POST-WAR DARWIN BECOMES BUSY AUSTRALIAN AIRPORT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26906, 19 October 1948, Page 5

POST-WAR DARWIN BECOMES BUSY AUSTRALIAN AIRPORT

Written for the Daily Times by Leo White

A cable message printed in the Daily Times yesterday announced that the police had uncovered efforts to sabotage airliners refuelling at Darwin, the busy airport in Australia’s Northern Territory. Some impressions of Darwin as an international airport are contained in this article.

No one worried about Darwin before the war. It was just another lonely outback settlement in the Australian “nev-er-never.” To-day, thanks to the growth of aerial services, it has become Australia’s front door. Since the Japanese showed that it was the most logical entrance for an army bent on conquering Australia and New Zealand, the town has achieved a postwar strategic importance. I spent a week in Darwin recently, and what I saw convinced me that in the very near future the town will become one of the busiest airports in Australia. Already it is the main inward Customs airport from the East, and is an important stopping place for the Qantas air service, which links with British Overseas Airways Corporation flying boats at Karachi. Darwin was heavily bombed during the war, and an area closely settled by Chinese is now no more. Weeds have taken the place of buildings which were completely destroyed. There are a few pearling luggers in the harbour, but not many, and it is said that Chinese residents now own the best business houses. That may be so, but there are still numbers of Australians and aboriginals to make up a very busy town. There are tar-sealed roads along which run bus services to the suburbs. The taxis are modern. There is ample water, and hydrants are dotted along roads in the settled areas. Hotels are doing a good trade when they can obtain their supplies of beer. The bars close at 9 p.m. The Darwin Hotel is a modern twostorey structure. Qantas and TransAustralia Airlines have their main offices in the foyer, which makes the hotel a very busy spot. The largest Darwin hotel cannot accommodate all the transient air travellers, so Qantas has established their own accommodation quarters. This is Qantas Berrimah, a lovely spot nine miles from the town. Berrimah is fully equipped, even with children’s playgrounds, a swimming pool and tennis courts. There is also a large aviary, with all the colourful birds of the Northern Territory included in the collection. Great things are planned for the future. The Government has longrange plans for the development of the Northern Territory as a whole. Cattle men are taking the place of pearlers in bringing wealth to Darwin. There is talk of using huge Diesel trailers capable of bringing in over a hundred head of cattle at a time. Memories of plans connected with the meat industry are the huge Vestey works, where it'is said that £1,000,000 or more was lost in a project which failed owing to labour difficulties. There is a railway which goes somewhere once a week, but nobody seems to know just how far and for how long. Air transport is the thing m Darwin, and aircraft fly across the Continent to the east and west, while the air resounds night and day with

the roar of engines belonging to the aircraft of many nations. Tourist buses bring regular quotas of sightseers from as far south as Adelaide, and there are popular airland coach tours which give people a week-end in Darwin from as far as 2000 miles away. Everybody dresses well in Darwin. There are plenty of aboriginals around, many of the girls dressing well in modern frocks and matching the white girls in smartness. Aboriginal mothers with babies in modern babywear are to be seen going to the hospital, where there are regular Plunket days. The waterfront/is still a colourful place but there are few of the characters that one would expect to find after reading the tourist booklets. The wharf was severely bombed during the war and has been put into commission again with the aid of Bailey bridges. The greatest activity on the harbour occurs with the regular arrivals and departures of Eqipire flying boats. Instead of a lugger at the wharf there are Australian Civil Aviation control launches and big powered refuelling barges. When a ship is in, traffic to and from the wharf moves with great rapidity, but so does the traffic anywhere in Darwin. It must be the fastest in the world. On the roads are many navy trucks with red flags denoting that they are carrying bombs for disposal. Every now anc again, out in the country, there is a real “blow out” as the navy continues its work of destroying these missiles of war. Gold miners stand by after every explosion hoping to find colour in the rubble There is entertainment in Darwin, with occasional music recitals on the beach, where there is a bandstand. The local theatre is very popular. The stage and the screen are in the open, and so are the front stalls. The circle and back stalls are covered, as the wet seasons are really very wet. The sky over the screen is real and so are the small boats moving on the harbour beyond, while cars travelling along the street behind the theatre give an unusual effect. Hunting buffalo is a local sport. An ancient Rolls Royce stripped and with the sign “Wild Man River Safari ” is often seen in the streets of Darwin and effectively indicates that one organisation is catering for the hunters with the world’s greatest car. Aerial sightseeing is another feature, with flights over herds of wild buffalo and crocodiles. One of the pilots of the aerial sightseeing organisation is an ex-pearling lugger captain, an (exairline captain and now a cattle rancher, but he still likes flying. Taking off from Darwin airport in a small machine is quite an adventure, as the birport used is one of the enormous war-time strips where taxiways almost form a maze, The Salvation Army and the Flying Doctor have their own aircraft at Darwin.