Darwin, NT

 Darwin in the Northern Territory tropical climate.  It's Aboriginal name: Garramilla is the capital and largest city of Australia's Northern Territory, located on the shores of Darwin Harbour.

We have been there several times and stayed in our caravan at one of the many caravan parks.  It's a lovely city with about 140,000 people probably a few more now. 

Darwin has a higher percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people than any other Australian capital city, though they still make up a minority of the overall urban population.

Some fishing vessels.

A mural at Darwin Port.

 

Navy ships overlooking Beagle Gulf and to the left the Timor Sea.

A cyclone shelter.  In 1974 on Christmas Day, Darwin was hit with Cyclone Tracy which left a lot of Darwin's building flat.  Devastating it was.  Killed 71 people and destroyed 80% of Darwins building. It left up to 41,000 people homeless.

Frangipani grows well there in Darwin and two colours I managed to find and photograph.

Blackwater Trains

Near Blackwater Bluff, Queensland, Australia. 

A Coal train we saw along the way up north several years ago at a place called Blackwater after a town called Dingo.  Blackwater is both a town and a locality in the Central Highlands Region in Queensland.  The name of the township was inspired by the dark colour of local waterholes.  A German explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt found the Ore on one of his explorations in about 1845. 

The train we saw was very long and we thought it would never end.

Recently the Bluff mine ceased active operations, went into care and maintenance, and the lease was later handed over to the Queensland government under its Abandoned Mine Lands Program in 2026. However, the Blackwater mine still operates but sized down.  Some of the mines in that area have closed.  In researching I've come across different findings which makes it rather confusing.

The distance from Launceston (Home) to Blackwater in Queensland is 2,584 km (1,605 miles).

I think this is funny....my husband was soaking his feet in a dish of water whilst watching TV in the family room the other evening.  He slept for about 1 hour and when he woke up, he decided to change the TV Channel but couldn't find the Remote!  He thought it may have fallen onto the floor, so he got the towel and went to wipe his feet dry and discovered the TV Remote was in the dish of water, it had been there probably nearly 1 hour.  He took it out and shook it, dried the outside of it. Next day he put the hair dryer on it the one we used when we had the Shih Tzu, then he put it in the sun the next day and it dried out completely.  The only thing that doesn't work is the 'return' button, but he can use the remote on his phone for that if needed. It's a small remote for the smart TV. It's odd in this house because the smart TV's we have all of them have a small remote and they won't work on each TV.  They are all Samsung TV's. No, we don't watch a lot of TV but they are handy to have if the grandchildren come and stay as they can connect their Xboxes to them and play away.

Has anyone else done anything like what my husband did?

What's in Flower at Home

 Being springtime, some of the flowers are in bloom particularly in the front garden, so I'm showing what is flowering now.

The front bushes are Dwarf Nanadina.  The colour of spring above and the colour of winter below.  

Banksia Rose (Rosa banksiae) originates from China.  It's named after Dorothea, Lady Banks, the wife of the famous English botanist Sir Joseph Banks (who also had the native Australian plant genus Banksia named after him.)

There are two colours, yellow and white, the yellow being the better at flowering. 

Above  

Lavender Lavandula.  

                    We have three lavenders in the front garden.                              

Below

Convolvulus (Calystegia) (Bindweed) grows well in Tasmanian gardens.  There is a phrase "convolvulus plant botanical game' most likely refers to "Granny, Jump out of Bed," a classic European children's folk game played with the flowers of the Convolvuls or Calystergia (binweed) plant families.  In Australia I've never heard of the phrase but found it when researching, so added it.

These 3 plants out the front are called Heuchera (Saxifragaceae), Coral Bells is a common name for them. So far they are doing well in the front garden.  

Above it the Banksia Rose, not really a rose but called one.  Below is a rose called Just Joey and has frilly petals and blooms and blooms.  This is it's first flower. Then 3 more came into bloom.

The above rose is a tall standard rose called Crepuscule and is out the back.

The rose above is called Seduction.  It's a good bloomer.

Above - Aquilegia or Granny Bonnet.  There are many colours available, I had a few but over time only the yellow has remained but it didn't flower last year.

Nasturtiums out the back and some are climbing and are at the base of a small budded rose and climb through it sometimes.  

All parts of the common garden nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) are completely edible, including the flowers, leaves, stems, and green seed pods.  They offer a bold, peppery flavour similar to watercress, radish, or mustard greens.  Many times when we went out to dinner these flowers and stems were put on our plate to eat which we did but doesn't seem to be fashionable these days. 

Port Douglas Beach

Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia was founded in 1877 as a bustling gold and tin port and later transformed into a world famous tropical resort village.

The beach is known as 4 mile beach. Many people I've heard of have stayed in Port Douglas such as Bill Clinton, Katie Perry, Pink, Mick Jagger and others. Several movies have been made in Port Douglas.

Christopher Skase made the town into a luxury resort town in the 1980's.  He died in Spain aged 52 in 2001.  Christopher was accused of corporate fraud, breaching company laws, and improperly using his position as chairman of the failed Quintex group which accumulated over 1 billion in debt and of course was an Australian and fled to Spain.  I remember all of that.

Our very first trip/holiday to mainland Australia in our car staying at Motels on the way up and back to and from Port Douglas was in 2000.  We discovered how large Australia was from Tasmania (home) to near the top and we had no idea how long it would take us before we left home.  We stayed a week in Port Douglas at a resort then drove around exploring the vast area. 

Travelled back down to Melbourne in Victoria and discovered we were far too early to catch the ferry as in days, so we headed to South Australia for a visit and stayed several days and explored, then back to Melbourne to catch the ferry home. 

 

4 mile beach and small cruise ship anchored.

These stone formation were and are made by people who stop to do so, we did one year on the way up there.  I recall there is a place to stop/park on a corner not too far from Port Douglas.

Port Douglas on the map is on the right side towards the top where the map narrows.

Cairns Botanical Indoor Garden

  We visited a Butterfly Conservatory in the Cairns Botanical Gardens up north (Australia). Plants sometimes grown indoors in that area were on show, but I didn't take many photos, these are some of them and a chart of the butterflies present and mostly not seen.  A tree in bloom outside too.  Something a little different to show you.

We didn't go any further into the Botanical Gardens even though it was winter it was rather warm at 35 deg C on that day a few years ago.

I borrowed a few butterfly photos.

Ulysses Butterfly

Cruiser Butterfly

Varied Eggfly Butterfly

Red Lacewing Butterfly

Anthurium Flamingo Flower

Spathiphyllum wallisii Peace Lily.