O-Week in Darwin

This year, as part as my medical residency, I am going to work as a doctor in Oenpelli, West Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. This is an optional rotation that I applied for. I could have stayed in Melbourne, enjoying all the fabulous benefits of living in Fitzroy and working at the tertiary hospital that is the Royal Melbourne. But instead I elected to journey to the Top End and work in an Aboriginal Health Centre for the hottest and wettest time of the year. Friends and family have asked for regular updates, photos and stories from the trip and I’ve decided that a blog is the way to go (despite never having written or even read a blog before). The next three months will be all about trying new things and stepping out of my comfort zone- so blogging is my first example.

Week one has been spent in Darwin completing orientation week. The trip was off to a great start thanks to the friendly Qantas baggage staff. The man in charge kindly explained that I had obviously brought too much luggage and would need to pay a fee. He exclaimed- “you have two bags and can only have one”. I answered “I could have put it all in one but then I couldn’t have lifted it- I thought two was a smarter decision”. He agreed but said that I couldn’t lift it because together my bags were 9kg over the limit (and would thus still incur a fine). I saw his point but explained that I was moving to Arnhem Land for 3 months and that I had to take all my clothes, toiletries and most of my food. He was impressed then by my packing and my solo adventure and found a way for me to take all my luggage fee-free. Legend!

"Cock-a-doodle-doom" was the title for this front
page news story featured in The Territorian.

I arrived at the airport and caught my first of many taxis. My drivers have been from places like East Africa, the Phillipines, Sri Lanka and Samoa, which seems pretty typical for the Darwin population. When visiting the local Rapid Creek markets you could have been forgiven for thinking you were in a tropical Asian country. There were stalls of Asian style vegetables, tropical juice stands and bubble teas, massage spruikers on the street and a large selection of sun burnt Aussies with poorly considered tattoos and Bintang singlets. The food was outstanding- one morning I had a traditional Sri Lankan breakfast of an egg hopper with chicken and green bean curry. Delicious!

I’ve needed taxis here as Darwin is incredibly spread out. For a city of 100,000 people (similar to Ballarat), it can take 30 minutes in a car to get from the suburbs to the city. And walking or cycling is not a good option due to extreme heat. In the build up to the wet season the humidity and temperature are high (e.g. 90% and 34‘C). Sweating is the norm here and I’ve learnt to just focus on the skin benefits of my healthy glow. I’m also appreciating the ultra chilled glassware that you’re beverages are served in at all cafes and restaurants. 

Drinks at the Darwin Sailing Boat Club

Orientation was at times quite bland including sessions on medicare and computer data entry but, as I’m learning, Territorians are very keen to educate you on why the NT is the best place in Australia to live and work while at the same time warning you of the extreme dangers and risks involve being here. Orientation was mostly about crocodiles with every presentation containing photos, newspaper clippings, horror stories and tales of heroism. They did everything to warn us of the dangers of the saltwater crocodile (turns out I’ve already swum with freshwater crocs on Saturday in one of the National Parks). The message was weakened slightly though after they recommended drinks at the NT water-ski club where they regularly ski in an area where 250 crocs have been removed this year alone! We also heard about snakes, buffaloes, camels, leeches, mould, cheeky dogs, dingoes, irukandji and box jelly fish. However perhaps the most emphatically delivered warning was also the most surprising- “don’t have sex in the Northern Territory, whatever you do!”. This was followed by horrendous statistics on the rates of sexually transmitted infections in the NT.

Wangi Falls, Litchfield National Park

The highlights for the week were obviously not in the classroom. My good friend, and culinary expert, Emma Schimann acted as a wonderful tour guide and successfully showed us the best Darwin has to offer in terms of fine food and cultural attractions. Pop-up Italian food on the ocean foreshore, the Darwin deck-chair cinema, Hanuman restaurant (an unusual yet seamless fusion of Thai and Indian), the NT art gallery/ museum and stunning Litchfield National Park. As mentioned earlier, here we swam in beautiful rock pools, under 20 metre high waterfalls and walked through monsoon forests. Absolutely beautiful and only slightly terrifying at the same time. 

I am now travelling along the Arnhem Highway in a vintage mini-bus that is towing a trailer containing only my luggage. It’ll take 4 hours to get to Jabiru in Kakadu National Park. At the bus stop I’ll be met by the pilot of my private charter plane. I will then fly over some spectacular scenery (hopefully) to Oenpelli in West Arnhem Land- home for the next three months. I’m becoming apprehensive as I travel further from civilisation and all my usual comforts. I’m also excited and looking forward to whatever this experience has in store. Here we go!