Australian Top End Travel: Darwin

I was a passenger in my sister-in-laws RV or, as they say in Australia, Motor Home, and we were on a 2500 kilometer drive from Townsville in North Queensland to Darwin in the Northern Territory…an outback “odd-essy” …two old broads on the open road with not a care in the world, so join us.

We were getting up towards Darwin when we pulled off the Stuart Highway at Adelaide River. We were there to see Crocodile Dundee’s Bull. This is the animal that Crocodile Dundee brought to its knees with his finger in the movie and he was so loved, that when he dropped off the perch the locals had him stuffed. He is now standing impressively on the hotel bar.

Picture Crocodile Dundee’s Bull

But Adelaide River has more to offer than a stiff bovine… it was first established as a railway station in 1888 and now it houses a solemn memorial.  The Adelaide River War Cemetery.

Set in beautiful lawns, surrounded by massive shady trees, the cemetery is a fitting tribute to those who died in the Second World War and an arresting reminder of the impact the war had on the Northern Territory, the enormity of which was kept from the rest of Australia at the time.

The War Cemetery

Four hundred and thirty four military personnel are buried here. There are memorials to 287 people who were lost in the northern region including Timor and adjacent to the military memorial is a civilian cemetery honouring 63 people who died in the bombing of Darwin on 19th February 1942. The Post Office workers who were killed in the bombing are here and it is shocking to see multiple family members lying together for eternity.

It’s about half a day’s leisurely journey from this peaceful spot to Darwin. I had last been here 40 years ago, before Cyclone Tracy had all but wiped the northern capital from the face of the earth and I couldn’t wait to see what it looked like now.

Back then, it was not that impressive. I remember getting terribly lost because all the houses looked the same. The people I met were all from somewhere else and questions about their past were frowned on. The natural scenery was quite lovely and there were some emotive colonial buildings that dragged you back to a past that was romantic and difficult and picturesque and multi racial…and thankfully, some of these remain.