^{Where the hell is Darwin?}

Darwin is the capital of Australia's Northern Territory and is the most northerly city on the continent. The city is closer to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, than it is to the capital of Australia. Many Darwinians tend to think the Federal Government in Canberra believes that Darwin does in fact belong to Indonesia, or at least if we're not part of Indonesia now we soon will be.

To the north of the city is the Arafura Sea, while to the west is the Timor Sea. During its early years, before roads ventured up to Darwin, the area depended heavily on ships to provide its population with supplies.

Darwin is some 2100 miles from Canberra, 2000 miles from Sydney, 2100 miles from Melbourne and 2000 miles from Adelaide. The vast distances involved are the probable reason behind Australia Posts' reluctance to introduce "Overnight" freight services to Darwin.

The city (I use that word advisedly), sits about 12 degrees south of the equator and is subject to all of those meteorological influences associated with the equator i.e. heat and moisture. Most of the time we're G.M.T. + 8.5 hours, however Darwin runs on "territory time", which is slightly more flexible than G.M.T.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is about 1200 miles away but still in the territory, while Kakadu is a mere 180 miles distant. In the days before political correctness became the norm, distance in the territory was measured by cans of beer i.e. Darwin to Katherine (180 miles) was a "six-pack" journey (six cans), while Darwin to Alice Springs was a couple of cartons (well it is a thousand miles). Today however, distance is measured in kilometres which are not nearly so interesting.