Darwin Travel Guide

Darwin Travel Guide
	by our Australia expert Conrad Freethy There’s no denying it - Darwin is long way from anywhere. Australia’s Northern Territory is mostly an immense desert and the city is actually nearer to five Asian capitals than to Australia’s own. Even the next largest town in the Territory, Alice Springs, is almost 1,000 miles away, as is Uluru, Ayers Rock. Darwin is increasingly the tourist end destination of one of the ‘Great Railway Journeys of the World’, the transcontinental ‘Ghan’ from Adelaide - the train so-named from the Afghan camel-drivers used in the railway’s building across the desert. Earlier arrivals included the voyage of The Beagle bearing the eponymous Charles Darwin and then a succession of pioneer aviators, scraping into the Country’s northernmost point - Amy Johnson, Charles Kingsford Smith (Amelia Earhart disappeared en route). Once you do get there, it is a thoroughly modern city, dependent on mining (including gold) and off-shore oil/gas as well as tourism. There are some fine beaches - notably Mindil where you can swim and shop almost simultaneously thanks to its large beach market. A typically Aussie quirk, is the annual race for boats made solely from old beer cans.

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