Sultry, remote and multicultural,
Darwin is Australia’s only tropical city.
The outpost is closer to Asia than
Sydney, giving it an atmosphere that
is all its own. Nature is here in all its
wild variety – whether it’s the power
of a swirling cyclone, the dramatic
beauty of Darwin’s national parks or
the brooding menace of the saltwater
crocodiles that hunt and hide in
the harbour.
LARRAKIA LAND
Darwin’s oldest inhabitants,
the Larrakia, have lived in and
around the city for tens of
thousands of years. They’re also
known as the ‘Saltwater People’
because they have such a close
connection with the sea,
beaches and mangroves that
make up this lush land. Today
the Larrakia are a bright,
Aboriginal nation of around
2,000 people. They even
have their own radio station –
Radio Larrakia 94.5 FM.
Calling Australia
Before telephones and the Internet came along, Darwin was a vital
point in Australia’s connection to the outside world. In 1872, the
3,200km (1,988mi) Overland Telegraph Line was laid from the south
to the north. The line connected Adelaide to Darwin and then joined
the new undersea cable to Java, Indonesia, allowing messages to be
sent quickly between Australia and the rest of the world.
The Ghan’s
Running a
bit Late
One of the world’s great
trains, the Ghan, finishes its
journey in Darwin. It runs
nearly 3,000km (1,864mi)
straight up the middle
of the country. The train
was first nicknamed
the ‘Afghan Express’,
in honour of the
Afghani cameleers
(camel handlers) who
helped open up the
parched deserts of
inland Australia.
Construction on the
line first began in the
1880s, with plans to
run all the way across
the continent. It
wasn’t until over 120
years later, in 2004,
that the line finally
reached Darwin!
Terrible Tracy
Darwin was unlucky enough to
be the site of one of the worst
natural disasters in Australian
history – Cyclone Tracy. It was
Christmas Day in 1974 when
the city received the worst
present imaginable. Furious
winds of over 200 km/h
(124 mi/h) flattened over 70
per cent of Darwin’s buildings,
killing 66 people. The Darwin
standing today is almost
completely new as the city
had to be rebuilt from scratch.
On the Front Line
Darwin is one of the few Australian cities to ever have come
under attack. On 19 February 1942, while Japan was fighting
against Australia in World War Two, it sent 188 fighters and
bombers to attack Darwin, the major Allied base in northern
Australia. During the course of two raids, 243 people were
killed, 8 ships were sunk and 20 planes were destroyed.
Lazy Tropical Days
Darwin is a tropical paradise. It only has two seasons – the
‘Wet’ runs from November to April, while the ‘Dry’ stretches
from May to October. The city rarely gets colder than 17°C
(63°F) or hotter than 33°C (91°F). Its beaches and estuaries
are fringed with green mangrove, palm, mango and
frangipani trees. Inland there are wild,
untouched national parks such as
Kakadu and Litchfield. It’s no
wonder that Darwinians spend
so much time outdoors!
Salty City
The Northern Territory is home to over 100,000 saltwater
crocodiles, the largest and most aggressive crocodile in the
world. These ancient predators, which can grow up to 6m (19.7ft)
in length, are quite at home in the mangroves and mudbanks of
Darwin Harbour. The government tries to keep the crocs away from populated areas,
but with the highest density of crocodiles anywhere in the world, there’s always
a few hanging around. A Darwin kite-surfer found this out to his cost in May 2015, only
just managing to escape when a 2.5m (8.2ft) salty decided that it was feeling peckish!