Darwin

Hello Everyone!

Well, Darwin is in the rearview mirror as of late last night, so let me tell you all about it! I've got two sea days on the way to our next stop, Komodo Island, so I have time to go into a little more detail about this stop than I have in previous posts.

We arrived at about 8:00am on Monday 16 Feb 2026 after three days at sea. We were able to dock here, so no tender operations. Yay! In fact, Darwin's harbor is about three times the size of Sydney's (if not as deep), so there's plenty of space, with nice, modern port facilities. 

No, That's Not Our Ship
No, I didn't Take This Picture!

Northern Territory Size and Population

Darwin is the capital of Australia's Northern Territory (NT). Despite its size (about 1/5 of the total landmass of Australia), the NT is considered a territory and not a state because of its low population. There are only about 250,000 people in the NT with Darwin home to about 150,000 of them. Demographically it's about 30% indigenous (or First Nations, the more correct term). 

To put that size and population density into perspective, if the NT were a U.S. state, it would be the second largest behind Alaska. At 522,000 sq miles it's more than two times the size of Texas (268,000 sq miles). It's about the size of California and Texas combined. But only 250,000 people live in all that space, putting the population density at just 0.5 people per square mile. For comparison, Alaska has the lowest population density of any U.S. state, yet it has 3x the density at around 1.5 people per square mile.

Northern Territory Superimposed on the U.S.

Few Americans appreciate how large Australia is overall. We tend to think of it as a large island, but don't realize that Perth on the southwest coast and Brisbane on the east coast is about as far as New York City is from Los Angeles!

Australia Superimposed on the U.S.

Climate

Darwin lies just 12 degrees south of the equator, so the climate is tropical with only a "wet season" and a "dry season". Our visit coincided with the height of the wet season (Nov-Apr), with mostly cloudy skies and frequent brief (but sometimes heavy) rain showers and high humidity. Temperatures were hot (30–34°C / mid-80s–90s°F), but humidity is the big factor. During the dry season (May-Oct), it really gets nice here. There is almost no rain, skies are blue, the humidity drops into the teens, and the days are warm but the nights are cool. This is when Darwin is most comfortable and social — markets, events, and travel into the parks all happen then. It's the high season for tourism.

The First Nations peoples have a different view of the seasons. They use more detailed seasonal calendars than the European wet/dry model, and they're based on observations of winds, plant cycles, animal behavior, humidity, and sky patterns, not fixed dates.

1. Mirdawarr — Early dry season, April–May

• wet season storms fading
• grasses begin drying
• cooler evenings start
• landscape still green
• animals disperse after floods

This is the transition out of the monsoon.

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2. Dharrathamirri — Mid dry season, May–June

• steady southeast trade winds
• low humidity
• good hunting season
• waterholes shrinking

This is the most comfortable weather of the year.

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3. Rarranhdharr — Hot dry season, August–October

• rising heat
• dust and smoke from fire management
• bush burning season
• animals concentrate near water

Traditional burning is deliberate land care, not random wildfire — it reduces fuel and protects ecosystems.

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4. Worlmamirri — Build-up season, October–November

• oppressive humidity
• towering thunderstorms
• lightning without much rain
• insects increase
• plants begin flowering

This is what locals call “the build-up” — psychologically intense weather.

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5. Baarramirri — Early wet season, December

• first monsoon bursts
• rivers rising
• heavy cloud cover
• marine food becomes abundant

Storm energy shifts from land to sea.

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6. Mayaltha — Main wet season, January–February

• peak monsoon rains
• flooding plains
• abundant fish and plant growth
• travel restricted inland

This is the jungle phase — maximum life and water.

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7. Dhuludur — Late wet season, March–April

• rains easing
• floodwaters receding
• plant regeneration
• animal migrations resume

The cycle prepares to restart.

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These seasons are more than just weather categories. They are ecological calendars, hunting and gathering guides, and cultural knowledge systems defining survival strategies refined over 60,000+ years. They predict food availability, animal movement, and safe travel far more accurately than a Western calendar. Modern meteorology is increasingly studying these Indigenous seasonal systems because they are extremely precise ecological models.

Spoiler Alert - Darwin Was Never Here!

Originally named Palmerston, Darwin was first permanently settled by Europeans in 1869 as a remote northern outpost of South Australia. The harbor itself had already been named Darwin Harbour in 1839 by John Lort Stokes of HMS Beagle, honoring Charles Darwin, who had sailed earlier on the ship during its famous scientific voyage. The city adopted the harbor’s name officially in 1911 when the Northern Territory was transferred from South Australia to Commonwealth control. Interestingly though, Charles Darwin never actually set foot here.

