Lathams News: DAY 48 – EXPLORING DARWIN

I woke with a pretty sore back this morning, so it is time to find a chiropractor in Darwin. Google is a wonderful thing to help locate those services. I found a chiropractor that was about six kms away, so rang and booked an appointment. The only one they could offer me today was at 4.30pm that afternoon, so ended up taking a 10am appointment fo the following morning as we had planned to go to Mindil markets this evening, and that was all the way in town, so it would be a bit too far to drive all the way back out here to see the chiropractor and then drive all the way back into town again…

We had a list of places to explore today. Our first port of call was the waterfront in Darwin. Neighbours at the caravan park told us about the 2 hours free car parking in one of the hotel car parks that was available and this was right across from the WWII oil tunnels.

After parking, we went for a wander around the Waterfront first. This is a beautiful parkland with a lovely big Wave-pool, a man made beach, and lovely green picnic areas. The wave-pool looked heaps of fun, and we decided that we would visit it again just so that we could enjoy it.

Wave pool on the water front in Darwin

Lots of folk there enjoying the great weather in Darwin at the moment.

Pool side

Full time life guards on duty

We found out that the waves are turned on for 20 minutes and then there is a 10 minute break before they are turned on again, The cost of swimming here is $7 per adult and $5 for a senior citizen. The parklands around the water front are lovely too, and there is a recreational swimming area that looked like it was a heap of fun also.

The kids seemed to be having a lot of fun on this.

Man made beach is safe to swim in...

Full time life guards are here as well.

sunbathing on the lawns

Everywhere is lovely and green

Transport around the waterfront...

Darwin Waterfront

There is still quite a bit of work going on at the waterfront... We gathered that a lot of it is fairly new, but it certainly has a great vibe about it.

Waterfront precinct

Stokes Hill Wharf - great eateries along here...

Naval ship docked in the harbour

From here we made our way to the WWII Oil tunnels.

Steve and Kathy at the entrance

Admission was about $7 each, and you get to wander through a couple of the tunnels. They are well signed with lots of reading boards depicting life in Darwin at the time these tunnels were built.

Inside the tunnel

Art work made from the salvaged wreckage from some of the bombed ships

They were a massive problem to build, and the initial cost of 225,000 pounds blew out to over a million pounds to complete. They really didn’t get used for what they were built for, as there was always problems with soil and water seepage, and by the time they were finished the war wasn’t far from ending. They were top secret tunnels, to store oil and fuel for the war effort.

Storage Tunnel 6

You were able to walk along the tunnels and read all about building the tunnels and the war

After the bombing of Darwin in 1943, they had to find a more secure way to store their resources up at the top end of Australia. The tunnels had lots of information plagues and displays that you could read and it was all very intesting. Building of the tunnels was not pleasant work, in the heat and humidity of Darwin, and the men were not paid very much at all. They could be conscripted to come and work on the tunnels. They had to constantly monitor the water levels in the tanks due to leakages. They had viewing tubes which allowed them to constantly monitor the water. There were over 700 leaks when first built. They all needed to be repaired but still the leaking continued.

Still water leakage in the tunnels today.

Water still leaks into the tunnels today, so they have never were a huge success. It was pretty humid and stuffy in the tunnels which made it a bit uncomfortable and it was nice to get back outside into the drier and fresher air again.

I never did realize the extent of the bombing of Darwin in the War until coming to Darwin and reading about it. The attack by the Japanese on Darwin was worse than Pearl Harbour, but was not broadcasted about for fear of panicking Australians at the time. With modern technology, this would never happen today. The same 188 Japanese fighter planes that bombed Pearl Harbour some months before bombed Darwin at 10am on the 19^th of February at 10am destroying Darwin. An hour later another 54 fighter planes dropped more bombs on Darwin almost wiping out the city.

Within the space of less than forty years, Darwin has been reduced to rumble twice. Then again, in 1974 when Cyclone Tracey hit Darwin, only 400 houses of the 14,000 homes here were left standing. Darwin today is a great testament to their strength and resilience as a city.

Panoramic views of beaches around Darwin

Darwin in the background

From the water front we did a little drive around the city centre locating the mall, and also finding Aquascene.

Aquascene

Not a good week for tides this week.

From the water front we did a little drive around the city centre locating the mall, and also finding Aquascene. We needed to check times for the fish feeding over the next week…. then it was off to the Darwin Botanical Gardens to check them out.

Darwin Botanical Gardens

Picnic area - love the tables and benches here/.

Found this to be a fascinating tree

Cannonball tree

Cannonball fruit

Another unusual seat in the gardens

More wooden seating

They even have community gardens here.

More seating just outside the orchid house

They are huge, and as we only had an hour or so, we only managed to walk in a small section of the gardens but it was a nice way to spend time, as everything is lovely and green. Again the gardens are quite close to the beach. Took lots of photos of some of the lovely flowering plants we say in the gardens.

Being Thursday, the Mindil Beach Night Markets were on tonight, so this was our final stop for the night. We had decided that we would have dinner at the markets, as we had heard lots of reports about the markets as being big food markets.

Mindil Beach Night markets

Live music

Lots of food stalls

The Darwin Festival is on at the moment, so this also seemed to be part of the celebrations of that with lots of different music, and performances happening. There was a really party atmosphere, with lots of people out enjoying an evening on the beach.

There was a whip cracking performance happening, where they offered the general public an opportunity to crack a whip. Steve had a go, but it was a lot more difficult than it looked. Still it was a lot of fun…

Whip cracking demonstrations

Having a good at whip cracking

Finally managed to get it to crack

There was a guy playing multiple didgeridoos. He was really very talented

Lots of other stalls selling wears as well...

The markets are right on the beach shore line and we were amazed at the thousands of people on the beach for sunset.

Festive atmosphere

Thousands on the beach to watch the sun set

Crowded beach

We joined them for another sizzling Darwin sunset as the sun touched the water on the horizon.

We enjoyed an ice cream whilst watching some of the performances and headed home around 8pm. At least we didn’t have to go home and cook dinner tonight.