Top 10 things to do in Darwin for FREE

With a family of young children, it’s always great to go out for the day without it costing an arm and a leg. Although plenty of people do go paddling or walk barefoot on wet sand on Darwin’s beaches, please be aware of the possibility of box jellyfish (stingers) at any time of year. Also, be mindful of crocodiles – they can appear on beaches, especially near creeks.

Some areas are also of cultural significance to the Larrakia people, so please check beforehand that where you want to go and what you want to do will not offend. The NT Government has many maps available, so google before you go.

Walking

Darwin city has 70km of dedicated shared walking and cycling pathways. As such, the choices on where to go for a walk are enormous and very varied. In addition to trails, the beaches are great to walk along. Early morning and late afternoon are best suited for this, and many of the locals with their dogs can be seen walking along the various beaches. Some of the best options for a good long walk on the beach are from the mouth of Rapid Creek to Lee Point. This section provides 6km of uninterrupted beach walk (not always accessible on very high tides), and then a further 1.5km is accessible from Lee Point to Buffalo Creek. Larrakia people maintain links with the land, and Darriba Nungalinya (Old Man Rock), visible at low tide, is sacred and should not be disturbed.

Download the apps as a guide and take a meander through the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens – where there is a collection of Baobabs from Africa and Madagascar, in addition to the flora that is native to Australia.

Finally, there is a boardwalk through the mangroves accessible from the car park at the far end of Lake Alexander.

Fishing

Darwin is renowned for its barramundi fishing. Why not give it a go. The best places to try for barra would be any of the creeks flowing into the sea. Buffalo Creek is a top-rated site, as are the rocky outcrops at East Point. If bottom fishing is more your style, then try the Stokes Hill Wharf or the Nightcliff Jetty. However, fish may be lurking anywhere along Darwin’s shoreline.

Cycling

With 70 km of shared walking and cycling path, you are spoiled for choice in Darwin. Due to humidity and heat, early morning and late afternoon are the best times to go out. Popular cycling paths with a great ocean view include the track along the Fannie Bay foreshore, followed by a loop around East Point Reserve. Or start at Nightcliff Jetty cycle along the beachfront and cross over the cycle bridge at Rapid Creek to Dripstone Cliffs. This section has coffee shops and café en route (the Foreshore Café near Nightcliff Pool and Café da la Plage at Casuarina Surf Life Saving Club), so stop for a coffee or healthy snack and catch up with your mates. For a little more adventure, take on the dirt path from Dripstone to Lee Point that ends at Buffalo Creek. Finally, if you like mountain biking, the trails around Charles Darwin National Park are situated halfway along Tiger Brennan rd.

Swimming

Due to the threat of stingers and crocodiles, Darwin’s beaches are seldom used for swimming. A popular swimming place is Nightcliff Beach, located near the Nightcliff pool that is patrolled by the SLSC between June and August (although stingers can be in the sea any time of year and aren’t necessarily visible).

There is also Lake Alexander in East Point Reserve, with its play areas suitable for children, BBQ areas and a convenient car park.

A great family outing is available at Leanyer Recreational Park (or Palmerston Water Park, depending on where you live), which has a lot to offer. It’s all FREE. Take a swim in a large pool with gently sloping edges, children’s paddling pools, a great little children’s water park and three 14m high by 100m long waterslides for older children.

The Markets

Darwin is a melting pot of different ethnic and cultural groups from around the world. This diversity of culture becomes abundantly clear if you visit its markets that provide various cuisines from around the world, fresh, locally grown produce, and diverse arts, crafts, and trinkets. So, take a walk through one of Darwin’s open-air markets and experience its cultural diversity.

• Mindil Beach Sunset Market. Get a takeaway dinner or smoothie to enjoy on the beach as the sunsets. Open Thursday and Sunday evenings, 4pm to 9pm, from April through to October

• Parap Village Market. A place to meet friends over a bowl of laksa. Open every Saturday 8am to 2pm

• Malak Market. Representing clean living, sustainable, environmentally friendly and organic approaches. Open Saturday, 4pm to 9pm from April through to October

• Nightcliff Market. Sunday morning with more arts and crafts. Open Sunday 8am to 2pm

• Rapid Creek Market. The oldest market in Darwin with a strong emphasis on Asian fresh produce and cuisine. Open every Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 2 pm.

