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!!!Eastern Alligator River

[{Image src='k260-Eastern-alligator-Fluss.jpg' width='900' popup='false' caption='Eastern Alligator River, 2007\\Photo: H. Maurer' alt='Eastern Alligator River' class='image_left' height='675'}]
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The East Alligator River is approximately 160 km  long. It comes from the northern part of the Arnhem Land Plateau and flows with tributary streams towards the northwest, through beautiful canyons towards the Van Diemen Gulf [{GoogleMap location='Van Diemen Gulf, Australia' zoom='7'}].


Arnhem Land [{GoogleMap location='Arnhem land, Australia' zoom='7'}] was inhabited by indigenous people for tens of thousands of years. It is the location of the oldest-known stone axe, believed to be 35,500 years old.


At least since the 18th century Muslim traders from todays Indonesia visited Arnhem Land each year to trade, harvest and process sea cucumbers. They are used in Chinese cuisine, for folk medicine and as an aphrodisiac. This contact  is the first recorded meetings of the inhabitants of the Australian continent and their Asian neighbors and had a major effect on local indigenous Australians, exposing them to products like  cloth, tobacco, knives, rice and alcohol in exchange for harvesting sea cucumbers.


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[{SET customtitle='Eastern Alligator River'}]