If You Never Never Go, You'll Never Never Know! (Darwin)

Member Name: kajroberts

Product:	Darwin
Date:	03/10/01 (126 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hot, Tropical, Paridise

Disadvantages: Wet, Windy, Humid

Australia's Northern Territory is split into two extremely different worlds, the tropical "Top End" and the barren "Red Centre".

My trip last year (2000) took me to the city of Darwin, to visit a "web-friend" my girlfriend had been talking to for a few years. We only had four days to do our exploring and meet this guy, but with his help we managed to cram loads into that time.

~~THE NORTHERN TERRITORY~~

Aboriginal beliefs tell how the landscape unfolded from mythical, creative beings, during a period known as 'Dreamtime'. Aboriginals have maintained their connections with these beliefs for over 40,000 years. Utilising the land and adapting to the changes as they came.

Lieutenant John Stokes named the area known today as Darwin harbour, Port Darwin in 1839, after is friend Charles Darwin. The main settlement was originally called Palmerston, but this changed to Darwin in 1911 when the Northern Territories Federal Government regained control from South Australia.

The population is made up of 175,000 inhabitants from over 45 different nationalities, with 45% of them living in Darwin, this makes the territory the most sparsely populated area of Australia. Amazing considering the territory makes up about 20% of Australia.

~~THE WILD FRONTIER~~

In my opinion, you really need to have balls to live in Darwin. Besides the weather patterns (see climate below), the inhabitants haven't had much luck in the last century keeping their buildings standing.
During the Second World War, Darwin became the 'gateway' to the East, and the allies used it extensively to station troops and hardware, as well as running missions from its shores.
On February 19th 1942 Darwin was virtually flattened when the Japanese dropped more than 350 bombs on the city killing over 200 people. Remains from this era can still be seen along the Stuart Highway and on the shores of Dar
win Harbour.

As if that wasn't enough, on Christmas Eve 1974, a gust of wind (Cyclone Tracy), travelling at 280kph, came and tore the town apart. It left 66 dead and flattened 90% of all the buildings.

~~CLIMATE~~

You can forget the notion of 'summer and winter' when you visit Darwin, instead you will encounter the 'Wet and Dry' seasons.

The dry season is from May to October, and the weather is typical of that of the Southern Australian summer, which is why a lot of southerners holiday there at that time of the year, to escape their winter. Winter puh! We visited the south in the so-called winter (June) and I swear it was still warmer than most of our British Summers.

The heat was the first thing we noticed when we landed at Darwin Airport. If you've ever opened a vivarium (reptile housing) or been into a tropical plant house, then you will know the type of heat and smell I'm talking about. The humidity takes a while to get used to, but once you leave the region everywhere else seems bloody cold *s*
Daily temperature is around 30 degrees C or more and the evening brings a drop down to between 10 and 15 degrees.

The wet season is from November to April, although the locals prefer to know this period as the green season. The vision given by the word wet, is that Darwin is under constant rain during the whole time and that there is nothing to do. However although there is a lot of rainfall, approximately 250 to 570mm per month to be precise, the sun still shines and the landscape changes from brown to green. The humidity sits at about 70% during this time though and most of us would find that very uncomfortable.
Daily temperature is in the high 30?s only dropping into the 20?s during the evening.

So best time to visit is between May and October, unless you fancy yourself as another Crocodile Dundee. Avoid January and February, because this is the time of monsoonal rain, a
nd it hits hard and fast.

~~AQUASCENE~~

Wow, amazing, unbelievable, these are all words that I used to describe this experience. I doubt I'll ever see anything like this anywhere else.

Basically back in the 1950's the owner of a small gully started throwing scraps of bread to mullets that swam in towards the shore, somehow other fish managed to get in on the act and joined the mullet in the skirmish for the bread. Eventually a few years later all kinds of fish were swimming into the shallow gully for food. Barramundi, Milkfish, Bream, Catfish, Plaice, Rays, to name just a few.

You pay just $4, about £1.30, to get in and then you can grab as much bread as you like to feed the fish. The whole gully is nothing but a blanket of fish and it's fascinating to watch the rays and other flat fish glide across the beach. You can even go onto a sloping area and wade into the water; the fish will then feed directly from your hands.

The unbelievable thing about all this is the fish are wild and swim in from the open ocean. There is a fishing exclusion zone all around the area, so perhaps some fish have grown to trust this area.

Don't just take my word for it, go to their official website and see for yourself:

http://www.aquascene.com.au/

You can also write to them at:

Aquascene
28 Doctors Gully Road
Darwin, NT
Australia.

~~ABORIGINAL~~

If I write too much, this will turn into a very boring opinion, therefore I'll write another opinion in the future about Kakadu and the people of the surrounding land.

Just remember if you wish to cross into aboriginal land when you visit Darwin you will need special permission from the elders. They can be contacted at:

Darwin Northern Land Council, 9 Rowling Street, PO Box 42921, Casuarina NT 0811, Australia

~~CONCLUSION~~

Our visit to the top end was over very quickly and we did
n't get to see as much as we would have liked. Our friend and guide (Sam), made our outings a little easier and he showed us some great places. We even managed to see the Olympic flame arrive in Darwin on our last evening, with a massive party at Mindil Beach. Lucky or what!

Sam took us to the very posh marinas in Cullen Bay and obviously the Aquascene experience. There is so much more I could put into this op and will probably return to update very soon. I haven't mentioned the shopping, the pubs or the sight from the esplanade and beaches.

So in the mean time check out Darwin at the following sites:


http://www.nttc.com.au/home/default.asp - tourist information

http://www.nt.gov.au - Government tourist site


Thanks for reading...... ~~K~~

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