Our salute to Territory Day, when Northern Territory locals set off ridiculous amounts of fireworks

IT’S a fireworks frenzy, with NT locals spending hundreds of dollars each to let off as many fireworks as possible. Right now. Even the crocs are scared.

Australia’s legal fireworks about to go off

LAST year, a famous headline in the NT News sparked a bit of a furore and set our northern frontier alight.

The headline read: “Why I stuck a cracker up my clacker” and it won its writer a Walkley Award, Australia’s most prestigious journalism gong. But some people weren’t happy.

To many, the headline sent a message that all NT folk are completely reckless with their fireworks, and people like Mark Killip, director of fireworks retailer Territory Day Fireworks, says that’s just not true.

Territory Day Fireworks is not just the name of a business. It’s also the unofficial tittle of an excellent Top End tradition.

Today, July 1, is Territory Day. It marks the day when the NT became an entity in its own right. That first happened on January 1 in 1911, but hey, Territorians are laid back. What’s a six month lag when you’re celebrating a holiday?

A classic NT scene: Kids, a peaceful beach and exploding stuff in the sky.

Territory Day is not a public holiday, but Territorians have often stated they’d be willing to swap another holiday for it. Locals sure treat it like a public holiday. On Territory Day, Territorians celebrate their ruggedness and love of a bit of danger in the way only they know how: by letting off loads and loads and loads of fireworks.

For this, they have a tiny five hour window between 6pm and 11pm tonight. Between 9am and 9pm today is the tiny window for buying the things. As you’d imagine, things get a little explosive in the stores, many of which spring up along the main drag into Darwin, the Stuart Highway.

Mark Killip has had 12 staff on all day. “No one’s sat down pretty much all day,” he says. “I mean, I give them time off but Territorians go nuts, they love their fireworks. A lot of people even come up from interstate.”

Killip says the average persons pends between $20 and $200. The most popular items this year include the delightfully-named “blowjob”, which Killip describes as a single shot bright pink explosion. There’s also the “peacekeeper”.

They do a good job of blowing up. Therefore this is not a rude name. Er, sort of. Pic courtesy of territorydayfireworks.com.au.

But why do Territorians love them so much? Mark Killip says it’s all about relaxation for hard-working locals. You might say instead of letting off steam, they let off gunpowder.

“It’s the old cliché, people here work hard and they play hard. A lot of them work in mining and oil and gas. These are not easy relaxing industries. It’s that frontier thing where people want to party and have fun and enjoy themselves.”

If the UN isn’t using these, they should be. Pic courtesy of territorydayfireworks.com.au.

Last year, 35 Territorians ended up in hospital from Territory Day fireworks mishaps. Killip concedes that there will always be a few people who have a drink or two too many and abuse the fireworks. But he says all the fireworks sold locally are thoroughly tested for safety.

“if you follow the instructions, I’d be hesitant to say there’s any danger involved. People can take the handbrake off a car and go run over a kid. The vast majority of people use fireworks safely.”

Killip says most of the fireworks sold in the Territory today are custom-made in China especially for locals.

“If they like certain effects, then we give them more of what they want.”

Boxes and boxes and boxes of the stuff. Mark Killip from territorydayfireworks.com.au says Territorians have bought up to 14 massive shipping containers worth of fireworks today.

Not everyone loves fireworks in the Territory. But Mark Killip has collected thousands of signatures in support of them, and you’d be a brave politician to bow to the vocal minority and deny the locals the one day on the calendar they really cherish.

You can be pretty sure they’d blow up deluxe if they couldn’t blow things up on Territory Day.