Advertisement
Published: September 8th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Cannon-ball Tree
This peculiar tree grows its pink flowers alongside its seed cases (that look like cannon balls) directly out of the trunk. The leaves grow happily undisturbed at the top. We had booked into the Darwin Bombing Experience that Ros and Arthur highly recommended for this morning, so we had to get up early at 6.45am. The guide and owner, Gary, had arranged to pick us up at the Skycity Casino, where we could leave the car for the four hours we’d be away. We then collected another couple in the highly individual minibus, with its bullet holes and “1942” number plate.
Gary took us to a number of sites around the city and told us the story of what happened on the 19
th of February 1942, when Darwin was bombed by the Japanese, the first of 64 raids over 21 months. That was a surprise as I’d only heard about a few prior to recently discovering that Katherine had been bombed, too. 188 Japanese fighters hit the city on the first strike and 54 struck two hours later that first day. They found easy targets in the ships that were nicely lined up, close together, at the Stokes Hill Wharf (thanks to a young, inexperienced port commander). One of those ships was the USS Peary that was in waiting for his turn at refuelling and was sunk, stern
Iced Coffee and Cake in Botanic Bliss
We had iced coffee and cake sitting on the deck of the cafe at George Brown Darwin Botanical Gardens overlooking the beautiful plants. first, with 92 servicemen dying. The forward gunner kept firing at the planes until he was submerged. The ship is still down there in 27 metres of water about 300 metres off shore. The gun from the foredeck has been salvaged, though, and now sits on the shore as a memorial.
Another ship, the MV Neptuna, was carrying a full cargo of ammunition and when it blew up it (and all the strafing and bombing by the planes) split the wharf in two. Some people were blown into the water and small boats came to pick up the survivors from the wharf and the ships. One boat spotted a man floating in the middle of an oil slick and realised he was Asian. He heard one sailor say, “Kill that one, he’s a Jap.” He quickly shouted back, with an Aussie accent, that he was Jimmy Yuen, a wharf worker who had been born in Darwin. He was so dirty from the oil they hadn’t recognised him. Of course, they picked him up. Altogether, 177 sailors, 17 townsfolk and 22 wharf workers died.
Another story involved oil, too. One man, Fred Wombie, had stood on top
Pair of Orange-Footed Scrubfowl
These two were doing their best to dig to England. They've dug a hole nearly as tall as themselves. of an oil tanker in order to get a better shot at firing at the planes as they passed overhead. Miraculously, he didn’t get blown up. The defenders were so ill equipped that they were short of guns and were using World War I ammunition that kept misfiring (surprise, surprise!). One man told Gary that his mate had only been given 7 bullets and he had been issued with a shovel. He said he wasn’t sure what they expected him to do with it – whack at the planes as they passed, maybe!
Gary showed us the bullet strafing holes in Burnett House and in its cyclone fence posts (although they have the exit holes at the front because some bright spark replaced the posts the wrong way round after doing some work in the garden!) and the remains of the anti-submarine netting that had protected Darwin Harbour. The harbour is 3.2 metres across but the netting was 5.6 metres to allow for the tides, which made it the longest one ever made. It was successful, as no sub entered the harbour. A large one has been found sunk off the coast, though. It was all hushed up
The Bombing of Darwin Video
This was done very effectively by combining old photos with computer graphics to add sound and fire bombs to the pictures, along with some eye witness accounts. at the time (and since, for which he has lots of theories) because war had not been declared when it happened.
Just like at Pearl Harbour previously, a warning was issued and ignored. This time, though, it seems that a spy had infiltrated the communications tower dressed as an officer and had told the young wireless operator to ignore the message as the planes would just be the US Air Force. He sent the lad out and said he’d pass on the message, which he didn’t, and then he disappeared.
There was another spy working for the Japanese, who signalled with flashing lights on the day of the first raid. He was later caught and found to be a Scotsman, John Gordon, who had been living for a while in Japan and had a picture of Emperor Hiro Hito on his wall. He “disappeared” while in transit between two jails some time later.
The Flight Commander of the Japanese raiders was Mitsuo Fuchida, the same man who had been in charge of bombing Pearl Harbour. He was an excellent tactician and had made sure that they knew exactly where their targets were so they didn’t
Burnett House Bullet Hole
There were a few markings from bullets on the walls of this house and on two of the fence poles. They were strafed by a Japanese pilot. When some garden repairs were being done they put them in the wrong way round. blow up things that the army might need when they invaded. He also gave the order not to bomb the Hospital Ship, although it did sustain damage as it was very close to another vessel that was hit. Gary had read his autobiography and was obviously very impressed by him as a person. The Americans must have been, too, as they allowed him to immigrate to the USA some time after the war, where he spent the rest of his life.
There were lots more amazing stories and Gary was proud of the fact that he had had relatives of the people in his commentary, and even some of the characters themselves, come on his tour over the years and add more details, which he shares. He was also proud that a siren is sounded every Thursday at 10 am in memory of the wharfies killed that day. Darwin also has a re-enactment of the attack every year, to which sailors from the US are invited and attend. They are also proud of the fact that US President Obama visited Darwin to pay his respects as his first stop when he came to Australia.
Our last
Egrets on the Beach
We were looking at the end of the WW2 submarine net when I spotted these egrets feeding beneath the colourful cliffs. port of call on the tour was the “Defence of Darwin” Museum, where we started by watching a short video that graphically demonstrated what it must have been like on 19
th Feb 1942. They used old black and white photos and news footage, which they enhanced by having bombs and fire in all the right places, accompanied by the sound effects and some voice overs telling their personal experiences. It was very vivid (and loud – the lady next to me jumped out of her skin several times!). We then went to see some of the displays of information using touch screens and recordings from those who had been there, and lots of memorabilia, artefacts and machinery used. We could have used another half an hour there as it was a bit rushed, but was quite well done.
Gary then took us back to our ute. We dropped in on a Nissan Service Centre and booked the Navarra in for Monday and then Barry started researching the cost of a new set of tyres, which he also ordered. We should have the ute in tip top condition before we start on the more remote Western Australia part of
Gary Explains the Bombing of Darwin
Gary was our tour guide on the Experience. It was very informative and full of speculation as to why things occurred the way they did. our journey, which will be a weight off our minds.
As it was not yet 2.30pm we decided to go and have a walk around the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens, not too far away. It was a bit hot at first but improved in the shade and once the sea breeze came up. The garden is very pretty and has a wide range of habitats, from rainforest and wetlands to woodland, lawns and shade gardens. The standout, though, was the Bromeliads and the orchids, some in beds and some in a shade clothed conservatory. They were all sizes, shapes and colours and many were in flower. Beautiful.
There was also a strange tree, called a Cannonball Tree, which had cannon ball sized seed pods growing right beside pretty pink flowers, both of which were coming directly out of the trunk of the tree. The top of the tree looked quite normal but the trunk was very odd! We also saw some funny birds that were scratching away in the leaf litter on the ground. They were Orange-footed Scrubfowl and scratched quite deep holes looking for food. One pair had made such a deep hole it was
Bromeliads and Orchids
They had a lovely display of orchids and lots of types of Bromeliads under shade cloth at the Botanic Gardens big enough to reach the tops of their heads and still they were digging. Funny things!
It’s been another full and interesting day. I don’t like Darwin anywhere near as much as Kakadu, so far, and I’m feeling the heat here much more than I did there, despite the temperature being several degrees cooler. It seems a bit more humid.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0439s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb