alternatehistory.com

With miles of tropical beaches, some of the finest Chinese, Thai and Indian restaurants in the world along Mitchell Street, the only Chinese opera house in the world outside China itself, the spiraling emerald pagoda of the Ho Tower and the spectacular views afforded from its hundredth-floor observation deck, you wouldn't think Darwin would have any trouble attracting tourists… and you'd be half right. Young people flock to the Lightning City from all over Australia, either to experience its nightlife and culture or to find work in the burgeoning tech industry that's raising rents all over the business district.

But I've found most older tourists have the wrong idea of this place. In the case of the oldest of them, their impressions of the city were formed during the late forties and early fifties, when Larrakia was still known by the incredibly dull name of "Northern Territory." They think of it as a giant, crowded refugee camp full of people from China, India and everywhere in between, caught between the old "White Australia" policy, the tyranny of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and the occasional tropical storm. They think of it as a place administrated by the U.S. Navy and the Red Cross or not at all, with a tiny population of white Australians huddled in their old neighborhoods, waiting for everybody else to go away again.

I was one of those "original" Darwinians. I have vivid memories of my parents warning me not to have anything to do with the teeming hordes in the apocalyptic wasteland outside lest I be addicted, kidnapped or possibly eaten… and then hiring people from those same hordes to cook and clean and look after me. Those people often had children of their own, in whose company I snuck out to explore the "wasteland" every chance I got. Looking back, I can see that it really was a dreadful place, but I was a child getting my first impression of what a city was supposed to look like. Having grown up with that and seen what Darwin has become, forgive me if I'm a bit of a booster.

Less venerable tourists first learned about Darwin from the 1973 blockbuster Cyclone City. These people think of it as a city full of ethnic gangs, crime and intrigue, where everybody's either smuggling heroin into Australia or trying to fund the liberation of their homeland from the Japanese. (And — though they try not to say so out loud — they think of it as a place where even the architecture looks foreign and the few white people not in naval uniform stick out like sore thumbs.) I have to say heroin was and is still a major business in Darwin, although the city has always been more of a transshipment point than a market — even a city of over three million can't use that much. And yes, a lot of the money from that illicit business did go into weapons and communications for the various liberation movements throughout East Asia. But you know what? The Co-Prosperity Sphere has been gone for fifteen years as of this writing. You're welcome, world.

But let's talk about the present day. Yes, there's still a naval base in the middle of the waterfront, and almost everyone in the city would very much like it to stay there. For a lot of people, that's part of the appeal. Here are beaches where your children can see an aircraft carrier come into port, or where a young lady can flirt with actual Navy SEALs (or possibly actual Navy supply officers claiming to be SEALs — bit of a calculated risk).

Yes, the architecture of modern Darwin is a blend of traditional Chinese and Indian styles, and it owes very little to the dreary or unsettling forms that have taken over the cities of Europe and America since the Soviet War. This is just how we like it.

Yes, one or two tourists have suffered misfortune in the tiger and rhino preserves. Here's a hint. These places are refuges for wild animals. If you remember this and stay on your side of the fence, you can appreciate the hard-work that many Chinese-Australians have put into saving these magnificent species from extinction at the hands of the Chinese traditional medicine market. If you treat these places as petting zoos, don't expect any sympathy. Not in a city that is literally named after Charles Darwin.

And yes, with the rise of the tech industry and the "discovery" of my hometown by young tourists, the best restaurants and hotels are getting a little expensive. Not to worry. There are still plenty of places where you can get a good meal and a comfortable room on a budget, and some of the most interesting things to see and do won't set you back at all…