Darwin

Aquascene

USS Peary Memorial

The Old Town Hall

The old courthouse and police station

The 'Tree of Knowledge'

We had an early start to get to Aquascene in the city for the fish feeding at high tide which was at 8am. The kids really enjoyed throwing the bread out to the fish which included diamond scaled mullet, milkfish, catfish, toadfish, shovel nosed ray and a few bat fish. After the fish feeding we walked along the esplanade and did a bit of a walking tour of some of the city sights. Overlooking Darwin Harbour is the memorial dedicated to the crew of the USS Peary, which was attacked and sunk during the first Japanese air-raid on Darwin on the 19th Feb 1942.  We continued walking along the esplanade to government house and turned down Smith street where there are a number of stone buildings dating back to the 1880s including the post-cyclone Tracy ruins of the old Town Hall. We took a look at the large banyan fig tree known as the 'Tree of Knowledge' which was a significant historical meeting place.  We continued down the mall to find a smoothie.  We then decided it might be good to escape the heat and visit the museum. There was a great display of stuffed animals from the different habitats of the Territory and the kids enjoyed finding all the animals and birds that they had seen. We watched a short documentary on 'Sweetheart' a 5m salty that became a Top End personality after attacking several fishing dinghies. There was a whole room devoted to Cyclone Tracy which devastated Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. Only 400 of its 11,200 homes were left standing and 71 people were killed. We had a rest in the afternoon before heading out to the Mindil Beach Sunset market.