There's something special about Darwin. Sure it's hot - and bloody steamy in the summer - but if you can accept the sweat, and embrace the "frontier" vibe, it is a dead set cracker. Oh yeah.....and the winters are superb.
I'd spent some time in Darwin in the early 90's - mostly travelling with my (then local) brother in the wet season - and had been yearning to get back. It's obvious once you arrive, but sitting closer to most of our South East Asian neighbours than it does to Brisbane, Darwin can safely lay claim to being Australia's (if not the world's) most multicultural city - a fact no doubt lost on plenty of us southerners with our more cloistered suburban arrangements.
Malays, Timorise, Thais, Phillipinos and Portugese all mix with the local Indigenous and Anglo community - with any of the regular Darwin markets perhaps the best place for the tourist to dip themselves into the melting pot.
It's definitely not all beer and skittles...there is a fair chunk of inequity and the social problems that go with it, but somehow things seem to work...Territory style. Don't try to understand it, just go with it.
Markets
The Mindil Beach sunset market - operating every Thursday and Sunday in the dry season (and every Sunday during the wet) was a "must do" for us, and we'd arranged our schedule to suit. We had my brother's (admittedly relatively tame) bucks party at Mindil back in 1994 - and the sights, sounds, sensational food and sunsets haven't changed a huge amount since then. Hamish had a go at whip cracking, then we got stuck into a lamb yiros, and a few Vietnamese rice paper rolls, before rolling out with half a dozen honey puffs to top it off. All in all it wasn't a bad effort after we'd nailed the Parap markets in the morning - sneaking in some tasty breakfast spring rolls washed down with a Vietnamese pho and mango smoothies. Sensational.
Pubs and Clubs
But, strange as it may sound, my first point of call in Darwin was actually a pub....and for a legitimate business meeting at that. Stone House on Cavenagh Street is probably a bit more "Melbourne" than I had anticipated - but it was pretty bloody nice. With an intimate little beer garden out the back and some pretty useful beers on tap, including the local "One Mile Pale Ale" it suited me just fine. A couple of schooners later (amongst good company) gave me a pretty good kick start before toddling off to Hotel Darwin - which was much closer to the 'anticipated Top End ambiance' - to meet up with nephew Liam and his partner Liz. This was a ripper. A laid back pub with great tucker (we had the barramundi and chips) and plenty of nice cold beer. So good I had to come back for another meeting two days later. Both of these establishments were a far cry from the wilderness that was "The Cage" - an establishment I vividly remember from the early 90's, and described by the "great bard" Kevin Bloody Wilson as the only place in Darwin you had to wipe your feet on the way out.....but that's another story.
And for an afternoon drink - it's pretty hard to go past the various aquatic sporting clubs dotted around Fannie Bay. Back in the day, we used to give the Fannie Bay Yacht Club a bit of a run, but on this trip - at the suggestion of Kit's cousin Matt, we headed to the Darwin Ski Club at Bullocky Point. It is a dead set cracker - very laid back, very Darwin.....and an absolutely beautiful sunset thrown in.
Museums and Galleries
There's plenty of history in the Northern Territory - a lot of which gets glossed over Down South. So, as a "ground truthing" exercise, it is more than worthwhile to visit at least one of the museums (or galleries) Darwin has to offer to get some background on what you will hopefully be experiencing during your visit to the Territory. From local indigenous history and art, through the early pastoralists (not that long ago), the World War II bombing of Darwin and Cyclone Tracy - there's a lot to cover. They certainly didn't teach us at school about the history of trade between Sulawesi (Indonesia) and the top end Aboriginal communities - with the highly prized local trepang (sea cucumber) the main commodity of interest. Who'd of thought it?
We visited the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory at Bullocky Point, taking in a great exhibition on the "Unruly Days" of the Territory between 1911 and 1921 - a time when the indigenous population was the majority, and Chinese people outnumbered white Australians! With challenging race and labour relations, and the North being administered from Melbourne, it is fair to say that the Commonwealth had little understanding of the unique conditions at play in the Territory.
Perennial displays include a fantastic exhibition on Cyclone Tracy - including a darkened "sound room" that takes you right inside the experience - and of course, Sweetheart - the 5.1 metre "problem" crocodile caught and accidentally drowned in 1979 in an attempt to relocate him to a crocodile farm. Bloody massive.
Just Chillin'
Overall though, our visit to Darwin was more about catching up Liam and Liz - and getting us in the right frame of mind for the journey ahead toward Kakadu and beyond. Liam and I practiced the "Sebile" fishing knot - a critical skill for our Arnhem Land adventure to come - we watched the State of Origin, we watched Liam play cricket - and watched Liam and Liz finish the Fanny Bay Classic swim (I was too gutless to partake in the swim given the local reptilian inhabitants).
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