Travel: Darwinian charm

From the moment I disembarked from the plane, Darwin's laid-back, distinct country-town spirit charmed me.

Unlike the big cities strung along the eastern seaboard, Australia's northernmost city beats to a very different tempo.

Home to 110,000 people, this is a city of swaying palms, sunset markets and open-neck shirts.

It retains a frontier atmosphere and revels in its remoteness. (Jakarta is closer than Sydney.)

For most travellers, Darwin is merely a transit point, en route to Kakadu, Litchfield and Arnhem Land. Underrated as a destination, the Top End town will more than reward those who stay for a couple of nights.

If there is one quality that exemplifies Darwin's personality, it is resilience.

In 1942, nearly 200 Japanese aircraft attacked the city 64 times. The legacy is easy-to-explore gun emplacements and underground tunnels.

A far greater nightmare was to rain down on Darwin. On Christmas Eve, 1974, Cyclone Tracy ripped through town, destroying 95 per cent of homes and killing 65 people.

Remarkably, within four years, the city was largely rebuilt. The Northern Territory Art Gallery & Museum features a spectacularly vivid cyclone exhibition, including a haunting audio recording of the violence of Tracy as it decapitated Darwin.

The must-see visitor attraction also boasts a stirring Aboriginal art collection, packed with insights. For instance, did you know indigenous people never call didgeridoos didgeridoos? No, I didn't either. Every tribe has its own name for the instruments.

I ventured north on foot to the city's leafy historic precinct, which is veiled in monsoon forest. Some of the top sights include the old Town Hall, which Cyclone Tracy reduced to its foundations, as it did Christ Church, which the rebuild graphically portrays. Next up are the gloriously elegant old stone police station, and the photogenic Government House, built in 1877.

The ever-present banyan, banana and palm trees are reminders of Darwin's uber-tropical reality. November to April is the rainy season, and the dry season of May to October is prime-time for visitors.

Darwin is surrounded by lush parkland that hugs the sandstone cliffs of the harbour.

The butter-coloured beaches are off-limits to swimmers during the rainy season because of the twin presence of deadly killing-machines: box jellyfish and saltwater crocodiles.

Mindil Beach hosts fabulous sunset markets, but resist the temptation to dip your toes in the water if you're there in summer.