Rebuilt Three Times

Modern Darwin is often called “the third Darwin”. There have effectively been three versions of the city:

• Original frontier settlement (Palmerston)
• Post-WWII rebuild
• Post-Cyclone Tracy rebuild

WWII History

On 19 February 1942, Japanese forces launched the largest foreign attack ever carried out on Australian soil. Two air raids killed over 240 people, sank ships in the harbor, and devastated the town. It is often described as Australia’s “Pearl Harbor moment.”

• More bombs were dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbor
• The harbor was left burning and filled with wrecks
• Most civilians fled; the town was largely abandoned
• Darwin was bombed over 60 more times during the war

The Japanese didn't really have occupation in mind, but they recognized the importance of the large, calm harbor and and its strategic location. There were also extensive fuel reserves here. Thus, they wanted to destroy the city's and the port's infrastructure to deny its use by Allied forces. As a result, the city was effectively destroyed and then rebuilt after 1945. This was the first major reconstruction.

There are reminders throughout the city of the bombings, and "Bombing of Darwin Day" is commemorated each year on 19 Feb.

Cyclone Tracy

Darwin was again effectively destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in the early morning hours of Christmas Day of 1974. The population was largely unprepared, for a couple of reasons. Just weeks before, another cyclone came through, but did little damage. As a result, people were somewhat numb to subsequent storm warnings. Secondly, initial forecasts had the storm moving from east to west, well off the coast of the NT. In fact, up until about 12-18 hours before it scored a direct hit on Darwin, the storm had been following the predicted path. Everyone went to their Christmas Eve celebrations as normal, then came home and went to bed.

During the night, the storm made nearly a 90 degree turn to the south and the eye passed directly over the city in the early morning. Winds exceeded 125 mph, completely destroying over 70% of the structures in the city. Even some stone buildings succumbed to the wind. Only 5% of the buildings in Darwin remained inhabitable. Over 30,000 people were evacuated and 66 lost their lives. Darwin was rebuilt again from the ground up, this time with modern cyclone-resistant building codes. This reconstruction defined the city’s current layout and architecture.

Proud Heritage

I found the people I met here to have an independent spirit, much like Alaska. They're proud of their history. Darwin and the NT remain small by national standards but they're strategically vital, culturally distinct, and resilient. It's a city shaped by destruction and reinvention.

The natural gas industry is huge here. There are extensive gas fields below both the land and ocean, and the production and export of liquid natural gas (LNG) accounts for a significant portion of the local GDP.

Sightseeing in Darwin

The Darwin CBD (Commercial Business District) is very compact and walkable. There is a lot of development near the waterfront, comprised of various mixed-use districts (residential, retail, and restaurants). Although our visit was in low season, there were still a number of people out and about enjoying the shops and restaurants.

We arrived in the morning and my first excursion, a crocodile cruise, wasn't scheduled to depart until early afternoon. So, I set out to see the city on foot. I found it to be more developed than some of our earlier stops, with well-planned shopping  areas and many pedestrian-only malls.

I saw several monuments to both the WWII bombing of Darwin as well as the destruction from Cyclone Tracy. For example, I found this monument at a point called "Survivor's Lookout". It commemorates the bombing and pays tribute to those who lost their lives, those who were evacuated, and those who stayed and rebuilt the city.

Survivor's Lookout Monument

Viking Sky Seen from Survivor's Lookout

Immediately adjacent to the lookout is Government House. Government House is the official residence and workplace of the Administrator of the Northern Territory, the representative of Australia’s Governor-General in the NT. It's kind of like the Territory’s version of a state governor’s mansion.

Government House dates back to the 1870s, making it one of Darwin’s oldest surviving European buildings. Remarkably, it survived both the 1942 bombing and Cyclone Tracy, and is a rare link to colonial-era Darwin

Government House

The NT Parliament Building is a short distance from Government House. It is the seat of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory and sits prominently on the Darwin waterfront. The building opened in 1994, making it one of the newest parliament buildings in Australia. Before that, Darwin lacked a purpose-built parliament building and the NT legislature met in temporary chambers. When the commonwealth government in Canberra granted self-government to the NT in 1978, that increased the need for a formal civic building. So the structure represents the NT’s political maturity after gaining self-government from Canberra.

No walkabout tour would be complete without a local beer, so I stopped at a small Chinese restaurant for some lunch and enjoyed this Great Northern beer with my BBQ pork and fried rice. Although this refreshing lager is marketed as a "northern" beer and associated with the rugged camping and fishing culture of the NT, it's actually produced primarily in Queensland by a large corporate brewery.

