Some 50 years ago, a man who lived right on the harbour at Doctor’s Gully began to feed the fish at high tide. Over time, more and more fish came for the treat, including many that would never be so close to shore. This private residence now makes a tidy earner from allowing the public to feed the thousands of fish that swim in at high tide each day. It’s quite a Darwin institution. The boys loved it. There were Green Milkfish, Catfish, Black Mullet, Toad fish (fat ones) and a big Potato Cod.

Can’t do a townie session and not get some historical education, so off we went to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. They had an excellent display about Cyclone Tracy.

The before and after photos told the story, and they also have a special “sound” room where you can hear an actual recording of the wind noise during the cyclone. I can still remember hearing the news of this disaster on Christmas Day in 1974. To see Darwin today, it’s hard to believe it was so comprehensively flattened.
We also saw Sweetheart – the real thing. He was a 5 metre croc that used to have a gnaw at fishing dinghies.
There was also a travelling exhibition on loan from the National Gallery – “Capital and Country” which included works by Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts, among others. Nice bonus.

Next up – East Point Military Museum. This is a rather new (seemed to be) building telling the story of Darwin’s military history and, of course, the bombing of Darwin which started in 1942. I think there are many Australians who still don’t know the extent of the attacks during these few years. Attacks occurred from Milingimbi east of Darwin along the coast to Exmouth in WA, and inland several hundred kilometres. There was also an extensive display outside of all manner of war things.

The photo above is included at Harry’s request. I was having a coffee (4/10) at the time.
We visited Darwin Harbour, Cullen Bay, where we had a posh coffee (9/10) cruised around Fannie Bay, Nightcliff and ended the afternoon at a water park, complete with the whole fiasco of water activities, giant tipping bucket, and three water slides – all for free! Never heard of that back home.
We heard on the radio that there was an AFL match on that night in Darwin – Melbourne v. Brisbane. We decided to go to the footy! Beats a night in a Darwin caravan park. The footy ground seats 4500, plus 9000 sitting on the grass. We arrived just as the siren went and scored seats in the 5th row! The boys all enjoyed being so close to the action, but I’d have to say I would have been fine with just the first quarter. Melbourne put up a good fight, but Brisbane prevailed. If anyone cares.
We really enjoyed Darwin, and would love to come back in the wet – just to see what it’s like.