Sights in Darwin
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Aviation Museum
Darwin’s aviation museum, about 10km from the centre, is one for military aircraft nuts. The centrepiece is a mammoth B52 bomber, one of only a few of its kind displayed outside the USA, which has somehow been squeezed inside. It dwarfs the other aircraft, which include a Japanese Zero fighter shot down in 1942 and the remains of an RAAF Mirage jet that crashed in a nearby swamp. Free guided tours commence at 10am and 2pm.
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East Point Reserve
North of Fannie Bay, this spit of land is particularly attractive in the late afternoon when wallabies emerge to feed and you can watch the sun set over the bay.
Lake Alexander, a small, recreational saltwater lake, was created so people could enjoy a swim year-round without having to worry about box jellyfish. There's a good children's playground here and picnic areas with barbecues. A 1.5km mangrove boardwalk leads off from the car park.
On the point's northern side is a series of WWII gun emplacements and the small but fascinating Darwin Military Museum. Video footage of Darwin Harbour being bombed is a sobering reminder of Australia's only wartime attack.
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Crocodylus Park & Zoo
Crocodylus Park & Zoo showcases hundreds of crocs and a minizoo comprising lions, tigers, a Persian leopard and other big cats, spider monkeys, marmosets, cassowaries and large birds. Allow about two hours to look around the whole park, and you should time your visit with a tour, which includes a feeding demonstration.
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Bicentennial Park
Bicentennial Park (The Esplanade) runs the length of Darwin's waterfront and Lameroo Beach - a sheltered cove popular in the '20s when it housed the saltwater baths, and traditionally a Larrakia camp area. Shaded by tropical trees, the park is an excellent place to stroll.
At the Herbert St end there's a cenotaph commemorating Australians' service to the country's war efforts: from those who lost their lives in WWI to Aboriginal men and women whose bush skills assisted the Army during WWII to protect the remote northern coastline. Also honoured are 200 Remarkable Territorians: hand-painted tiles in panels dispersed intermittently along the Esplanade commemorate some of th…
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Crocosaurus Cove
If the tourists won't go out to see the crocs, then bring the crocs to the tourists. Right in the middle of Mitchell St, Crocosaurus Cove is as close as you'll ever want to get to these amazing creatures. Six of the largest crocs in captivity can be seen in state-of-the-art aquariums and pools. You can be lowered right into a pool with them in the transparent Cage of Death (one/two people $120/160). If that's too scary, there's another pool where you can swim with a clear tank wall separating you from some mildly less menacing baby crocs. Other aquariums feature barramundi, turtles and stingrays, plus there's an enormous reptile house (allegedly the largest variety of rep…
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Darwin Crocodile Farm
When a croc is taken out of one of the Territory's waterways, this is usually where it ends up. But don't imagine they're here out of human charity - this is a farm, not a rest home, and around 2000 of the beasts are killed each year for their skins and meat. Get here in the early afternoon for feeding time, if you can.
The Darwin Crocodile Farm, 40km (25mi) south of the city, has around 8000 estuarine (saltwater) and freshwater crocodiles. If you don't have your own car, there are plenty of day tours to the farm running from Darwin. You can find croc steaks and burgers on menus all over Darwin.
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Fannie Bay Gaol Museum
This interesting (if a little grim) museum represents almost 100 years of solitude. Serving as Darwin's main jail from 1883 to 1979, the solid cells contain information panels that provide a window into the region's unique social history. Lepers, refugees and juveniles were among the groups of people confined here, and you can still see the old cells and the gallows constructed for two hangings in 1952.
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Burnett House
At the far northern end of Smith St is this small but important precinct of four houses built in the 1930s and now on the Register of the National Estate. One of them, Burnett House, operates as a museum. There’s a tantalisingly colonial high tea ($7.50) in the gardens on Sunday afternoon from 3.30pm to 6pm.
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Lyons Cottage
Just across the road from Bicentennial Park, Lyons Cottage was built in 1925. It was Darwin's first stone residence, formerly housing executives from the British Australian Telegraph Company (which laid a submarine cable between Australia and Java). Now it's a museum displaying Darwin in photos from the early days.
