10 Great Things to Do in DARWIN, Australia, 2024 | Ultimate Darwin Travel Guide

tell us inspiration [Music] [Applause] [Music] g'day and welcome to Darwin in Australia's top  end a travel destination like no other with its   Rich indigenous cultural scene diverse culinary  offering a turbulent history to explore and epic   natural landscapes within easy reach you're in for  the holiday of a lifetime I'm Adam Ford from Top   Oz Tours and in this episode of our YouTube travel  series we bring you tips for 10 amazing things to   do in Darwin will mingle with the mega Crocs at  crocosaurus Cove settle in for a city tour with   AAT Kings check out the Museum and Art Gallery of  the Northern Territory's Cyclone Tracy exhibition Hitch a heritage ride and learn  the story of the bombing of Darwin Cruise Corroboree Billabong  in search of wondrous wildlife shop up a tropical storm at the Mindil  beach Sunset Market and much more and   as usual we'll chat with lots  of local guests so watch this   video all the way through for  Insider tips and travel Intel   but before we Boogie take a moment to subscribe to  our YouTube channel for more amazing travel ideas [Music]   we've teamed up with TFE Hotels to bring you  details of two great places to stay the first   is the Travelodge Resort Darwin in the CBD resort  by name and resort by nature. I loved the relaxed   feel of this property with its light Airy rooms  and Lush pool area complete with a bar and Casual   poolside dining [Music] keep an eye out for some  colorful street art around the hotel more on that   shortly later in this episode we'll be relocating  to the fabulous Adina Vibe Hotel Darwin Waterfront   not only is this hotel superbly located it's also  a part indigenous owned and operated success story alrighty well welcome to a very cool  Austin Lane here in the heart of D-Town   as it's fondly known locally now if you  are staying in the Darwin CBD like I am   at the Travelodge your ideally placed to  explore the city's incredible street art   scene and of course the Darwin Street Art  Festival takes place in August each year   but if you're not in town for that simply  download their app and head off to explore thank you there are more than 20  large-scale murals in Austin Lane   alone but don't stop there you'll find sites  dotted right across the city center [Music] Bustling Mitchell Street in the heart  of the CBD is bar and Backpacker Central   but it's also home to some of the largest  Critters in this particular Concrete Jungle   crocodiles are effective life in the NT and  Crocosaurus Cove will bring you face to snout   with the highly dangerous salt water variety tell  us about the crocodiles who are here how do they   come to be here I guess yeah easy so everything  in the park is native to the top end so we've   got a diverse mix of reptiles crocodiles and  animals that live in the aquarium so I fish and   our Turtles with our crocodiles in particular  we have six large males and a large female and   all the large males came up the wild initially  and they were problem animals unfortunately we   hunted them almost to Extinction in the early 70s  there weren't many big Crocs left so maybe in the   next 20 years or so we'll see some really  big Crocs come through but at the moment   if you've got a five five and a half meter  animal then you've got a decent sized animal oh I got that one let's talk about some of the individuals so  you're just a bit of a love story going on   tell me about William and Kate so William and  Kate are our resident couple um they are a very   unusual couple of crocodiles because they live  together all year round sometimes with a big   large male crocodiles they'll actually eat the  female when it's not breeding season William   and Kate have been a couple for over 20 years  they were a couple on a Croc farm so Katie is   probably about 2.8 meters long and Williams over  four and a half and I definitely think she wears   the trousers in the relationship it's Charlotte's  job to retrieve any eggs laid by Kate to keep them   safe from Wills and these newborns are certainly  a chip off the old block in addition to regular   entry Crocosaurus Cove offers a selection of  Premium experiences including the cage of death   which will see you lowered into a pool with a  hungry salty at feeding time [Music] foreign there are more hungry locals looking  for a feed in the CBD but these ones   don't have you on the menu the Aquascene  Fish Feeding Sanctuary at Doctors Gully   has been entertaining visitors of all ages  since the 1950s hundreds of fish enter the   sanctuary at high tide each morning for a feed  of fresh bread it's reasonably priced to feed   the fishies and will leave your day free  for more sightseeing now if you're looking   for a way to keep your cool while seeing  more of the city I have the answer next alrighty now there is a lot to love about this  city tour of Darwin with AAT Kings you can sit   back relax and explore the city in air-conditioned  Comfort it is a delight you also have Deluxe   seating in Sea power and live commentary from  our amazing guide Warren let's catch up with   him right now [Music] now tell us about the  tour just tell us what guests can expect for   it first of all well arriving into Darwin it's  nice to have a bit of a look around the township   and get your bearings and stuff so we included a  lot of the highlights of the city itself we also   include the Aviation Heritage Centre which is  probably one of the best Aviation displays in   in Australia we've got some spectacular aircraft  in there the B-52 bomber is a big one they used   to stop here and re-fielder in the 