Author Description

White colonials were running the place in the latter years of the nineteenth century. Labourers and wharfies arrived to build Darwin's railway and meatworks, carve out the roads and construct and man the jetty but these blue-collar workers had to be content with sitting one rung down on the social ladder. The Japanese divers and Chinese coolies who also called Darwin home were under them and lower still were the half-castes, often the progeny of the whites who were exploited as cheap slave labour. Our indigenous brothers and sisters had no status at all.Things had to change and they did, at first through the catalysts of football and the union movement. The social barriers began to break down. It took time and it still wasn't a perfect place to live by the time the second world war arrived. Darwin had only just recovered from a damaging cyclone when the Japanese bombed the town. Women and children were sent south again to safer regions as the army moved in, with American and Dutch forces bolstering the Australian troops and changing again the mix of people living there.Post-war, Darwin continued to grow and morph into a city though sadly the original inhabitants continued to lag behind. Tourism boomed and the economy strengthened. Then Cyclone Tracy struck on Christmas Eve in 1974. This is a story of Darwin. A story of determination and resilience, a story of an eclectic mix of people who helped to make the city the vibrant and distinctive place it is today.