Things to do in Pine Creek

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Pine Creek is a small town in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory just 90km from Katherine or 226km from Darwin on the Stuart Highway. Pine Creek is an old gold mining town which celebrates its gold and mining history every year with their famous Goldrush Festival.





Beside Goldrush Festival, Pine Creek also offers some historical sightseeing places that worth visiting. One of them is the Railway Station Museum and Steam Engine. At this railway station, located in the original railway station building, which was built in 1888, you can see some historic photos, maps and memorabilia depicting the North Australian Railway.



Next to the Railway Station Museum, you can find the old Station Master's residence and Miners' Park. Miners' Park has self-guiding interpretive signs and display of many pieces of historical mining equipment that will give you a comprehensive view of the technology and life in the goldfields in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The old Station Master's residence and Miners' Park is the venue for yearly Goldrush Festival in Pine Creek.





Departing from the Railway Station Museum, you can follow the "Walk Through Time" footpath. This footpath records, through a series of nine bays of tiles, a timeline history to commemorate people who have made a contribution to Pine Creek, from the Aboriginal people to the miners and pastoralists of the 1960's.

Another museum in Pine Creek is the National Trust Museum (Overland Telegraph Line Repeater Station). This building was originally erected on the Goldfields at Burrundie in 1888 as the home of the mining warden. It was moved to Pine Creek in 1913. Over the years it served many purposes, including as a doctors residence, clinic, dispensary, military hospital, a post office and telephone exchange. The building is now an excellent museum of local history, mining and the Chinese in the area. There are interesting displays of old bottles, a display of Chinese artefacts from the area, and an excellent display of the rocks of the area. It also now houses for a library which offers public internet access.





You won't miss the old building that is located at 35 Main Terrace in Pine Creek while driving in or out of town. This old building was the Ah Toy Bakery that owned by the famous Ah Toy family. It stores a lot of important histories, not only for Pine Creek but also for the Northern Territory. With its old corrugated iron shed, it is a reminder of what life must have been like in the olden days. The former bakery supplied bread to the troops in WW1. In 1935, Jimmy and Lily Ah Toy converted this bakery into a convenience store. The store is now closed but the building still can be admired and it has some information boards placed at the front.

The Water Gardens located in the middle of the Pine Creek township is a little oasis that becomes a haven for bird watchers. Every now and again, the Water Gardens will be covered with beautiful bright pink lilies. Besides the lilies, the Water Gardens also has some shaded picnic tables overlooking the ponds under the big trees. There is also an impressive looking windmill at the edge of the garden that was moved to Pine Creek in 1991 from the small settlement of Wauchope 800 kilometres (500 miles) to the south.



You can also visit the Enterprise Pit Mine Lookout. It was an open cut mine but now full of water to the depth of 135 meters. Old Chinese mine shafts can also be viewed at the top of the lookout. Sunset views are spectacular from this vantage point. It also provides a 360-degree panorama of the surrounding countryside.

A little bit out of town, you can have a sticky beak at the town cemetery. It is an interesting place as many of the headstones are constructed of a local stone that is virtually raw. There are many graves marked only by rusting steel crosses, with no indication of date or name. There are no paths and graves are all over the place instead of being in rows. When a funeral takes place the coffin has to be carried from the hearse through winding tracks between graves.



Pine Creek is more than just old gold mine town. Come over and fidn out for yourself.

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