Darwin WW2 Land and Sea Tour - Jatbula Trip

 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/

https://www.enjoy-darwin.com/doctors-gully.html

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://northernterritory.com/darwin-and-surrounds/see-and-do/wwii-raaf-explosive-storage-area-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

Darwin Military Museum

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.

The afternoon was spent exploring Darwin and visiting some of the places from this morning to spend a little more time. We took a walk through the rainforest and along the shoreline at Doctor’s Gully. 

St Mary’s Star of the Sea Cathedral was our nextspot – to admire the stained glass.  This was both traditional religious themed as well as acknowledging all the individual military corps of both Australia and United States of America.  

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.

QANTAS Founders Museum, Longreach

Tuesday 9 July 2019 – 267 681

QANTAS Founders Museum was today’s destination. https://qfom.com.au/ It was again a very full day with an enormous amount of information available.  We started in the museum part.  Hayden loved the flight simulator and even managed to master take off and landing.  We did a jet tour, which included an external look at a DC-3, internal and external detailed tour of a Boeing 747, and of a Boeing 707 that had been kitted out like a luxury yacht.

The original 1920’s QANTAS hangar is still in place at the museum (which is not surprisingly at the Longreach Airport).  After exploring this we returned to the museum to explore some more.  Five new things I learnt today

•         There was a system of lights (rotating beacon style) on the top of a windmill style frame between Cloncurry and Longreach to enable night flying
•         QANTAS was the first airline outside the United States to order a Boeing jet aircraft
•         The first paying passenger was 84 years old and had undertaken the same trip by bullock wagon when younger
•         QANTAS built their own planes under license from De Haviland for a period
•         The Boeing 707 on display had been sitting idle in a field in England and was completely restored before being flown to Australia.  It took approximately 15 000 volunteer man hours to achieve

Mullers Lagoon and Bowen Foreshore

Thursday 4 July 2019 – 266 514

The wind picked up significantly overnight, so we decided to try Murray Bay for snorkelling this morning as it is well protected.  This was quite different to Rose and Horseshoe Bays – rockier, less coral, but still interesting.  Both Hayden and I are improving as snorkellers.

After hot showers to warm up, we headed out to investigate the jetty.  Walking out was tough as the wind was so strong.  There were several kite surfers out enjoying the wind.  On the foreshore was an exhibit regarding the filming of “Australia” in which Bowen foreshore was transformed into Darwin of the 1940’s.

Next up was Muller’s Lagoon, a large man-made lake in the centre of Bowen which is home to thousands of birds.  We saw pelicans, darters, little pied cormorant, little black cormorant, plumed whistling duck, dusky moorhen, purple swamphen, black-winged stilt, whistling kite and black kite; as well as others.

After lunch we went to the Bowen Aerodrome to see the Coral Sea Museum.  This is small but has been lovingly done.  There is a model of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington which sank in the Coral Sea; dioramas of the Bowen Catalina Flying Boat Base and also of the sites where Catalinas had crashed near Bowen.

We then had a short walk around Grays Bay, however it was cold and rainy so we headed back to the van to read our books.

Views around Bowen and the Catalina Flying Boats

Wednesday 3 July 2019 – 266 475

This morning I explored the general Bowen area by going for a run.  I met the boys at Horseshoe Bay and had another snorkel. 

https://www.queensland.com/en-au/attraction/horseshoe-bay-bowen

This time I treated the inside of my snorkel mask with baby shampoo and it didn’t fog.  I was able to see so much more of the coral and heaps of fish.  I saw Pacific Blue Eyes, fish with black and white stripes; white, yellow and blue fish.

In the afternoon we went exploring and looking at views – Yasso Point (mouth of Don River), Mt Nutt lookout (great views, including over the mango orchards) and then the top of Bowen Hill to look at the fantastic murals on the water tanks.  We the explored the business district and looked at the many, well done, murals.

COOL FENCE

On the waterfront at Port Denison there is a display regarding the Catalina Flying Boats that were stationed here during WW2.  The hardstand remains, and the stencils of two aircraft are painted on it, giving their size.  They had a bigger wingspan than I had realised and had a flying range of over 4000km.  The information display is cleverly done so that you can look through it to the water and hardstand beyond, giving the illusion that the aircraft are actually present.

Last stop for the day was Flagstaff Hill – this again gives great views, including North Head Lighthouse and its low tide path from the mainland, Gloucester Island and Gloucester Point, as well as out across the ocean.