Katherine () is a town with a population of around 10,000 situated 320 km southeast of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the third largest settlement in the territory after the capital Darwin and Alice Springs. The town is named after the river of the same name.

Set in promising grazing and future agricultural country, the town's main economic source has often been gold, but this has lessened after the closing of the mine at Mt Todd. There is increasing tourism and the RAAF Base Tindal 27 km south east of town is also contributing to the economy.

The town has several churches, sporting clubs, parks, a well kept golf course, and a showground.

The spectacular Katherine Gorge in the Nitmiluk National Park near the town has many caves full of ancient rock paintings. These caves often become flooded during "the wet" as the river can rise 18 m in the narrow passage. In a particularly wet season, the caves higher up can become flooded, damaging these ancient treasures forever.

The town was given its name after the daughter of one of the sponsors of John McDouall Stuart who first saw the area in 1862.

A narrow gauge train line south from Darwin to Katherine was completed in 1926. It fell into disuse. In 2003 the line was replaced with standard gauge as part of extending the line to Alice Springs north to Darwin. Katherine is now the only stop of The Ghan between Alice Springs and Darwin.

Floods

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The Katherine River runs through the north of the town, which it badly flooded in 1998 and 5-7 April 2006. The April 2006 floods placed most of the town under water including about 50 houses, caused millions of dollars worth of damage, and caused the declaration of a state of emergency in the area on 7th April. However, there was no reports of structural damage due to the flooding. ^* The floodwaters reached a peak of nearly 19 metres at the Katherine River bridge. Dozens of homes were inundated with up to 2m of water, with many residents having time to escape with little more than the clothes they were wearing. Over the weekend of the 8th-9th there were over 1100 people who went to the evacuation centres in the town. The state of emergency was lifted on the 9th of April.

Local Government Areas of the Northern Territory | Towns in the Northern Territory

Katherine | Katherine | Katherine