Step back in time

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Day 140 - Darwin

Sunday today and in Darwin that means free parking! We thought we’d make use of that fact and headed to the city to take a closer look at some of its more historical features.

Parking sure is easier when there are so few vehicles and people! Ironically we choose to park in the same car park as before, it’s conveniently positioned for the start of the walk and right next to Woolworths for supplies when we’ve finished!

Onward we go with our historical tour of Darwin which we start at the Tree of Knowledge behind the Civic Centre. Being the ‘tree of knowledge’ we feel duty bound to find out more and thus offer the following. As a Banyan Tree, the species is synonymous with Buddhists worldwide but also holds significant importance to the local Larrakia people. The tree has been well established since the late 1890’s but was in danger following the progressive redevelopment of its surrounding site. The tree stood outside the Terminus Hotel providing a place for people to meet and was a focal point for the local Chinese community but once the hotel closed it came down to a strong campaign in the early 1970’s to save the tree and incorporate it into the Civic Centre complex which was built on the old hotel site..

Whilst we’re gazing at the tree and taking in the surroundings, we can’t help hearing the joyful music of a brass band. It seems to be coming from the park, in fact we find it’s coming from the cathedral. Like many other buildings in Darwin, the original cathedral, which was built in 1902, was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve in 1974. The new cathedral was constructed using a very modern design but has been built around some of the ruins from the initial structure. It’s a beautiful looking church and seems packed to the rafters today which is great to see. We later found out that today was ‘Come as you are, back to church’ Sunday!

With the brass band providing background music as we walked we come to Browns Mart which was intended as a mining exchange when it was built in the 1880’s. There’s no mention of damage from Cyclone Tracy so could this be one of the few buildings that escaped? No idea but today it houses community theatre and is used as a concert venue! We find the ruins of the old Town Hall where delay tactics to the decaying ruins are being introduced as Darwin quite rightly tries to cling on to it’s historic buildings or what’s left of them. The Old Courthouse and Police Station seem to have faired much better and even the old cellblock out the back is intact!

We’re lured towards water at this point as we near the Esplanade and Darwin’s swanky waterfront. It all looks really new and we find ourselves looking down upon what looks like a natural (ish) lagoon to our right and a man made lagoon to our left! We watch for a while as the still waters in the left hand lagoon are magically transformed into waves! Wow! The kids are starting to grab boogie boards to ride the waves, it looks like great fun! There’s a lift to take us to the ground floor and we wander around and I even have a paddle in the natural lagoon! I think we’ve found somewhere to spend Wednesday when we have to re-visit the city centre to collect a package from Aus Post!

We’re on the right level now to visit the WWII Oil Storage Tunnels, a network of tunnels which never saw the storage of oil, only jet fuel for a few months! The enthusiastic gent at the entrance relieves us of $5 each and we walk into the inner sanctum of the tunnel! It’s interesting, being in this tunnel walking underneath the city of Darwin albeit for a relatively short way. These tunnels remain as testament to the defensive measures taken during WWII to avoid a repeat of the naval oil losses caused by Japanese air strikes. There are 5 tunnels still in existence under the south east section of the city, with a total length of 673m. Problems with water retention that were never resolved saw the tunnels unfit for their original purpose but they remain as an unusual tourist attraction housing displays of photographs from war gripped Darwin.

Back out into the bright light of the day we climb the steps up to Survivors Lookout which gives us a broad view over Darwin’s waterfront. A short walk away we find Government House, a very elegant residence and conveniently placed to nearby NT Parliament House! Not far to go to work then, in fact it’s just across the lawn should one choose to take the ‘as the crow flies’ route! No flags are flying so we guess no-one is home at this moment in time.

We see steps leading down to a park and think it would be a nice spot for lunch, and we were right! The waves lapped at the rocks beneath our feet and the sight of a well positioned garden chair high in the trees made us realise that someone else must have appreciated the view on a more regular basis! Where we sat was the backdrop to Deckchair Cinema within the Damoe-ra Park, a women’s commemorative park. We climbed back up the steps to reach Bicentennial Park and find The Cenotaph standing proudly in view of the Arafura Sea silently remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We’re nearly at the end of our intended walk for this morning and turn the corner to reach Lyons Cottage which we walked around on our first day in the city. Parked just along the road is a beautiful car which we recognise from the drag strip last night! As luck would have it the owners were on their way back so we offered our compliments and they were gratefully received!

We promised ourselves that we’d make it to the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT today and time is getting on so we get back to the car and make the short drive over towards Bullocky Point where the museum is. When we get there we are greeted at the door by another enthusiastic chap who offers us a floor plan and lets us know where we can and more importantly cannot, take photographs. There’s a great deal of artwork here and photography of this and any of the aboriginal artefacts is not allowed. With that understood we head straight for our first exhibit, Sweetheart, the 50 year old crocodile that terrorised the Top Enders for years. This croc is/was enormous and must have been a sorry sight for those who encountered it.

