Friday, June 15, 2007

Darwin

I was up in the north-end last week for a few days, one day longer than intended thanks to my inability to read an itinerary (a 24-hour one), and had a chance to visit the parliament and learn about the bombing in WW II.

I was somewhat surprised to see a frigate patrolling the inner-harbour but it could easily have been for exercises rather than for duty. I've also been reading Peter FitzSimon's book on the Kakoda Track recently, which I'd recommend, which includes mention of the bombing of Darwin which claimed 243 lives. Check out the shrapnel...

I took a photo of the 1962 Remonstance; effectively a petition of Territorian representatives to the Australian Government for more independence (the Australian Constitution provides Territories the ability to self-govern but it is contingent upon Commonwealth law not the Constitution which means the power can be revoked).

It's an interesting place, small - very small in fact, only just over 110,000 people living in just a few population centres (Darwin, Alice Springs and Katherine) and quite different from any of the other capital cities I've visited (all but Perth) not least of all because of the large urban Aboriginal population. I'm only sorry that I didn't get more time to look around...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And Mr Howard says, "you can't booze or get jiggly with the porn". What a lovely man...so concerned for moral welfare of these people. Hang, just received a clarification - it's only black people in NT. Phew! For a minute there, I thought this was the heavy censorious hand of the Big Fat Nanny State. But because it involves black people, it's OK. Forget about intervention logic or any other bureaucratic buzzword which tries to link intervention to cause and effect...Johnny knows that the black people can't handle the booze or the porn! Good ol' Johnny Howard.