Thursday 12th July - about Darwin

The Car is Fixed!

Bikes went in the back of the car this morning before delivering it to Kerry Nissan prior to 7.30am - so there would be no excuse for not finishing the diff. replacement in one day.  We then took off on the bikes for a pedal around Darwin which was shrouded in mist and quite eerie.  The sky was overcast and grey until late afternoon when it suddenly lifted.  The low cloud cover made for a hot and humid day, though Darwinians say this is nothing compared to the 'build up'.

Pearling boat in Darwin Harbour NT

Darwin Harbour

We cycled around to the fishermans wharf and saw a pearling boat returning to port.

Later in the day we found the Chinese temple and museum.  The museum was fascinating and a lovely lady by the name of Joyce gave us a personal tour around.  She is 72 [but looks much younger] and is 3rd generation Australian.  Darwin has a large chinese community, most of whom can date their first ancestor arriving in Australia back to the 2nd half of the 19th century.  Joyce said when she was a child her parents were rejecting their chinese hertiage so didn't teach their children to speak the language or learn the culture and traditions.  Fortunately this has now changed and the chinese community go to great lengths to record oral histories from the older folk and to make sure this is passed on to future generations so they understand their dual backgrounds.








Darwin is such an interesting place.  Today it is very multi cultural, but up until WWII the 'white Australia' policy was very much adhered to.  The whites mostly filled the government and administrative positions and were known as the 'silvertails' who set themselves above the rest of the town.  The chinese, who had mostly arrived as indentured labourers and had then branched out into gold mining, shop keeping and market gardening outnumbered the whites by 4 to 1.  They were treated as 2nd class though and lived within a specified area, not allowed to mix.  This was true for aboriginals who wanted to live in the town too.  Without the hard working chinese who ran all the shops, market gardens and many other business enterprises the Darwin society would have collapsed, but the whites chose to ignore this.  The war changed everything of course.  Turns out we had met some of Joyce's relations in Pine Creek when we were looking at an old bakery building there which is National Trust listed.  Her old uncle, who was born in the baker's shop, was visiting with Joyce's brother and a younger relation from Sydney.  The old man was keen to tell us how far back his family went.  Pine Creek shops serviced the gold fields, drovers and telegraph services.

The car was ready at 4.00pm and the service manager was most polite and obliging in complete contrast to our previous encounter with him.  I expect he was relieved to see us go.

Stokes Hill Wharf, Darwin NT

We dined on fresh caught barramundi at the Stokes Hill wharf looking out over the harbour which was like a millpond.  I threw some scraps into the water which attracted Queenfish, they look similar to Trevally.  They were a good size at about 40cm.

Deckchair cinema, Darwin NT

After this we enjoyed watching 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' at one of our favourite places in Darwin, the deckchair cinema.  The film was excellent and additional entertainment was provided by the possums who scuttle about under the seats looking for food scraps.