Top End tales #4

G’day and Merry Christmas from the Top End.

Well, Christmas decorations festoon the streets of central Darwin the same way I guess they do in Melbourne and other places. Up here, though, the old Santas you see around the place are doing it tough. We saw a Santa last week at the end of our street. He was a young buck involved in a photographic shoot on the Fannie Bay cliff top. He was posing on a banana lounge and nursing an NT stubby in one hand (the product being advertised) and a 1.5m croc in the other. Ha.

This Christmas marks 30 years since Cyclone Tracy came to town. Sixty-odd people died as she blew through town at 3am on Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve Darwin was a town of 12,000 houses, the next day 9,000 of them had been wiped out. Some commemorations have been held but a lot pf people don’t agree with the occasion being marked. Locals have many stories about Tracy and the aftermath. One that was told in the NT News explained that: "we should have known a cyclone was coming that year – the mangoes had long stems." Of course. Fingers crossed that we don’t get a
first-hand account of a cyclone, anyway. They seem to have a return period here of 35-40 years (cyclones to largely destroy Darwin arrived in 1897, 1937 and 1974), so maybe we’ll be alright this year. We haven’t seen too many long stems on the mangoes, anyway.

We’re told the weather up here will soon improve. Each day so far has been marginally more unbearable than the last. They say that Christmas Day normally marks the worst of the conditions; after which the intense thunder & lightning storms drop off and torrential rain kicks in. We’ll see. On Friday afternoon there was a splendiferous lightning and thunderstorm that cut power to the whole city for ~3-4 hours. Not even the traffic lights were working during the afternoon peak. At CJ’s work, when the blackout hit (affecting lights, computers & everything else) they cracked a bottle of champagne to mark the early end to the working week. But conditions on Friday evening, in the lee of the storm were glorious. Hopefully a portent of things to come.

CJ & I are off to Kakadu (Gagadju) for Christmas Day this year. We’ll be staying in the town of Jabiru - you might remember a flash resort there built in the
shape of a crocodile? So we might see Daryl Somers this Christmas... you never, never know. The maximum temperature down there at Jabiru is routinely 42oC so we’ll be flat out swimming and watching the lop-sided cricket I expect. Over the short break we’re hoping to get down to Katherine for a play in the gorge as well.

CJ is rapidly making herself a critical resource at the Department of Health & Community Services. Her contract was renewed the other day and now extends through to April. And I’ve just accepted a 4 month contract with the Office of Environment & Heritage (NT) as an Environmental Assessment Officer. So we’re both set up until mid-April.

Otherwise, exploration of our northern bounds continues, as we follow in the steps of Leichardt and Stuart most weekends. If Ludwig Leichardt had have stumbled across the swimming holes and plunge pools that we did in Litchfield National Park, it wouldn’t surprise me that he never bothered again with European culture. Beautiful rocky waterfalls off the escarpment, just 90 minutes down the track.

We’ve taken to the sea recently, as well, with a ferry trip across the heads to Mandorah, a settlement on the other side of the harbour. Apparently there are 250
people living in Mandorah. It’s a 20 minute ferry ride across the heads, or a 2.5 hour drive around the harbour, from Darwin. We didn’t end up seeing the town, as the first thing you see on disembarking the ferry is a sprawling pub on the beach front that is open to the weather & features a huge swimming pool overlooking the harbour. At least we explored the Barramundi on the menu and also the pool (comprehensively). As always, photos of things along the way are posted at
http://worldsafaridave.50megs.com

When we’re too shagged to explore, there’s always Darwin. Or the Nightcliff pool – a little gem just discovered – 50m pool with swimming lanes perched on the rocky foreshore overlooking the Beagle Gulf & Timor Sea.

The miracle of air-conditioning keeps us smiling up here – without it I’m sure CJ would have gone totally troppo (only a mild dose to report thus far), and I would have blown several fuses. The "build-up" really is as tough as people say. It’s been an eye-opener. We’ve been swimming each night in our pool, and each night we meet at least one of our friendly green tree frogs loitering around the staircase. Happily, CJ has initiated a bonding exercise with our "friends," who are now lovingly patted on sight.

