I landed back in Sydney last night after completing my final week in Darwin. I learnt an enormous amount in the 9 months that I spent up there. Not only about life in Darwin, but about the challenges faced in remote parts of our country, about life for our Indigenous, and a lot about myself.

I originally took on the contract for a number of reasons. I have had a keen interest in Indigenous affairs since reading my fiancée’s PhD on Indigenous Health. I was also excited about living in a new city for a while having lived and worked in Sydney my entire life.

Prior to taking this role I had spent the better part of 10 years working for a large bank so I was looking forward to working outside the corporate environment. I was even happier to be working for a not for profit (NFP) company.

I think I had some naïve views about what it would be like to work for an NFP. Given their missions are usually about altruism and community, I had thought that those who worked for them would embody this. Sadly, this was not always the case. Of course there are a number of people who’s career focus is about improving the lives of our Indigenous, but I would say that to the majority of people it is just a job. A lot of people wouldn’t have the faintest idea about the challenges Indigenous people face. I don’t profess to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I did all I could to learn during the time I was here.

Having said all that, the people that do believe in the cause and understand what the mission is go a long way to making up for those who don’t. There are some truly passionate people, some of whom have been here since the very start. These are the people that the organisation needs to hang onto, and listen to, if they are going to succeed.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Darwin. I will miss the weather, the relaxed way of life and the fact that you can wear your thongs anywhere. Most importantly I will miss the geckos.

It is exactly one week today until I return to Sydney. It’s funny, I have been here for months but there are still a few things I want to do. I have been keeping a mental list of things to do before I leave. I managed to tick two off last night. I went to see Max and Mary at Darwin’s outdoor cinema, The Deckchair Cinema, and then had mud crab for dinner afterwards. There is a real art to eating it, but the colleagues I was out with were experts. Not I know what the nut-cracker thing is for!

I still want to get back to Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, plus a visit to my favourite restaurant Char. No doubt I will also end up at the super suave Sailing Club for sunset drinks.

My project manager colleague arrives today from Sydney and will return on the same flight as me next Thursday night. It will be good to have some company during my final week, to have someone to go out with.

One thing I am not looking forward to is the Sydney weather. I have been watching it on SMH online and it looks appalling. Very different to the 30 degrees we are getting here every day.

I am a huge fan of Barramundi and being in Darwin there is no shortage of it. It is caught all year round by hobby fisherman, but the commercial fishing season starts in June/July, and lasts about 5 months.

Whenever I am in a restaurant and I see something a little bit unusual containing Barra, I always buy it just to see what it’s like. Doing so I have discovered some very unusual combinations: 

• Barramundi Pie (Kakadu National Park)
• Barramundi Malaysian Nonya Style (Noodle House Darwin)
• Barramundi Springs Rolls (East West Thai Restaurant)
• Barramundi Soup (Casuarina Mall)
• Barramundi Sushi (Zushi Casuarina Mall)
• Salt and Pepper Barramundi (Darwin Sailing Club)

Of course on a number of occasions I have had the obligaroty Barramundi ‘Fish and Chips, but I have to say that the Spring Rolls have been my favourite to date. A really interesting snack.

Recently I was at drinks with a number of people from the Health industry. This included Nutritionists, Dieticians and other health professionals. A conversation came up about the recent increase in anti-social behaviour and violence along Mitchell Street Darwin, the local nightclub strip. A number of people jumped to the conclusion that it was related to Indigenous Australians.

The truth is that a lot of clubs won’t even allow Indigenous people in. I have been witness to it myself, making up all manner of excuses to not allow sober, well dressed and well mannered Indigenous people in.

There was an article about the Mitchell St situation in the NT News last week. A magistrate was discussing how two out of every three cases she was seeing were related to anti social or violent behaviour, and that three out of four of these involved young white males. We also need to remember that Indigenous people make up only 20% of the Darwin population.

What bothers me is that people automatically assume that this type of behaviour must be related to the Indigenous population. Of course there are some problems with Indigenous people, but obviously not as many as people like to think. I took it upon myself to correct what the health professionals were saying. They turned away to exclude me from their conversation.

I now feel like I am officially Australian. It’s hard to believe, but in the more than 30 years I have been alive I had never really been ‘out bush’. That all changed over the long weekend. We flew from Darwin into Kununurra which is about 800kms, 40 minutes flight time. The Bungle Bungles are in Purnululu National Park, 180kms south of Kununurra. We took a 2 hour scenic flight (in a four seat Cessna plane!) to have a look from the air. It is difficult to describe just how beautiful the area is.

