The Tiwi Islands are located 40 km North of Darwin where the Arafura sea joins the Timor. These are two separate Islands – Melville and Bathurst, with a total area of 8320 km2. Today the Islands are home to about 2,500 people.

Apart Islands separated by Apsley Strait (62 km long and 550 meters to 5 km in width). The largest city Warramunga (up to 2010 was called Ngoyi) at Bathurst, Perugini (also known as garden point) and Ilikepie (or Snake Bay) on Melville.

Most of the Islands ' inhabitants – the aboriginal people of the Tiwi tribe, they are very different in cultural and linguistic respect from the natives of the nearby mainland in the region of Arnhem. People the Tiwi have lived here for about 7 thousand years.

In 1705 in Shark Bay on Melville island the first ships arrived with the Europeans were the Dutch. The first European settlement here was Fort Dundas near the present town of Perugini on Melville island. Founded in September 1824 Fort lasted only 5 years until 1829, when it was abandoned, including because of the hostility of the local aboriginal people. In 1911, in the Islands was founded by the Catholic mission, and in 1912 they were declared a reserve for aborigines. Built in the 1930-ies of the wooden Church today is a landmark of Warramunga.

On the Islands is dominated by tropical monsoon climate, which, together with geographical isolation leads to the existence of unique flora and fauna. Local eucalyptus forest is the tallest and most massive in the Northern territory of Australia, and rain forests have an unusually high density and length. Here is home to 38 species of animals that are endangered, and some species of plants and invertebrates that are not found anywhere else in the world, such as earth snail and some species of dragonflies. The Tiwi Islands is the world's largest breeding site for terns Berg, as well as the habitat of a large population of vulnerable olive Ridley turtles. In 2007 he started the project for the conservation of marine turtles under natural conditions of its habitat. In the seas surrounding the Islands, there are sharks and saltwater crocodiles.