Darwin: A Tropical City in Australia's Top End Quiz

Answer: On the northern coastline approximately halfway across Australia

Darwin is situated on a harbour in what is now the middle of the Australian northern coastline. It has been occupied for thousands of years by the Larrakia people who are the traditional owners of the land. The Larrakia people, unlike other indigenous nations on mainland Terra Australis, were avid traders with peoples from nearby countries. The Dutch had explored the northern part of the continent extensively as evidenced by the place names in the region such as Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt. However, there appears to be no record that the Dutch ever landed anywhere near what would become known as Darwin.

Perth, Western Australia's capital is located on the western coast in the south.
Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is located on the southern coast near the Gulf of St Vincent.
Cairns, Queensland's fourth largest city is located on the north-eastern coastline on Trinity Inlet, adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef.

Answer: HMS Beagle

Commander John Clements Wickham of the HMS Beagle sailed his ship into a harbour which he called Port Darwin after the British naturalist who accompanied Wickham on the Beagle's previous voyage which included the now famous stop at the Galapagos Islands.
The Port Darwin area was not settled by Europeans though, until 1869 when George Goyder, the South Australian Surveyor-General established a small colony of 135 people in what he called Palmerston after the then British Prime minister Lord Palmerston. In 1870, the overland telegraph commenced erecting poles in Darwin in preparation for connecting Australia to the rest of the world. The town was renamed Darwin in 1911.

HMS Endeavor was Captain James Cook's ship. The Investigator was Matthew Flinders' boat in which he circumnavigated Australia in 1803 but he did not come close to where Port Darwin / Palmerston was subsequently established. The Tom Thumb was Flinders and Bass' boat in which they circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) on a previous expedition.

Answer: False

Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory, an internal territory. It is not a state of Australia. A territory differed from a state by originally having the federal government overseeing the jurisdiction rather than having its own government (due to a territory having a low population). However in 1982, limited self-government for NT was achieved with its own government convening in Darwin. However, the federal government still has the power to overrule the territory government legislation and still looks after some portfolios, (notably Aboriginal Affairs), whereas the states do not have this caveat. Also, while the NT elects members to the federal government on a population proportional basis like the rest of Australia, (NT elects two members), being a territory, it is only permitted two senators to be elected (same as the Australian Capital Territory), whereas each state elects 12 senators.

Northern Territory is a vast area. While it is the third largest jurisdiction in Australia behind Western Australia and Queensland, it is the 11th biggest provincial jurisdiction in the world. If it were a country, NT would be the 19th largest in the world, being about twice the size of Texas.

Answer: Roughly the top third of the Northern Territory

The Top End of Australia is vaguely defined but it essentially covers the northern part of the Northern Territory that is surrounded on three sides by ocean from Darwin in the west to the Gulf of Carpenteria in the east. It is at this north /south divide that the climate changes from tropical to the semi-arid desert like conditions seen in the interior known as the Red Centre.

Answer: The Build-Up

Darwinians divide the year into three periods; "the dry" which lasts from May to September-ish, "the build up" from September when the humidity first begins to be noticed, to when the rains falls heavily in December, which is the start of "the wet season" which lasts until April.

The indigenous Jawoyn people, who reside next to the Larrakia people south-east of Darwin recognise six seasons:
The wet season in January and February called Jiorkk.
The end of the wet season in March/April called Bungarung.
Jundalk is the hot part of the dry season until May.
Malaparr is the middle part of the dry that is cooler in June to August
The humid period between September and October is called Worrwopmi.
Wakaringding is the first part of the wet season in November and December.

While the winter months are lovely, the minimum rarely dropping below 15C/60F, the summer temperatures seldom exceed 35C with Darwin having the lowest highest temperature (40.4C) of all the capital cities in Australia. The build-up, though, is uncomfortable with high humidity without the relief of subsequent rainfall to cool the city down.

Answer: In 1942 the Japanese used planes to bomb Darwin during WWII

On 19th February 1942, the same Japanese Air fleet that bombed Pearl Harbor bombed Darwin extensively. 243 people were killed and the town essentially was destroyed. At the time, Darwin was a strategic placement of troops and supplies necessary to fight the war in Southeast Asia. Twenty military aircraft and eight ships in the harbour were destroyed as were most civil and military buildings.

There was some forewarning that this was going to occur. Most women and children had been evacuated in December 1941 and January 1942.

There were several more air raids of Darwin but not as severe, the last one occurring in November 1943. It was thought at the time that Japan was going to invade Australia. Today it is believed that the Japanese planned to destroy Australia's and the Allied Forces' air and sea defences in gain control of the Southeast Asia countries that would be able to supply Japan with much-needed resources.

Answer: A cyclone destroyed the city

Cyclone Tracy wiped out most of Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974. Seventy-one people were killed. Most of the 45000 people in the city were air-lifted to other major cities. It was the biggest airlift in Australian history and unlikely ever to be repeated.

A song, "Santa Never Made It To Darwin" (1975) was an Australia-wide hit that raised funds for the victims. The town was rebuilt with much tougher building standards which will never be able to withstand the ferocity of another cyclone as strong as Tracy (a category five cyclone - the highest) but lives and property should be saved.

A new city, Palmerston (ironic, don't you think) was built as a planned satellite city 20 km south to assist in the post-Tracy rebuild of Darwin. Palmerston is the second biggest city in NT (there are only three) and once held the title of the fastest growing city in Australia.

Answer: Waratah National Park

Kakadu, Litchfield and Nitmiluk are all large national parks (Kakadu is half the size of Switzerland) but none of them are less than 100 km from Darwin. Each contributes heavily to the tourism dollar of the NT with most visitors reaching the parks via a Darwin entry point.

Waratah National Park is a fictional national park in New South Wales (the waratah being the state floral emblem) that featured in the 'Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo' television series (1968-1970).

Answer: The Ghan

The arrival of the Ghan in 2004 bought tourism and trade to Darwin. The construction of the railway from Adelaide to Darwin was considered the second biggest engineering feat in Australia behind the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The Ghan is actually a contraction of the Afghan Express, which in turn is named after the Afghani camel-handlers who accompanied the camels that were used in the Burke and Wills' trek to Northern Australia. (Australia now has the world's largest population of wild camels - all are descendants of the 1860 expedition). The route the train follows is roughly parallel to the route that Burke and Wills took, Burke and Wills leaving from Melbourne 600 km to the east. The rail line essentially runs alongside the Stuart Highway which runs the 3000 km from Adelaide to Darwin, with Alice Springs being almost exactly halfway between the two.
The Indian Pacific Train runs between Sydney on the Pacific Ocean to Perth on the Indian Ocean.
The Overland connects Adelaide to Melbourne. The Sunlander runs from Brisbane to Cairns.

Answer: 5

Darwin is 3050 km/1950 mi from Canberra. Dili in East Timor is only 650km/400 mi away. Jakarta (Indonesia), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei), and Melekeok (Palau) are all national capitals less than the 3000 km Darwin is from its national capital. Additionally, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Manila are only fractionally over 3000 km away.

With Australia's recent increased activity with Southeast Asian trading partners, Darwin's location ensures it will pay a key role in this region for many decades to come, and as such will remain a vibrant city essential to Australia's well-being.