Who named Darwin Harbour?

Lieutenant John Lort Stokes of HMS Beagle named it Port Darwin on 9 September 1839, after his former shipmate Charles Darwin, who never visited.

How many ships were sunk in the bombing of Darwin?

Nine vessels were sunk in the raids that began on 19 February 1942, including the destroyer USS Peary, and 25 were damaged.

How big are the tides in Darwin Harbour?

The maximum tidal range is about 7.8 m; spring tides average about 5.5 m and neap tides about 1.9 m.

Twice a day…

Eight Metres: Darwin Harbour. the Tide

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-- mRight now, at Darwin.Scroll to begin ↓

I · Country

Long before it had an English name, this water was Larrakia country.

The Larrakia people lived around the harbour and the greater Darwin region, moving through it by canoe to fish and trade. Their trading routes reached Southeast Asia, and songlines tied the coast to country far inland.

II · A name from a ship

1839

On 9 September 1839, HMS Beagle sailed into the harbour.

Lieutenant John Lort Stokes named it after Charles Darwin, his old shipmate from the Beagle's earlier voyage around the world. Darwin himself never came here. The name arrived on a chart long before any town did.

III · A town on the edge

Thirty years later, the British came back to stay.

Keep scrolling: the story moves sideways here, the way the town grew along the harbour.

1869

Palmerston

On 5 February 1869 surveyor George Goyder landed 135 men and women at Port Darwin and laid out a town called Palmerston.

1872

The wire to the world

An undersea cable from Java came ashore here in November 1871. A year later the 3,200-kilometre Overland Telegraph Line reached Port Augusta, and Australia was wired to the world.

1911

Palmerston becomes Darwin

In 1911 the town took the harbour's name, and the Northern Territory passed from South Australia to the Commonwealth.

IV · Thursday 19 February 1942

08:45

Four Japanese aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū, launch their aircraft. The last are airborne by 8:45 am.

0 / 81Nakajima B5N “Kate”level bombers

0 / 71Aichi D3A “Val”dive bombers

0 / 36Mitsubishi A6M “Zero”fighter escort

0aircraft over Darwin

The harbour was full of ships. Within minutes, it was full of smoke.

Two raids struck that day, by 242 aircraft in all. It was the first and largest of about a hundred air attacks on northern Australia that ran until November 1943.

242aircraft in two raids

≈250people killed, by the official estimate

25ships damaged

19 February 1942, minute by minute

Four Japanese aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū, launch their aircraft. The last are airborne by 8:45 am.
188 aircraft in formation: level bombers, dive bombers and a fighter escort.
Over the coast, the strike force turns to attack from the south.
9:58 am. Sixty-five Allied warships and merchant ships are in the harbour. Bombs fall on the wharf and the ships at anchor.
Then the town, the RAAF base and the civil aerodrome. The bombers turn for home at about 10:10.

The nine ships lost in Darwin Harbour

USS Peary: US Navy destroyer · 88 of her crew were lost
MV Neptuna: cargo ship · exploded at Stokes Hill Wharf; 45 killed
USAT Meigs: US Army transport · one of 66 aboard killed
SS Zealandia: troopship · her wreck lies 19 m down
SS Mauna Loa: cargo ship · two bombs through an open hatch
MV British Motorist: oil tanker · two of 61 crew killed
HMAS Mavie: wooden patrol lugger, built 1903 · all four crew survived
Kelat: an 1881 iron sailing ship, by 1942 a coal hulk · machine-gunned in the raid, she sank at her mooring days later
Karalee: a 31-metre harbour lighter · lost after the raid; her wreck has never been found

Below the surface

Nine ships went down in and around the harbour.

Scroll down through the water

V · Christmas Eve 1974

217km/h

Cyclone Tracy is coming.

66lives lost, 45 on land and 21 at sea

70%+of Darwin's buildings destroyed, including 80% of houses

35,362people evacuated in six days, most of them by air

Around 3:30 on Christmas morning, the eye crossed the coast near Fannie Bay.

About 47,000 people lived in Darwin that night. By New Year most of them had been flown or driven out of a city that was mostly gone. The Darwin you see today is the city they came back and rebuilt.

VI · The eight-metre breath

2.0 m

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7.8 mlargest range ever recorded here

5.5 maverage spring tide

1.9 maverage neap tide

VII · Tonight on the harbour

The sun sets over the water.

The harbour still breathes twice a day, as it did for the Larrakia, for Stokes, and on the morning of the raid. Watch it from the shore: saltwater crocodiles live here all year, and stingers are common from about October to May.

Not for swimming. Not for navigation. For boating, use the Bureau of Meteorology tide tables.

Live tide · Darwin

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Water is--

Twice a day the harbour forgets, and remembers.