Cloncurry

It’s hard to put a finger on why we loved Darwin so much - enough to look up real estate
sites. Sure there’s lots to offer for visitors but there are obvious social issues, increasing racism since the (confounding) failure of the referendum, and the services are few and far between. If you can afford it, the motto is “when in pain, get on a plane”. It has a rough and unpolished vibe and the humour comes straight from the 1970s. “CU in the NT” is a popular slogan and graphic designers have had a field day making the middle two words as small as possible. The population breakdown includes one third folk who were born overseas and one quarter First Nations folk. Even on a quick visit, it is immediately obvious that First Nations people have been treated very, very poorly here. There are glimmers of good news, for example the Larrakia Cultural Centre which is currently under development, but for the most part things seem pretty grim.

In one of M4rk’s random chats he was given some solid Northern Territory advice: where there are frogs, there are snakes. We haven’t seen any, despite keeping an eye out, but we’re sure they’re there. M4rk told the guy about the frog squawking outside our motel window and he said the only reason it’d be making that noise at that time was because a snake was carrying it away. That was not a comforting thought.

One of our highlights at the time, although I’m a little more dubious about it afterwards, was a cruise on the Adelaide river to see the saltwater crocs. These are the murderous ones, the freshwater crocs are rather more benign but will still bite you in you get in their way. The salties’ name is a bit misleading: they can live in saltwater but usually don’t. There were only seven of us booked on the 3pm cruise so our guides Damo and Shayno (seriously) took the small boat. “I don’t give out lifejackets”, said Damo, “because that would be pointless”. I’ll just give you a moment to think about that.

Franc1e thought Damo was downright fantastic but M0ses wasn’t at all sure about him at first. He called M0ses “mate” and Franc1e “kiddo” and despite his joking around, treated the kids beautifully, answering all of their questions with a frankness and respect that unfortunately is not universal. I was impressed.
With very little to go on, he even - accurately - clocked M0ses as a bit of a live wire and would only let him sit between me and M4rk. Much respect to Damo.

The crocs themselves are massive beasts with incredibly powerful jaws and bodies. Propelling most of their long bodies out of the water, without pushing off from the bottom, was an amazing display of strength that Franc1e has been trying to copy ever since. The tour guides knew all the crocs by name and had a fairly good idea of where they’d be lurking, so we got to see a few and they in return got a tasty chunk of chopped meat each for afternoon tea. Just as we were coming back into the jetty Damo heard M0ses say he wished we’d gone under the road bridge, a few hundred metres upstream. Sure, said Damo, we can do that for ya! Whaddaya reckon Shayno, are we gonna fit? He sped up and we blasted under the bridge just as a road train was blasting over, a thunderous racket, with both Damo and M0ses squealing with joy. A bond was forged.

We took a road trip out to Litchfield National Park one day, knowing there was an excessive heat warning and hoping for a cooling swim in the waterfalls there. If anything it was hotter than Darwin, the ground burning our bare feet in the short walk between the falls and the bench seat where we left our gear. We knew this was a patrolled spot with croc nets and a ranger on duty, so would be one of the safest natural bodies of water to swim in the whole NT. Then while we were in the water I overheard a dude saying this was his first time back at Wangi Falls “since the croc attack”. What the actual F!! I asked for details but he didn’t have any. Dear reader, believe me when I say we hopped out smartly and found some cell coverage for a quick Google. Yes indeed, an adult male saltie had managed evade all of the patrols, checks, nets and traps last year to hang out in this very pool and take a chunk out of a swimmer’s arm. The guy lived to tell the tale (the croc did not), and was offered the croc’s skull as a memento. Croc nets or not we will not be swimming in any NT rivers ever again.

The public water facilities went some way towards making up for the unswimmable beaches and rivers. There were two big splashpad type playgrounds in Darwin, both with hydro slides, and both free! The kids enjoyed both of them. One that we visited had two lifeguards on duty but only four children playing, a pretty good ratio we thought. Because they’re state-owned, the slides don’t open until 2pm so they don’t act as an incentive for kids to bunk school: sorry homeschoolers.

The Museum / Art Gallery was another free attraction that was really beautiful. We saw an exhibition of the finalists in the 2025 Aboriginal / Torres Strait Islander art awards, some of which were outstanding. The kids were interested in the wildlife displays too which named some of the animals we’d seen. “Woah” said M0ses, “some crab!” “Yes” I said, “radiant”. “Humble” he said. We’ve been listening to Charlotte’s Web.

I never thought about what happened to the boats of refugees who make it to Australian shores from Asia, but it turns out they get confiscated, and some get donated to this museum. The kids couldn’t believe people had crossed the sea in these rustic piles of holey timber. They found it unspeakably sad that people who have so little and have gone to such trouble to get here, should be immediately deprived of their biggest asset as well as returned to their starting-point, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Darwin is where we also got the very sad news that our friends’ little son, who was also a school friend of the kids’, had passed away, unexpectedly. Such a brave and funny kid who was dealt a shit hand health-wise but touched a lot of lives in his too-short time here. We really feel for his lovely parents. I had a wonderful dinner with his Mum and other friends (“real friends”, now there’s an inside joke) in Wellington a few weeks ago and know that we will always remember this as the before-times.Read more