DAY 23 & 24 – Darwin

Good Morning Darwin!
 
Friday
Low 24°c (75°F) – High 33°c (91°F)
35km
 
Saturday
Low 24°c (75°F) – High 23°c (90°F)
70km
 
The location of our caravan park is at Howard Springs which is 29km (18 mi) south-east of the Darwin CBD.  An accommodation facility named Manigurr-ma Village was built at Howard Springs in 2012 by Japanese energy company Inpex to accommodate up to 3500 FIFO construction workers on the Ichthys LNG gas plant.  The facility was closed and abandoned in 2018.  From early 2020, the abandoned accommodation facility became a quarantine facility for people returning to Australia from areas infected with COVID-19, initially on 9 February 2020 from Wuhan.  The facility was run by the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT). Later in 2020, the facility was a quarantine facility for people arriving from Victoria (the poxy people that we were at that time during our second lockdown).
 
From mid-October 2020 the facility was referred to as the Center for National Resilience (because names are everything LOL), in anticipation of an agreement between the Northern Territory and Federal Governments for use of the camp for that purpose. From late October 2020, the facility was used for repatriating Australians from Europe and India and from May 2021, the NT Government began to gradually take over all operations from AUSMAT.
 
Following the recommendations of a national review of hotel quarantine for a national quarantine centre, the commissioning of Howard Springs prompted demands for other quarantine facilities, which based on the Howard Springs model were approved to proceed for construction at Mickleham in Victoria, Jandakot in Western Australia, and Pinkinba in Queensland - all modeled on the Howard Springs camp on the basis of its success in avoiding leaks of the virus.
 
On Friday we took a quick drive past the centre but there wasn’t much to be seen from the road.  The rest of the day was a little bit of shopping and a bit more of a drive around the area so as it turned out not many photos taken in the process.
 
Saturday morning we both over slept after waking several times in the night due to the heat.  Today’s forecast included 100% humidity which I have to say I was NOT looking forward to, but as it turned out it wasn’t that bad for most of the day, although these long hot days and nights have really taken their toll on both Kitty and myself and in the course of the day I also developed a headache and some pain around the top of my shoulders and neck.
 
I was after a few souvenirs of our outback stays so far and so this morning we ventured into the city where Shane stayed with Kitty in the cool air-conditioned car while I hit the mall in Darwin City.  On previous trips there were a number of places to look through but evidently with the compound effect of Covid, no tourism and rising rental costs, some of the stores remain closed.  I did have a lovely chat with a man who I remembered from our previous trips who told a sobering tale of the past 3 years including the fact that they can no longer get much of their stock without ordering and paying months in advance of receiving it making it difficult for some stores to re-open.
 
I must admit, aside from the heat and humidity, I do really like Darwin – Shane on the other hand would move here in a heartbeat regardless of the heat, humidity and cyclones.  It’s a very clean city, very green with garden beds everywhere throughout the streets and has a really nice vibe to it.  I also love that the pedestrian crossings actually count down to let you know how many seconds you have left to cross the road.  Lots of bars and restaurants, cafes etc, and it isn’t as “high-rise” as many cities which, coupled with the fact that in 2016 its population registered almost half that of Geelong just an hour down the road from us in Colac, I guess gives it less of a big city feel despite being the capital of the Northern Territory.
 
Until 2015 there was a 90-metre limit on building heights in Darwin's city centre with the restriction in place previously because of the Australian Defence Force's concerns about tall buildings in Darwin interfering with aircraft taking off from the nearby Air Force base.  Part of the reason why it looks so fresh is the city has been almost entirely rebuilt four times, following devastation caused by the 1897 cyclone, the 1937 cyclone, Japanese air raids during World War II, and Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
 
Around 10,000 Australian and other Allied troops arrived in Darwin at the outset of World War II, to defend Australia's northern coastline. On 19 February 1942 at 0957, 188 Japanese warplanes attacked Darwin in two waves. It was the same fleet that had bombed Pearl Harbor, though a considerably larger number of bombs were dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbor. The attack killed at least 243 people and caused immense damage to the town, airfields, and aircraft. These were by far the most serious attacks on Australia in time of war, in terms of fatalities and damage. They were the first of many raids on Darwin.
 
On Christmas Day 1974, Darwin was struck by Cyclone Tracy, which killed 71 people and destroyed over 70% of the city's buildings, including many old stone buildings such as the Palmerston Town Hall, which could not withstand the lateral forces generated by the strong winds. In the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, the Australian Bureau of Statistics produced estimates of the population of Darwin, showing an overall decrease from about 48,000 people in June 1974 to 12,000 in January 1975 and 22,000 in February 1975. These estimates included very high numbers of ‘visitors’ (people intending to stay less than twelve months), with the ‘resident’ population estimated at just 3,500 in January and 5,400 in February. Approximately 30,000 people were evacuated in what turned out to be the biggest airlift in Australia's history. 
 
As you make your way about the city, you notice a lot of orange scooters both randomly parked in some odd locations as well as a few scooter ranks.  These scooters are a trial by the Darwin City Council in conjunction with the provider and run off an app that allows the rider to both locate and operate the scooters as well as for the provider to find them.  They are limited to operation within Darwin city and a few immediate surrounding areas including the Mindil Markets and Museum.  Apparently the trial is proving to be very successful and judging by the number of them that we have seen in operation it would appear people have embraced the idea as a handy form of transport.  Not sure Kitty would be up for it though!
 
Another striking feature throughout the city is the various murals, a few with indigenous designs and others just representing what makes Darwin, Darwin.  We finished up the day’s outing with a drive north of the city looking at some of the gorgeous houses and their gardens (secretly drooling really – how I would LOVE a tropical garden at home).
 
Meanwhile back at camp a group of young peacocks were practicing their womanizing tactics (neither the Ibis’s aka “Bin Chickens” nor their father seemed the least bit impressed) and a bit later in the evening there was some thunder in the area that thankfully didn’t amount to anything.