DARWIN –

CAPITAL OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY

“SWEATIEST CITY IN AUSTRALIA”

Saturday, February 22, 2025, Temperature 77 Degrees, Humidity 100%, W – S at 2.3 mph

It’s the combination of temperature and humidity that gets you in Darwin! The weather facts at the beginning of the blogs are misleading, those are temperatures first thing in the morning, usually 5:30 – 6:00 AM. By the middle of the day, it was 94 degrees, 100% humidity and a heat index of 104 degrees, even hotter later. Darwin has a tropical climate with wet and dry seasons – we visited during the peak of summer rain and heat although we were treated to a sunny, rainless day. Unlike the dry heat in a desert area, this is hot and humid! We knew a lot of our Cruise would be in hot humid climates and the Captain says this is what we can expect for the next month!

Darwin is named after British naturalist Charles Darwin, although he never actually stepped foot there. In September 1839, Captain John Wickham and his ship, The Beagle, sailed into what he named Darwin Harbour, after his shipmate, Charles Darwin who had left the ship the previous year.

Darwin was John’s favorite city in Australia – except for the heat! It’s small with a population of 145,000 (53% of the Northern Territory’s population) and offers lots of history, cultural and recreational activities – but look out for the Crocs and the Stingers (stingrays). Lifeguards’ checkout the swimming lagoons for Crocs every morning and Stinger Nets work to keep the stingers out during the stingray season (Oct. 1 – May 31). There are more Crocodiles in Darwin than people.

Darwin is a resilient city. It has been rebuilt three times – once after WW II, after a Christmas cyclone destroyed 70% of the commercial buildings and 80% of the homes in 1974, and March 2008, when 47,000 people were left homeless.

Deja vu - Pearl Harbor – It had been the 83rdanniversary of the bombing on Darwin by the Japanese only three days before we arrived there. Some of the pavilions and bleachers for the commemorative ceremonies were still in place. Approximately two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy attacked Darwin Harbor. Same Admiral, same carrier, same task force, same ignored warning, same result. On February 19, 1942, Darwin was attacked by 242 Japanese planes coming in two waves. It was the largest single raid on Australia. More bombs were dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbor. Spotters saw the planes and reported them, but they were dismissed as American planes, then the bombs started falling. When the American planes did come, many were mistakenly shot down, as Japanese. Like Pearl Harbor, many ships, civilian and military, were sunk in the Harbour. After the war, most of the wrecks were salvaged from the Harbour (ironically by a Japanese salvage company) but one remains – the USS Peary which went down with 93 souls’ board. Darwin citizens had made preparation for the war they saw coming. After Pearl Harbor, many people migrated from Darwin. Many military and government officials sent their families away. The Japanese bombed Darwin 64 times between 1942 and November 1943.

The development of air services in 1930’s and it’s use as a fueling and military base in WW II stimulated Darwin’s development. Even today many street names, roads (former runways) and buildings reflect its importance in WW II when it went from a population of 10,000 to 110,000 when military personnel were based in Darwin and nearby areas.

We visited the Darwin Military Museum to learn more about the Defense of Darwin and Darwin’s importance in WW II. One of our favorite memorials, the one to Gunner, the dog who would bark and alert the pilots when Japanese planes were coming.