Darwin: Australia in Its Most Concentrated Form?

Darwin: Australia in Its Most Concentrated Form?
The fact that Darwin is geographically closer to Jakarta than Sydney; the fact
that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 29 percent of the Northern Territory’s population, compared with 2.4 percent of the country’s population over all; the fact that it’s at the center of a military apparatus that includes air cover, naval assets and — for the next six months, 1,250 American marines — all make Darwin unlike any place I’ve ever visited.
______ On Dec. 26, 1974, a New York Times correspondent based in Sydney came to Darwin and wrote an article about a Christmas Day cyclone
that "struck at a time when this northern city was striving to shake off the rough frontier reputation that had clung to it since its founding in 1869." Earlier this month, that Timesman, Ian Stewart, died.
______ I’ve always loved border towns and military towns — both are one 2 a.m. away from a scary or magnificent surprise —
and Darwin is that rare example of a city that’s both.
I’m here interviewing American and Australian military officials for a story about the status of
that alliance, but as a first-time visitor to Darwin and the Northern Territory more generally, I’m struck by the degree to which this place feels like Australia in its most concentrated form.
This place looks to me like a hothouse theater for many of the issues we hope to explore more deeply in Australia — especially Australian identity
and Australia’s sense of its place in the world; and its relationship to the land and its history.
Michael Maher, an NYT Australia reader and a fellow journalist, was driving through rural New South Wales a few weeks ago,
and saw a sign in Braidwood for an elaborate re-enactment of the capture of the Clarke brothers, those notorious rogues who are nonetheless nowhere near as notorious as Ned Kelly.
"Manipulating and winning elections has become a kind of exploit in the rules of political legitimacy — a way for would-be
autocrats to hack the system," writes Amanda Taub in this sharp examination of a disturbing global trend.