November 2004
My final visit to Australia was to the rarely visited "top end". We were exploring Kakadu National Park and other famous places in the Northern Territory. Our international flight took us to Darwin first - a place we knew next to nothing about.
Fact Number One:
The Bombing of Darwin, also known as the Battle of Darwin, on 19 February 1942 was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. On that day, 242 Japanese aircraft, in two separate raids, attacked the town, ships in Darwin's harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasion of Timor and Java during World War II. Darwin was lightly defended relative to the size of the attack, and the Japanese inflicted heavy losses upon Allied forces at little cost to themselves. The urban areas of Darwin also suffered some damage from the raids and there were a number of civilian casualties. More than half of Darwin's civilian population left the area permanently, before or immediately after the attack.
To this day, few people know that the Japanese bombed mainland Australia because the bombing of Pearl Harbor overshadowed everything else. In fact, the myth persists that the Australian government "covered up" the bombing:
A frequently repeated myth is that the Australian government downplayed the damage from the bombing raids on Darwin, in a "cover-up". The newspapers of the day disprove this claim. On the day of the attack the prime minister is quoted on the front pages of most newspapers: "Damage to property was considerable", he said, "but reports so far to hand do not give precise particulars about the loss of life." "The Government regards the attacks as most grave, and makes it quite clear that a severe blow has been struck on Australian soil."
(Wikipedia)
Most importantly, Darwin was damaged and many people moved away. That was no "myth". Darwin did recover and rebuilt.
Fact Number Two:
Around Christmas 1974, Cyclone Tracy nearly wiped Darwin from the face of the earth:
Tracy killed 71 people, caused A$837 million in damage (1974 dollars), or approximately A$7.2 billion (2022 dollars), or US$5.2 billion (2022 dollars). It destroyed more than 70 percent of Darwin's buildings, including 80 percent of houses. It left more than 25,000 out of the 47,000 inhabitants of the city homeless prior to landfall and required the evacuation of over 30,000 people, of whom many never returned. After the storm passed, the city was rebuilt using more stringent standards "to cyclone code". The storm is the second-smallest tropical cyclone on record (in terms of gale-force wind diameter), behind only Tropical Storm Marco in 2008.
(Wikipedia)
At anything, Darwin was a plucky little Australian city - bombed and cycloned, it still persisted!
Darwin was much smaller than any other Australian city we had visited. Between WWII and Cyclone Tracy, there simply was not a lot of "old" (even for Australia) Darwin to see. The downtown was extremely unremarkable. Luckily, we heard that Cullen Bay was nice so we made our way out there. The marina and surroundings were modern, and very beautifully laid out. Lots of yachts bobbing in the harbor and a bevy of great seafood restaurants overlooking them - it was our favorite part of Darwin.
One note on seafood in Australia - it is fantastic! Not only do Australians excel at preparing fresh seafood (especially grilled and barbequed), but they also serve up fish and crustaceans that exist nowhere else (e.g., "bugs" - even better than lobster). We had two seafood meals in Darwin and they were both amazing. I would say that Darwin and Roxas City, Philippines [see: Roxas City] might have some of the best seafood I have ever eaten anywhere!
Brian and I hadn't budgeted much time for Darwin and soon were on our way east. Kakadu awaited. [see: Arnhem Land] I could have eaten one more seafood meal though....