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Darwin, the place to be...

by Lachlan Read
(Perth, WA, Australia)

Read all the stories on this site and loved them all and even though, for me, I didn't arrive in Darwin with my family until 1979.
I was only 2 years old in that year when we arrived from Canberra with my parents and my 2 older brothers, we initially lived in Nakara until my father had built our home in Wagaman, right opposite the primary school.

I spent a grand total of 29 years in Darwin, eventually leaving in 2008 for the Gold Coast, but once a Darwinite always a Darwinite, although I can tell you, no matter how long you live there you never get used to the heat and humidity, even after 29 years...the aircon was my best friend.

In the 80's and going into the 90's were the best times one could have and being in Darwin was the cherry on the cake...from having Pauls Iced Coffee to salty plums and dried mango from the corner store.
In the earlier years we still had the Nightcliff Drive In, which is now the site of Woolworths I believe, and that was an amazing place to go friday or saturday nights with the family.

The storms we would get in Darwin were amazing and if at the right times of the year could last for days at a time, some being even electrical storms which displayed the most stunning lightning shows I have ever seen, even to date.
Unfortunately, with many of these storms would come hand in hand the power outages, and some of these had a tendency of happening around midnight and lasting till after the sun had come up, such were the days back then.

I always loved Casuarina Shopping Square, the only place you could really go for entertainment, best place to go when wagging school :)
Went up there a few years ago and amazingly of every store in the entire complex, Kmart is the only store that still lingers from the 80's.

At the end of the day, Darwin used to be an awesome and laid back town with characters living there you would never find the likes of anywhere else...even now I have nostalgic flashbacks and still desire to travel back there more often than I have.