Great Northern Lager

Crocodile Cruise

I then returned to the dock and boarded a bus which took us to the Adelaide River for a crocodile cruise. This portion of the Adelaide River is home to about 100 saltwater crocs per kilometer, the highest concentration of "salties" anywhere in the world. The movie Crocodile Dundee was filmed nearby. When one of the guests said something about the waters being "crocodile infested", the guide countered by saying the river was "crocodile inhabited". All in your perspective, I guess!

We boarded a pontoon boat that held about 50 people and set off down the river.

Crocodile Tour Pontoon Boat

It wasn't long before we came upon "Stumpy", the dominant male in this part of the river. He's estimated to be about 70 years old and, despite having lost three of his four legs in fights with other males, he's still the big man on campus. He's about 16 feet long and estimated to weigh about 1,100 pounds.

"Stumpy", a Large Male Croc

We saw several other crocs during our trip up and down the river including several females and a couple of other males. The males tend to be bigger than the females, but Stumpy was clearly the king.

The guide told us that the females lay large clutches of eggs each year but that only a fraction of the eggs fully incubate. The female does not tend the nest, and the only warmth provided is from the decaying vegetation that makes up the nest. Of the hatchlings, only about one in a hundred survives to the point it reaches two meters, or about six feet. At that point, its continued survival is pretty much guaranteed because it's large and strong enough to fend off other predators. But the hatchlings are "fast food" for just about everything else larger than they are - birds, dingoes, snakes, and even other crocodiles.

The salties can reach enormous sizes. The largest one ever reliably measured was found in the Philippines and was just over 20 feet long and weighed almost 2,400 pounds. This model shows what it looked like:

What a Croc!

Crocs can get so big because they never stop growing as they age and they have no natural predators as adults - they are the apex predator in the river. There are anecdotal stories of 23-25 foot crocs in Northern Australia, but none has been verified. However, skeletal remains of croc heads indicate that there have been crocs larger than the 20-footer found in the Philippines.

Darwin's Gourmet Dining Scene

We returned to the dock about 5:30pm, just in time to depart on a walking tour of three local restaurants. The tour was designed to introduce us to some of the typical cuisines available here.

In a nod to the influence of Southeast Asian cooking on the "top end" of Australia, the first was a Vietnamese restaurant named Ruby. Here we enjoyed small plates of things like fried eggplant, duck salad, chicken salad, and some very tasty honey chicken wings.

Honey Chicken Wings

Fried Eggplant

We also had Bò lá lốt (baw LAH lot), made from minced or finely chopped beef, garlic, lemongrass, fish sauce, and spices wrapped in wild betel leaves then grilled over charcoal. This South Vietnamese specialty is especially savory because the betel leaf becomes smoky and aromatic when cooked. It was served with a small salad, vermicelli noodles and a dipping sauce (nuoc cham).

Bò lá lốt 

We also had this tasty salad made from what looked like Bok choy and spinach. 

Bok Choy?

I washed it all down with one of the oldest and best known Australian beers, Victoria Bitter, or VB. Because of the name, I expected a beer similar to the bitters I'd had in English pubs - cellar temperature (warm by American standards), amber color, low carbonation, malty taste, earthy hops, and balanced bitterness. 

Victoria Bitter

What I got was very good, but also very different. VB is a lager, not an ale. It is pale gold in color, has higher carbonation, tastes clean with a distinct hop edge, and is crisp and dry - no lingering maltiness. It’s engineered for hot weather and fast thirst-quenching. Early Australian brewers borrowed British terminology, but while the name “bitter” stayed, the beer style drifted. If a British pub drinker ordered a “bitter” and got VB, they’d be very confused.

We moved on to an upscale restaurant called Pepper Berry located in the local Hilton Hotel. It focuses more on traditional Australian fare. 

We started with fresh-made rolls served with olive oil and dukkah. Egyptian dukkah generally contains toasted nuts (hazelnuts or almonds), sesame seeds, coriander, cumin, and salt & pepper. Everything is crushed, not powdered — it stays coarse and textured. You dip bread in olive oil, then into the dukkah so it sticks.

What we had here was called Saltbush Dukkah. Saltbush is an Australian native herb with a salty, earthy flavor. Chefs often create modern regional dukkah variations using native herbs (saltbush, wattleseed), macadamias, and bush spices. So this was a fusion interpretation of the traditional Egyptian fare and it is very common in contemporary Australian restaurants.

