August 5th, Australia Day 165

As I recall, I woke up around 09:00 this day which felt like a luxury having woken up the previous couple of days before sunrise. I had so looked forward to this day because now I would get a chance to explore the city of Darwin for myself. The city is very laid back and is typically tropical, very reminiscent of Honolulu or Miami. It has a young population and I would not mind living here, basking in the warm tropical sun and breezes. As I mentioned before, it is my favourite Australian city though it is often overlooked by the citizens of that country.

Darwin, population 100 000 and capital of the Northern Territory, has an interesting history. The area was originally named Port Darwin after a ship known as the Beagle docked in what would later become its harbour. For those who might find the name familiar, the Beagle was the ship that carried Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory, to the Galapagos Islands where he made his observations; Port Darwin was named in his honour. Later on, a settlement known as Palmerston was founded but its name was soon changed to Darwin. Darwin was, at first not connected to the rest of the country at all, except by boat but eventually the Overland Telegraph Line, whose trail was scouted by Stuart, was laid so that messages from the mother country, U.K., could reach the rest of Australia from an undersea cable ending in Darwin.

The city itself has been destroyed 4 times over its history: 3 times by cyclones and once by bombing. On February 19th, 1942, the Japanese launched an attack upon the harbour of Darwin in an attempt to disrupt Australian and American naval forces stationed there. Like Pearl Harbor, a combination of bad judgement, unpreparedness and bad luck led to the near destruction of the city. Over 240 people dies in the air raids and Australia was forced to quickly react. Within months, a new highway was completed, defences strengthened and Darwin became a busy hub of military activity. There was great concern that the Japanese would try to invade Australia via Darwin but this never happened. There were a total of 64, I think, air raids onto Australian soil by the Japanese over the course of about 18 months, ending in November of 1943. By that time, the Japanese were having bigger problems elsewhere in the Pacific with the Americans advancing ever closer to the home islands and the idea of bombing Australia eventually gave way to the defence of already earned territory. Today Darwin is still a significant military, especially navy, center, but the bombings of February 1942 remain the defining moment in Darwin's history.

Of the natural disasters to have hit Darwin, the most significant one was probably Cyclone Tracy which hit the city on Christmas Day, 1974. My American politics professor, who has been living in Australia since 1972, once mentioned that there was this notion at the time that there was nothing that could be done and that everything would work out in the end. Whatever people may have thought, when the cyclone reached the city, the consequences were devastating. About 90% of the city was destroyed at a cost of between 50 and 60 lives. It was not merely a case of shoddy construction since many solid stone structures that had survived cyclones before were demolished as well. It may have been the strongest winds ever to hit Australia since records began but we will likely never know for certain since Tracy broke the recording instruments at around 218 km/h. The city was declared a disaster area but was rebuilt and now modern architecture can be seen all over the city. A new meteorological warning center, as well as a tsunami warning center, have been built to ensure that this never happens again.

Anyway, from my hostel, which was pretty much in the heart of the city, I marched to the nearby Liberty Square, which houses the Territorial Legislature, the Territorial Supreme Court and the headquarters of the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs. I walked into the Supreme Court building first and did a self-guided tour through the building, even entering Courtroom 1, which was clearly the showpiece court of the building. I then marched past an old house which contains the offices of the Territorial Administrator, which is someone like a Canadian Lieutenant-Governor, as far as I can understand; the people of the NT do elect a Territorial Leader and members of a Territorial Legislature I believe. Form here, I crossed the street to Government House which is where either the Territorial Leader or Administrator lives; unfortunately, there was no access to this building. I then backtracked from the Administrator's Building to Liberty Square and took a self-guided tour of the Legislature, which is only about 10-15 years old as I recall.

I left the government district and took a walk back into the city onto a street known as the Smith Street Mall. Much like Sparks Street, only smaller, this is a pedestrian mall. Here you can find several plaques commemorating Darwin's history and there are even 2 old buildings which survived the bombing. I then took a walk along the Esplanade, which is a road that winds along the shore. Darwin's shore is lined by parks but you can't walk right along the water's edge because there is a small cliff in your way. However, built into the cliff are tunnels from World War 2 which were originally supposed to house oil but the war concluded before they were ever needed for this purpose. You can visit the entrance of one of these tunnels, but I don't think you can actually enter any of them. Close by was the Deck Chair Theatre which is an outdoor cinema where people sit on deck chairs.

Since it was getting late, I decided to make my way back to Cullen Bay and onto the breakwater I had discovered last night to see the sunset. I was not disappointed and Darwin produced one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen. As dusk came, I strolled back through Cullen Bay and had dinner at a local restaurant. My flight was at 01:25 so I spent a bit more time wandering around the youth hostel I had stayed at because I was keeping my bags there during the day. If you're wondering about the unusual time, it's that the only direct flight from Darwin to Sydney flies out then and although I said I was willing to go through Adelaide, Brisbane or Alice Springs, the agent with whom I made the booking said that if I wanted an extra day in Darwin, why not just catch the early flight the day after.

Without question, my trip to the Northern Territory was amazing. I saw what I considered to be the real Australia, the one shown in movies and written about in books, as well as seeing some completely unexpected things. The weather held and was spectacular throughout my trip. I have no doubt that I will make my way back again to this lonely, yet completely breathtaking land at the heart of a continent and its top.

Photos now available at: http://australiaday165.blogspot.com/