DISCOVER DARWIN, Australia
Darwin is the territorial capital and most populous city of Australia's Northern Territory, located on Australia's far northern coastline.
Darwin has the largest proportional population of Indigenous Australians of any Australian capital city, and a significant percentage of its residents are recent immigrants from South East Asia.
As such, Darwin is often called the "multicultural capital of Australia" due to its additional mix of racial and cultural groups, including Timorese, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Papuans, Northern Europeans, Greeks and Italians, as well as residents of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish descent.
Darwin is an important port, particularly for the live export of cattle, minerals and gas. It is also the site of a large Australian Army base and a naval facility supporting patrol boat activity off Australia's northern coastline.
Darwin has a tropical climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. The dry season runs from May to September (the southern hemisphere winter), during which nearly every day is warm and sunny, and afternoon humidity averages under 50% and there is usually no rainfall from June to September. In the coolest months of June and July, the daily minimum temperature may dip as low as 15°C (59°F).
The wet season is associated with tropical cyclones and monsoon rains. The majority of rainfall occurs between December and April (the southern hemisphere summer) when thunderstorms are common and afternoon relative humidity averages over 70% during the wettest months. It does not rain every day during the wet season, but most days are hot with plentiful cloud cover with sunny intervals.
The hottest month is November, just before the onset of the rainy season.
 CULTURE OF DARWIN
Darwin is known as the "Gateway to Asia," and the city's population is very multicultural. Seventy-five nationalities are represented in Darwin, and nearly a quarter of the population self-identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. The city is especially proud of the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, which are held twice a week during the dry season, and could probably be said to be the finest example of Darwin's multiculturalism.
On July 1, Territorians celebrate Territory Day. This is the only day of the year, apart from the Chinese New Year, when fireworks are permitted. In Darwin, the main celebrations occur at Mindil Beach, where a large pyrotechnical display is commissioned by the government.
The Darwin Festival, held annually, includes comedy, dance, theatre, music, film and visual art and the NT Indigenous Music Awards. Other festivals include the Glenti, which showcases Darwin's large Greek community at its most colourful, and India@Mindil, a similar festival held by the smaller Indian community. The Chinese New Year is also celebrated with great festivity, highlighting the Asian influence in Darwin.
Darwin's Mitchell Street is lined with nightclubs, takeaways, and restaurants, many with al fresco-style dining. This is the entertainment hub of the city.
The Darwin beer-can regatta, held in August, celebrates Darwin's love affair with beer and contestants' race boats made exclusively of beer cans. Also in Darwin during the month of August, are the Darwin Cup horse race, and the Rodeo and Mud Crab Tying Competition.
In the past, Darwin suffered - or perhaps revelled in - a reputation as an unsophisticated hard-drinking town, backed up by some of the highest per-capita alcohol consumption rates in Australia. These days, with a less transient population, Darwin is represented more appropriately by its multiculturalism and as an adventure tourism destination, although some people 'from down south' (i.e. all other states and territories) may continue to view it as the stereotypical 'frontier town'.
Darwin is also home to the Indo-Pacific Marine & Australian Pearling Exhibition, which houses an aquarium complete with living coral, and its complementary sea life.
The Museum of the Northern Territory in Darwin gives an excellent overview of the history of the area, including exhibits on Cyclone Tracy and the boats of the Pacific Islands.
The city has many miles of unpolluted beaches, including the Casuarina Beach and well renowned Mindil Beach, home of the Mindil Beach markets. The Casuarina Beach also offers a designated nuidst beach area since 1976.
Swimming in the sea during the months of October - May should be approached with caution due to the presence of Box jellyfish.
SPORTS IN DARWIN
Every two years since 1991 (excluding 2003 due to the SARS outbreak), Darwin has played host to the Arafura Games, a major regional sporting event. In July 2003 and 2004, Darwin had the first cricket match as part of the 3 Mobile cricket tour.
Australian-rules football and rugby league are played all year round. Melbourne's Western Bulldogs Australian Football League side plays several 'home' games at Marrara Oval each year. The ATSIC Aboriginal All-Stars also participate in the AFL pre-season competition. In 2003, a record crowd of 17,500 attended a pre-season game between the All-Stars and Carlton Football Club at Marrara Oval.
One of the major events that occurs in Darwin is the V8 Supercars. This event attracts thousands of locals, interstaters and international tourists. This event occurs in the mid-year period and lasts 3 days.
Darwin also has a horse racing cup carnival that starts in the last week of June and goes through to August. While it is not as popular as the Melbourne Cup, it does draw a crowd and, in 2003, Sky Racing began televising most of the races.
DARWIN BEER CAN REGATTA
The Darwin Beer Can Regatta is an event which has been held annually since 1974 in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia at Mindil Beach.
Participants create boats using empty beer cans. They then are tested for seaworthiness. There are a great many sundry events that go along with the regatta, including concerts, a thong-throwing contest, and the "Henley-on-Mindil" (Named after the Henley-on-Todd Regatta), where participants run their "boats" around like Flintstones cars.
The Darwin Stubbie seems to be the beer bottle of choice for this festival, and it reigns as the largest "stubbie" of beer in the world at 75 ounces, or roughly 1.25 litres.
HISTORY OF DARWIN
The first people to have inhabited this area are the Larrakia people, Indigenous Australians whose country traditionally included present-day rural and urban Darwin and Darwin Harbour. They have lived in this area for possibly 40,000 years, and continue to do so today.
The Larrakia had trading routes with Southeast Asia, and imported goods from as far afield as South and Western Australia. Established 'songlines' penetrated throughout the country, allowing stories and histories to be told and retold along the routes.
The Dutch visited Australia's northern coastline in the 1600s, and created the first European maps of the area, hence Dutch names such as Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt which still bears the original old dutch spelling for "great island".
The first British person to sight Darwin's harbour appears to have been Lieutenant John Lort Stokes of HMS Beagle in 1839. The ship's captain, Commander John Clements Wickham, named the port after Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who had sailed with them both on the earlier second expedition of the Beagle.
The Northern Territory was initially settled and administered by South Australia, until its transfer to the Commonwealth in 1911. On 5 February 1869, George Goyder, the Surveyor-General of South Australia, established a small settlement of 135 men and women at Port Darwin. Goyder named the settlement Palmerston, after the British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston.
In 1870, the first poles for the Overland Telegraph were erected in Darwin connecting Australia to the rest of the world. The discovery of gold at Pine Creek in the 1880s further boosted the young colony's development. Upon Commonwealth administration in 1911, Darwin became the city's official name.
On 19 February 1942 at 0957, during the Pacific War, 183 Japanese warplanes attacked Darwin in two waves. It was the same fleet that had bombed Pearl Harbour, though a considerably larger number of bombs were dropped on Darwin, than on Pearl Harbor. The attack killed at least 243 people and caused immense damage to the town. These were by far the most serious attacks on Australia in time of war, in terms of fatalities and damage. They were the first of many raids on Darwin.
On Australia Day (26 January) 1959, Darwin was granted city status.
Darwin was largely destroyed on 25 December 1974 by Cyclone Tracy, which killed 50 people and destroyed over 70% of the town's buildings, including many old stone buildings such as the Palmerston Town Hall, which could not withstand the lateral forces generated by the strong winds. After the disaster, an airlift evacuated 30,000 people. The town was subsequently rebuilt with newer materials and techniques during the late 1970s by the Darwin Reconstruction Commission. A satellite city of Palmerston was built 20 km south of Darwin in the early 1980s.
On 17 September 2003, the Adelaide-Darwin Railway was completed.
From Wikipedia
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Sailboat at Mindil Beach Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
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