Dinner Roll with Olive Oil and Dukkah

The first dish was cured (but raw) sliced mackerel served with nam jim sauce and fried onions. The fish is given a salt-sugar cure with citrus zest and spices. The nam jim sauce comes from Thailand, one of the Southeast Asian countries that heavily influences Northern Australia cuisine. The name literally means "dipping sauce" in Thai. I found the fish to be savory and slightly salty. The consistency was firm, but like sashimi.

Cured Mackerel with Nam Jim
Sauce and Fried Onions

The next plate was grilled loligo squid with saltbush, garlic, and citrus "bush" caviar. The squid is a normal squid - nothing exotic about the type. It was lightly cooked and savory. What set it apart was the bush caviar. It wasn't caviar in the normal sense (fish roe). Rather, it's the fruit of the finger lime, a native Australian citrus used by First Nations peoples for thousands of years. It is in little translucent balls, like fish eggs, hence the name.

The taste is intense, with sharp lime acidity and a slightly herbal flavor. Because the juice is trapped in little capsules, you get a clean, bright burst of citrus instead of liquid sourness. It's often used with seafood and cured fish.

Squid with Saltbush, Garlic, and "Bush Caviar"

The last dish was inherently Australian - Kangaroo filet. It was seasoned with quandong and star anise, and served with a pineapple chutney. Quandong is a tangy, native Australian fruit. It’s been a traditional bush food for thousands of years and is one of the best-known Indigenous Australian fruits.

I found the kangaroo to be extremely good - much like beef in both texture and taste. Best prepared rare or medium rare, if you served it to someone and told them it was beef, they'd likely believe you. There's no gamey taste at all, and the preparation here made it especially flavorful. I'd definitely eat it again.

Kangaroo Filet

Our last restaurant was located on the waterfront and was called Snapper Rocks. Again, the menu reflected local Australian creations. 

The main course was a whole snapper that had been very simply prepared. Seasoned and oiled lightly, it was then put into an extremely hot oven, similar to a pizza oven. In just three to four minutes it comes out perfectly cooked with a lovely char on the skin. The flesh is moist and tender but cooked through. Yum.

Oven Roasted Whole Snapper

The big surprise of the night was the crocodile. I was blown away by how good it was! I'd had alligator (marinated, skewered, and chargrilled) once in Florida. It tasted like rubbery, fishy chicken, and I didn't care for it at all. I was expecting something similar here.

Nothing prepared me for how tender and tasty this dish was. It was prepared like calamari - seasoned, breaded and deep fried. There was absolutely no fishy taste, and the texture was like a perfectly cooked shrimp - no rubbery sensation at all. Like the kangaroo, I'd definitely have this again. Simply amazing.

Fried Crocodile

We also had some roasted bits of cauliflower that they called popcorn cauliflower, along with some beans that I missed the name of. The tiny balls of cauliflower were seasoned in some sort of savory marinade and then flash roasted, probably in the same oven as the fish. It had a nice, smokey char to it yet the cauliflower was tender and cooked all the way through. The beans were very similar to green beans or haricot verts, lightly cooked so that they retained some crunchy firmness.

Popcorn Cauliflower

Overall, I was very happy with all the foods we tried. I felt like they gave a good cross section of the local cuisine and reflected the region's unique combination of Aboriginal, Southeast Asian, and European influences.

Street Art

While we walked between the restaurants, our guide showed us several large murals. Like most cities, graffiti artists like to "tag" any flat, vertical surface. In Darwin, the local government partnered with the arts community to sponsor an annual competition to give the taggers an outlet and show off this street art. Local building owners "donate" wall space. The graffiti artists submit proposals for each and a committee curates and selects certain artists to apply their magic to the donated walls. As a result, there's a wide variety of very striking and beautiful murals throughout the CBD. Here are a few examples:

This mural depicts the seven seasons that I described above, as recognized by the First Nations (Yolŋu) peoples.

This stop concluded our sojourn in Australia and New Zealand. The main thing I learned is that I need to come back and spend more time here. Australia, but especially New Zealand, have captured my interest and I want to return for a deeper dive into the culture and history of each. I'm already considering a couple of Road Scholar trips I could do back-to-back sometime in 2027 that would scratch that itch.

Well, that was a long and meaty post! The next several will probably be less detailed, because we have three consecutive stops in Indonesia without sea days in between. So, I won't have as much free time to write about them. But there should be plenty of interesting things to tell you about (including Komodo Dragons), so stay tuned!

Cheers,
Jim