DARWIN

Hokitika Guardian, 10 February 1938, Page 2

DARWIN

AUSTRALIA’S STRANGEST TOWN

It has one foot in the Orient, one in the Australian backblocks.

(By a recent visitor),

The town is tough. The men tun tough. The town is like I imagine Yukon mining towns were. But they cion u carry guns on their hips here. That's the only difference. Pubs are crowded from daylight until 10 at night.

Around the corner in Chinatown there is plenty of pak-a-pu and fan-tan, even opium smoking. You see the old Chinamen padding around in felt shoes, naked babies, women in long trousers, their blacK naudown to the back of their necks.

In a pub in Chinatown I saw little Malay seamen from pearl luggers, laid up during the monsoon, clutching glasses of Victorian beer and singing “The Daring Young Man -on the Flying Trapeze.”

The big-chestecl Japanese divers ao not hang around the pubs.

You will find them sitting under tne huge banyan on the side of the road. The Chinese tailor will make you a white suit in a day and charge you 30/-. If he likes you, he will present you with a couple, of live mud crabs, lie sends down a couple of Boongs rnto the mangroves with them. Boongs are blacks. There are dozens of blacks in the town, dressed in cast--off shirts and singlets, and usually white duck pants. They wear no shoes. Most of them work as houseboys—the worst in the world, they say. They won’t work unless you stand over them. They get 5/- a week. Two goes rnto the abo. trust fund. They get S/- to

spend. This is usually handed out in. two sections—l/6 on Wednesday, the day when the picture theatre is open, and 1/6 on Saturday, when the pictures, are on again.

They all go to the pictures. Some of them are terribly thin and ragged, but the Bathurst and Melville Island boys are big, rugged fellows. These islanders are mad gamblers. At any time of the day (when they should be working at home) you will see a gambling school of about six Boongs in a Paddock,. They play a sort of poker which no white man could understand. They will gamble on anything. A Boong, employed by a man I know, came in the: other day with a handsome five-gallon hat. “Where did you get that fella hat, Peter?” my friend asked.

“Been gamblin’ boss,” said Peter

The next day, he had lost his ?iat, but ho had won five shirts. That afternoon he had six shirts, b’ufc he had lost his trousers. The next day lie had lost the lot.

He came to bis boss. “Givim tshillin’, boss,” be said. He got the shilling. Bncklie came later, Avnving a 10/- note. “Where did you get that fella 10./note?” asks his boss.

“Been gamblin’, boss.” “You takem this fella 10/-. You givim me one fella 9/-.”

lEold on a minute till this thunder stops . . . Ah! three minutes ago,l was closer to lightning that I have ever been. .

A tree 15 yards away was slashed apart from top to root. It uoav lies in two planks beside the verandah where l am sitting.

This is one merry hell of a storm. iSounds as i,f. the Avhole world is being bloAvn up. There’s another flash. It dived into the bush across the road. It clicked like an automatic fuse. Thunder roared on the tail of the click. The house, which is 30 feet up on iron piles, shuddered like a tree belted by an axe. I Avas a bit shaken Avlien I first met this type of storm. But lam used to it uoav.

They come up every day. A howling gust of wind runs before the storm. Sometimes it runs at 90 miles an hour. It tears boughs from trees. Then it fades out.

Then heavy drops of rain pelt down on the roof. They sound like stones. There seems to be one for every yard of tin. They stop. Then there is no movement at all. The trees seem frozen . The air is so still that you feel you are in a vacuum. This lasts for a t'eAv minutes.

Then, crash! The storm leaps down. Lightning. Thunder. A couple of inches of rain.

In a few more minutes the clouds scuttle over the horizon. Then the sun blazes out of a brilliant blue sky. And it’s all over until to-morrow.

This gust of wind that comes before every rain-storm they call “One-Eyed Bob'”

Every time I look at the magnificent harbour here I Avant to go sailing. The harbour is several times the size of Sydney and almost as beautiful.

But there’s that Avind. If you capsize you wouldn’t be too happy. The harbour is full of crocodiles and sharks. You can see the crocodiles sunbathing on sandspits at loiv tide and the sharks cruising around in deep water.

Anyway, the tide puts sailing out.

The ebb tide leaves hundreds of feet of inud exposed. The end of the Avhai'f is in deep water, but the 25 foot drop in the tide leaves the wharf 35 feet above the surface of the water, and there are no steps. Still, I enjoy Lanvin. The toAvn runs entirely on the credit system.

Tl le pubs have cheque forms on all banks lying on the bars. They apparently accept cheques from anybody. It is hard to get anyone to accept cash. They press you to open an ne-

count. 1 was paying a Chinaman for sonus dot has lie made me. Tiill whispered : “Good God, don’t start pay-

ing people cash. You’ll ruin the Avhole credit system ‘of Darivin.” When I arrived I’Kvent down to the railway store to get some baggage left by the Merkur. I found I hadn’t got the Trill of lading Avith me. “Never mind,” they said, “take the baggage. Drop in the bill of lading and pay the charges next,time you pass.” I was getting a driving license. It cost me ten bob. 1 found I had no money on me. “That’s 0.K.,” said the John. “Pay next time you pass.” I was buying petrol. I handed out fifteen bob. The. garage bloke took it reluctantly. He said it was not usual, and Avouldn’t I like to open an account.

Of course, the reason for this is that nobody can beat it from the town. There’s one train to Birdum a week, one boat south, and one to the East a month, and it’s impossible for anyone to sneak aAvay on these or the planes without, being noticed.

Oh, I was invited to a cocktail party at the garrison mess. When I got there I found it a beer party. About forty men and Avomen dressed in whites stood on the verandah of the mess.

Sweating gunners served beer from 28-gallon kegs. Tavo pipers, dressed in khaki shorts and Avliite shirts, paraded up and down the front of the mess. They played “Wearing of the Green,” “Mountains of Morno,” and other Irish songs.

I ahvays thought New Year a Scotch celebration, but the pipers apparently knew no Scotch tunes.

The main problems here are beat, prickly beat, mosquitoes, sandflies. There are no flies.

Other problems, laundry and keeping sober. I dodge the drink by not drinking before sundown. The laundry is not so easy to dodge. I wear about three sets of shirts, shorts, and socks n day. A white suit lasts about four hours.

Mv first laundry bill, at 6d a piece, whether for bandorebiefs or a pair of trousers, ran into thirty-three bob.

But somebody has put me on to a half-caste worn a n who will do the washing for thirty-five bob a month.

This is supposed to be the cheapest in town, and the best.