We stayed at Emma’s Gorge which is part of the El Questro resort, a working pastoral lease. The accommodation was in walled tents (see photo below) which were ludicrously expensive for what they are. Now I know why there are no photos on their website.

Driving to and from Emma’s Gorge was about 90kms, 50 of which were on unsealed, and very corrugated, roads. Luckily my Fiancée had booked a ‘real’ 4WD for us, none of this toy Rav4 crap. We saw countless Boab Trees, wild cows and horses, and even a water monitor. The icing on the cake was a place called Zebedee Springs. It is a series of natural thermal pools that really look like an Oasis. It was almost like a scene from a movie. A truly memorable experience. I am very glad we made the decision to go.

In an hour or so I’ll be at the airport ready to board my last flight to Darwin. My contract is nearing completion and I will be back in Sydney permanently from Friday 3rd July. It’s hard to believe that eight months have past since I first went up there.

At least the Sydney weather decided to see me off in right fashion. The sun decided to come out for the first time this week which makes a nice change from all the rain we have had. We even managed to get a nice sunset.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts my fiancée is travelling with me to Darwin for the first time. Early tomorrow morning we fly to Kununurra returning to Darwin for dinner on Sunday. I am really looking forward to seeing the Bungle Bungles. Yet another aspect of our beautiful country.

When I was at dinner on Sunday we were discussing various driving distances in Australia. I was explaining to the three others that the distance from Darwin to Alice Springs is almost the same as Melbourne to Brisbane, but my fiancée didn’t believe me. What does one do in these situations? Straight to Google. And here are the stats.

Melbourne to Brisbane: 1,692km
Darwin to Alice Springs: 1,498km
Alice Springs to Adelaide: 1,530km
Darwin to Adelaide: 3,027km
Sydney to Perth: 3,942km (including a stretch of 1,700km on the Eyre Highway)

I got to playing with Google Maps to see how far the greatest driving distance would be across Australia. From the south coast of NSW near the Victorian Border to Port Hedland is about 5,000km via the most direct route, or more than 5,600km via Central Australia. It’s hard to believe that it is all one country. Even more so when I fly from Darwin to Sydney during winter and it drops from a tropical 33 degrees to a wintery 9 degrees, as it did for me last Friday night.

Jacki and I have had a great week, even more so for her as she didn’t have to go to work. Last night we went to the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets which is always a culinary feast. So much great food to choose from and only one stomach. It was absolutely packed as usual which makes moving slowly essential.

We are both on the same flight backed to Sydney this afternoon. I am back down for a week and as usual have a lot to fit in. Family lunches, breakfasts with friends and dinner and movies with my beloved.

Next weekend will be really exciting. My Fiancée and I are flying back to Darwin together on Friday and it will be her first visit to Darwin to stay with me. First thing Saturday morning we are off to Kununurra in far north WA to see the Bungle Bungles. This has been high on my ‘to do’ list for a number of years now so I am very much looking forward to it.

There has been a lot of information published in recent years about the alarming differences in unemployment rates amongst Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The table below contains data from the 2001 Census and highlights just how bad the problem is. Some of the communities in which we have stores, unemployment can be as high at 95%. 

There are a number of reasons for this including access to education, socio-economic status, social problems and health problems. Of course there are a small minority that simply choose not to work, but this is the exception rather than the rule. There are a lot of Indigenous Australians who want to work but simply can’t get a job.

One area that is making a positive difference for such people is Indigenous Tourism. Until recently this was mainly taken up by International tourists but as this article shows, more and more Australian residents are taking part. This is great news for all involved. It provides employment opportunities for Indigenous Australians, it helps educate non-Indigenous people about Australia’s 60,000 year history, and it helps to highlight some of the issues Indigenous people face.

I spent a weekend in Kakadu back in October last year and took part in a couple of Indigenous run tours, including a trip into Arnhem Land. It was a truly unique experience and I learnt a lot of things that we were never taught in school. If you are ever in a region of Australia that has such programs, be it Far North Queensland, Central Australia or even Tasmania, I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Last night I had Jacki’s parents over for sunset drinks before heading out for dinner. It is quite funny getting to meet her parents after knowing her for almost 9 years. I now understand where she gets her travel bug from with her mum and dad both being mad travel fanatics. It was really interesting to hear about their travels around Australia in their motor home (read: Sofitel on wheels) and the places they have reached over the past 10 years. It gives me even more inspiration to get out and see more of our wonderful country.

We had an interesting experience trying to get into our chosen restaurant for dinner. We hadn’t thought to make a booking and were told they were booked out until at least 8:30pm. This is a far cry from dining experiences I have had over the past seven months when I could just walk in anywhere. The dry season must really have arrived.