Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia on April 30th

We have crossed the Timor Sea and head into Darwin, Australia’s northernmost city of 146,000 residents, capital city of the Northern Territory, the population of which is only 244,000 people. At 520,902 square miles, it is almost twice the size of Texas, which will give you an idea of how desolate the interior of Australia is.

As we travel to the eight anticipated port calls in the immense country, we are sure to learn much more about this country with which Americans seem to have so much in common. For now, we are to spend just a few hours in Darwin. As we approach, the pilot boats come out to greet us. Prior to our arrival, Australian immigration officials boarded in Bali, and yesterday morning we all went through the paperwork and face-to-face inspection with them.

The paperwork required to enter Australia is fairly thorough, and Cathy has been her typical dot-the-eyes-cross-the-tees self. We are ready! And all morning, Cruise Director Ray has been reiterating – over and over as Aussie law requires – that we are not to bring any plants or food into the country. As isolated as this continent has been through most of its history, we can understand their concern.

We arrive around 10:30 into a very neat and new cruise terminal with great big welcome signs. What we see is a very modern skyline, and we will have to make the most of our time, as we will be departing at 7:00pm. We have a harbor cruise at 2:15pm, but we want to take advantage of the close proximity of downtown to our ship. There was some gift and provision shopping to take care of.

The town might be close, but the terminal itself is built to accommodate huge cruise ships. It had to be a quarter of a mile walk before we arrived on shore. But well worth it. Immediately we see shops we would return to after we hit the downtown, which sits fifty feet above the sea. We take one elevator up four floors, cross over a long open corridor and go up one more floor. It’s a nice walk through a park to the downtown and an open pedestrian mall lined with shops. We hit an excellent souvenir shop, buy much more than we intended to, and head back, stopping on the way at another souvenir store and a convenience store (Crispy Cheetos. Yay!). By the way, we have been strongly advised to swim only in areas that have protection against box jellyfish, creatures with such a terrible sting that people actually die from them. We pass by such a swimming area, that also has some huge orange and white toys that our grandchildren (and probably their parents) would love to play on.

We’ve been watching our time carefully, and lunch at Waves Grill takes care of that need. At 2:15pm, we all meet on the pier and walk to our big tour boat. Lucky for us, many of our friends are also making the tour. But first we have to listen to the obligatory safety talk.

Well, this turns out to be our introduction to wonderful Australian humor. Yes, we receive all the needed safety info, but it is delivered in a lighthearted and delightful manner, punctuated with tongue-in-cheek humor. We will be treated to this let’s-not-take-life-so-damn-seriously sense of humor with practically every single person we meet throughout our visit to this country.

After the entertaining safety talk, the boat leaves the dock. Cathy sits on the main deck with some of the Around The World Babes and Steve goes to the top deck with Pat Watt so we can take photos. The two crew members that we see the most are around sixty, have been here forever and are chock full of information. The speakers are throughout the boat and loud enough to hear despite the engines.

The city is located at the south end of a long peninsula, and the harbor is actually larger than Sydney’s. But we stay close to the city while our guide fills us in. There are two primary topics that he covers: cyclones and World War II, but here is some other random information of interest:

We pass by a beach, which he says “This is Darwin’s prettiest beach … because it’s Darwin’s only beach.”
There are two swimming dangers in Darwin: box jellyfish and salt water crocodiles. As for the jellyfish, they are everywhere from October through May, so numerous that the swimming area near our ship has special nets.
As for the crocodiles, they too are everywhere wherever water is present. “There are five rangers in town that are here to trap the crocodiles. They have forty-seven fingers between them.”
The crocs move inland from the coast to breed, but return when the water warms up.
There are about 360 crocodiles trapped and relocated from the Darwin area every year.
In 1911, the state of South Australia gave up control of the Northern Territory to the federal government. At that time, the town was known as Palmerston, but was renamed Darwin in that year after Charles Darwin.
When we come to Emery Point, the guide points out that aboriginal history began here sixty-five thousand years ago. He describes the new, very sophisticated technique used to make that determination, noting that the previous estimate was forty thousand years.