That’ll do. Merry Christmas to all in the south and elsewhere ‘round the globe. You’re often in our thoughts. Hope you enjoy a safe holiday & relaxing break. To clear up some confusion from last correspondence, CJ & I will be living up here til at least October 2005; our next trip to Melbourne will be in late January.
And as the Weddo’s sing: Hope that you get what you ask for; hope you ask for what you want."

Ciao belli, Top End Tom & Kakadu Cath.

Top End tales #3

G’day there.
It’s a hot & steamy time up here in the land of afternoon monsoon storms, lizards scuttling along the walls and breakfast on the balcony.

Cath reckons that the little geckos who regularly race across the walls here look like fridge magnets. I think she’s right. These agile fridge magnets seem to be guarding our flat, as they scatter all over the outside walls whenever we arrive home. In the main they have done a fine job, though a couple of nights ago I ventured out into the land of the David Attenborough documentary (outside our door step) to find a green tree frog trying to pick the lock on my bike. You can’t relax for a moment up here.

My last report might have mentioned Darwin heat. Well, with the benefit of hindsight it shouldn’t have. Heat is a concept that we re-learn every day, as each day is more oppressive than the last. (A warning for the squeamish – tune out here and re-join at the end of the paragraph). Writing this, for instance, I am inside the loungeroom and it is 7:24pm. Every door is open. Every louvre window is open. Both ceiling fans are spinning like mad. The slight zephyr of breeze that passes my bare skin (it’s OK, I’m wearing shorts) tries to take away the sweat but my cooling mechanism is not quite up to it. Sweat beads in clumps on my forearms here and gathers in capillaries before joining into a 5th order stream network. The ABC news
reports 84% relative humidity today at 9am, maximum temp 34°C.

CJ is at her weekly drawing course right now. She’ll tell you she can’t draw at all (but I’ll tell you something different). If you ever need an apple sketched in grey-lead pencil, I know someone. At work CJ’s been working on many different projects with the Department of Health & Community Services, with one field trip to Katherine the other day. The policy position she’s got looks like being very interesting.

I’ve got 2 weeks left with the Water Resources group at NT Gov. For the past 2 weeks or so I’ve been involved (as a field sampler) in the eradication of a weed from the Darwin River. Crikey, has this been an eye-opener. The quick version is that an exotic aquarium plant was dumped in the Darwin River and has colonized a 10km section downstream of the town dam. If it spreads it could be disastrous for NT rivers. So a temporary dam wall was built across the river to contain the affected section, and an alarming pesticide poison 2,4-D, was applied to the river. This will hopefully kill the weed (and everything else) in the river soon, and the dead section of river will be rejuvenated before being released to the harbour. The whole thing is much more complicated, but I’ve been out on the Darwin River taking water samples for the past fortnight.

Imagine being hotter than if you’d done something hot on the hottest day you can ever imagine. Sitting in a canoe or a little tinny with the sun beating down... The Darwin rural area is routinely ~42°C. I know how an egg feels as it is cracked above a frying pan. At one of the places where we launch our boat, there’s a soberly placed steel crocodile trap, complete with bait (rotting chicken carcass), as a salty has been seen in the area; posing a threat to nearby landowners. As I thrust my gloved left hand repeatedly into the murky river water to collect water samples, I need to believe the words of my local partner: “You wouldn’t catch me doing this at dawn or dusk, but crocs understand that the middle of the day is OUR time on the river.” Right.

We had a top weekend in Melbourne, last; great to catch up with news and events. The stand-out highlight being the wedding of Jeff and Kirsten. A wonderfully picturesque ceremony in the grandstand of the Brunswick Street Oval. In Melbourne we relished the touch of a soft cool breeze. And we each turned the hot tap of the shower for the first time since September. Being back after an absence of a couple of months brought a few things into focus: there are too many cars on the roads of Melbourne. Brunswick Street on Friday night was outrageous. The mobile phone is
King. All hail the King. And all the grass is green. It was all yellowy brown when we left. And the back streets of Richmond haven’t become any easier to navigate.

CJ is riding to work most days up here – a superhuman feat. Full of good intentions, my latest effort ended with a puncture 7km from home and an ignominious hour-long run/ shuffle/ sweaty walk. Up here Car is King. (Or rather 4x4 ute is King; car is Weedy Prince).

