Darwin

Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory, located in the far north and with a population of 115,368. In its relatively short history, the city has been rebuilt twice almost completely: Once following the air raids by the Japanese during World War II and once after the devastating cyclone “Tracy” almost completely destroyed the town in late December of 1974. This makes Darwin one of the most modern capitals in Australia. With its relaxed outdoor lifestyle and warm weather year round it has a unique mixture of different cultures and influences. Darwin is an excellent base to explore Kakadu, Litchfield and Nitmiluk National Parks, the Tiwi Islands and Arnhem Land. The tropical summer from December to early March is for some people the most beautiful time of the year as there is warm sunshine daily, interspersed with sometimes heavy tropical rains in the afternoon. The rest of the year is warm and dry to humid.

 

The Darwin weather is divided into two seasons, the ‘dry’ and the ‘wet’ season, the period in between is called ‘The Build Up’. Between September and December there is no rain, but humidity that starts at 90% at 6 AM and only climbs higher during the day. Understandably during this time of the year the suicide rate is higher than during any other period of the year. Things can become quite tense during the 'build up' as people sit and sweat in the humidity while waiting and hoping for the first rains to fall. The humidity continues day and night for 3 months, so when the rain finally does come everyone enjoys their cooling relief. Some people travel especially to Darwin to witness this change of weather as it goes together with “dry” or electric storms, where one can see and hear thunder and lightning, but there is no rain falling yet. It is a perfect time to take that photograph of a lifetime!