Parap market of a Saturday morning; special laksa with a lime and crushed-ice drink. Mindil beach market. The trailer boat club for dinner at sunset. Litchfield. Kakadu. Territory iced coffee. So much sweat. So much heat. Darwin life.
I lived in Darwin from October 2004 to October 2005, with my now ex.
Great days. Many amazing experiences.
With the Australian men’s cricket side hosting a Test in Darwin from 12 August, today I bring a Darwin story.
==
Darwin life.
Six months married, we decide we will drive from Melbourne with a loose plan to spend a year Up North. So, I look for a Top End job. Before departing Melbourne, I’ve found one. A three-month contract with the Territory department that looks after water quality.
On arrival, we find a place to live. An apartment in Fannie Bay. I cycle to Palmerston for work. It’s October. It’s hot in ways I’ve never experienced. Energy-sapping heat. Sweat-dripping-off-your-elbows-as-you-sit-and-type heat. Build-up season.
Darwin life.
Work is interesting. Building a simple spreadsheet to model nutrient concentrations in the Darwin estuary. Spring tides, neap tides, nitrogen, phosphorus. It’s good. It’s OK. The stack of flesh magazines in the men’s toilet is illuminating. But more illuminating is a senior colleague who arrives at work one morning and declares:
“That’s it! She’s done it again!”
“What’s happened, mate?”
“My wife. She’s gone troppo. Same time every year. Happened again last night.”
Other colleagues look in our direction, peer around corners.
“Oh yeah? What does that look like?”
“Last night she took every plate, every bowl out of the cupboard. And one by one, she smashed them against the wall.”
Darwin life.
The boss knows I like the outdoors, so he fixes me some days in the field.
A few people in the Darwin rural area apparently flushed aquarium plants from their tanks into local waterways and the Darwin River has begun to choke with cabomba; a submerged plant native to the Americas, but very much a weed in Australia.
The government took action to eradicate the weed. Liberal application of 2,4-D, one of the oldest herbicides in the world and an ingredient of Agent Orange. Bang. Cop that, cabomba.
Darwin life.
Now the Water Quality team have the task of sampling stretches of the Darwin River. Nutrients, turbidity, dissolved oxygen. To be used as snapshots of river “health.”
“Carn, Dave. Can you tie a truckie’s hitch?”
For this field trip I’m paired with born and bred Territorian, RM. He wears his long hair tied back and his moustache thick.
“Lift up that end and I’ll show you how to tie her on.”
We’re holding a canoe. The wide bottomed craft remains snuggly fixed to the roof of our troop carrier as we roar through the Darwin rural area.
Across hot, dry country, along dirt roads through mango farms, cleared savanna and large sprawling properties we rumble until we approach the Darwin River. RM eases the troopy to a stop on the river embankment.
I’m excited. I love field work. I love making observations, taking measurements, recording variables.
But also, I’ve seen my share of nature documentaries. I’ve watched the movie Crocodile Dundee. And I reckon I have a pretty good handle on spotting crocodile habitat. I reckon we’re standing right in it.
It’s November. Hot and sweaty. All crocs would have left the billabongs and wetlands months ago, ahead of the dry season. All crocs would be concentrated in the rivers.
“Here we are, boy-o,” says RM, standing on the troopy’s back tyre to untie the canoe. “Can you grab the other end?”
We fetch sampling gear from the vehicle, place it in the canoe and walk it all towards the river. It’s hot.
On the riverbank, a short way from the dirt road, I’m exclamation-mark-above-my-head-like-Tintin alarmed to spot what seems to be a fully baited crocodile cage. A white feathered chicken hangs dead from a hook inside.
“Hey RM,” I say in what I hope is a calm voice. “What’s the story here?”
RM looks in the direction of my gesture and takes in the cage.
“Oh yeah, Tommy Nicholls put that in. A few of the locals have seen a croc, so Tommy’s gonna relocate it.”
RM turns with the canoe and continues to step towards the river.
“So….” I try. “Is this safe?”
RM steps all the way to the waters’ edge and places the bow of the canoe in the water. I tentatively follow, a full canoe length behind.
“Oh Dave,” he says in an exaggerated drawl. “I’d be concerned at dawn or dusk. But it’s the middle of the day. We’ll be fine.”
That’s pretty much it for Workplace Heath and Safety. We each climb into the canoe, push out and glide across the surface of the Darwin River with our sampling gear.
RM is up front. I’m in the stern. And everywhere looks to be a threat. Lily pads cover the water surface in places. Pandanus palms crowd over us in others. A thousand shades of green. Air you could chew. My sheen of sweat would evaporate if it could.
“This’ll do,” says RM.
We’re in the middle of the greenest stretch of the greenest of green. It seems a fine place to die.
“Grab that device there, Dave.” RM is enjoying this. “You’ve gotta hold it over the edge of the boat. Arm’s length. Lower the probe to the first depth, hold it still for 30 seconds while it does its thing. Then lower the probe to another depth and hold for another 30 seconds. That’s it.”
I blink. I swallow.
‘We need to sample a few different spots along here. Let’s go.”
We’re sat very close to the water surface in this little canoe and I have strong reservations about dangling my arm over the side. The sampler feels heavy. But I hold it and straighten my arm to the side. My hand seems a very long way away. As I lower the probe and count out 30 seconds, light shifts from all angles. Ripples dance with the motion of insects. All I hear is my heartbeat.
“Good one. Lower the probe some more and get the next depth.”
Time stands still. A trickle of sweat runs down my back.
Darwin life.
buy me a Territory Iced Coffee
This has been Sproutings issue #151.
Thanks for reading. All issues are available here. I hope this finds you well and enjoying this life. It’s bonkers. All free subscriptions, paid subscriptions and Territory Iced Coffee donations much appreciated. Play on.
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