Time in Darwin..........Part 1.....

 It must be time for another update of newsfromjude, so I will try to get our time in Darwin into some sort of order for a post.............

First I will include a bit of Darwin history from the internet.........

The harbour of Darwin was discovered in 1839 and was named after British evolutionist Charles Darwin. The Overland telegraph was constructed between South Australia and Darwin from 1870 to 1872. In 1871 a 1100 mile submarine cable between Darwin and Java was laid. This in turn was connected to Singapore, Europe and London.

Originally the Northern Territory was a part of South Australia, but was separated to Commonwealth control in 1911.

Aviation has played a significant part in Darwin's history. Ross and Keith Smith landed here to achieve the first flight from England to Australia in 1919. As early planes struggled with the distance from Europe, Darwin became a vital stopover airport.

At the beginning of WW11 Darwin only had a population of 2000 and was extremely isolated with a small airport, unsealed roads to the rest of Australia and little infrastructure.

The bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces has had a lasting effect on Darwin, both in the destruction caused and the massive build up of the area by allied forces.

To aid the war effort, the road to Alice Springs was upgraded and sealed, large military airports were built at Darwin and Batchelor and many smaller airfields were built. Adelaide River developed as an important strategic military base with ammunition dumps, supply depots and a hospital. The railway was strengthened to handle a massive increase in traffic and the rail bridge was decked to provide a wet season crossing for road traffic.

And the biggest change was delivered in a few hours by Cyclone Tracy in 1974 when the existing town was nearly completely destroyed. Many of the victims of the cyclone are buried at the Darwin General Cemetery and a visit can drive home just how much this destruction affected peoples lives. However the rebuilding that followed has left a well designed, modern city very few old buildings.

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Driving into Darwin and following the signs................

We were booked into the Hidden Valley Caravan park, and it is aptly named, as it sits in a valley and there are lots of trees around...............a very tidy, well maintained, clean park, and very busy as the sites fill up quickly.

As we were staying for a week, we put the awning out, and even had our clothesline hung for the washing as there were no dryers in the laundry. I must say with temperatures in the 30 or over, the washing dried very quickly.

I will just post a few photos taken during the week as we drove around Darwin...............

My personal thoughts..............The vegetation in Darwin was prolific and very tropical. The high rise buildings seemed to be mostly apartments and mostly new and modern. It is a tourist orientated city, and I felt it was more like a large country town instead of a big city. Due to the destruction of the city by Cyclone Tracey, most of the buildings are new. There was so much to see it was impossible to see it all in a week.

STOKES WHARF

The historic Stokes Hill Wharf offers a relaxed friendly atmosphere with seaside alfresco eateries, restaurant dining, a spot to fish and is a hub for various cruises and tours on beautiful Darwin Harbour.

The tables are all along the wharf and if you get there early enough you can find a table right at the edge, that overlooks the water, and watch the fish and the boating activity in the harbour. Of course, the food is great too.

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On the 19th february, 1942, war came to Australia. Darwin is full of information about the Japanese attack. I was quite stunned to find out all this information as it was not taught to my generation at school.  I did find this info that might explain the lack of information in southern Australia!?

I will cover the places we visited relative to the war in this post and do a part 2 for the rest of our activities.................

                        The Darwin Military Museum is located at East Point

The site is within a heritage listed area that contains WWII fortifications. The No.2 gun turret is located within the Military Museum and, along with the No.1 gun turret, is one of the major fortifications at East Point.

This is a concrete base for Anti-aircraft gun and is on the shore at East Point Darwin......... This is facing the sea, and to watch for any attack from that direction, but apparently they were surprised by a Japanese attack which came from behind, and caught them unprepared!!

Barry was wondering how anyone could ever fit into this space, and how uncomfortable it would be.....

I don't 'do' steps very well, and I thought, oh no, I will stay down here while Barry went up. He said come on, it will be worth it, and I have to say it was.......

...this was at the top of those stairs......

The museum was well set out and I loved all the tropical plants.............

The Darwin Aviation Museum, located in Winnellie, Darwin, houses an impressive collection of the Territory's aviation history and reminds us of Darwin's frontier role in World War II.

A massive B52 Bomber dwarfs other exhibits, including Mirage and Sabre jets, a Spitfire replica, Orion P3-C, Wessex and Huey Cobra helicopters. Other exhibits include engines and armament as well as many photographs of Darwin at war, pioneer flights and record breakers. The development of the jet age is also depicted through displays and photographs.

There was a film depicting the flight of Ross and Keith Smith and early pioneers of flight.

There were several places where you could sit and view films about war events, as well as the first flights from London to Darwin. The film of the bombing of Darwin was very confronting and showed just how close Australia came to be taken by the Japanese.

This is the remains of a Japanese plane that was shot down ..........

The B-52 bomber plane was so large, it was hard to get a good photograph showing it's size, but it took up a fair part of the building and you can see the size in comparison to some of the other planes in the following pics.

........and there were more stairs!! Which led to the a view in the cockpit of the plane........(Ansett used to be a South Australian airline many years ago!)

This photo shows the size of the B-52 compared to the building it is housed in.

We also toured through the WW11 Oil Storage Tunnels. These were built during WW2 by the Civil Construction Corps to protect Darwin's oil supplies from the Japanese bombing raids. However by the time they were completed, the risk had ended and were never used to store oil. They were reopened in 1992 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin. They are located beneath the cliffs of Darwin city.

There are many places around the city that acknowledge the WW2 heritage of Darwin.

In summary, this Darwin trip, as well as what we learnt at Adelaide River, has been a great education for me about how Australia was invaded. It wasn't only Darwin that was attacked, but Broom on the west coast of Australia, Darwin in the centre, and Cairns and Townsville on the east coast. And also a small Japanese submarine was discovered in Sydney harbour!! How close we came!!!

I will finish this post here and do a part 2 of the rest of our activities in Darwin.

Be back soon,

Blessings, From Jude