Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia’s Pearl Harbor

December 28, 2018

We arrived in Darwin Harbor early in the morning. Although it is twice the size of Sydney Harbor, it is much shallower. It is the capital of the sparsely populated Northern Territory and the gateway to the Outback. We took a harbor tour and saw some of the huge natural gas processing plants that fill LNG tankers headed to Japan and Hong Kong. Australia supplies 25% of the gas needed by Japanese power companies. It is ironic that Darwin is the supplier to Japan. In 1942, Japan dropped more bombs on Darwin than they did at Pearl Harbor. Casualties were lower as Darwin was less populated than Oahu but the attack totally destroyed the city. Casualties included Americans and two American war ships. Today more than 2,000 US Marines are based in Darwin. Australians have fought and died with Americans in every major conflict since then.

Darwin is also a center for the pearl industry and aboriginal art. The harbor is very clean, but we saw no one at the beaches. It is the season for stingers, sharks, and saltwater crocodiles. About 250,000 crocodiles live in the Top End, as the natives call Darwin.

After our harbor tour we went into the city. Darwin was again destroyed in 1974 by Cyclone Debbie, so the city center is very modern, tropical, and user friendly. We went to a gallery for aboriginal art and met the owner, getting a crash course on the art and artists she represented. Jan, of course, loved all of it; and Dave, of course, reminded her that all wall space in the new house is spoken for 😊. We settled on a small piece carved from ironwood by a woman known also for her painting. Later in the cruise the gallery owner will be onboard lecturing about aboriginal art.

Yes, it is 🥵 hot! Darwin is 12 degrees from the Equator. Jan, who hates hot, humid weather is holding up quite well. Luckily, laundry is included, and the ship does an excellent job with quick turnaround.

We are having a hard time loading photos. Below in no particular order are: Darwin pedestrian mall; store window—no Santa but a crocodile eating a gingerbread house; small container ship to carry supplies to offshore oil and gas industry; pearl ship, world’s largest pearl supplier; our purchase, small wooden sculpture.





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