It’s a balmy August evening in the middle of the Top End’s dry season and Darwin’s Festival Park is buzzing with activity. As the sun sets a bold red moon in the form of a giant rice paper lantern by local artist Techy Masero rises amid its bamboo framework, Trumpet Flowers sound and light installation by Amigo & Amigo Studio entertains in the Kolsen Twilight Playground and free live music on the bandstand provides a backdrop for patrons of the food trucks and stalls set up around the venue.
Other visitors queue for a lineup of performances on the INPEX Sunset Stage, ranging from the soulful premiere of Emma Donovan’s Take Me to the River to Opera Queensland’s Are You Lonesome Tonight and Rhonda Birchmore’s After Party. Nearby on the lawns in front of the Northern Territory’s Parliament House, the Spiegeltent is hosting the caberet circus show, La Ronde while down at Fort Hill Parklands, Australian idol Guy Sebastian and New Zealand’s electrifying L.A.B. are headlining the three-week performing arts feast that is the annual Darwin Festival.
Visitors to the Northern Territory capital soon discover that August delivers a perfect storm of cultural events as the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF) takes over the convention centre for an extraordinary celebration of First Nations art and craft. This annual three-day event presents the work of more than 75 Indigenous art centres from around the country and 100 per cent of all sales go back to the artists and their centres. The National Indigenous Music Awards are another drawcard event on Darwin’s August calendar as are the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Art Awards (NATSIAA), with the winners and finalists showcased in an exhibition that runs until early new year at the Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT).
The MAGNT is worth a visit year-round for its permanent exhibitions, which include the taxidermied body of Sweetheart, a 5.1-metre-long saltwater crocodile that gained notoriety in the 1970s for attacking the dinghies of fisher folk and a section devoted to the devastation caused by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve, 1974. Visitors can see the Raggedy Andy doll featured on the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly, a Christmas tree that was salvaged from Tracy’s wreckage and listen to a terrifying (remastered) noise of the cyclone in a sound booth. Time your visit for mid to late afternoon, then head down the road (during The Dry, from the end of April to the end of October) for the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, where food stalls sell a world tour of culinary delights to the backdrop of the sun sinking into the waters of Fannie Bay.
First-time witnesses could be forgiven for thinking they’ve jagged the best night of the year, but in fact the spectacle is pretty much a nightly occurrence during the ‘winter’ months. For a ringside seat on sunset, locals and in-the-know tourists make a beeline for the Trailer Boat Club, where cocktails and beers flow and above-average counter meals accompany the ritual in a palm-framed waterfront setting.
Dining in Darwin is always a delight with the emphasis on local seafood including prawns, barramundi and reef fish fresh from the trawler and lots of Asian influences, given the city’s near neighbours to the north. Jimmy Shu’s Hanuman restaurant is a Darwin institution since the Sri Lankan born chef moved to the Top End and hung out his shingle in 1992. More recently, he’s been joined by another chef with Sri Lankan heritage, former engineer and MasterChef alumni Minoli De Silva, who serves up contemporary versions of her childhood home country’s cuisine at her laneway diner, Ella by Minoli.
Darwin is also Australia’s self-proclaimed laksa capital and visitors can taste test some of the best at the Saturday Parap Village Markets, which combine food stalls and crafts. Everyone has their favourite laksa vendor and Mary’s and Yati’s stalls frequently come up when the conversation turns to who makes the best. Yet others say bypass them both and make a beeline for the Purple Lady, who serves up the spicy soup at both Parap and the Sunday markets at Rapid Creek. Or head down the road to Stuart Park, where Laksa Queen Amye Un serves a version from her West Timorese homeland. Before you leave Parap, however, be sure to drop into the Laundry Gallery and the Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art.
The cultural celebration continues downtown at the Outstation Gallery and the Readback Books and Aboriginal Art (both for Indigenous art). Street art is another drawcard and local and international artists come together every year to add to the city’s growing outdoor art gallery (see the story beginning on page 70) during the Darwin Street Art Festival, which takes place during May and June. Don’t miss a visit to Darwin’s Deckchair Cinema, one of only three outdoor cinemas remaining in this country.
No trip to Darwin is complete without a trip out of town and while Kakadu National Park is an obvious option, you’ll need a couple of days to fully explore the park with its Indigenous rock art galleries, wetland cruises and spectacular landscapes and waterfalls. The 1500 square kilometre Litchfield National Park is closer to the city and it’s possible to visit in a loop circuit day trip.
