[1] It is located 606 km south of Darwin, at latitude 14° 38' S and longitude: 134° 30' E. It is on the Roper River in the bounded rural locality of Wilton, Northern Territory.

[4] Around 650 million years a ago the area was devastated by a powerful meteor strike at nearby Strangways River.

It was named after Captain Bloomfield Douglas, who visited the Roper River in 1872 as Government Resident of the Northern Territory.

Pastoral leases were being taken up, gold had been discovered at Pine Creek to the north and in 1872 a store deport for the Australian Overland Telegraph Line was established at Roper Bar being the furthest point up river that was navigable to ships.

In the 1890s the area was a favourite stop over for drovers bringing cattle between Queensland and the Kimberley region, and it had a very wild reputation[clarify].