Lost and Found

Darwin was originally ‘discovered’ in 1839 by Lieutenant John Lort Stokes onboard HMS Beagle. He is believed to be the first British person to see Darwin Harbour. On two occasions over the past 170 years the Australian Government had contemplated abandoning the region in totality, first during WWII, and again after Cyclone Tracy (which I’ll cover in Part II).

Most Australians are probably not even aware that Australian land was directly affected during WWII, and those who are may not know the full extent. I don’t ever recall this coming up in all my years at School.

At 8:45 on the morning of 19^th February 1942 a squadron of 188 Japanese Planes converged on Darwin and began bombing. This was the first time in Australia’s (then) 154 year history that we had been targeted on home soil. The result of this single day was 251 killed and 400 injured. More than 20 planes destroyed, 10 ships sunk and numerous other vehicles damaged beyond repair.

The first civilian deaths were those of the Post Master General and his entire family when the Darwin Post Office, which is right next door to where I live, took a direct hit.

Parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia’s north were bombed a further 62 times between 4^th March 1942 and 12^th November 1943. It is amazing that we never really hear about this. Peter Garrett, when he had a real job fronting Midnight Oil, sung “our shoreline was never invaded, our country was never in flames” – how wrong he was… and now he’s in Parliament.

The various State Governments began discussing the notion that Australia should abandon the entire northern parts of Australia, a consideration known as The Brisbane Line, if the Japanese were to invade by land. Luckily this never occurred and the idea was dropped. Until Christmas 1974.

Now where would I rather be. Alice with the ultra-high temperatures, or Darwin with the rain. A hard choice.

For those of you wondering exactly what we do up here, this is what we are all about. John Kop is our CEO.

‘Store reopens in remote community‘ on ABC TV.

Well I have returned with all four limbs intact. Kakadu is a truly amazing place, like nothing I have ever seen before. I was in a boat literally 2 metres away from a 4+ metre Crocodile. The guides warn you that a Crocs reaction time is 8 times quicker than that of us snail like humans so the moment was quite daunting. It is quite a surreal experience seeing these prehistoric animals up close (and not behind any glass I might add!).

Some of you won’t believe it, but I even took a one hour scenic flight in a 6 seat light airplane over Kakadu. I felt very brave afterwards, so brave I almost deserved a lollypop as I left the tiny airport.

I have been reading this book called ‘Bureaucrats and Broken Hearts’ which is highly critical of the numerous interventions that have occurred over the years, most recently the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER). At first I had written the author, Tess Lea, off as a pure naysayer, but I am starting to see her point of view. I am not for one minute questioning the work my company is doing to improve indigenous health, as we are seeing some fantastic results already. But more broadly I am questioning the effectiveness of the bureaucratic machinations that the policy makers will have you believe is in the best interest of the Indigenous.

To make my point, I saw paintings in Kakadu that dated back more than 4,000 years. It got me thinking that this land has sustained the Indigenous population for millennia, without our ‘help’. Should we really be interfering? I get the feeling I will return to this topic during the next 10 weeks that I am up here.

A few photos below of Kakadu. I took almost 200 photos in 2 days which gives you an idea how in awe of the place I was.