We’re staying in Darwin now until late January. Anyone who’s in the neighbourhood, let us know. We had dinner with Brad Williams and Valerie last week, which was amazing in Darwin, and we also has a feed with Jenny & Richard a few weeks before that. Thanks for the messages from down south and all over. They are very well received. Sorry we were unable to catch more people on the weekend just gone; I hope you’re all well.

Ciao belli,
Top End Tom & Kakadu Cath.

Top End tales #2

The humidity builds mercilessly here. By 8.00am the air is thick and warm. Heroically, I had aimed to regularly ride my bike the gruelling 20km to work (at least every 2nd day), but to my eternal relief, the defence mechanism of the human body has kicked in and chronic knee soreness has developed to the point where I now need to drive to work in an air-conditioned car. It’s a shame. (CJ, on the other hand, rides her bike to Town most days). It’s tough enough walking to the office from the car park; a sheen of sweat soon covers the forearms as the daily roast begins. Human ingenuity, however, allows us to sidestep this inconvenience through the miracle of air-conditioning. From Monday to Friday, the hottest hours of the day
are spent in air-conditioned climate-controlled office Anywhere-Land. Inside these offices you really could be anywhere on Earth. Vertical blinds in a non-threatening shade of grey match the desk tops and even the ceiling panels. The only give-aways up here are the endless maps of the NT and posters of local Landcare projects covering the walls. But when clock-off arrives at 4.21pm and you walk out those sliding doors, the heat hits you between the eyes like a Mack truck. It’s a beautiful feeling.

Now preparations are beginning for the imminent cyclone season. There was a cyclone preparation lift-out guide in last Monday’s paper and the local council has sent some handy mail on this foreign subject. It’s the northern equivalent of the seasonal bushfire warnings down south, I guess. We’re all under orders to repair the roof, clear old branches from trees, remove or chain down any large objects outside the house, organise a cyclone emergency kit (torches, tins of food, etc) and locate our nearest community meeting point. Sounds serious. There was a map of Darwin in the paper showing which areas are most at risk of flooding from the storm surges that accompany a cyclone; judging by that map, it’s a good thing we’re on the first floor of our building.

We had one good dump of rain which washed out the Thursday night markets at Mindil Beach a while ago. But that’s been it. A week ago we headed down to Kakadu to get the lay of the land in "end of Dry Season" conditions. It was 40 degrees in the shade. The humidity wasn’t too bad – more of a baking heat. The sweat glands are getting a workout. We checked out the Kakadu (or Gagadju – that’s the name of the local aboriginal group and should really be the name of the Park except that it morphed in the style of Chinese whispers) Escarpment and rolled down to the Yellow Water area & Cooinda. We hopped a tour boat & toured around the wetlands of the Jim Jim Creek and South Alligator River for a couple of hours, finishing with a typical NT sunset on the water. The boat trip was an eye-opener for the amount of wildlife we were surrounded by but couldn’t really see until shown. By the end of the tour, though, we were in tune with nature & spotting animals every which way. And the crocs were imposing beasts. Glad to have met a few in person now and we all seem to have a healthy respect for each other.

We camped out & the next day visited & photographed a few dry river beds. The West Alligator River was completely dry. The only risk of injury via animal attack was from a wild pig scruffing around the river bed rather than from any crocs. We’re hoping to get a series of photos of those river beds over the changing of the seasons.

Life is beautiful.

The Mindil Beach market wound up for the year last Thursday night, as all the markets go into Wet Season recess. Half of Darwin was milling around the stalls, eating Asian delights on the beach and checking out music, fairground-style rides and a fireworks spectacular. CJ & I hopped on our bikes & rolled from home to the markets along the beachfront. Not bad. And I’m now the proud owner of a Big Old NT Farmer–style leather Hat, which should see me fit in like a local in most redneck regions of Australia.

The market season ended with impeccable timing; for the past 3 nights we’ve had alarming lightning activity filling the skies. In the NT News they reckon the Top End had 1036 strikes on Friday night alone. The power dropped out on Friday night and the wind really started to whip around our Fannie Bay fortress. Reading that cyclone guide has become a more urgent matter.