Sunsets and Thunderstorms

Darwin is famous for its sunsets, and in the wet season, the incredible thunderstorms add to the visual spectacle. The dry season provides spectacular sunsets due to dust and smoke blown into the sky by south-easterly winds. The Wet comes with its visual spectacle of large cloud formations and, of course, lightning and incredible thunder – a truly magnificent and awe-inspiring sight. Darwin (the unofficial lightning capital of Australia) has recorded 2,700 lightning strikes in one night. So, sit back and admire the sunsets in the Dry and the glory of a tropical storm in the Wet. The best places to view the natural phenomena are:

• Cullen Bay on the grass bank with a picnic or fish and chips

• Fannie Bay at either one of the ski, trailer boat or yacht club bistro

• Nightcliff foreshore option to dine, picnic or do a takeaway as the sunsets

• Dripstone Cliffs – take your picnic

• Mindil Beach, after a meander through the market

• Or even from your back veranda with a cold drink in one hand!

Museums

Explore a museum – consider this option for a midday excursion when the heat and humidity drive you indoors.

• Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, a great place to view regional art, culture and natural history. On permanent display is the history of Cyclone Tracy, Sweetheart the story of a 5.1m crocodile, local fossils, fauna and flora, and maritime vessels from the region. All in an air-conditioned environment. You’ll be charged to enter the special exhibitions.

• Motor Vehicles Enthusiasts Club housed in the 1934 Qantas Hanger. This is home to many privately-owned vintage cars and trucks and one of the largest collections of stationary engines. Open to the public during the week from 8am to 5pm and Saturday mornings. Entry is free, but the public is asked to make a small donation.

• Chung Wah Chinese temple on Wood Street is a very peaceful spot with its enormous, venerable Milkwood tree and Bodhi tree. The associated museum promotes greater awareness and understanding of the long history of the Chinese in the Territory. Open from 10am to 2pm every day except Mondays; costs apply.

Wallabies

Take a late afternoon walk at East Point Reserve and take some great photos of wild wallabies. East Point Reserve still has over 30 hectares of native vegetation that supports 254 vertebrate species, including a wild population of 200 Agile Wallabies. This is one of only a few populations so close to a capital city and provides the perfect environment to see these primarily nocturnal marsupials.

Graffiti Street Art

Urban art or graffiti? Explore what makes urban art and what is considered graffiti with a walk around Darwin. Check out the Darwin Street Art Festival started in 2017 with eight murals, with an additional sixteen murals added in 2018. The location of the murals is to found on their website. Hotspots for Graffiti in Darwin are Austin lane and the surrounding area.

Watching the Fish – and the Dolphins

From Stokes Hill Wharf (which becomes very crowded from early evening during the Dry), you can look over the edge and see large schools of fish feeding below you. Go out for an early evening drink at the wharf and try for a seat next to the edge (with small children, this can be pretty stressful as the barriers are very low). Large schools of Batfish and Diamond Scaled Mullet predominate with Trevally darting in and out. Occasionally giant Groupers are spotted. It’s also a great place to relax and watch the sunset, and if you are lucky, you may see dolphins racing through the water in the early evening.

While Darwin has its own unique fish feeding experience at Doctors Gully, where you can get up close and personal to wild fish, it is not for free.

Other activities that deserve mention in Darwin include:

• A visit to Jingili or Leanyer Skateboard park

• Organise a BBQ at the many free BBQ sites along the Darwin beachfront

• Bird spotting.

References

Photographs

Photo 1
Sweetheart the crocodile at Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia
Jpatokal, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Photo 2
Mindil Beach Sunset markets
Photographs by Gnangarra...commons.wikimedia.org, CC BY 2.5 AU <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

Photo 3
Rapid Creek market
davidfntau. https://www.flickr.com/photos/96936558@N00/8375575209