The lighthouse on Emery Point was placed there to warn ships about a sandbar not far off the cost from there.

Darwin tides are huge. During the new and full moons, it can reach six metres (almost forty feet!). They can reach eight metres during semidiurnal periods. There are times when the currents run 3.5-4.5mph during spring tides.
Aviation has been a very interesting part of Darwin history, probably due to its location at the top of the continent. In 1919, the Australian government had put up a 10,000-pound prize that was win by a man named Ross Smith for being the first person to fly from London to Australia in under thirty days. Ross Smith Avenue in the city is named after him, and their is an early aviation museum in the city.
The guide also talks extensively about Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia, landing in Darwin in 1930. She had quite a career, which also included other records that she set with her pilot husband.
We see smoke out on the end of the peninsula, and the explanation is that they are set on purpose. During the dry season, fire is a real danger, so brush is burned during the cooler parts of the year.
Darwin is a big sailboat port during the summer.
There are several recently built high-rise apartment buildings built on speculation.“The developers didn’t consult with us locals when they built them. It’s hot here, almost all year long. They can’t sell the apartments because they’re so hot on one side. There is one building called the Exposition building that has its car park on the sun side. That one is sold out.”

Now let’s briefly cover the subject of cyclones. Darwin averages three of them a year, and the last one was as recent as March 21^st. The city has been destroyed three times in its history because of these storms: in 1919, 1937 and 1974.

The worst one was on Christmas Day in 1974 – Cyclone Tracy. 70% of the city was leveled, 30,000 of the then-46,000 population was evacuated until the place could be rebuilt. It was after this event that building codes were significantly modified to deal with these annual events.

The other time that the city suffered major destruction was the last subject covered on the cruise: the Japanese air attack on Darwin on February 19, 1942. The captain of the vessel narrated this part, and the commentary lasted for a good thirty minutes. The man was an expert on this event, and I took enough notes to add a thousand words to this post. However, the main point that our captain and his first mate wanted to get across to all of us aboard was this: compared to the attack on the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor that took place three months earlier, hardly anyone knows about this attack. And the primary reason for this is that there was an official effort on the part of the Australian government to downplay the extent and size of this attack on their soil.

There were several reasons for this official silence, the biggest one being the wholesale panic that they were afraid would grip the public. The public was aware that the existing Australian army and naval forces has already been committed to the war in the Mediterranean theatre, and that the air corps was very weak. Most people expected that the Japanese would eventually invade the country. If they knew how devastating the raid on Darwin had been, there was no telling how the public would react. Secondarily, they did not want the Japanese to know how successful the attack had been.

Interestingly, 88 of the 270 people who died (figures vary from 243 to 292) were American sailors on the destroyer USS Peary. One of the ship’s guns is now a monument on the coast of the city, pointed in the direction of where the ship went down. (yes, it’s hard to see in this picture, but it is there!)

Our cruise is nearing its conclusion as we motor past Insignia for a quick look at the area just ahead of the bow of our ship. Our guide points out two interesting vessels. The first is the ship Paspaley Pearls, a ship built specifically to harvest pearls in remote locations.

The other our guide refers to as a barge. He tells us that there are many of these vessels serving the smaller coastal communities in northern and western Australia, communities so remote that there are no roads to the town. These boats are the only way that these communities can survive.

We return to the dock around 4:30pm, much the richer for the experience of learning about Darwin, Northern Territory and Australian history. Our journey of discovery of this country has just begun, but it has been a great start. We walk to our ship and board, noticing that the elaborate gangway put together for our arrival has been modified as the substantial tides have gone down during our short stay.

Cathy and I sit out on our veranda and watch the port activity as our ship takes on provisions and the gangway that had been assembled is finally taken down in preparation for our departure. We watch an absolutely beautiful sunset take place before our eyes, and the Insignia crew casts us off as the night falls over the city.