Darwin; Part 1

The Ghan pulled into Darwin late afternoon on the Tuesday.( we had left Adelaide at lunchtime on the Sunday) Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory and was the only Aussie capital that DH and I had not visited.
We had a lovely view from our hotel...we had been told by friends who knew Darwin well, that the city has changed dramatically in the last 5 or so years with much building activity, especially in apartment blocks and hotels/resorts.

from the balcony we could see part of the harbour area...

On Wednesday we were booked on a day tour of a number of sites around the city. This is yet another Australian city with much military history, especially that of WW2. Darwin was heavily bombed by the Japanese with 64 documented air raids, resulting in destruction of public buildings, homes, fuel depots, ships in the harbour and deaths of civilians. During the war, and for decades after, the actual destruction and intensity of the bombing was downplayed. Unimaginable secrecy in light of today's media.

 

The first stop on our tour was war related...a look at the World War 2 oil tunnels. The bombing raids had targeted the fuel supplies in Darwin, so it was decided to drill out some tunnels in which to store fuel. Ironically, by the time the tunnels were completed, the war was over. But they have been used and then decommissioned and sat deteriorating, until the historical significance was realised and some restoration done.

The tunnel entrance had lots of items stored along the side; such items would never be allowed to be stored in walkways where the public have access,  in other parts of Australia...but Darwin is a laidback place!

There was a hold up in the project when the rock walls were found to be rather porous and soaked up the oil/fuel

 

It was a very interesting place! 

A crazy sculpture made from salvaged items...

More salvage from the harbour...

 

One of the tunnels is lined with information boards and video screens and DH and I really enjoyed reading all about the history...not only of the tunnels, and the war, but also history about peoples from Asia who would come by boat to trade with the local indigenous peoples, long before white settlement.

Photos showing the bombing of military fuel dumps...

 Wrecked ships in the harbour after Japanese bombing...

We found out that, like the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the first bombing of Darwin took everyone by surprise. Apparently the Japanese flew south (obviously no where near Darwin where there were personnel on watch for attack) towards Adelaide River and then turned north and attacked the city from the south.

Lots of buildings were destroyed and people killed...

And as I previously said, there were information boards on early visitors to the area who interacted peacefully with the Indigenous peoples. The Macassans ( from an area of modern day Indonesia) would come each year to catch and process trepan also known as beche-de-mer or sea cucumbers, a culinary delicacy and also of  medicinal use in their culture.
And the Chinese were also early visitors to the area...

I found the history presented in this attraction to be quite fascinating, but like most tours, we had a limited time here.
Despite large industrial fans along the tunnels, it became rather hot in there, so after a quick read of the boards, I was happy to make my way back to the bus ready to head off to our next stop.