One Week in Darwin

I’ve fallen in love with this tiny, humid, world-of-it’s-own city. Darwin is a mixture of Australia and South-East Asia and something else all of it’s own. During those nine days between Tom getting the job and us hitting the road, I was given a lot of crappy advice based on a lot of crappy Darwin stereotypes. From what I’ve experienced thus far, people ‘down south’ give Darwin and it’s locals an entirely unfair rap.

Darwin is the welcoming, open-minded and multi-cultural city that Australia likes to pretend is it’s national culture. I didn’t know what to expect, but I don’t think I was expecting this. I was concerned that I wouldn’t handle the heat, that this city would be too small and confining, that the culture here would be as bogan as I was being told by friends and strangers alike. I’ve certainly learned that you have to experience something for yourself and take what you are told with a grain of salt, because nothing I was told to expect was the city that I found here. Instead I found delightful people, friendly strangers and an incredible mix of cultures.

Going to the Rapid Creek Markets on Sunday was like walking right into Thailand or Malaysia (which are admittedly the only countries in Asia I’ve actually had the pleasure to visit thus far). The markets were overflowing with trestle tables full of delicious, locally-grown produce, home-made curry pastes in a mishmash of margarine boxes and Vegemite jars, eskies boasting mangoes frozen from back when trees all over Darwin were heavy with the weight of delicious fruit. I will take photos when we return this weekend.

Darwin is unlike any other Australian city and not merely because the weather is so unlike that which is typical of this country. Darwin is laid back; I’m certain that if the Rapid Creek Markets were to set up in Adelaide they’d be so overrun by pointless regulation that they’d lose the warmth and charm that emanated so clearly to Tom and I last weekend.

All of that said, Darwin is expensive. Our original rental budget, double what we were spending in Adelaide, now seems ludicrously naive and we’re having to increase our budget and readjust our ideas of what is reasonable.

Tom has now been at work for a week and he loves his new job and company. I had an interview and hope you’re all keeping your fingers crossed for me, but I’ll look for a cafe job for the interim (whether I get this job or something else) because I have far too much time on my hands and no studio to work in. I can’t spend all of my time waiting for real estate agents to get back to me - I need to be doing something.

Hopefully next time we speak it will be from our new home and I can get back to regular posting! x