Day 84

Day 84 Darwin

Big day today. We started off with a walking tour of Darwin with a lovely lady Pearl. Pearl has been

The Beast is introduced to Pearl

200 Interesting Dawinians

in Darwin for some time and knows a lot of the history of Darwin with a focus on the social side rather than the war history. We started off at the Mantra Hotel and whilst Maureen went in to let them know we were there, I unleashed the Beast from Trude. The tour company had redesigned the tour with me in mind as they usually had people more physically fit and walkers. Pearl had done a great job and we

Spot where the bomb fell onn the Post Office

The Beast inn Parliment House

headed off down the park. Darwin was established in the 1870’s after a guy by the name of Goyder was given the job by South Australia who had been given control of the Northern Territory. Goyder was told to map out a number of towns in the north as they were keen to open the area up for trade and farming. Goyder planned out Darwin like Adelaide with regimented

Parliment House

Liberty Square - Rebellion Plaque

roads and grid layout. They also established towns around the area but they failed, mainly due to the lack of water. Darwin had a number of springs right on the coast and this was what made it successful.

Once the town was started in 1880, they sent in a lot of Chinese workers who dug out more wells and established secure water supplies. The town took off with a

Governor's House

Old church Facade

number of areas such as pearling, farming and trade facilities and a harbour. We walked down the foreshore area and she pointed out a number of features. Pearl has this fascination with where the stone came from for different buildings and I could sympathise with her as she struggles to find records of who built what so she can find these details out. One thing they did do for the Bicentenary was they put together little tiles of 200 interesting Darwinians. They have them set out in groups around the park.

Submarine in town

USS Piery Gun

There are some buets like Roger Jose (eccentric)!

We went for a tour of Parliament House and it has this huge hall on the ground floor and the airconditioning was perfect. The guards were excellent and they have a special door for disabled people and I was taken in there. The other two looked a bit shifty so they had to go through the scanners, but I was looking innocent as usual and I got let through. We had a look at a section of the original Post Office wall that was bombed on the first raid. They saved a section of the wall and rebuilt it. Just out side is a plaque commemorating the rebellion that occurred here in 1918. There were extreme shortages of grain so

Gun points to USS Piery just to stern of ship Little bouy marks it

the government of Australia decided to ration beer and shorten the opening hours of the pubs. Well they went ballistic up here and rebelled and stormed the Governor’s house!

From Parliament House we moved into the town where we visited a number of old buildings such as the Star Theatre, the Palmerston Town Hall and an old church. Pearl did an excellent job and we ended at her hairdresser as Maureen had commented on her hair and wanted hers cut and did she recommend her. So she dropped in and made an appointment for 12. As it was after 11 we said our goodbyes to Pearl and decided to have an early lunch and then I would see if I coud get a massage whilst Maureen had her locks looked at. We had our lunch at the Victoria Hotel, one of the old buildings pointed out to us, and then Maureen went to the hair dresser. I went over the mall and booked in for a massage but I had to wait 45 minutes. So back on the Beast and I went back to the foreshore.both tours had mentioned the gun from the USS Piery so I decided to see if I could find it. I went along the foreshore which has a wonderful park and found the the gun. As I mentioned earlier, the USS Piery went down during the first raid with this very gun firing until it went under. It had been retrieved and now points towards where the wreck lies about 400m offshore. I took some pictures and noticed that there was a submarine anchored in the harbour. It was too far out to get a good look at it. I then wandered back for my massage and to find Maureen so we could go home.

We came back from town and it was stinking hot, so off to the pool and we went for a dip. We went back to Girt and got dressed for dinner. Our old friends Tony and Julie Snelling had invited us to their place. Tony is the CEO of Surf Life Saving NT and Julie looks after training and also manages the Kiosk at the wave agoon. Their son Trevor is a manger of the lifeguards there as well.dinner was fantastic and it was good to catch up with them. They had just returned from a holiday in Hong Kong, in fact the flew in at 5:30 that morning and Tony was flying out for Sydney the following day. Between the three of them, Tony, Julie and Trevor, they did an excellent job. we chatted for hours and it was soon after midnight before we left. A wonderful night with great friends. They have this apartment that overlooks the harbour and there was a lovely lightning show put on just for us I am sure.