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Parliament House
At the southern end of Mitchell St is the elegantly boxlike Parliament House, which opened in 1994. Reminiscent of Southeast Asian architecture, it's designed to withstand Darwin's monsoonal climate. Book a free 45-minute tour exploring the cavernous interior. The building also houses the Northern Territory Library.
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Marine Aquarium
This excellent marine aquarium gives you a close encounter with the denizens at the bottom of Darwin Harbour. Each small tank is a complete ecosystem, with only the occasional extra fish introduced as food for some of the predators, such as stonefish or the bizarre angler fish.
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Framed
A fine range of arts and crafts is presented in this gallery near the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. The eclectic and ever-changing range is typically Territorian and tropical, and includes contemporary Aboriginal art, pottery, jewellery and exquisitely carved furniture.
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Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
This superb museum and gallery boasts beautifully presented galleries of Top End–centric exhibits. The Aboriginal art collection is a highlight, with carvings from the Tiwi Islands, bark paintings from Arnhem Land and dot paintings from the desert.
An entire room is devoted to Cyclone Tracy, in a display that graphically illustrates life before and after the disaster. You can stand in a darkened room and listen to the whirring sound of Tracy at full throttle − a sound you won't forget in a hurry. The cavernous Maritime Gallery houses an assortment of weird and wonderful craft from the nearby islands and Indonesia, as well as a pearling lugger and a Vietnamese refugee b…
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Chinese Museum & Chung Wah Temple
The Chinese Museum & Chung Wah Temple represents Chinese settlement in the Top End. The sacred tree in the grounds is rumoured to be a direct descendant from the Bodhi tree under which Buddha sat when he attained enlightenment.
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Australian Pearling Exhibition
Next door to the Indo-Pacific Marine Exhibition at the Waterfront Precinct, the Australian Pearling Exhibition has excellent self-guided displays and informative videos on the harvesting, farming and culture of pearl oysters in the Top End. You can also experience life underwater inside a simulated diving helmet.
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George Brown Botanic Gardens
Named after the gardens' curator from 1971 to 1990, these 42-hectare gardens showcase plants from the Top End and around the world − monsoon vine forest, the mangroves and coastal plants habitat, baobabs and a magnificent collection of native and exotic palms and cycads.
Many of the plants here were traditionally used by the local Aboriginal people, and self-guiding Aboriginal plant-use trails have been set up − pick up a brochure at the gardens' information centre near the Geranium St entry. You'll also find birdwatching brochures and garden maps here too.
The gardens are an easy 2km bicycle ride out from the centre of town along Gilruth Ave and Gardens Rd, or there's…
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East Point Military Museum
On the East point’s northern side is a series of WWII gun emplacements and the small East Point Military Museum. Video footage of Darwin Harbour being bombed is a sobering reminder of Australia’s only wartime attack.
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WWII Oil-Storage Tunnels
You can escape from the heat of the day and relive your Hitchcockian fantasies by walking through the WWII oil-storage tunnels. Built to store the Navy’s oil supplies (but never used), they exhibit wartime photos.
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Aquascene
At Doctors Gully every day, Aquascene runs a remarkable fish-feeding frenzy. Visitors, young and old, wade into the water and hand-feed hordes of mullet, catfish, batfish and big milkfish.
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Territory Colours
Contemporary paintings and crafts, including glass, porcelain and wood from local artists; features the work of contemporary Indigenous artist Harold Thomas.
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Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery
Displays and sells art from Arnhem Land and the Central Desert region.
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Maningrida Arts & Culture
Features fibre sculptures, weavings and paintings from the Kunibidji community at Maningrida on the banks of the Liverpool River, Arnhem Land. Fully Aboriginal-owned.
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Information Centre
You can pick up a brochure at theGeorge Brown Botanic Gardens’ Information Centre near the Geranium St entry.
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Karen Brown Gallery
Commercial gallery specialising in changing exhibitions of contemporary Aboriginal art.
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24HR Art
Changing and challenging exhibitions by the Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art.
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