Utes, crocs and merch: inside the Top End town with a quirky name tourists can't pass by

It's not clear how a Top End town came to be called Humpty Doo, but locals aren't fussed and a pub is cashing in on the stand-out name.

An outback town with a stand-out name is stopping tourists in their tracks to buy the T-shirt, cap or stubbie holder with "Humpty Doo" printed on it.

The origin of the Top End place name isn't clear, with various theories as to how it came about.

It doesn't seem to bother the locals, though, and the Humpty Doo Hotel is cashing in with a store selling a range of merchandise carrying the quirky moniker.

Humpty Doo, also called "The Doo" by locals, is on the Arnhem Highway 40km southeast of Darwin, with croc jumping tours, a big barramundi farm and the world-famous Kakadu National Park down the road.

The Northern Territory town is also known for its Big Boxing Croc statue on the highway and is surrounded by mango orchards, cattle stations and hunting reserves.

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Humpty Doo is a place of utes and sprawling rural blocks where it's not unusual to see shipping containers and grazing horses and wallabies under the palms in the front yards.

At the Humpty Doo Hotel the popular signature dish is the buffalo, croc and barramundi mini burgers.

A pair of buffalo horns, claimed to be the largest in the southern hemisphere, is on the wall behind the bar where a Brahmin bull called Norman used to regularly rock up to gulp down cans of beer.

On sale at the pub store are T-shirts, singlets, caps, stubbie holders, bottle openers, bar mats, footy shorts, hoodies, beanies, crocodile leather belts and hat bands, fridge magnets and mud flaps for 4WDs and trucks.

All carry the Humpty Doo Hotel name under an image of buffalo horns.

Owner Rod Parry, who took over the pub in 1987, says visitors come from all over the world.

"It's the name. It's just everything we do. It's just Humpty Doo.

"We started way back, just with can coolers and then we just got a little bit more and a little bit more ... and we put the shop in and it's just gone ballistic," Mr Parry tells AAP.

Visitors spread the word about the pub and some report back.

"We've got photos from someone on Mount Everest on the base camp with a Humpty Doo shirt on," Mr Parry says.

Hotel manager Alex Taylor says about 500 people a day stop to check out the pub in the dry season, many drawn by the name.

Cruise ships docked in Darwin send out busloads of passengers to the croc jumping tours up the road and stop at the pub on the way back to eat, drink and buy Humpty Doo merchandise.

"In the dry season we can't keep enough stock in the shop to keep everyone happy," Ms Taylor says.

In the wet season the hotel, which boasts the longest continuous liquor licence in the NT, relies on locals for custom as the weather largely closes down tourism.

There appears to be no evidence the off-the-wall name of the town is somehow connected to Humpty Dumpty, the unfortunate nursery rhyme egg who tumbled from his perch.

The NT Place Names Register says the locality is named after the cattle station originally called "Umpity Doo" as shown on a survey plan of 1910.

Various derivations of that name have been suggested, the register says.

They include an Aboriginal word "umdidu" meaning resting place, the army slang term "umpty" used for the dash in Morse Code, or an old colloquialism meaning "everything gone wrong or upside down".

Take your pick.

The post office also sells merchandise emblazoned with the town's name, with assistant manager Lou Pfitzner printing the Humpty Doo tea towels on sale there.

Local farmers send in packaged Humpty Doo beef jerky and dried mango for sale, while other residents provide stickers and fridge magnets.

"We like to keep it local, like with the postcards, the local girls take the photos and have them printed up," Ms Pfitzner says.

A big wooden sign on the wall behind the counter refers to the "world famous" Humpty Doo Post Office.

Tourists pop in to buy something with the stand-out name on it, Ms Pfitzner says, so they can say "been there, done that".

It's good living in Humpty Doo and different, she says.

"We're all a little bit easier, we're very relaxed. People will look you in the eye and give you a wave and say 'g'day'."

Ms Pfitzner's understanding of the town name's origin was that an old cattle station hand when asked how things were going replied "everything's humpty doo", meaning all was good and dandy under the territory sun.

Australian Associated Press