Day #49 Darwin City:

We did not want to participate in an all day, marathon bus tour. So, we headed to the "i" to obtain info on options in Darwin City.

We settled on a 2-day Hop On - Hop Off Bus with tickets to Crocosaurus Cove and the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service)/The Bombing of Darwin Museum. We hopped on the next bus and headed to the Northern Territory Art Gallery. Most art museums in Australia are free. This one had a gallery devoted to Cyclone Tracy which struck Darwin on Christmas Day 1974 with winds reaching 217 km/h before the anemometer was destroyed. Eighty percent of Darwin was in ruins, and 71 people were killed with 145 seriously injured. The art was mainly Aboriginal and very good. There was a Natural History gallery which included Sweetheart, a crocodile that was terrorizing small boat owners in the 1970s.

hop-on-hop-off bus

Aboriginal art

Sweetheart

bowling greene

that's bay not boy

a marina in Darwin

Hopping back on the bus, we headed to the RFDS and Darwin Bombing Museum. The Royal Flying Doctor Service was founded by John Flynn (see Day #47 for a photo of his grave) to serve people in rural Australia with medical services. The other half of the museum covers the bombing of Darwin during WWII. On February 19, 1942, the same Japanese attack group that bombed Pearl Harbor visited Darwin. Two hundred and forty-two Japanese aircraft made 2 bombing runs on Darwin. Over the course of the war there were about 200 raids made on Darwin. They have an incredible virtual reality experience of the bombing raid. Very cool! That finished our day.

RFDS museum

Timor Sea

protected beach Darwin
(protected from crocodiles)

Randeen had a swim in the 25 meter lap pool at our hotel and then we headed to the rooftop bar for a libation. We dined at a tapas restaurant and bumped into some train passengers that we knew.

Tomorrow, more Darwin City.