80s during  the Cold war between America and Russia so the   Americans have Relentless one haven't asked for a  bucket but we've got it in the hangar there it's   one of only two around the world I believe we also  include the George Brown Botanical Gardens that's   it was rebuilt after Cyclone Tracy it got a lot  of damage of course George Brown was instrumental   in the rebuilding process so they've made that  off for him so you've got rain trees a big boab   tree there we've got a beautiful Fountain there of  course and Woody the python is up in the rain tree   we met him too he's an armed pelly python he's a  sculptor he's a bit of a oh is that a sculpture   yeah yeah I'm going to tell you I think most  people on the two Authority was real yeah they do he's a good work of art here [Music] the  tour also includes a visit to East Point   Reserve and the wonderful Museum and Art  Gallery of the Northern Territory which   we'll check out later in this video all in  all this city tour is a half day well spent [Music] keeping cool also comes easy at the Darwin  Waterfront Precinct which offers safe year-round   swimming in its Palm fringed Lagoon and wave pool  the precinct is also home to a plethora of dining   and shopping options all of which are on your  doorstep at the Adina Vibe Hotel Darwin Waterfront   co-indigenous owned and with more than a third  of its Workforce of Aboriginal Heritage this   stylish accommodation option offers both hotel  rooms and apartment style stays and displays   an array of stunning indigenous artworks  [Music] in-house eatery Curve is situated   just Steps From the waterfronts facilities and  offers all-day dining there's also an in-house   pool and a cocktail bar which is a lovely spot  to adjourn to after a hard day of sightseeing [Music] vibrant sunsets Define Darwin during  the dry season and the best place to enjoy   golden hour is on the water Darwin Harbor  Cruises offers an evening departure from   Stokes Hill Wharf on its tri-level catamaran  Charles Darwin you can push the boat out on   a dinner cruise but I've opted to gaze  and graze on the upper deck a grazing   platter is included in the cruise price and  drinks are available for purchase foreign [Music] yep life doesn't get  any better than this [Music] Now the 25th of December 1974 is of course a date  etched into the psyche of territorians that was   the day that Cyclone Tracy literally tore the city  to shreds claimed multiple lives there's not a lot   of evidence around the CBD now of the damage  caused by the storm apart from the remains of   the Palmerston town hall and the Portico of the  Christchurch Cathedral on Smith Street but the   Museum and Art gallery of the Northern Territory's  Cyclone Tracy exhibition is an absolute must-see [Music]   thank you so our Cyclone Tracy exhibit has been  around since 1994 and it's changed over time as   people have changed when it first was put up it  was only 20 years since cycling trust had happened   and most people weren't interested in Remembering  it because it was a shocking time it changed down   forever and it changed the history of the Northern  Territory as time's gone on people have been more   interested in Remembering and remembering in  different ways and commemorating what happened   and and those lives that were lost and now on the  elite up to the 50th Anniversary we're actually   getting a feel that people want to commemorate and  they're very keen to do that but they also want to   celebrate that down as resilient that they were  resilient and they were able to pull through a   huge natural disaster and we have this beautiful  tropical City you know 50 years later [Music]   tell us what people can expect from the exhibition  itself if you wouldn't mind okay so there's a lot   of imagery because that shows you know visitors  what actually happened and the destruction that   happened during the the Cyclone we have a  railway signal Tower that's been bent over   and it still has pieces of corrugated iron in  it from Cyclone Tracy like embedded in it so it   survived the 1897 Cyclone that destroyed Darwin  the 1937 Cyclone that destroyed Darwin it also   survives the bombings but 1974 it was bent over  and by Cyclone Tracy there's also touch screens   so there's one one of the most important ones is  a list that allows you to search for yourself or   for friends or family that were in Darwin that  were evacuated we're always going to have a   cyclone Tracy display because of what it did to  Darwin it's something that we can't forget 66   people died and a City was destroyed and we need  to have that in our memories Cyclones are a part   of life of Darwin and Cyclone Tracer is one  of those ones that changed on forever foreign Darwin is of course no stranger to disaster  the bombing of the City by Japanese forces   during World War II caused widespread  Devastation and well over 200 deaths   yet it's not a chapter of our history  that's widely known learn more at the   excellent Royal Flying Doctor Service Darwin  Tourist Facility which tells the story of the   initial bombing of Darwin on the 19th of  February 1942 in gripping detail [Music] thank you [Music] you'll also get an insight into the  services vital work in Outback Australia [Music]   it will also love The Darwin History and Wartime  Experience which will see you riding high in a   military-era Studebaker known as Betty so it's a  history tour it's mainly World War II history we   do a little bit on the early explorers and Cyclone  Tracy as well takes just under an hour and a half   with the option of some of the tours you can get  out of the military museum halfway through