Hunters Retreat

Hunters Retreat NT
Hunters Retreat Finniss River Bynoe NT

Named after a member of our family, Hunters Retreat is located about an hours drive from Darwin, Northern Territory. Situated high and dry above the Bynoe Harbour storm surge, Finniss River floodplain and billabongs. All weather, all season perfection.

Privately owned acreage currently undergoing revegetation and development.  A secluded, tranquil, private piece of the Northern Territory. Located within an hours drive of Darwin. No crowds, no hustle and bustle, just the sounds of nature. An easy and convenient location to explore a one-of-a-kind unspoilt natural environment and enjoy a piece of  the NT’s paradise!

Help us work towards providing an experience you too can enjoy by taking our survey.

Wildlife of the Finniss River NT

Finniss River & Bynoe HarbourAustralia’s Northern Territory is teeming with exotic birdlife, mammals, reptiles and marine life. The Finniss River and Bynoe Harbour included. The Finniss River coastal floodplain, about 70 km south-west of Darwin is dominated by seasonally inundated grassland and sedgeland with areas of paperbark open-forest. The Finniss River floodplain is also of international significance. This site is listed as a wetland of national significance in the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia.
Magpie GeeseThe area supports very large numbers of waterbirds, including more than 1% of the world’s populations of Magpie Geese and Pied Herons, and high densities of many other waterbird species. It supports important breeding activity by Saltwater Crocodiles, Magpie Geese and other waterbirds, and three Pied Heronlarge waterbird breeding colonies are known to be located in paperbark swamps on the floodplain. Approximately five threatened birds and one threatened plant species also call this area home.

Of national importance are the vulnerable and threatened species of:

PlantsMonochoria hastate

Vertebrates – Australian Bustard Ardeotis australis, Australian BustardMasked Owl Tyto
novaehollandiae kimberli, Partridge Pigeon Geophaps smithii, Red Goshawk
Erythrotriorchis radiatus, and Yellow-spotted Monitor Varanus panoptes.
Yellow-spotted Monitor
Cycas canalis subsp. canalis on the other hand  grows prolifically only in the in the Darwin Coastal bioregion. WallabyWallaby are also very abundant.
Less than 1000 ha of mostly dry rainforest occur in this site, especially in coastal areas near Stingray Head. Most of the rainforest occurs
as small patches (<10 ha) but one significant patch is >100 ha.
Northern Trritory CrocodileFloating grass mats of the billabongs of the Finniss and Reynolds Rivers not destroyed by buffalo, provide an important habitat refuge and source of food for a range of fauna in the dry season, especially crocodiles. There are more crocodiles in the Northern Territory than anywhere else in the world.
Although the Finniss Sub-Region is an establishing rural living area and an important recreational area for Darwin residents and visitors, careful growth and development is required to preserve the very reason it is so popular!
Important wildlife breeding sites and concentrations of rare, threatened or endangered flora and fauna species are worth protecting.
Water Monitor

Bynoe Mobile Coverage

Bynoe, Northern Territory to get better mobile coverage

Update: April 2018. The mobile tower on Hardcastle Road is complete and working!

Mobile phone coverage in the Bynoe Harbour and Finniss River area has been a significant issue for people living, working, holidaying and travelling in this part of the country for considerable time. In some locations reception is only possible using additional equipment such as a car kit, external antenna or repeater kits for rural & regional areas as handheld reception has been non existent. All an added expensive addition.  Communication, especially in times of emergencies has and will have an impact on outcome.

The Australian Government has committed more than $200M to the Mobile Black Spot Program to improve mobile coverage along major regional transport routes and in small rural communities.

On 1 December 2016, the Australian Government announced that round 2 of the program will deliver 266 new or upgraded mobile base stations across the country with construction of base stations under round 2 of the program expected to commence in 2017/18.

The good news is Bynoe in the Northern Territory has been funded to receive a Telstra macrocell. Better life, better travel, better holidays, better all round!

The map below indicates this tower is to be built at the corner of Fog Bay Road and Hardcastle Road.

Fog Bay Road

Fog Bay Road Upgrade

In the May 2016 NTG Budget, Transport Capital for Top End Rural and Regional was announced.

This included the completion of the Fog Bay Road upgrade at Rocky Creek Bridge and thus the final wet season obstacle addressed for Bynoe and Dundee residents and visitors.

Fog Bay Road has had a number of upgrades in recent times.

Annie River Bridge
Annie River Bridge
Charlotte River Bridge

Changing from being totally unsealed with no bridges to the current bituminised road with now all the rivers Charlotte, Annie, Rocky and Leviathan Creek now bridged.

Leviathan Creek Bridge
Leviathan Creek Bridge
Leviathan Creek Bridge Fog Bay Road
Leviathan Creek Bridge Fog Bay Road

 

 

 

 

 

The 2016-17 budget allowed for continued funding to the existing upgrading of Leviathan Creek Bridge (now complete) as well as provide new funding for the Rock Creek Bridge crossing – the last crossing to be upgraded.

A total of $5.77 million of Northern Territory Government funding had been provided for Fog Bay Road in 2016-17. About $4M alone on the Leviathan Creek Bridge.

Rocky Creek
Rocky Creek
Rocky Creek Bridge Fog Bay Road
Rocky Creek Bridge Fog Bay Road

Construction of Rocky Creek Bridge was done under tender awarded to Allan King & Sons Construction Pty Ltd with a tender costing of $1,570,888. This was published by the Northern Terrory Goverment at the end of Novemeber 2016.

As the 2016-17 wet season like many before had resulted in Rocky Creek being impassable due to flooding and surface conditions ruined on numerous occasions the completion of road works before the 2017-18 wet season is a welcomed sight!

Fog Bay Road is now a much better all season road for residents and tourists alike.

 

NT Road Report