Darwin, a small yet cosmopolitan city, is the tropical capital city of the Northern Territory. People from more than 50 nations make up its population of 110,000. It is located on the Northern Territory coast, with the Timor Sea to the west, and the Arafura Sea to the north in Indonesian waters. Darwin has a relaxed lifestyle and unique multiculturalism, where people from over 50 different cultures live and work side by side. The regular Asian-style markets form an intrinsic part of the everyday Darwin landscape, for local residents see food, music, language, and culture from just about every Asian nation, alongside "crocodile hunters", local Aboriginal artists, musicians of every genre, sports fishing operators, sunset sails, and families with children playing on the beach. Darwin's unique cosmopolitan makeup has been recognised as an "multicultural icon of national significance" by the Australian National Trust. Darwin was first named in 1839 by John Lort Stokes during the third voyage of the Beagle. It was named after his former shipmate and famous naturalist Charles Darwin. Darwin's development was accelerated by the discovery of gold at Pine Creek, about 200  km south of the city in 1871. After the gold rush Darwin's growth slowed mainly due to the harsh, tropical climate, distance and poor communications with other Australian cities. The Second World War put Darwin back on the map when the town became an important base for Allied action against the Japanese in the Pacific. The road south to the railhead at Alice Springs was surfaced, putting the city in direct contact with the rest of the country. Modern Darwin is one of Australia's most cosmopolitan cities, more open to Asia than perhaps any other Australian city. It plays an important role as the door to Australia's northern region. Natural wonders such as Kakadu, Katherine Gorge, and Litchfield are all within driving distance from the city and still contain near pre-colonial populations of crocodiles, goannas, snakes and wallabies. Today Darwin is a fast growing regional centre that has unique history, culture and adventure. Darwin's tropical climate has two major seasons: the 'dry', from about May to October, and the 'wet', from November to April. There is also the 'build up', the time from the end of the dry, leading into the wet when the humidity rises, but the rain doesn't fall. The arrival of the wet is always a welcome break from the buildup. Darwin is also the only Australian capital city to have come under substantial attack during a war. On 19 February 1942, Japanese planes made two major air raids on Darwin from the aircraft carrier fleet that had attacked Pearl Harbor less than 3 months earlier. These were the first of 64 air attacks sustained by the city during World War II, the last being on 12 November 1943. QUESTIONS? We would like to hear from you! If you have any comments or questions about this destination or just need some general travel advice, feel free to leave a comment below! ABOUT VideoVoyage.TV is a travel channel specializing in informative videos about various travel destinations around the world. We are publishing a short video every day starting with places around Southeast Asia, but planning to extend our coverage to Europe and the Caribbean in the upcoming months. SUBSCRIBE http://www.youtube.com/videovoyagetv?sub_confirmation=1 CONNECT Website: http://videovoyage.tv Google+: http://google.com/+videovoyagetv Twitter: http://twitter.com/videovoyagetv Instagram: http://instagram.com/videovoyagetv Tumblr: http://videovoyagetv.tumblr.com Facebook: http://facebook.com/videovoyagetv YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/videovoyagetv

• published: 20 Jul 2014
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