Yesterday we headed down to Nightcliff Oval for some Round 4 NTFL footy action as the Mighty Nightcliff Tigers faced off with the Darwin Buffaloes. A 4pm start meant that the sting of the day was behind us, but we made sure to set up our camp chairs in the shade of an exotic flowering tree. Nightcliff got the jump on Darwin and were never in danger. Coach Magic McLean would have been rapt with the boys, who closed it out 28.12.180 to 12.5.77. Former Geelong, Adelaide and Tommy Sherrins opportunist, Ronnie Burns, now sporting a hairstyle reminiscent of Tarzan the legend Greystoke, played an explosive game changing on the ball out of the forward flank & snaring a couple of goals. The ball handling of these guys is incredible and the skills displayed at half time by a group of kids playing kick-to-kick won them 3 Brownlow votes from this umpire.

So life in the Top End rolls on. CJ is 3 weeks into a Learning to draw course, I'm checking out the local Thursday night soccer scene, and again there's a croc story on the front page of the NT News ("Teen escapes from croc's jaws - saltie drags youth under water").

We’re back in Melbourne soon for J&K’s wedding.
Happy punting wherever you are.
Til next time, adios.
darwin dave.

Top End tales #1

G’day all,

Another hot &humid day here in Darwin where Catherine &I arrived last Sunday following an epic roadtrip (details to follow). We’ve been busy beavers this week: house hunting Monday, moving into a flat on Tuesday & I started work on Wednesday. So this is a quick g’day, with the advice that you’ll be hearing more soon. For now, a couple of highlights from the past 2 weeks:
- eating nutri-grain out of enamel mugs on the banks of the Mighty Murray at Renmark;
- having rains of Biblical magnitude dump on us the night we arrived at Uluru (some very big wet drops).
- Checking out Uluru the next day with water still cascading down the gullies.
- Riding our bikes 30km from Alice Springs to Simpson’s Gap and then having to ride back again in unseasonal heat and among relentless flies.
- Swimming and camping out at Edith Falls (within the spectacular Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park). No danger of crocs, they told us. Though the local Murdoch rag, the NT News, seems to feature plenty of croc stories (crocs are apparently “on the move” as the wet builds here).
- Going to the Sunday night market from some tucker & music at Mindil Beach.
- Finding a flat(!) v.close to Fannie Bay and the Timor Sea.
- Watching a 1.5m long goanna saunter casually past our front steps as we unpacked the car.
- Approaching our dunny only ~1 hour after signing the lease, to find a treacherous, murky puddle of water inside... and then noticing movement from near the toilet rim... and then having a heart seizure as the unmistakable sight of a leg appeared from under the same rim... and recovering sufficiently to hurriedly flush the toilet... and suffering another heart seizure as 3 green tree frogs (the largest the size of a bread & butter plate) dropped out from under the rim and into the aforementioned puddle at the bottom of the bowl... and heroically calling the real estate agent with our problem... and having her arrive at our place laughing, sticking her hand up under the rim and evicting 3 green tree frogs... It kinda makes you view the toilet in a new way.
- Meeting up with the NT Greens crew & helping out with letter-boxing (Catherine) and enlisting to hand out "how-to-vote" cards tomorrow. The Federal seat here is called Solomon & is the most marginal seat in the country held by a Country Liberal guy who, among other things, is proposing a nuclear waste dump for the NT. Surely the people of Australia aren’t self-centred & short-sighted enough to vote for Howard
again, are we?? (War, Kyoto Protocol, Free Trade Agreement, Public Health System, Higher Education $250,000 degree policy...)
- Swimming in our pool at 10pm last night in the dark.
- Eating brekky on the balcony this morning surrounded by palm fronds.
Next:
We’re off to see My Friend the Chocolate Cake play tonight at the Groove Café, Nightcliff (they play in Melbourne on Sunday).
I'll be working here at Dept of Planning, Infrastructure & Environment til 3 December. Cath is talking with people at the hospital and health research places right now.

So our address is:
8/ 17 Bayview Street
Fannie Bay 0820
NT
Ph: (08) 8941 0383

You can check out the location at:
http://www.street-directory.com.au/aus_new/index.cgi

Photos from the trip might be loaded over the weekend at:
http://worldsafaridave.50megs.com

stay in touch.
ciao, darwin dave.