Radical change has always been part of Darwin, but with a little exploration the city will reveal its soul

How would you describe Darwin? It’s Byron Bay meets Bundaberg meets Cairns. It’s fun, it’s mixed-up, but it kind of works.

ESCAPE DARWIN .. for Kari Gislason story .. Darwin Waterfront photo by Kari Gislason Picture: Supplied

HERE’S a fact you might hear a few times in Darwin.

The city as it now stands marks the fifth attempt at a settlement in the north. Fearful of Dutch territorial claims, the British were sure they had to establish a permanent base, and acted quickly to get one started. However, they had more than a little trouble getting one to work.

You can’t but notice that this part of the Darwin story is told with pride, as though you’re also being told that it’s good to live somewhere difficult, somewhere that makes you choose to be here. Perhaps it’s a northerner’s sentiment: who’d want to live somewhere easy? Anyone could do that.

And so in 1869, Palmerston and its Port Darwin finally took hold. By 1911 the enterprise was known as simply Darwin. It had taken five goes, and yet in the spirit of its creation it was perhaps inevitable that the town would always be faced with the possibility of ruin. The first flattening came with “The Great Hurricane” of 1897, and no doubt some were tempted to start Darwin No.6.

I arrive on a mild Friday afternoon in the dry season, and I have no trouble seeing why they rebuilt instead. The pace is slow, but the mood buoyed by an evening breeze that runs through the canopies and brings people out and down to the water’s edge. When I cross a high pedestrian bridge to my hotel on the waterfront, I’m looking across to a park with families quite obviously reluctant to pack up their rugs.

I’ve come from an interview with Lord Mayor Katrina Fong Lim, who is the first to remind me that radical change has always been part of the city. It might also explain why it’s such a pleasant place to arrive: just as the city accepts big changes, it also seems to welcome drifters and travellers.

At least, that’s how it feels an hour later on Mitchell St, Darwin’s main avenue of shops, bars, and restaurants. I’m on my way to dinner at the much-loved Hunuman Thai Restaurant, and have time to stop for a drink and watch the street fill with backpackers, girls in black dresses, tradies in Hi-Vis, hipsters, even hipsters in Hi-Vis. They step, tired, out of taxis and dusty utes and find spots to not leave for the next few hours.

The mood is a little hard to describe. My best attempt is that all the provincial towns of a long drive up the east coast seem represented: Byron Bay meets Bundaberg meets Cairns. It’s fun, mixed-up. I watch it all from under the shade of a broad tree that drops green ants on to my table and into my beer. Later, I discover these are edible ants, or at least you can lick the lime-flavoured liquid they release. Instead of fishing them out, I should be squeezing them in.

The next morning, the city centre is rather quiet, and I begin to suspect a whole-of-community hangover. But when I board the Darwin Explorer tourist bus and reach my first stop, the Parap Markets, I find Darwin has reassembled there, a kind of Saturday morning evacuation centre. A bend of an orderly suburban corner enters a smoky, canvas town of barbecues, wok burners, grills and food stacks: the world’s continental plates, and such a rich display that I find myself taking pictures of the stalls as though they are the defining portraits of the town and its many faces.

And yet I temper my attack, for I’ve decided to lunch at the Art Gallery and Museum. The ground floor features a good collection of works by indigenous artists, while upstairs you find tributes to the early traders who visited the northern coastline, to the area’s natural history, and of course to Cyclone Tracy and the destruction it caused. Taken as a whole, the museum seems to say that it doesn’t always pay to become too attached to the topsoil, but also that something more important remains beneath — a commitment to this place, no matter what gets thrown at it.

My last hop-off for the day is the Military Museum, a commemoration of another assault. I was aware that, like the two cyclones, it had come from the air. But perhaps like many I hadn’t known about the full extent of the Japanese raids. In the first of these alone, in February, 1942, more bombs fell on Darwin than during the attack on Pearl Harbour.

Today, the city remains home to a large contingent of the nation’s military forces, and as elsewhere these and other major projects attract a mixed reception. One long-time resident tells me the number of single men in town has swollen with the construction of a multi-billion-dollar gas hub. He adds that when the work’s done, there will be a return to a quieter Darwin — I suppose the old Darwin that he feels is still locked under the turned-up soil.

On my last full day, I join a day tour to nearby Litchfield National Park and discover most of my companions are in fact Darwinians. They tell me they don’t get out to the park often enough, and want to play at being tourists for a day.

And so they join the real tourists for a swim in the rock pools. On the way back, we visit Pudakul, an Aboriginal cultural tour run by Graham Kenyon and his daughter Deanne. They guide us through the customs of its most enduring inhabitants, while the late afternoon thickens the bush with a golden haze and long, branch-shaped shadows that cross the old tracks.

The writer visited Darwin as a guest of Tourism NT

THE DEAL

GETTING THERE: Qantas and Virgin Australia fly to Darwin daily.

STAYING THERE: The Vibe Hotel at the Darwin waterfront. vibehotels.com.au

The resort-style Rydges Darwin Airport is close to the airport. rydges.com

EATING THERE: Try the excellent cuisine at Hanuman Thai Restaurant. hanuman.com.au

The Darwin waterfront offers a variety of dining options. waterfront.nt.gov.au

DOING THERE: For a sunset cruise, visit darwinharbourcruises.com.au

The Deckchair Cinema for a movie under the stars. deckchaircinema.com.au

The Darwin Explorer is an easy way to get around.

theaustralianexplorer.com.au/darwin-explorer.html

The Parap and Mindil Beach Markets are renowned. darwin.nt.gov.au

Try a day trip to the nearby Litchfield National Park. offroaddreaming.com.au