Aug 17 ... Darwin

It is exactly 4 months today since we left home and it does feel like a long time ago.Just over 2 months to go and still a lot of driving to do and places to see.

It is amazing to us just how much Darwin has changed in the past two years.  There is still no Myer or David Jones here, but it is looking much more like a modern city now. The centre is still very quiet. There are certainly no crowds and you can just cross the street wherever, practically without looking, so that is surprising. The bus system is excellent and very cheap. The downside is that it is mainly used by the indigenous people, for whom it is free, and they are often drunk, smelly, loud and numerous. I sometimes feel a bit intimidated but I guess you would get used to it. There are a lot of black kids who should be in school trawling the shopping centres, walking the streets and riding the buses. They are bored and looking for any kind of entertainment. This is a bit of a recipe for disaster, especially as they appear poor, although they all have an i-phone.  And you hear many different languages here but we can not identify any of them. The indigenous people sometimes speak English, and all can when they have to, but mostly they speak in their own tongue, which is very fast. I am sure there is also a big mix of Islander people as well as Indonesians, Malays and Japanese.

The city is very spread out but there is lots to see and do. Many of the highlights we did on our last visit in 2009 with Morgan, and we are not repeating them. We have learned to manage our hot park site and it’s quite okay really as the mornings are cool and we have shade from the van until about 11am. Then we head off and get home around 6pm when it is cool again.

Parliament House

Paspaley Pearls

On Monday we mostly walked around the city centre and went to the Tourist Office. In the afternoon we went to see the film “Red Dog” which was really disappointing. We did not like the format at all and felt we had wasted our $32 there. Afterwards we had afternoon tea then walked along Bicentennial Park and back to the park near the bus terminal where they are holding Darwin Festival activities. The trees were lit with lanterns and there were lots of food stalls and some entertainment. It looked good so we will try to come back for tea one night this week.

The Darwin Festival

Plenty of Eateries

Lanterns in the trees

We got away a bit earlier on Tuesday to check out the WW2 "Oil Storage Tunnels" set under the hill beside the harbour. This is actually a misnomer as these were never used during the war and not much afterwards either, and oil was never stored here. You also do not see the tanks that were supposed to actually store the oil but only the tunnels that accessed them. The tanks themselves were a further 60ms below and not accessible. The 2 remaining tunnels contained an extensive series of war photos but otherwise they were not that interesting although they were impressive in size and for the fact that they were hand dug. Tunnel No 5 was 171ms long and 5ms high, and it had the capacity to store more than 38475 million litres of oil.

Entrance to Tunnels

Inside Tunnel No 5

From there we had a walk around the new harbour development. There are a couple of “beach” areas and a fairly large wave pool, all surrounded by parkland. It looked great and I am sure it is very popular.

Darwin Beaches

The Convention Centre with Wave Pool in front

Then we caught the bus for a long ride to the Causarina Shopping Centre. Here Alison met us for lunch and it was really nice to see her and catch up on some family news. Afterwards we took advantage of the movies “Cheap Tuesdays” and went to see the final “Harry Potter” film. Both Garry and I really enjoyed it but we are happy to have finally concluded the saga!

This morning I decided I had to do some French study, so Garry took himself in to view the Aircraft Museum. I also had a lot of things to catch up on, like emails, blogging, phone calls etc. Hence it was soon lunchtime and I still had not started any language work!  

 I know that any impression formed when travelling like this is very superficial as you only get the briefest snapshot of any place, but despite its history, it seems to me that Darwin is still very young in its development and very parochial. Every day we are surprised by the puerile topics discussed on the ABC radio; and pictured is the main,and only, newspaper for the NT. Would we see a front page like this in our state newspapers? Page 3 still has the large photo of the sultry girl in a brief bikini; or, in this case, a lengthy article, with photos, on TOT having to move venues. Apparently, "Tits On Tuesdays" is a "Darwin institution" and this sleazy activity is important "news".      

I thought this became politically incorrect decades ago! Whilst all this could be amusing, if the media does represent the tastes of the population, it is also disheartening as a reflection of a capital city and, I think it is embarrassing as an Australian. I would like to think that Australia was just a little more sophisticated than TOT, even in the NT!
On the positive side, after such a controversial opinion, we have seen no racism at all; everyone has been friendly and polite, and the city has a very relaxed atmosphere. Perhaps these values and attitudes outweigh any chauvinism or ignorance and that is why people appreciate the unique character of this region.