We've settled into the new spot now although it's a bit more challenging mainly because of the number of dogs around the park. As soon as one of them gets excited they set off the other ones. We decided to leave Rosie in the van for a few hours today to see how she goes.
We went to the War Museum which is out at the end of East Point where the main gun placements were sited. A very interesting collection of memorabilia from the conflict in and around Darwin.
Included a large array of weapons from both sides including this lot from the Japanese.
Also a great deal of information about the time when war came to Australia (the first and only time a government building was damaged on home soil by action of another country) including these details of the ships that were in Darwin Harbour during the initial raid, along with this map of Darwin pinpointing the total 64 raids that occurred over an 18 month period.
Without doubt the first was the most devastating because of the element of surprise. A warning given by observers on Bathurst Island on 19th Feb 1942 was initially ignored as unlikely. Next thing 188 Japanese planes were on top of Darwin letting loose their deadly payloads. Over 240 people were killed that day and a great deal of damaged caused to infrastructure and shipping.
Next outside we saw a large variety of war equipment including the anti-aircraft guns used in Darwin as well as this example of the Japanese bombs used.
Jude had some fun with this Naval Searchlight.
One of the displays was this dummy gun. I'd never realised they had been used but apparently they were constructed of just about anything they could find and placed among real artillery so that enemy aerial reconnaissance would report a larger presence than was actually there. It was said this tactic was used effectively in Darwin.
Next along was the 9" gun - 2 of which were placed at East Point to protect Darwin Harbour. These are very large guns and, as is the way with war, much effort went in to their construction only to become redundant before they could be fired in anger. By the time they were ready for action the ocean bound threat was replaced by the new airborne strategy. Unfortunately these guns were useless against the aircraft.
The displays also include this contraption which hung from the bottom of a bomber and needed to be retracted into the plane during take off and landing then lowered for action. The poor sod who had to curl himself up to get in there needed to wear a special slimline parachute due to the restricted space - definitely not a place for the feint hearted.
After absorbing all of that we made our way to the Darwin Museum and checked out the Cyclone Tracey exhibition. Apart from the reconstruction of a typical 1970s house (it seems weird that such a place now seems so old), I thought this display typified the situation people found themselves in.
The rest of the place held a myriad of natural history displays and an indigenous section. We ran into Peter and Heather in the museum - we previously saw them back at Kulgera on the NT border a few weeks ago. All very interesting until 4 bus loads arrived (one from Toowoomba!) and we thought it time to depart
After so much culture I felt we needed to do something more primal, so I went and bought a couple of lures and Sean and I went fishing off the jetty at Elizabeth River just 10 mins away from our caravan park. Didn't catch anything but enjoyed the time and watching all the boats being deployed for the evening fishing trip.
The Campbells
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