GATEWAY TO THE TOP END
The City of Darwin sprawls across a broad peninsula facing Beagle Gulf, which separates the mainland from Bathurst and Tiwi Islands. With a population of around 148,000, it is the Northern Territory’s most densely populated area and supports the largest concentration of commerce and industry in the Top End.
Darwin International Airport and RAAF Base Darwin lie roughly in the centre of the peninsula, with the central business district to its south, the residential suburbs around the shopping precinct of Casuarina to the north, and the main industrial areas to the east, stretching along the Stuart Highway through Winnellie towards the satellite city of Palmerston.
The CBD occupies a low bluff between Fannie Bay and Frances Bay, overlooking Darwin Harbour. Fannie Bay is edged with beaches and recreational reserves, while wharves, slipways, and marinas face Frances Bay and extensive mangrove forests on the other side of Sadgroves Creek.
The southeastern end of the CBD runs into the bustling Waterfront Precinct. This billion-dollar redevelopment of the Stokes Hill wharf area encompasses the multi-purpose Convention and Exhibition Centre, hotels, residential apartments, and public spaces that include barbecue and picnic areas, a recreation lagoon, water park, and open entertainment facilities.
“The harbour and its estuaries are fringed by extensive tidal mudflats and mangrove forests, backed by savanna woodlands and patches of monsoonal rainforest”
THE DYNAMIC CLIMATE
Like much of the Top End, Darwin experiences a tropical monsoonal climate with distinct wet and dry seasons, and a year-round average
