Darwin Revisited

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink

Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed

Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when

Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known; cities of men

And manners, climates, councils, governments,

From ‘Ulysses’, Alfred, Lord Tennyson

South end of Mall facing Waterfront

Unlike Ulysses most people can rest from travel. However before the ‘rest from travel’ are the places on the journey which are strung together like beads on a string. These places often have nothing in common. It is as if the string of beads had been fashioned by a mad, wayward child - precious stones and bits of rubbish collected and randomly strung together.

Darwin is a bead on the string of my journey. It is a small complex nugget that changes with the light, the angle of vision, the seasons.

Australia’s northernmost city does not face north to Beagle Gulf and beyond to the Timor Sea. Situated on the end of a south facing peninsular Darwin is tucked into Darwin Harbour. The harbour is approximately 20 miles (32 kms) long with several deep arms branching from the main body. It is such a vast and complex environment that a twelve day fishing tour offered by a local company does not guarantee more than a taste of the area.

Twenty years ago the last journey through Darwin was to enter Australia with eight suitcases and two children, the noise of the crowded marketplaces of Asia still echoing in our minds. Beyond the airport perimeter Darwin lay sweltering and abandoned in the buildup to the Wet. As we exited the plane onto the tarmac, perspiration sprang from our pores. Within seconds we were saturated. The air was so thick each breath was like inhaling hot soup.

Public Art Darwin

Darwin during the Dry season is a different town. Darwin two decades later is also a different town. It still straggles around the peninsular, its multiracial inhabitants are still friendly and easygoing. But the city’s population has almost doubled. Taxi drivers are now long term residents, not geologists, anthropologists and archaeologists waiting for the next mining boom. And public art litters the sidewalks and parks. Like many northern Australian towns, time has been kind to Darwin, and tourism even kinder.

This is a town rich in history, with layers of occupation going back at least forty thousand years. It is a town that sits lightly on its foundations. The few remaining historic buildings have been rebuilt after the ravages of disease, wartime bombing and cyclones.

Darwin mall - criticised when it was first opened as being inappropriate for the climate, considered a
‘southern’, alien development - is crowded. People sip coffee al fresco, wander through the art and souvenir shops, photograph each other outside the historic Victoria hotel.

In 1888, Ellen Ryan, one of the richest people in the Northern Territory contracted a local builder to begin work on the North Australia Hotel . It’s name was changed six years after opening to the Victoria. The Vic Hotel was the first building in Darwin constructed from the local multi-coloured porcellanite stone. The hotel has survived several cyclones, the bombing of Darwin and rioting between occupying forces during the Second World War.

It has been a focal point for political and social activity throughout the past 120 years of history in the Territory. In 1908 the first motorists to cross Australia from south to north stayed at the Vic and in 1915 with political turmoil and union unrest threatening what eventually culminated in the Darwin Rebellion, the Vic and several other hotels were ‘nationalised’ by the Northern Territory Administrator.

Darwin Mall

In 1920 Ellen Ryan sold the hotel to Christina Gordon who turned it into a first class hotel and required men to wear jackets in the dining room. As air routes between Australia and the Northern Hemisphere developed the Vic hosted most of those involved. In 1919 pilots from the England to Australia air race stayed there as did those that followed during the pioneering days of air travel.

During the Second World War United States and Australian naval personnel stayed at the hotel, which was damaged during riots by troops stationed in Darwin in 1941.

On 19 February 1942 the same Japanese fleet that bombed Pearl Harbour in Hawaii bombed Darwin. More bombs were dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbour and at least 243 people were killed and the entire town damaged. Further bombing on the town continued but the Victoria Hotel suffered little damage.

In 1946 the hotel was sold to the Lim family who operated it until 1965. During that period crocodile shooters, buffalo hunters and mining prospectors took over as the main customers of the hotel.

On Christmas Day 1974 the hotel lost its roof for the third time to the third major cyclone in the hotel’s history when Cyclone Tracey destroyed or damaged 95% of the city and killed 71 people.

As the entire town had to be rebuilt after Tracey it was four years before the Vic was reopened.

Victoria Hotel Darwin

Today the hotel hosts many of the huge numbers of tourists who have discovered the Top End over the past decade.

From the Vic in the mall it is a short walk to The Esplanade.

On the walk to The Esplanade a visit to Lyons Cottage is a pleasant diversion. Built in 1925 it was originally home to the company engineer of the Eastern Extension Australasian and China Telegraph Company Ltd. This company was the successor to the British Australian Telegraph Company (BAT) and laid cable between Australia and Java.

Lyons Cottage was built in stone – a wise decision in a white ant infested and cyclone prone area.

Today it displays historical photos of Darwin and houses an Aboriginal crafts association that sells handicrafts from around the region.

The quality and beauty of the items on sale evoke a surge of regret at the very small bag that, of necessity, accompanies me on this trip.

Mementoes of Aviation Link to Victoria Hotel Darwin

The professionalism of the staff, their open friendly manner are a wonderful welcome back to the area.

Memories of stays in Darwin over several years flood back as I walk down to the refurbished Esplanade.

Right along the Esplanade from Knuckey Street and the Novotel Atrium hotel is a block away. The clear sky and the sparkling water of the harbour are overlaid by memories of watching from the then Atrium Hotel huge thunderheads sweep across the harbour. They heralded violent thunderstorms that culminated in evening lightning displays that seemed to crack the night apart. Below, along the beach, crocodiles were reported to sun themselves or go for forays into the harbour.

Today the number of people using the beach and park area would not encourage any crocodile save the most foolhardy to slide up onto the beach.

On the point, bounded by Herbert Street and Harry Chan Avenue are places that have been the site of events that changed the course of history of the area.

Lyons Cottage Darwin

In 1869 Charles Darwin had become an unpopular figure in England and when George Goyder, Surveyor-General of the Colony of South Australia, arrived in a coastal barque to establish a new settlement he re- named the area "Palmerston", after that great believer in gunboat diplomacy and forced Irish emigration, the then late Lord Palmerston.

Fortunately for all, except of course the 500 Larrakia people who were displaced by Goyder when he established the site of the settlement, in 1911 the town reverted to the name of Darwin.

Observer
24 November 2010

Longlines - http://longline8.blogspot.com/

Email: longline8@gmail.com
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/longlinesBlog