[1] This part of Australia is extremely remote for travellers, although there are a number of Aboriginal communities in the region including Ngukurr, Urapunga and Minyerri.

A four-wheel drive trek through these parts can be an extension of the Gulf Track on a journey further up north to Darwin or Arnhem Land.

The first European to explore the Roper River was Ludwig Leichhardt in 1845 as he made his way from Moreton Bay to Port Essington.

The town is a small settlement with a police station, a motel, the Roper Bar store, a caravan park and roadhouse facilities.

In the 1870s pastoral leases were being taken up, gold had been discovered at Pine Creek to the north and in 1872 a store depot for the Australian Overland Telegraph Line was established at Roper Bar, it being the furthest point up river that was navigable to ships.