Probably the most talked about section of the museum is the display dedicated to Cyclone Tracy which, as we said, tore into Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974 destroying much of what lay in its path. While we were looking at the photographs we overheard a lady telling others what it was like, she was there albeit she was four years old. There’s a sound booth within the display where you walk into a very small, dark room to hear the noise associated with a cyclone the size of Tracy. We were in there with that same lady who left with the comment ‘that’s enough of that’. She went on to talk about Cyclone Justin where the city was evacuated but luckily it came to nothing much (her words!)

The remainder of the museum is an easy wander, the art is fascinating and the displays of Australian animals, stuffed or in a jar, is quite extraordinary. There’s also a maritime section, a short video of the dreamtime story about the Turtle & the Echidna (the Echidna leaves her baby with the turtle while she searches for food but the turtle gets hungry and eats the baby. When the Echidna returns she’s understandably angry and starts throwing rocks at the Turtle who in return throws sticks at the Echidna. This (in dreamtime stories) is how the Turtle got a hard shell and how the Echidna came to be covered in spines but as for the eating of the baby I’m not sure I understand the moral of the story other than eating babies is clearly not the go!) and a whole section with some interesting information about Charles Darwin (for example did you know his mother Susannah Wedgewood of the Wedgewood Pottery founders?)

It’s an excellent museum made even more excellent by the fact that it’s totally free, very well laid out and has a Kids Discovery Section which we checked out too and very much enjoyed!

We took a short walk around the inviting bay outside the museum, unfortunately Darwin is subjected to year-round box jelly fish and saltwater crocs invading its waters so swimming is an obvious no-no.

We’ve still got time on our hands, this is what happens when we get up at a reasonable time, so we drive across to East Point where there’s a military reserve and museum. It’s late in the day so we choose not to explore the museum but instead walk through some of the remaining military sites here. The sea is fast eroding the cliff edge though and one of the original lookouts (pill box) has already succumbed. Walking further round we find the site of the Darwin Rocksitters Club and find that world records have been set here! Established in 1974 the club won its first world championship in 1977, then again in 78 and again in 1980 with a mammoth 12 days rock sit! If we’d visited this place yesterday we would have met some of the members as they continue to meet every Saturday at sunset to sit atop the rock.

To end the day we take the short drive to the Mindil Beach Market which is on again. It’s not so crowded on a Sunday and there aren’t quite as many stalls but we find something very nice for tea, this time it was a selection of dishes from the Philippines! There’s a new busker here today, a young lad with his trumpet and he’s rather good. Unfortunately he runs out of tunes after a short while, we think his Dad stopped him after the 5th rendition of the tune to Family Guy! We watch the gorgeous sunset with backing music from 4 local guys singing a song about the top of Australia and the Tiwi Islands, it’s a great tune.

We happen upon a crowd encircling a fire juggler so stop and watch the remainder of the act which turns out to be brilliant. We arrive at the point when he chooses a member of the audience to lie on the ground in front of him so he can juggle the flames over the face of the volunteer! This leads on to more members of the audience being enlisted so he can stand on their shoulders and have others throw him the fire sticks, all apart from the young lady who says she’s from Ireland - he makes her walk toward him and hand him the stick rather than throw it! He ends the show with a back flip off a garbage bin and the crowd go wild! Street entertainment, don’t you just love it…..so long as you’re not the poor sod lying on the floor with a mad juggler above you!

We stop in Woolworths on the way home for supplies and spot the front page of the local newspaper which pictures a caravan and 4WD ablaze. We read that all this happened at the remote Banka Banka station campsite we were at a couple of weeks ago. The report says that the family are all ok despite suffering from some fairly serious burns and that the caravan and 4WD were completely destroyed in the blaze. It was seemingly caused (according to the newspaper report) by fuel or vapour being ignited while the guy was filling up a generator near to the hot exhaust of the 4WD with the caravan still attached. What a terrible thing to happen but thankfully it seems everyone got out ok.

We’re still watching the excellent Euro Finals coverage on Eurodragster, it’s the final day today and due to the time difference we haven’t missed anything! All the pro classes are running when we get home, there’s some storming times coming through - what a great event everyone’s having. Fair play to all the spectators, there’s not much space left in the grandstands or on the banking, it must have been a heck of an atmosphere! We see the first round of Pro ET come out but we don’t see Ed, darn - we’d been watching like hawks too. We see Darren (Law) get through in Wicked Lady and the write up tells us that Phil Sweeney made it through too but Ed, Dave (Destiny’s Angel) and Mark (Pony Express) are out as first round fodder, we know that feeling well!

With very tired eyes we clamber into bed, it’s as hot now as it was as 4pm so the fan remains blasting out cool air!

Night everyone, hope all is well.

Dar and Sar

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