The Darwin Letters No. 4

If you’ve missed it, this series starts here.

Monday 19 December 1994

20/288 Casuarina Drive
Nightcliff 0810

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Top End Greetings to you Mum and Dad, and also to anyone else who reads this letter.

Not another letter, we hear you cry! Don’t worry though, we’re sure the novelty will wear off very soon, and you’ll be blessed with a simple phone call.

But in the mean time, here we go again…
How are you going? We hope your throat has improved Mum, and that you are not over doing it.

Christmas at Debbie’s sounds like the ideal place to be, we’ll be thinking of everyone lolling by the pool. We hope the Christmas shopping rush hasn’t been too bad.

Even though we aren’t buying a heap of pressys this year, we still feel like we are constantly going to the shopping centre too. Although there aren’t as many people in Darwin as there are in Perth, Christmas shopping at Casuarina Square feels exactly like Christmas shopping everywhere – frantic.

People buy up big here too. Everyone comes in from the surrounding stations to stock up for the WET. You should see the size of some canned food here, big is an understatement.

Once the food has been eaten out of them, they’d be just perfect to use as water tanks, swimming pools or even cyclone shelters, perhaps that’s why they make them so big.

Greg’s going well at work. Mind you, he’s having to cope with a new temporary “job agency” secretary, his assistant has gone on leave to Africa, his acting boss has gone on leave to Tasmania, and his real boss has just resigned to go to a job in Queensland.

What’s more, they have all gleefully dumped their unfinished work on him as well. Yet, he’s still smiling through it all – what a man!

As you know, I also worked for money (not alot) recently for five days in the Marketing Department. My job was to respond to hundreds of letters from overseas students who want to study at NTU.

And then we’re both gonna just roll around recovering for the rest of the day!

Some letters were very interesting, some were in broken English, some were in pencil, and many were hard to decipher, but generally it was fairly tedious work.

But I did get to meet some new people, and I was invited to a morning tea party, and to lunch at the Darwin Sailing Club, not bad for five days work.

We had been tossing up what to do over Christmas, and had thought we might go to Kakadu. We have been told that it’s pretty good to camp there.

However, the weather has turned a touch unpredictable (despite the fact that there is a storm every day), there is also currently a mosquito epidemic (disregard what we said in our previous letter about there being few mozzies) with over 240 people in Darwin suddenly coming down with Ross River virus, and not least of our concerns is that it is now Croc mating season, they are on the move looking for willing partners.

We are constantly hearing reports of Crocs being sighted in various parts of suburbia – backyard swimming pools, local creeks or the main harbour, and everyone is being warned not to walk through any water.

So we have decided to spend this Christmas at home, two storeys up, and well out of reach of any frisky crocs.

We’re going to have a cooked lunch. I’m making the seafood cocktail, Greg’s making the roast chook, I’m doing the Brandy custard, and Greg’s doing the Christmas pud.

And then we’re both gonna just roll around recovering for the rest of the day!

The other morning at 3.00am, we were startled awake – Greg whacked me in fright – by what sounded like a semi-trailer smashing through our bedroom. It was thunder, very, very, loud thunder.

We felt that our apartment was smack bang (excuse the pun) in the middle of a bombing range. We got up and watched the storm until it calmed down.

The next day’s paper reported that our area had got 116mm of rain, about 4 1/2 inches in the old language. This only barely rated a mention according to some long term Darwinite co-workers of Greg.

They reckoned that they hadn’t even heard the storm. Hmmm!

Speaking of storms, us new chums also got caught out the other night. We went to bed leaving the study window open, so as to let air flow through the apartment. WRONG thing to do in the tropics!

There was a storm of course during the night, so consequently, we ended up with a very soggy carpet which took alot of rubbing down with towels, and several days to dry out. We learn from our mistakes!

A couple of Sundays ago, we took a picnic lunch, and a drive out to Litchfield National Park. All the locals reckon that this park is better than Kakadu, but you don’t tell the tourists.

It’s about a 2 hour drive down “the track”. (The Stuart Highway, is the only road in or out of Darwin, and it is always referred to as “the track”) It was a very pleasant drive in our air-conditioned car.

Mind you, it is very easy to forget that it is hot outside. Especially when it’s either cloudy or raining. We found this out when we enthusiastically jumped out of the car to go and check out some very imposing termite structures, it was hot, humid, and dusty.

