A weekend in Darwin June 2-3 2018

We are told that Darwin has a population of 120,000. Small town, and a fairly well defined list of items to see. Still slightly more than we could fit into a leisurely Saturday and Sunday, even after ruling out swimming in a cage with crocodiles infested water.

Darwin's history seems to be defined by two 20th century events 3 decades apart: the World War II bombing and Cyclone Tracy. It says a lot that there are only 4 identified pre-1974 houses. A broad well kept field marks where Darwin Hospital once stood;  bombed days after it opened, and damaged by Tracy the empty space speaks volumes.

Our strategy, after a walk around the main shopping  drag on Saturday morning,  was to buy a 2 day ticket on the big hop-on hop-off bus that stopped at the major tour spots except the Air Museum, all of which were outside walking distance in the town centre. We chose the Art Gallery, the Botanic Gardens, and the Defence of Darwin. Reluctantly left out were the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre, and Royal Flying Doctor holographic exhibition.

The Museum and Art Gallery of NT was featuring the 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, titled Defying Empire, the exhibits of which looked to us like a curation of rage against whiteys of all generations, starting with a bronze bust of "Captain Crook". We didn't regard this extended outburst as needing more than a minute or so from us.
The major permanent exhibit dealt with 1974 in micro-detail: 10 minutes in a blackout room with recorded cyclone sounds.
There were some stuffed birds and other animals.

The Defence of Darwin museum gave a thorough account of the history sliver at which it aimed—
eg How many bombs of what tonnage did Darwin receive in comparison to Pearl Harbour?

Images from  Google 

The bus back provided a good view across the bay to the town

The Botanic Gardens were a cool green space to walk. A few flowers were in bloom.

The industrial area near the wharves had landward 50cm exclusion barriers to deter cane toads from boarding ships. Possibly the only example of migrants getting illegally on boats to escape Australia for a better life. (The only live examples we saw on our trip were a couple on our path at Seven Spirit.)

On Saturday night we took cheap and efficient taxi rides to the Darwin Yacht Club for dinner and have ringside seats for yet another beautiful sunset.

The contrast between Arnhem Land and Victoria could hardly be greater — even with the gum trees identifying both places as Australia. Climate, plants, birds, fauna, and humans, all proclaim another country .

And on the morrow, before our flight to Melbourne, we had a morning stroll along the escarpment to  say farewell to our experience of  the Near North...

Days 10 -11 Leaving Seven Spirit and on to Darwin

Night (outside the dining room before dinner Thursday 31 May ) 

and Day (outside our lodge before breakfast Friday 1 June)

 

The strange phenomenon in this latitude is that sunset and sunrise happen facing the same general direction instead of a clear opposite east and west. The tree line background  in these snaps is one and the same.

 Native beehive seen on front verandah on our departure

 Melville and Bathurst Islands from our plane

On arrival at Darwin our bus went straight to Casuarina Hospital, as one of our number had begun to feel unwell- he was released to travel home directly the following day. 

There are 3 Hilton hotels in Darwin, two of them are side by side on The Esplande , both called Doubletree by Hilton. 

None is absolutely on the foreshore, but our room had a good view so I essayed a pan shot from our balcony using my phone.

Last dinner was alfresco at Char restaurant. My chief memory is that a floodlight was propped in a tree and pointed straight at my face giving me the feeling of an actor spotlighted on stage. I donned sunglasses and made several requests for adjustment but was informed that management regarded this as impossible. However after half an hour or so a more enterprising member of our group rose, strode over to the tree, put his finger on the under side of the flood light, pushed and thereby changed the angle of the light giving great relief to me and highlighting the foliage rather (why didn't I think of that?).  Once I was blinded but now I could see. There were other infelicities.

The Outback Spirit tour concluded at breakfast Saturday morning, but we had elected to linger over the weekend to explore some of Darwin.

Days 9 & 10, 30-31 May— Cobourg Peninsula

On getting up this morning we found a wallaby- others had been seen but they seem more rare than in southern climes (although in Darwin we were told that an aggressive culling program had been employed in one urban area to reduce numbers from 2500 to 600.

Our travel to Seven Spirit Bay was through the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park near Port Essington. The lunch stop at the Park ranger base included some displays:

• Local shells, many of which I remember also being able to find in childhood days in East Ballina but long since disappeared from there. At least in East Ballina one only shares the water with sharks and the beach is OK for shore paddling without crocodile harassment.

• The Park ranger base also has a collection of dolls dressed in clothing of the type used in the Victoria Settlement at Port Essington, which lasted just 11 years-1838-1849. (If this was the dress code then small wonder.

Below is the impression of Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1839.  I have extracted it from Wikipedia as I enjoyed the recent biography of this polymath explorer :

Only a few outline brick ruins now exist. This was the third attempt to set up an outpost to trade with Asia and at its height comprised 24 houses and a hospital. It was visited by Ludwig Leichhardt in 1845.
Essington Lewis, born in South Australia in 1881, was named for the district as his father had a cattle station there.

After lunch our journey to Seven Spirit Wilderness Lodge was by boat — a 10 km trip-— as it has not proved economic (and perhaps also to comply with other conditions required by the aboriginal owners' corporation)  to construct a road track. Economics is a big issue with the resort, which has failed commercially several times since opening in 1990. Outback Spirit seems however to have feasible long term plan,  and its reconstruction completed in 2016 boasting a cost of $3.5 million is splendid.

A gallery of very good photos of the accommodation can be found at http://www.sevenspiritbay.com.au/ 

The web photo gallery shows why the Lodge is the culmination of an Arnhem land tour for softies like us.
We were content to spend our one and half days around the Lodge and in the pool, foregoing a trip to the ruins of Victoria Settlement (one hour each way on the boat) and even an excursion to view nipa palms and a bower bird nest. The water was bit too choppy to offer some of our keener fisher folk a ocean trip.

Day 8 Mount Borradaile burial cave

Our fast boat landed us close to family of small fresh water crocodiles.

 

Passing on, we climbed to a low rock rise where there was a cave with a large number of human bones laid to rest  in  horizontal crevices and on the ground. This a sacred space, and although we were permitted to enter and photograph the rock art, touching or picturing the bones is forbidden.

The quantity and variety of ancient and some more recent art  is beyond our capacity to name and classify, and as its discovery is relatively recent this century, the published literary descriptions do not include it.

 

In the evening we returned to the water for drinks and canapes before dinner

Day 8 29 May —Mount Borradaile eco-tourism and the Cooper River

These pictures must speak for themselves

 Green ants are said to be a delicacy when made into a drink.  They have also been used for medicinal purposes. Nests containing the ants and pupae are crushed into a paste and inhaled to relieve colds, and the paste can also be put on the forehead to treat headache.

We boarded  a high powered boat to navigate a narrow channel .

 We were informed this would be the last trip through this channel this season due to falling water level. This was confirmed to us by the difficulty and length of time of the return trip requiring frequent stops to clear the boat propellers.

Google enhanced stylised photo from my phone- maybe overdone?

Brolgas in the background

Magpie Geese

Pig

Jabiru

Day 7 Rock art at Mount Borradaile

After lunch we were introduced to the wondrous ancient rock art. It is claimed to be some of the best in the world.

terrain

the famous rainbow serpent