Australian Top End Travel: Darwin

The city has well organized self guided walks with informational brochures and signposts. I decided to do the lot and walked all day on the heritage tour…I visited the Chinese temple. It has been destroyed and rebuilt more than once, like many buildings in the city, but retains the beauty and charm of yesteryear.

Chinese Temple

 The heritage tour is beautifully done! And the remaining old buildings on the tour are preserved with cultural reverence and proudly shown.

Heritage Buildings in the Darwin CBD

Crocosaurus Cove is right in the middle of the city. It is the complete, accessible crocodile experience. There is also Barramundi feeding and angler fish that spit at your hand. There are reptiles and big, big crocs to watch and a forest of tiny little ones with only their eyes showing on the top of the water.

It’s Just a Croc

The old storage tunnels under the city are cool. Literally. It is very hot in Darwin. The temperature resembles that of Bali and a visit to these tunnels that run under the city is a welcome break from the heat above ground. The tunnels are an educational experience… they are so long they are literally out of sight.

Fuel Storage Tunnels Under Darwin

Right around the city of Darwin WWII reminders are well preserved and signposted.

Ammunition Storage Bunkers

Lunch at the old Admiralty house under huge figs looking over the Esplanade and harbour is a great way to break the day. A cool beer and the genteel historic building are very atmospheric.

Admiralty House

Leave lots of time to visit the Museum and Maritime Museum which shows all the vessels that relate to this part of the world including many Asian vessels that have visited the area over the years for various reasons.

The museum is packed with local cultural artifacts and full of interest and has a sound proof room that plays a recording taken during Cyclone Tracy. It features the devastating, unrelenting, God forbidden shriek and the thudding of trees and buildings being blown against other structures, that went on all night when Darwin was blown away. As I stood there in the dark, tears streamed down my face. I could not imagine the terror of really being there. I could not bear to hear the noise, but they could not open the door and leave like I could. My heart went out to those people who lived through that night of devastation.

In the evening we visited Mindil Markets which run along the beach and are always packed. Darwin is a backpacker’s haven and there were crowds of young tourists as we walked and ate and had our fortune told. A didgeridoo player who plays four or five instruments at once puts on a rock show that is pure Darwin and there are clothes to buy and people to meet and these markets are a truly exciting experience.

But the most impressive part of the markets is when tourists and locals mass along the beach at that magic moment when the sun drops into an orange sea. They sit meditatively and when dark falls, they turn back to the fun and enjoyment of the food and market stalls.

Sunset on Mindil Beach

Government House is central to the life of Darwin and accessible to everyone. We attended an open day and met the first lady Tessa Pauling who welcomed everyone to Darwin’s cultural icon. The beautiful house is the official residence of the Administrator of the Northern territory and has stood on the site since 1871.

The house has had its share of disaster. In 1897 it was severely damaged by a cyclone and much of the superb garden was wrecked by another cyclone in 1937. Part of the building sustained a direct hit in the war and most of the furniture disappeared and Cyclone Tracy damaged the house again in 1974. This legacy has constantly been brought back to life like the city itself and is shared proudly with the community with regular open days and on many other occasions.

Government House

 On my last night in Darwin I enjoyed a sun-downer dinner with the Dead Husbands Club. My sister in law belongs to the “Dead Husbands Club”…a group of women with whom she shares food and wine and company. Only one still has a husband and he has named the group. They are nurses, station owners, and business wives, women from all walks of life who are fun and interesting and friendly.

Sundowner at the Trailer Boat Club

We ate at the trailer boat club and I had Barramundi watching the sun go down over the sea at Fannie Bay….how iconic and how perfect. I encourage everyone to visit Darwin. Everyone who enjoys life, that is.

Darwin is synonymous with enjoyment and with life. It is a proud survivor. I have seen the evidence during my discovery tour, that very time it is beaten down Darwin rises up and surpasses itself. I would live there tomorrow.