Darwin 2026

This is a quick overview of our trip to Darwin for our wedding anniversary. This is our record as well as the blog so don’t feel you have to read the words – just look at the pictures!

Darwin was hit hard by the Japanese in WW2 but was almost totally flattened by cyclone Tracey in 1974. If you are interested this is a link to a video of the destruction. A DARWIN STORY | CYCLONE TRACY | DARWIN | 1974 Some might say that in the long run it laid the foundations for the very well laid out country town that the NT is capital is today.

An Alternative Route

We had planned to include Darwin in our 2026 travels to celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary, as it’s the last state capital we needed to visit. We planned to leave at the beginning of May to be there at the end of the month.

World events caused a rethink in terms of the fuel situation, not so much the price as the availability, as are some fairly long runs where, if there was no fuel, we might have to wait for a delivery!

Anyway, at the beginning of May we decided that we would fly up and leave the caravan at home. We left on Saturday 23rd and arrived in Darwin at 1400 after a three and a half hours flight. Found our accommodation and settled in.

This was the view from our hotel balcony.

Deciding we were ready for dinner we walked down to the Waterfront, the eating part of Darwin. We had booked a hire car from the Monday so had a couple of days walking outbound and taxying inbound. By this time we realised that Darwin is quite small and quite an easy place to get around.

On Sunday morning we rang for service at the Cathedral, the ringers were very welcoming.

On Monday we picked up a car – a Hybrid to boot. Having never driven one before, we found it easy to deal with. The only trouble is you don’t know if it’s running or not!!

Then a visit to the Tourist Office to make bookings for our anniversary celebrations. A day of flights and boat tours on the 29th and a sunset dinner cruise on the harbour on the 7th, our last night in Darwin.

In the evening, a birthday meal for Roger on the Waterfront at the Oyster Bar.

Over the next two weeks we drove around Darwin and the surrounding area visiting many of the tourist spots. I have started making a video of the flight over Kakadu and the river trip but it will take time to edit it all, watch this space.

These are some pics from the Kakadu and Yellow Water / South Alligator River. We had a 90 minute flight over Kakadu before turning south towards Jabiru and Yellow Water.

Heading east out of Darwin over the mango edged seashore and creeks we begin to realise just how vast and varied the landscape is. This area is very wet for most of the time. What we saw was just after a longer ‘wet’ than usual and it was still very wet and virtually impenetrable.

Turning south towards Jabiru we are surprised to see rocky outcrops start to appear and then the ‘Escarpment’ a range of rocky cliffs up to 500 feet.

As we continued south we approach Jabiru and the Ranger Uranium mine which, after 40 years has recently been closed and is now an enormous rehabilitation project!

The nearby community of Jabiru has been the home of indigenous people, miners and their families and FiFo workers side by side with tourists for all of that time. A hotel was built in the shape of a crocodile!

After Jabiru we landed at Yellow Water and visited the Indigenous Museum which was very interesting. This is a model showing their interpretation of the six seasons in the aboriginal year.

We then went on the Yellow Water and the South Alligator River to experience the wetland, its bird and animal life and of course, crocodiles.

These pics show the wetlands of Kakadu. I’m working on a video which I will try to issue soon.

In Kakadu there are crocs everywhere. This next shot is apparently very rare, as crocs normally keep a minimum of 300 metres apart but in this shot they are less than 10m, most unusual.

A late lunch with an interesting menu and time to chat about the sights with the other 6 people on this tour. After this we had a 45 minute flight back to Darwin. This made a great outing on our wedding anniversary.

Litchfield NP is one of Australia’s best-known national parks, notably for its waterfalls, most of which we managed to visit. Due to the extended wet season they were quite impressive. Sadly access to some were limited because they hadn’t had time to the repair the damage done in the ‘wet’! Usually after the wet season it takes time for the falls to be declared free of crocs! We could have swum at Wangi Falls and Florence but ………..

……… there were 139 steps to get down to the latter. So we waited until we got to Buley Rockhole……well I did … Pat…..

Then back to Darwin via Manton Dam Recreation Area, not a soul in sight!

A great day followed by a salad on the Waterfront that neither of us could finish!

We could not come this far without visiting Humpty Doo, a place about 40 ks out of Darwin. It is a small community the origin of its name is vague but could be from a colloquialism meaning “everything done wrong or upside down” or a corruption of the indigenous people’s name for a popular resting place, Umdidu or Umdudu.

The Museum and Art Gallery at Fannie Bay is an amazing place to visit, it would be possible to spend all day there even though the art gallery was closed to prepare for an exhibition. It includes a maritime section with exhibits like the preserved pearling luggers, through Indonesian fishing (illegal immigrant) boats, to war canoes and dugouts, notably no aboriginal craft of any kind!

There is also an excellent restaurant next door with a great view out over the Bay.

Unfortunately, we didn’t think we were allowed to take pics.

Looks pretty good but at the top right of the last photo is the Box Jellyfish warning!

During WW2 Darwin took a severe hammering from the Japanese before Australia really had a chance to prepare. Part of the ongoing problem was that all the fuel tanks had been destroyed. A project was devised to tunnel into the rock that Darwin is built on, to create underground fuel tanks. There was very little machinery in Darwin at that time and most of the labour was by conscientious objectors, ie; conscripts who were happy to contribute to the war effort but did not want to kill people.

The tunnels were eventually completed but an attempt to store aviation fuel disclosed some 700 leaks and they were never used!

We had already visited the Aviation Museum which was interesting.

Our next place of interest on the list was the old Gaol built around 1896 but had been very much modernised as it was in use up to 1979 after being severely damaged by Cyclone Tracy in 1974. There is a good WiFi ‘guide’ system. The main preservation is the hanging mechanism which was last used in 1954.

A visit to the botanic Gardens was interesting but a bit disappointing because it hadn’t been cleaned up after the most recent cyclone.

The evening before we left, we had the second part of our anniversary celebrations, a sunset dinner cruise on Darwin Harbour and coastline. It was a beautiful evening the sea flat, the food was good and the wine acceptable.