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The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which is the second northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a rather vaguely defined area of perhaps behind the northern coast from the Northern Territory capital of Darwin across to Arnhem Land with the Indian Ocean on the west, the Arafura Sea to the north, and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the east, and with the almost waterless semi-arid interior of Australia to the south, beyond the huge Kakadu National Park. The Top End contains both of the Territory's cities and one of its major towns, Darwin, Palmerston and Katherine. The well-known town of Alice Springs is located further south, in the arid southern part of the Northern Territory, sometimes referred to by Australians as the ''Red Centre''. The landscape is relatively flat with river floodplains and grasslands with eucalyptus trees along with rocky areas and patches of rainforest, and in western Arnhem Land a high rugged sandstone plateau cut through with gorges, much of which is in Kakadu National Park. The rivers that form the wetlands include the South and East Alligator Rivers, Mary River, and the Glyde River. The climate is tropical monsoon with a wet and dry season, bringing the highest rainfall in northern Australia (over per year). Temperatures do not fluctuate widely throughout the year. There are a number of islands off the Top End coast including the Tiwi Islands (Bathurst Island and Melville Island), and Groote Eylandt as well as many smaller ones. ==Flora== Most savanna in Australia is used for grazing livestock, but in this far north, vast areas of grassland are in their original state and dotted with Darwin stringybark and Darwin woollybutt eucalyptus trees; these grasslands are a unique and highly important ecoregion. The sandstone plateau area of the ecoregion is a particularly rich centre of biodiversity supporting a unique heathland flora. Much of the Top End is within the Arnhem Land tropical savanna ecoregion, which to the south merges into the semi-arid mulga scrubland, mallee, and sand dunes of the centre (see Carpentaria, Kimberly, and Ord Victoria Plain). The transition is gradual, and the demarcation line that divides the Top End from the centre is arbitrary. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Top End」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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