Australian Pearl Harbor

---

On February 19, 1942, Australia experienced a first-hand reenactment of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Just before 10:00 am, the same Japanese force began dropping more than twice the payload onto Darwin about 10 weeks after Pearl Harbor. It was the first time that a military force attacked mainland Australia. The first raid lasted 20 minutes, followed by a second raid two hours later. Over the next 21 months Darwin would sustain at least 62 more air raids, in spite of a small group of Americans patrolling the skies in Kittyhawk fighters (though they did help to reduce the aerial attacks).

I read about this while walking through Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory today. I had realized that the city was involved in some WWII bombings but I did not know of the significance or extent. Had I, I would have kept this on my itinerary all along instead of using it as a brief stopover between Cairns and Singapore.

I reluctantly left Cairns this morning to catch my early afternoon flight to Darwin. I had really enjoyed Cairns though the last couple days were a bit more tedious with the amount of rain we had. I liked it in the wet season and would probably enjoy it even more in the dry one.

When I arrived at the airport I helped a confused girl with her bag. She got off at the domestic flights and didn’t realize that the shuttle would take us to international. I got to talking with her and one other guy that remained on the shuttle and learned that they were both on my fly but would be continuing on to Singapore from Darwin today.

Suzy, the girl, and I spent our entire wait time together, perusing the few airport shops and grabbing lunch at a small airport café. She’s originally from Berlin, which is one of my favorite travel destinations, and now lives in Zurich (though she was also in Lucerne, another favorite of mine). She’ll be in Singapore for the next week.

Of course we went down the typical travel discussion route, dissecting American and German travel preferences as well as our own itineraries. She, like many backpackers, thinks my schedule is too rapid. I told her it’s worked pretty well for me so far and if I would need more time in a place it will be all the more reason to go back in the future.

A lot of backpackers believe that you really can’t understand the culture of a place without spending at least a week there. This obviously goes against my schedule, which tops out at around six days in a single place. Yet I haven’t found any reason how I have shortchanged myself on the cultural side of things. I just tend to cover a lot of things faster, generally sacrificing continuous partying for reflection and understanding. And I have yet to not get a place (not to say that means I would have to love it).

It was time to board our flight. On board we got separated. On the two and a half hour flight, I caught up on one of my journal entries and almost finished In a Sunburned Country (I would finish the last two pages on the boring shuttle ride into town). This book was remarkable. Having experienced Australia first hand before reading most of it (thereby staying largely uninfluenced) I can say that Bill Bryson has done a tremendous job in capturing the essence of the country in a very entertaining fashion. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to take a $15 trip to Australia; though the time commitment is about the same.

Over the two and a half hours, we covered a great deal distance, a trip that would have taken me probably 40 hours by bus. Disappointingly, we didn’t fly over any of the stereotypical outback, though we may have been too high to notice. Plus I was on the wrong side of the plane.

We landed on time and disembarked quickly. As soon as we got off, those of us staying were separated from those that were continuing on other international flights. At a distance we said a quick goodbye. In this world I live in, just like that, short term friends (or acquaintances or whatever you call them) are gone.

Darwin is close to as far north as you can get in Australia. It’s in the tropics and that makes it very hot and humid this time of year. Adding minimal air movement to the mix made for a very uncomfortable afternoon of touring.

Once I checked in I roamed around the city center and nearby wharf. As I made my way towards the wharf, I came across so-called ruins. These were a bit more recent than the great ruins of Greece and Rome; these were from a building constructed less than 120 years ago. What it used to be was a town hall for Palmerston, which later became Darwin.

As I passed by the ruins I noticed a few high rise buildings in the area. I was very surprised to see them here. My uninformed perception of Darwin was that it would be very undeveloped.

I continued along on my walk, eventually reaching the Darwin Waterfront. The waterfront contains a lagoon-style beach and, more popular, a wave pool. Passing by these in a stroll, I came upon a large, red rock wall. At that point I realized this was as close to the stereotypical outback I would get this trip. The rock still maintained the outback feel, a desolate wasteland that is somehow captivating. I even went up and touched it, finding it to be like a hardened red clay.

Near the rock wall is what was described as a “pearling museum”. I have no idea what a pearling museum is but its being located here and the obscurity of its name is actually tempting me to go, if nothing else for the entertainment value of a strange place. Since it’s closed on Sundays, I’ll have to find out more tomorrow.

I finally reached the bridge which is used to walk out to the Wharf Precinct. On it I was treated to a very pleasant breeze, which finally made the weather bearable. I walked around the wharf for a bit before returning into town. Back near the ruins I noticed on my map that there was something called the “Tree of Knowledge”. I wondered whether the tree itself is knowledgeable - maybe it can talk - or if its name is more symbolic. It turned out to be the latter and a bit of a disappointing symbolism at that. It was once in the heart of Chinatown and was a popular meeting place where Chinese elders shared their wisdom with the youth. More interesting was that the “tree has been used as… a postal address”. I’m a bit curious about how that works.

Next, I passed by a few of the government buildings, one of which is the Parliament House. I’d like to do a tour of that tomorrow morning and learn more about the Northern Territory‘s strange desire to remain an Australian territory and not a state (giving it many of the responsibilities yet few of the rewards of statehood).

Lastly, I took a brief walk through Bicentennial Park and Mitchell Street, the main street for shops, bars and restaurants. In both places I came upon some friendly Aborigines, at least I suspect they were Aborigines.

I briefly filled up my water bottle back at the hostel and headed out to find something for dinner. Since I already had kangaroo, I wanted to have one more uniquely Australian dish - crocodile. Earlier today I had seen that they served it at a couple of the joints on the wharf. I was hoping to find it closer to the hostel but to no avail. So I took another 40 minute walk out to the wharf.

The crocodile was breaded and served with chips (of course) and salad. On its own (having removed the breading on a couple pieces), it did not have a strong taste (like chicken) but it was not exactly like chicken. The croc was a bit more flavorful but I’m not sure how so. It was also much tougher. The battering was a bit overpowering but adding some lime juice made it taste very good. It’s a bit tough to compare to any other dish except maybe conch.

Tonight I finally caught myself up on all my journal entries while I did laundry. I now can enter Asia as prepared as I can be.

---

Photos

Rock
The coloring certainly reminded me of what the outback would look like.

Wharf
The wharf that was the site of the first bombings on Australia in WWII.

Tree of Wisdom
I felt smarter just looking at it.

Croc
My dinner of crocodile, chips and salad.