Nevertheless, this did not deter us, we went on to some water holes and then to Florence Falls. It was very hot when we arrived at the carpark.

We were welcomed by a sign which informed us that, due to some maintenance to the usual entrance we had a 20 minute walk to get to the falls, along “shady creek walk”. It didn’t sound too bad.

everything is big or deadly or both in the territory

Well, I just about expired. I was wearing my bathers under my T-shirt and shorts, and only thongs on my feet (not alot of protection against BIG green ants). It was an unbelievably humid, rocky, steep, dusty, slippery, and only occasionally shady walk.

I felt like I had been totally wrapped in Glad wrap. This twenty minute walk for me, felt like a march for survival. Greg faired only slightly better than I did.

However, Florence Falls was worth the discomfort. It is a photographer’s paradise, the stuff of tourist brochures. Apart from its absolute beauty, it was damn good to plunge into as well. The water felt gloriously refreshing and was filled with little fish.

We swam as close to the falls as the stinging, pinging of the falling water on our backs would allow. We took photos, which unfortunately didn’t come out (I think some water may have got into the camera), so we will definitely have to make a return visit, and endure the walk again if maintenance is still being carried out on the main entrance.

Whilst there, we were also captivated by a 3 foot long “Water Monitor” lizard (everything is big or deadly or both in the territory). It sat amongst some roots at the base of a tree, within inches of where we got in and out of the pool.

It looked most pre-historic and a little frightening as it sat there nonchalantly turning it’s head from side to side looking at us, and then at some French tourists who were sitting on some nearby rocks.

A tour guide arrived, and assured us that these lizards were harmless, even friendly, and it would probably just go in for a swim and eat some of the small tropical fish for it’s lunch. Friendly it may well be, but I didn’t fancy swimming with the creature whilst it munched up those cute little fish.

We left, then drove onto another section of the park, which also had a pool and smaller waterfall. We swam there too, and had our lunch, then headed home. You really need to have the entire day to do this trip, it was well worth it.

We have also been to a couple of weekend markets. The Rapid Creek market, our local, has an authentic Asian feel about it. There are numerous food stalls, all selling exquisitely mouthwatering, and highly aromatic food.

Chicken Laksa or any kind of Laksa for that matter, is very popular here. There are also plenty of sates, curry puffs, noodles and so on. Many of the Asian vendors dress according to their custom, it’s a very colourful and jolly place.

The vegie stalls sell huge bags of chillies, and there are more types of pineapples and mangoes than we ever knew existed. Basically, we need an expert greengrocer Dad, to guide us through the array of tropical fruit and veg, as there are so many things that we have never seen before.

We also have been told, that if we can eat the pawpaw salad (pawpaw, garlic, chilli, ginger, and fish sauce) then we are truly Territorians. We like a challenge!

We both also like the multicultural feel that Darwin has. The Aborigines and Islanders are on the whole, well integrated or accepted on their own terms. There are Aboriginal natural land reserves, as well as Aboriginal communities within the metropolitan area.

They are not just limited to living on the outskirts or poorer suburbs of town, as is generally the case in Perth.

The Greek and Asian communities are now fourth and fifth generation Australians. Unlike much of the rest of Australia, immigration happened a couple of generations earlier here.

Perhaps that’s why it seems to really work well, everyone has had time to get to know, and like each other. Anyway, it certainly has a very positive and different feel to anywhere else that we’ve been in Australia.

Thus far, we have dined, or had drinks or Christmas parties at a few work colleague’s homes. Everyone seems very hospitable up here.

Chrissy’s and Gordon’s home is at Howard Springs, which is about 25 minutes down “The Track”. They have a five acre property where they are trying to establish a rainforest eco-system using purely native species, no exotic filth as Gordon claims.

They warned us, as they took us on a tour of their property, to beware of the deadly brown snakes that are around there, and we were not to harm them if we came across one – as if, (I can just see me or Greg taking on a deadly snake or two).

Chrissy also plays the cello in the Darwin Orchestra, and at one stage, I was in danger of being recruited when I flippantly remarked that I had played piano as a child. I had to quickly point out that my prowess nowadays on the keys is limited to “Chopsticks”.

Anyway, we’ve just about told you our life story up here.
Enjoy Christmas, and we’ll give you a call on Christmas Day. Take care.

lots of love
Tren and Greg
OXXO