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21 December 2004
G’day and Merry Christmas from the Top End.
Well, Christmas decorations festoon the streets of central Darwin the same way I guess they do in Melbourne and other places. Up here, though, the old Santas you see around the place are doing it tough. We saw a Santa last week at the end of our street. He was a young buck involved in a photographic shoot on the Fannie Bay cliff top. He was posing on a banana lounge and nursing an NT stubby in one hand (the product being advertised) and a 1.5m croc in the other. Ha.
This Christmas marks 30 years since Cyclone Tracy came to town. Sixty-odd people died as she blew through town at 3am on Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve Darwin was a town of 12,000 houses, the next day 9,000 of them had been wiped out. Some commemorations have been held but a lot pf people don’t agree with the occasion being marked. Locals have many stories about Tracy and the aftermath. One that was told in the NT News explained that: "we should have known a cyclone was coming that year – the mangoes had long stems." Of course. Fingers crossed that we don’t get a first-hand account of a cyclone, anyway. They seem to have a return period here of 35-40 years (cyclones to largely destroy Darwin arrived in 1897, 1937 and 1974), so maybe we’ll be alright this year. We haven’t seen too many long stems on the mangoes, anyway.
We’re told the weather up here will soon improve. Each day so far has been marginally more unbearable than the last. They say that Christmas Day normally marks the worst of the conditions; after which the intense thunder & lightning storms drop off and torrential rain kicks in. We’ll see. On Friday afternoon there was a splendiferous lightning and thunderstorm that cut power to the whole city for ~3-4 hours. Not even the traffic lights were working during the afternoon peak. At CJ’s work, when the blackout hit (affecting lights, computers & everything else) they cracked a bottle of champagne to mark the early end to the working week. But conditions on Friday evening, in the lee of the storm were glorious. Hopefully a portent of things to come.
CJ & I are off to Kakadu (Gagadju) for Christmas Day this year. We’ll be staying in the town of Jabiru - you might remember a flash resort there built in the shape of a crocodile? So we might see Daryl Somers this Christmas... you never, never know. The maximum temperature down there at Jabiru is routinely 42oC so we’ll be flat out swimming and watching the lop-sided cricket I expect. Over the short break we’re hoping to get down to Katherine for a play in the gorge as well.
CJ is rapidly making herself a critical resource at the Department of Health & Community Services. Her contract was renewed the other day and now extends through to April. And I’ve just accepted a 4 month contract with the Office of Environment & Heritage (NT) as an Environmental Assessment Officer. So we’re both set up until mid-April.
Otherwise, exploration of our northern bounds continues, as we follow in the steps of Leichardt and Stuart most weekends. If Ludwig Leichardt had have stumbled across the swimming holes and plunge pools that we did in Litchfield National Park, it wouldn’t surprise me that he never bothered again with European culture. Beautiful rocky waterfalls off the escarpment, just 90 minutes down the track.
We’ve taken to the sea recently, as well, with a ferry trip across the heads to Mandorah, a settlement on the other side of the harbour. Apparently there are 250 people living in Mandorah. It’s a 20 minute ferry ride across the heads, or a 2.5 hour drive around the harbour, from Darwin. We didn’t end up seeing the town, as the first thing you see on disembarking the ferry is a sprawling pub on the beach front that is open to the weather & features a huge swimming pool overlooking the harbour. At least we explored the Barramundi on the menu and also the pool (comprehensively). As always, photos of things along the way are posted at http://worldsafaridave.50megs.com
When we’re too shagged to explore, there’s always Darwin. Or the Nightcliff pool – a little gem just discovered – 50m pool with swimming lanes perched on the rocky foreshore overlooking the Beagle Gulf & Timor Sea.
The miracle of air-conditioning keeps us smiling up here – without it I’m sure CJ would have gone totally troppo (only a mild dose to report thus far), and I would have blown several fuses. The "build-up" really is as tough as people say. It’s been an eye-opener. We’ve been swimming each night in our pool, and each night we meet at least one of our friendly green tree frogs loitering around the staircase. Happily, CJ has initiated a bonding exercise with our "friends," who are now lovingly patted on sight.
That’ll do. Merry Christmas to all in the south and elsewhere ‘round the globe. You’re often in our thoughts. Hope you enjoy a safe holiday & relaxing break. To clear up some confusion from last correspondence, CJ & I will be living up here til at least October 2005; our next trip to Melbourne will be in late January. And as the Weddo’s sing: Hope that you get what you ask for; hope you ask for what you want."
Ciao belli, Top End Tom & Kakadu Cath.