An Outback Wedding & Arnhem Land Tour (just to get there!)

Congratulations to Brendan and Heidi Bainbridge for glamorously tying the knot on the pristine coastline of the Cobourg Peninsula (Garig Gunak Barlu National Park). Perhaps one of the more remote and logistically challenging destinations you could ever choose to hold a wedding, never the less everyone made the long journey across Arnhem Land arriving by any means possible; boat, light aircraft and four wheel drive.

Why Cobourg?

Brendan (the lucky groom) established ‘Venture North’ back in 2000 with one vehicle and one trailer. His tours departed Darwin, visiting Kakadu before travelling into Arnhem Land and spending a couple of days on the Cobourg Peninsula at his newly built safari camp. Ten years later, after dedicating endless time, energy and passion into the business Brendan decided to sell it all to Hugh and Aaron Gange and move to central Arnhem Land (Maningrida) to pursue interests in land management (he is now Chief Executive Officer of Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation). With Cobourg always holding a close place in his heart and with ongoing relationships with the traditional owners of the area, it was no surprise to hear where the big day was going to be held.

Set on the sand dunes overlooking Port Essington at a favourite hangout called ‘yachties’, there were oysters on the shuck, bubbles on the pop, kids playing in the sand and plenty of beers and tears. Not only did the sunset produce a pretty amazing backdrop but a pod of roughly 50 false killer whales made their way down the bay in the background, nice timing! All in all a great afternoon and evening of partying. Cheer, cheer to the happy couple!

Hats off to everyone who made it happen.