New Year's Day in Darwin

One of our new Aussie friends, Speech, works at the horse races.  He invited us to check them out on New Year's Day, as it's a big deal in Darwin.

 

For the first (and probably last) time we bet on a horse race - surprise, we lost money!  My fav. part (other than hanging out with Speech) was the hotdog and fries!

 

Our horse not coming in first.

 

Once we left the races we walked around Darwin for a bit - saw this cool graffiti.

 

A few days later we were again walking around Darwin - here we found the WWII oil tankers.  Funny story - Australia feared that if the enemy (Japanese) wanted to bomb their oil tankers, they could do so and destroy all of their oil pretty easily.  So, they decided to build 8 oil tankers underground in 1943.  But, due to flooding, cost, and engineering problems, only 5 tunnels were finished when the war ended.  They were never used for oil storage.

 

Darwin waterfront and swimming lagoon.

 

View from the sky walkway of the newly developed waterfront.

 

Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin on the night of December 24, 1974.  The cyclone destroyed the vast majority of the city, leaving it in ruins.

 

The Christ Church Cathedral - Cyclone Tracy destroyed all but the porch and gateway of the church; the new cathedral was constructed around the historic parts.

 

Town Hall ruins - the ruins were stabilized and now stand as a reminder of the cyclone.