Make a stop in the small town of Pine Creek to see the ponds and landscaping of the Pine Creek Water Gardens. An oasis in the outback, the gardens are a great place for a picnic or a scenic walk. Pine Creek has had a history of boom and bust, with a gold rush that started in 1871 when workers constructing the Overland Telegraph found gold in the holes they'd been digging. Originally the end of the line of the uncompleted 19th-century transcontinental railway system, Pine Creek railway enabled companies to transport machinery and equipment to the minefields. The railway was eventually extended to Katherine. During World War II Pine Creek was one of the four dispersal bases on the North Australian Railway. These water gardens, in the middle of the Pine Creek township, were created after the old railway tracks were pulled up, leaving a series of unsightly trenches. Those trenches were then turned into a series of attractive ponds and landscaped gardens. Pine Creek is situated 220km south of Darwin and 90 km north of Katherine at the junction of the Stuart and Kakadu Highways in the Top End of Australia's Northern Territory.
