water using a combination of your blue paint pens from the Life of Colour Earth colours collection. Brush the paint pen strokes across the rock and using a paint brush or your finger gently smear the colours together. Over the top of the blended blues use the storm blue to create small ripples in the water.  

Step three: Marshy shallow waters are often a lot lighter in colour with a green tinge therefore we have chosen to use a blend of green acrylic paint markers (grass and succulent green). The colours have been blended together using a slightly damp brush, remember to keep your strokes going one way to create an even blend between accents.

Step four: Lily pads have been painted with two green tones from the Earth colours collection. They are formed with small partial circles with a missing “v” shape for the pad and multiple close knit white strokes for the white Lily and the same method for the blue using the sky blue paint pen.

The brolga

Step one: The Brolga is a bird with a long elongated neck and skinny body. Using a white 3mm Life of Colour paint pen, paint the Brolga neck and body onto the centre of the marsh scene. Extend the body and add tail feathers.

Step two: A dancing Brolga flaps and shakes it’s wings during a courtship and to display this you need to paint the bird with two white wings extended out from the body. 

Step three: Using a 1mm red fine tip acrylic paint marker, add a splash of colour to the bird's face, from this point create a black pointy beak and eye. Continue to add black tips to the wings and smear some of the paint whilst it’s still wet towards the inner point of the curve of the wings. Layer the tail feathers with a smear of black and add finer details with the white paint pen.

Step four: Skinny legs with knobbly knees will complete our Brolga- there’s no need to include feet as they disappear into the marshy swamp water. 

Where does your bucket list travel destination take you? We would love to see it painted on a rock, canvas or anywhere for that matter!