Ludmilla Creek is one of the four urban waterways running into Darwin Harbour. Like Rapid Creek, it is surrounded by suburbs. Since the early colonisation of Darwin, the creek and its catchment has provided food and supported cultural activities for large numbers of Aboriginal people, particularly those living at adjacent Aboriginal settlements like Bagot. Most of the catchment was Larrakia land right up until the 1970s. Documents from long term Larrakia land rights activism have maps which show significant burial and ceremonial grounds in the areas around the creek.

In the early 1980s the suburbs of Coconut Grove and Fannie Bay were connected by an arterial road which cut through the mangroves and across the Ludmilla Creek.  Upstream much of the creek was channelised into stormwater drains as the suburbs encroached. Downstream from the Dick Ward Drive the river is enclosed by mangrove forests and comes to the sea at Spot on Marine, next to the East Point Reserve.