Notes on the Geography of Australia: DarwinThe home stretch--the last 200 miles. It's like two worlds, with Darwin being not only the biggest city in the Northern Territory but having an aura of wealth that comes as a shock after everything else. You'll see. Make default image size larger ![]() First town out of Katherine: Pine Creek, a mining town that mines no more. Here's the Chinese-owned general store and Greyhound stop. ![]() Blurry but you can feel the bit-of-this, bit-of-that atmosphere. ![]() Bookstore, too. ![]() Next door to the store, there's an old hotel built in the convenient, common, easy-to-take-apart-and-put-up-someplace-else style suited to mining camps. ![]() The hotel in its prime, 1912. ![]() The town's former railway station. ![]() An abandoned pit. ![]() An old stamp mill. ![]() The same, seen with the engine that drove it. ![]() Details for the curious. ![]() More. ![]() A mixed-cargo road train. ![]() The original highway, leading to another wartime airstrip. ![]() The runway. ![]() Details. ![]() More details. ![]() Roadside inn. ![]() An alternative. ![]() The coast at last. ![]() Darwin has 120,000 people but feels bigger than that. ![]() The downtown waterfront is still public. Scandalous! A few American property developers could fix that in a hurry. ![]() A path down to the (rocky) beach. ![]() Any guesses? ![]() That was the seal on the gate of Government House, built in 1877. ![]() Nearby, Parliament House is from the 1990s. ![]() The old courthouse and police station, 1884. ![]() Brown's Mart, 1885. Originally a warehouse, it's had many subsequent uses; since 1972 it's been the Browns Mart Theatre. ![]() Ruins of the 1882 Town Hall, destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1977. ![]() The Victoria Hotel, 1890. ![]() Qantas, you remember, is an acronym for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service, so its presence here in the NT capital should be no surprise. ![]() Details. ![]() The military still has a strong presence in the city, too. Here, the Anzac Day parade, 2009. ![]() Cyclone Tracy did huge damage to Darwin, which means that many, if not most, of the houses are new. Many are stylistically modern, too, as well as prudently on stilts. ![]() A waterfront special. ![]() A gardener's hideaway. ![]() There are many residential high rises, this one boasting a bit of preserved facade. ![]() Another view. ![]() Many of the buildings have post-modern bits of color and/or swoosh. ![]() The same. ![]() Promotional billboard. ![]() The Lameroo, on the waterfront at Lameroo Beach. ![]() Who knows how such buildigns are named? This one, inscrutably, is called the Evolution on Gardiner. ![]() Just in case you didn't believe me. ![]() What do people who live in high rises called Evolution? Healthy stuff, of course. Here's the selection at the local Woolworth's. |
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