and   if you do that I pick you up on these subsequent  tour an hour and a half later and finish off the   back half I get a lot of comments about uh people  not learning this sort of stuff when they went to   school it's it's in the school record in the last  10 years or so but a lot of people prior to that   wouldn't have heard too much they might have  heard that Darwin was bombed once because it   wasn't it was bombed on multiple occasions one  of the most heavily bombed cities in what they   call the Southwest Pacific so that's starting to  be learned about a bit now but certainly prior   to 10 years ago not much about it was talk why  don't you tell us a little bit about Betty so   old Betty is a 1942 Studebaker wartime history  hard to elucidate what that was but certainly   now it's post-war history from 75. I picked it up  in about 2011 and spent a couple of years doing   the conversion passenger conversions work on its  right hand drive conversion all that sort of thing   and the seats you can see in the back there so it  all had to be done and then we got firing at about   2013. so there was about 1200 of these brought to  Australia as American made as a number of other   vehicles and this is one of a grip of a slick  group about 10 or 15 other earlier models then   we don't know their actual history of that early  arrival one of the sites that David will point out   to you on the tour is the World War II Oil Storage  Tunnels built by the civil construction Corps   towards the end of World War II today the tunnels  are possibly one of the most atmospheric War   museums in the world the interpretive boards are  beautifully presented and the museum has recently   launched an engaging virtual reality host known  as Adfamann who you can summon on your smartphone   in 1942 tension lay thick in the air like  the humidity of a toasty tropical Darwin day   war was on our doorstep with the rising sun  behind them the Japanese dropped more bombs on   us here than on Pearl Harbor but as they say  It's always darkest before the dawn [Music]   now if you're Keen to spot Crocs  in the wild join a day tour with   Wetland Cruisers out to Corroboree Billabong I caught up with tour guide Evan better known as  Evo to find out more about this amazing day out   from Darwin so these day tours we pick people  up from down and we take them out to fog Dam   to start with and that's renowned for its bird  life so heaps of birds out there and you know   sometimes you see Crocs and yeah a bit of history  on Fogg Dam and then from there we drive here to   the pub and it's where people have a bit of a  break what we get your lunches organized and   then we take people out to the Billabong and  that's where we've got a two and a half hour   Cruise the Billabong itself is just a big pocket  of water which is just sitting there so it's a dry   season thing I mean the wet season everything  joins up the big flood Plains and things like   that so it's quite different in the wet so very  sort of dynamic changing environment throughout   the year but their dry season is the time to  actually access the billabongs your winter months   just walk us through what you can see as the  cruise progresses oh look definitely crocodiles   you know that's one thing we can generally find  people I think there's only one tour I've done   in the seven years but we didn't see one I mean  they're amazing animals have been around for 250   million years the usual size of the big males  is around sort of four 4.2 meters but yeah you   get smaller crocs you know there could be male  could be female but the big ones are the males   when there's a big wet season like we've had this  year there's just so many animals lots of birds   lots of different varieties of birds Magpie geese  and darters and big uh you know white-bellied   seagulls and yeah sometimes your jabirus  that we saw today brolgas it's all happening so lunch is included tell us a bit  about that so the lunch is uh just a   sort of mixed salad lunch with cold meats  and we have vegetarian options and vegan   options and things like that everyone gets  their own little individual lunch packs and   uh yeah just hand those out they're made  fresh here at the tavern so we pick them   up in an Esky take them out with us to the  Billabong and have lunch on board the boat   are people surprised that they can have this kind  of Wildlife Experience so easily from Darwin yeah   it's not that far like an hour and a half from  Darwin down to the Corroboree Billabong so it   really isn't that far and people yeah are stoked  so they get to come out for a day trip to see it   all happen and then they're back at their hotels  by five o'clock it's a bit of an adventure when   you get out there and yeah I just love showing  people you know my backyard basically [Music]   we wrap up this video where else but at  the famous Mindil Beach Sunset Market   which takes place on Thursdays and  Sundays during the dry season this   colourful collage of sights sounds and  smells is utterly charming and you're   bound to pick up a unique souvenir  of your stay in the top end [Music]   yeah when hunger strikes grab a tub of Tucker  and head down to the beach to clock yet another   incredible sunset for more ideas for great  things to do in Darwin just head to our website   travel ideas and inspiration

Channel: Oz and Beyond Travel Series

Views: 14,381

Keywords: Things to do in Darwin, Darwin travel guide, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, Darwin city guide, Top 10 things to do in Darwin

Id: gMkq1SKQBOs

Length: 20min 9sec (1209 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 02 2023