Thursday, September 26, 2019

Darwin, Australia - April 2019

A weekend trip to Darwin by Jetstar. Travelling by plane is my only vice when it comes to the climate emergency.


I commute to work usually by bus and train, I don't eat meat and I consume very little dairy - usually only when travelling and even then only when it is part of some vegetarian meal (being 100% vegan is hard), solar panels on the roof of my house produce 50% more electricity than our family uses.

Going by train from Gold Coast to Darwin (Gold Coast to Brisbane, Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Adelaide, Adelaide to Darwin) would take minimum 4 days, and it would be a 5400 km trip on mostly diesel powered trains, including The Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin which costs minimum $2349 per person, one way, in low season.

It is about 2900 km by plane. I'm looking forward to the day when we have commercial electric planes. Meanwhile, to offset this trip I used https://co2.myclimate.org to calculate CO2 amount: 5900 km, two people: 2.0t. Then, using the most conservative calculation - one year of carbon abatement: 22 kg of CO2 per tree (Quora - How many trees do I need to plant to offset the carbon dioxide released in a flight?) gives the number of 91 trees. Now, for somebody to plant them you can go to:
https://www.trilliontreecampaign.org/donate-trees where prices start from 0.10 USD per tree for the Eden Reforestation Projects. Tree survival rate for this project is 80%, so we need to plant 114 trees, which is only $11.40 USD. This is probably the cheapest you can find nowadays.

Darwin is a city of 145 thousand people. 
The airport and the RAAF base dominate Darwin. The Darwin City is the small area in the lower left part of this map. 


Parap was the site of the original Darwin airport. The new, much bigger one was built on swamps east-north of Parap.

Approaching Darwin CBD by car
The ABC
A small city Park
Street-scape
Harbour

View from the museum
NT Parliament


Street art in Parap

Parap markets - ban fracking, legalise marijuana.

Parap markets - that's how bamboo should be spelled! There was another stall with the name OSSOM :-)





Aboriginal experience

Goulburn islanders attending a mass at Arnhem Land in 1917

Aboriginal identity disc

Dog tag

Impossible land to master



Chinese men transporting their catch from a fish trap near Darwin in 1914

Sick and elderly Chinese men awaiting deportation from Darwin in 1914



Daily life








Transport





Enlisted Territorians 

End of war

German loses



Uprising over price of liquor

Strikes
Union power


Housing
Bark hut

Tin hut
Worker houses




Multicultural






Mining subsidies

Alfred Deakin

Under federal government


Port Darwin



Original box for "motor spirit"
CycloneTracy

Vietnamese refugees


The actual Vietnamese refugee boat


Meteorites


Green/orange ants

It was so much cooler/nicer in this park

War memorial



A plaque to Americans who died defending Australia




LNG terminal

A WW2 mural on a public toilet wall


Building an underground parking near NT Parliament





No shade. Hot

Vines not climbing fast enough

This tree needs more space for roots

Darwin is hot, always

The bombing of Darwin in 1942


These ceremonial poles reminded me of the Easter palm trees in Christian tradition





Desert Rose


Mindil beach