Wednesday March 01, 2023
Starboard to dock and town, walking distance (20 minutes) to town from dock or 5 minute shuttle bus. Drive left hand side.
The “extra” day (instead of Bali) we had in Darwin was lots of fun. We wandered into Darwin town and wandered all around, stopping to see the sights food and shops. On and off torrential / monsoonal rain did not affect us as we took cover under the numerous porticos, malls or shops.
Darwin is our first stop in Australia and immediately we felt welcome and as the reputation has it, we experienced nothing but laid back warm people. Darwin is the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) also known as the “Top End”. As the slogan of the local coaches says “25 Years Providing Top End a Lift”. It has a population of about 160,000 people and is the greatest concentration of people that live in the NT. It covers the north coast to the center and slightly west of the central line of the Island. The Stewart Highway, which is the only north / south highway across Australia, starts in Darwin, goes through Alice Springs and ends in Port Augusta in South Australia. Being in the tropics it is very green, wet and has two seasons – Wet, (their Summer) – starting in November and going through April; and the Dry season (their winter months). It’s closest neighbors are Indonesia and East Timor (on Papua New Guinea) and as such it is the key trading partner gateway to South East Asia.
Most (about 80%) of the NT and about the same percentage of coastline is owned by the aboriginal tribes. The Larrakia people are the traditional “owners” of Darwin and still make up about 7-9% of the population of Darwin. They called the area Garramilla (White Stone) which refers to the color of the stones in the area. We purchased a small sculpture for our home of this very light white stone, done by a local artist.
The Dutch visited the area in the 1600’s creating the first maps of the area and called it Van Diemen’s Land after the then Governor-General Anthony Van Diemen. On the 9th September 1839, the HMS Beagle sailed into the harbor, as it was doing a survey of the area. John Clements Wickham, the Captain, named it Port Darwin in honor of Charles Darwin who had traveled on the ship on it’s last major voyage. The area became known by 1869 (February 5) as Palmerston, so named by the Surveyor General George Goyder after the British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, but it was finally re-named Darwin in 1911. Virtually all the buildings are modern as it has had to be rebuilt 4 times. Once in 1897, another in 1937, both caused by devastating cyclones. The third time it was rebuilt was after WW2 as it was heavily bombed by the Japanese. On February 19, 1942 just before 10AM, 188 Japanese warplanes attacked Darwin, killing 243 people and destroying the town. There were many other raids after that. This was the farthest they could make it into Australia. The last time 70% of the city was destroyed was following the Cyclone Tracy on December 25, 1974. All buildings are now built to withstand Hurricanes / Cyclones.
On our wandering into town, we took 2 lifts as the town is above where the docks are. The first building we came across was the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral which we tried to visit but was locked. A very modern building with a bit of a wall at the entrance which is all that remains of the first church. Next we went towards the University seeing the Darwin City Hall with it’s spectacular old (about 150 years) Galamarrma (The Tree Of Knowledge) Banyan (Ficus Vixens) tree. As we wandered the streets we happened across a really high end gallery selling all kinds of Aboriginal art. James the owner, chatted with us and explained that one artist recently sold her painting for more than $2 million dollars. Items were very attractive but high priced. We bid our farewell having purchased nothing but he did tell us of an excellent cafe nearby where we enjoyed water and a coffee/tea. It is very humid and several times during the day the monsoon rains came and left within 10 minutes. We then went to Smith Street, a pedestrian mall street, where there are many shops and found one particular one Mbantua Fine Art, (2-30 Smith StreetMall) that we had been told about that shares it’s profits with the aboriginal artist that created the art. We looked through their excellent selection, taking a bit longer than we had planned as the torrential rain made it preferable to remain inside. However we vowed to return just before we headed back to the ship so as not to carry the items all around town. We had been looking for a bank to exchange US Dollars for Australian currency, but after walking into four different banks, all refused on different grounds to do the Foreign Exchange. We found one Western Union booth outside the supermarket that would do FX, but is mainly used by workers to send money home. There was a queue of some 25 Philippines (perhaps from the ship) waiting to wire funds to their families. We returned much later and were able to make the change. By this time it was time to look for a place to lunch. We had been given various suggestions by the various shopkeepers, but eventually settled on “Moorish” (27 Knucky Street) which specialized in tapas and North African food. The two couples at the next table (who were also from the ship) we overheard telling that they frequently come to Darwin and this is their favorite restaurant. We enjoyed Kangaroo, Baramundi, Humus, Batatas Bravas (and they were spicy “Bravas”) and some side dishes, washed down by local “One Mile” beer (one a lager and the other a darker Red – both very good). Now, duly nourished, we wandered to the esplanade and went to a nice park where the Cenotaph and some 50 places together with numerous explanation boards, that tell of the history of Darwin all overlooking the harbor and our ship. We winded our way past the Parliament building – Darwin is the Capital and thus the seat of government for the Northern Territory to the aboriginal shop before taking the shuttle back to the ship. We cooled down and rested a bit before venturing out again for a nice dinner at “Wharf One” – a very nice place where we enjoyed shrimp with a very spicy vermicelli, baby octopus, and baked Brie. Delicious dinner.. We were able to get back on the ship after walking 18,417 steps or 12.15 Kilometers in the day just in time to see the evening show – The comedic / musician Australian duo – “Scared Weird Little Guys”, that the Australians aboard touted as being the greater show. They were supposed to get on in Bali, but as we didn’t stop there, they only got on today. While talented, we were not overly amused or impressed.
Roger & Anne Travels 