Aboriginal people have lived throughout the area for tens of thousands of years and the country is the traditional home of the Koongurrukun, Mak Mak Marranunggu, Werat and Warray people who believe their ancestral spirits are still present in the landscape today. While there are still some unsealed roads in the park, most of the major waterfalls, swimming holes and sites can be visited without venturing far off bitumen. There aren’t many dining options available – though Tumbling Waters Holiday Park at Berry Springs and Litchfield Tourist Park near Batchelor both have kiosks – so you’d be advised to bring a picnic, or at least snacks and a good supply of water and drinks to keep fed and watered. Or you can take the passenger’s seat and join one of many tour companies that offer day trips from Darwin.
Australian Country jumped on board with the family-run, small group tour operated by Ethical Adventures, and left all the navigating, clock watching and catering in the capable hands of tour guide Adam Mattner. A passionate environmentalist, Adam is a fount of information on the landscape, wildlife and flora and their management.
Setting out from Darwin, first stop is 50km south at Berry Springs Nature Park, where the water in several pools remains at a very comfortable 26 to 28°C and the little cascades make for a refreshing dip and natural spa massage. This stop is the first encounter with what turns out to be regular signage around the Top End warning that both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles inhabit the area. While parks management use traps to clear the waterholes of salties during the Dry season there are occasional sightings and the messaging reads that while the risk of attack is low, basically you swim at your own risk. You might celebrate surviving the first dip of the day with an ice block from the kiosk run by local mango farmers, Crazy Acres. However, Adam has hot drinks and homemade mango muffins waiting for morning tea, so you better be hungry.
Eighty kilometres south-west at Wangi Falls the croc reminders don’t deter dozens of people who have hired pool noodles from the kiosk and are enjoying the big pool at the base of the twin falls, which plummet about 40 to 50 metres over the cliff face. Next stop is 12km further on at Tolmer Falls, where a lookout provides a great view to the falls, another 40m ribbon drop into the vibrant green valley below. From there, it’s another 20km for a swim at Florence Falls, which drop in segments for a total of about 30m to the waterhole below. If time permits, you might also like to take a short detour to Buley Rockhole, another popular swimming spot on the Florence River.
The lunch stop, with a snapping fresh chicken salad, is at Tabletop Swamp, a seasonal billabong with paperbark trees proving a great hang out for wetland birds. From Florence Falls, it’s back to the park road and a further 11km to the magnetic termite mounds. Adam is in his element here as he leads guests along the boardwalk overlooking what looks like a cemetery with hundreds of termite mounds with their thin edges pointing northsouth and broad backs facing east-west on the black soil plains. “There are many different termites in the tropics,” he explains. “Their mounds of mud and saliva can last for decades and house millions of termites. But they never take over an inactive mound. Rather than take over a McMansion, they instinctively start small and grow the mound as their community grows. Arboreal termites make mud nests on tree trunks and branches and because they feed on wood, they also make homes for other creatures by creating hollows in the timber.” Next up is the chance to see cathedral mounds, some of which soar 5m high.
It’s another 35km on to Batchelor built as the service town for Rum Jungle, Australia’s first uranium mine, which has been closed since the 1970s. If time permits, there’s a local history museum that mainly focuses on World War II history. Heading back to the Stuart take the short detour south to Adelaide River, which, following the bombing of Darwin in 1942 became the HQ for both the Australian and American military. These days, its main attractions are as the home of Australia’s third largest war cemetery, a ‘jumping crocodiles’ cruise and the 303 Bar at the Adelaide River Inn Tourist Park. While the bar is a reference to the Australian Army’s weapon of choice during WWII, the bar is full of memorabilia relating to Charlie, the buffalo made famous as the buffalo Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan) hypnotised to the ground in the movie Crocodile Dundee. Charlie was an Adelaide River resident until he died of old age in 2000 and his stuffed remains stand proudly at one end of the bar.
From Adelaide River, it’s 112km cruise back up the highway to Darwin, completing an approximate 350km circuit that’s guaranteed to leave lasting memories. For those who’ve not timed their visit for the month of August can rest assured there’s no need for FOMO. Whatever month you visit, there’s bound to be something on in the Top End. In March, it’s the Tiwi Islands’ turn with the Football grand final and art sale, April, in May and June, it’s the Street Art Festival and the Beer Can Regatta. Come in July and don’t miss the Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Association’s Viking Funeral celebration and of course, northern Arnhem Land’s annual celebration of First Nations culture, Garma. September is the MXGP when motocross enthusiasts hit town and movie buffs head up for the Darwin International Film Festival In October/ November it’s the Laksa Festival’s turn, and then it’s time to relax into Christmas events and take refuge in the air con during the Wet season before the year ramps up again … whatever time of year there’s never a shortage of things to see and do in Top End.” AC
