Suicide Season hits Darwin, most survive

Images by Jan Forrester

I hit Darwin for a quick stopover near the end of the build-up (humidity builds, no rain), just before the monsoon season. Its also known as Mango Madness or the Suicide Season. Time was when local journalists struggling for a real story at year's end, made news of the first unfortunate to top themselves. The buildup is is like walking and breathing under soup. The humidity doesn't hit you, it devours you. This visit I bunk down at my mate Chris' flat near the city centre. Lushness surrounds the block of flats. (The blocks on Darwin's waterfront are, on the other hand, full of 'apartments'). Possum boxes festoon trees in her courtyard. "It keeps the critters out of our roof," Chris says. These flats are 1960s vintage and survived Cyclone Tracy in 1975. This time I ask Chris to show me the block's cyclone shelter on the ground floor; its chock full of furniture. "That will will be shoved against the wall so the bar can be set up in the event of a big blow", Chris says. Darwinites always have a fluid set of priorities. Dusty TV and radios are read to be connected to batteries lying somewhere under the furniture. I'm surprised to hear Chris say that the skyline full of contemporary apartment blocks in Darwin are not required to have cyclone shelters. I guess everyone will get in their cars and head south to the desert, or drive to the giant Parliament House shelter??.

The high humidity and 28-degree heat is bearable. But, after a morning wander along the beach at Fannie Bay I'm ready for a shower and the horizontal position under a fast fan. But we head to the Roma Bar in Cavernagh Street for coffee and Serial Thriller - a mix of Darwin humour and muesli, fruit and yoghurt. Three years between coffees at the Roma Bar. It has moved - across the road and into upmarket digs, with an outdoor balcony, fans buzzing overhead. Owners Patty and Paul changed the coffee scene in Darwin forever when they moved up from Melbourne twenty years ago.

We head off to the Northern Territory Art Gallery to dip into the treasure of bark paintings, pandanus creations then a drink at the open-air Ski Bar next door. After another loll under fans back at the flat we head off into the mildly cooler evening to the Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Club in Francis Street. Unlike the Darwin Sailing Club patrons are allowed to wear shorts and thongs. There are over twenty ships perched on dry land, or 'on the hard' as we walk through to the cavernous, open club facing the Arafura Sea. The fish and salad is a good buy, the live music, open sky and lights on the ocean all add up to a laid back day in Darwin. I've passed through the Suicide Season for one sweaty day and am a thinner person for it.