Simon Baker, Fitzy give the NT rave reviews after recent visits

ACTOR Simon Baker and radio personality and comedian Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald have raved about their time in the Northern Territory in a recent radio segment.

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FORMER footballer and comedian Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald recently spent time in the Top End to support the Wanderers NTFL club, and he and some of his high-profile radio guests have been raving about their experiences in the Territory.

Sydney-sider Fitzy returned home from Darwin last week, and described the city as “magnificent” – especially in the wet season.

“I think the wet season scares people off going up to Darwin, but how beautiful is it to see those rolling storms come over? What a place to be, it’s magnificent,” he said.

Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald in Darwin. Picture: Instagram

A guest on his show on Nova 96.9 yesterday was well-known Australian actor Simon Baker, who was also in Darwin last week for the premiere of the film High Ground.

Baker also spoke of his love for the Top End’s wet season.

“I love it – you are reminded completely how insignificant you are,” he said.

“The power of the storms that come in, it’s unreal.”

“Darwin on a whole though, when you going to Litchfield and all around there and if you’re lucky enough you get to go into Arnhem Land …,” Fitzgerald said.

“It’s extraordinary and you forget,” said Baker. “Coming from a city, you forget this exists in your country.”

Simon Baker at the Darwin premiere of the film High Ground. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

Baker said he had first heard about High Ground, which was filmed in Kakadu and Arnhem Land and sheds light on Australia’s violent colonial history, during a previous trip to the Territory.

“I was up here at the Garma Festival and it was 2017,” he said.

“They had Malcolm Turnbull (and) Bill Shorten and I watched them politic their way out of engaging with the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

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“I thought one can choose to look away because it’s not a pretty thing, and it’s not a pretty time in history, or one can choose to sit with the uncomfortableness of it and in that there’s a chance that it can potentially heal.”

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