Description

----- Take your budget further and get 5% off when you use the code WELWIKI5 on your booking through the link on WikiCamps. Enjoy your experience! ----- This half-day experience takes in significant war history sites and includes both land-based sights around Darwin city and sea sites on Darwin Harbour. Using local amateur historians as your guides and real-time commentary, you will hear the stories of Darwin's front-line activity, starting with the WWII history and the Bombing of Darwin and tracing developments up to the modern day. In February 1942, Darwin sat at the top of Australia as a small insignificant port and forgotten military base. But all that changed on the day of the 19th when the Japanese attacked Australia with two successive air raids killing at least 243 people. The city was destroyed, along with many allied aircraft and ships. Today Darwin has recovered to be a vibrant city, but there are still scars to share with the world. Start your journey in an air-conditioned vehicle to Charles Darwin National Park to see bunkers and other WWII relics. Then you'll visit the acclaimed Defence of Darwin Museum and join an immersive, interactive, multimedia experience that tells more about this extraordinary chapter in Australia's military history. The last land stop is the East Point Military precinct, which is also rich in military history and WWII relics. For the final leg of the tour, you'll take to the water on a 1 hr Bombing of Darwin Cruise on Darwin Harbour. It covers the historic Stokes Hill and Fort Hill wharf areas, the Pearling Luggers, wreck sites of the SS Neptuna and USS Peary, the old flying boat base at Doctors Gully and HMAS Coonawarra before arriving at Cullen Bay, where you will see the gun emplacements from the water. The cruise and the tour conclude at Dock 2, Stokes Hill Wharf.