Post Day 1 – Friday 23 August
Darwin – WW2 Land and Sea Tour
This morning we were up at 6am and drove to Doctors
Gully for a tour of Darwin – WW2 by Land and Sea with tour guide Betty. Doctors
Gully was the Catalina Flying Boat Base during WW2 and the area where the ramp was
is now used for fish feeding. This began during WW2 when soldiers through their
scraps into the water.
https://seadarwin.com/darwin-tours/australias-frontline-wwii/
Other interesting things I learnt:
- · A submarine attack was planned prior to the bombing
of Darwin
- · More bombs were dropped on Darwin than Pearl
Harbour
- · Bombers flew in from the southeast, ie over the
land rather than from over the sea
- · Darwin is only 12 degrees south of the equator and
450km from the nearest Indonesian island
- · Large numbers of Dutch military evacuated from the
Dutch East Indies were based in Darwin during WW2 as well as the Australians
and Americans
- · Japanese pearl divers had frequented the northern
coastline of Australia for many years and were able to provide a lot of
intelligence to Japan during WW2
- · The indigenous inhabitants had a large number of
fresh water wells
- · The seats along the esplanade in Darwin are designed
to look like antiaircraft guns as the esplanade had many during WW2
- · The pillars on Parliament House are designed to
look like the fins of bombs falling toward Darwin
- · Fujita scrap metal removed the top of four ships
from the shipping channel as an act of reconciliation and donated crosses made
from these to the Uniting Church (they are on the end of each pew)
During this tour we visited Survivors Lookout,
the ammunition store bunker at Charles Darwin National Park and (East Point) Darwin Military Museum, finishing with a boat ride through the harbour viewing Darwin
from the water.
The Government house is beside Survivor’s
Lookout and looks serene from the outside.
It has survived the WW2 bombing of Darwin as well as multiple cyclones,
including Cyclone Tracy. At Charles Darwin National Park an ammunition storage
shelter has been fitted out with a great deal of information on WW2 specifically
as well as munitions and their storage and movement more generally. Overall, this was a good informative tour, even though we have
been to some of these places before we learnt new things and gained a new
perspective.
https://placesofpride.awm.gov.au/memorials/267512
https://northernterritory.com/darwin-and-surrounds/see-and-do/government-house-darwin
https://nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/200065/charles-darwin-national-park.pdf
https://northernterritory.com/darwin-and-surrounds/see-and-do/darwin-military-museum
Charles Darwin NP Ammunition Store
Harbour Cruise
 |
| Float from Anti-Submarine Boom Net |
We then headed back to the caravan park for
lunch and to wash our hiking gear and sort out some of our things. As we didn’t have any pegs, we have draped
washing all around the inside of our tent and vehicle.
https://stmaryscathedral.com.au/
We visited the Darwin Memorial Uniting Church and looked in the windows at the crosses made of salvaged metal from ships sunk in Darwin harbour.
https://dmuc.unitingchurch.org.au/
I admired some of the old stone buildings and saw where the original overland telegraph made land in Darwin to begin its long journey south, just across from Survivor’s Lookout. We returned to the car via the ever-beautiful Esplanade.
For dinner we headed to Palmerston Markets. These had a lot of the same vendors as at the Mindil Beach markets and the decision was almost as difficult as last night. In the end we opted for Vegetable Noodles with Honey Chicken, Chicken and Cashew and Salt and Pepper Squid.
https://www.palmerstonmarkets.org.au/
Last up, a swim to cool off before bed.
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