Katherine Gorge, also known as Nitmiluk National Park is jointly managed by Jawoyn and the Parks and Wildlife Service of the Northern Territory and is an important tourist destination.

Visitors' Centre	Katherine Gorge

The Park covers an area of about 2,900 square kilometres and is visited by approximately 250,000 people annually (Nitmiluk National Park Plan of Management, 2002), with an influx of visitors in the drier, cooler weather from May to August. The Jawoyn Association began in 1985 with the secretariat and office being established in Katherine in 1991. The Jawoyn Association has a principal objective ‘to represent and advance the views and aspirations of Jawoyn traditional owners of land over the management, protection, control and development of traditional Jawoyn lands’.

In 1977, the original Katherine Gorge National Park was amalgamated with the adjacent Edith Falls National Park to form the much larger Nitmiluk National Park of 1,804 square kilometres, then managed by the then Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory. In 1987, the southern section of the Park was returned to the Jawoyn people through a successful claim under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. The Jawoyn Aboriginal Land Trust then leased the area to the Conservation Land Corporation for use as a National Park in accordance with the Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park Act. The Jawoyn continue to be socially and legally responsible under ceremonial lore to "look after" their land, its resources and sites of significance. Under the Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park Act the rights of traditional Aboriginal owners of the Park are and will continue to be maintained.

As part of the Arnhem Land Plateau, the park contains numerous cultural sites including, many rock art sites. Some 420 sites have been recorded to date, but many more are known to exist. Some estimates put the likely number at between 2000 and 3000 sites. Unfortunately, records for these sites held by the PWCNT are very scant due to a loss of data during the 1998 Katherine flood (PWCNT 2002: 37).