In 2005 I updated and rewrote the introductory chapters for LP’s Northern Territory & Central Australia guidebook: 10,000 words all up. Here are some excerpts.

Selected material by Simon Sellars from Northern Territory 4, Lonely Planet Publications, March 2006.

NORTHERN TERRITORY: HISTORY

Rock Art, Sea Slug & Eunuchs: Early Settlement
The first human contact with Australia began around 60,000 years ago, when Aborigines from what we know as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea made the journey across the straits; this is the world’s longest continuous cultural history. Some theories suggest that as little as three to five couples made the trip.

The first visitors found a relatively non-threatening environment, inhabited by just a few carnivorous predators. Within a few thousand years, Aborigines were able to populate much of Australia, although the central regions were not occupied until about 24,000 years ago.

The physical landscape tells the story through archaeological evidence, including artefact scatters, rock art sites and shell middens. At Kakadu and Uluru national parks, there are camp sites and rock quarries where stone tools where made; Kakadu also has some spectacular rock art, dating back thousands of years and presenting a graphic insight into past societies.
The Chinese eunuch Admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He) may have been the first non-Aboriginal visitor to northern Australia. In the 15th century Zheng reached Timor, and – so the theory goes – it’s therefore plausible he also made it to Australia (although some say he may not have had enough seamen to make two stops). In 1879 a small, carved figure of the Chinese god, Shao Lao, was found lodged in the roots of a banyan tree in Darwin. That’s the Smoking Gun, the pro-Zheng camp says – the carving apparently dates from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).

There’s evidence to suggest that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to sight Australia’s north coast, sometime in the 16th century. Then, we know for sure, came the Dutch, sailing northwest from the foot of the Gulf of Carpentaria to make landfall at Groote Eylandt and Cape Arnhem. The storied Dutch navigator, Abel Tasman, sailed the entire north coast from Cape York to beyond the Kimberley in WA.

Other visitors to the north were Macassan traders from the island of Celebes (now called Sulawesi), who came for trepang (sea cucumber) in the 17th century. The Macassans were from a parallel universe to your typical plundering European, setting up camps for three months at a time, gathering and curing trepang, and trading dugout canoes, metal items, food, tobacco and glass objects with the Aboriginal people. There were a large number of interracial relationships, and some Aboriginal people even journeyed to Macassar (on Celebes) to live. In 1906 government regulations banned the Macassans from further trading, but as a model for international relations, the nature of the symbiosis between Macassans and Aboriginals is certainly due for a revival.

NORTHERN TERRITORY: ABORIGINAL ART

Indigenous art dates back at least 30,000 years and includes rock carvings (petroglyphs), body painting and ground designs. Early art was based on the Dreaming – the Creation – when the earth was formed by struggles between powerful supernatural ancestors such as the Rainbow Serpent, the Lightning Men and the Wandjina. The Dreaming can relate to a person, an animal or a physical feature, or it can be more general, relating to a region, a group of people, or natural forces such as floods and wind.
Body art, another important form of creative expression, is often combined with dance. For example, the Gunwinggu men of west Arnhem Land use a design of intricately patterned crisscross lines on their torsos, given to them by their giant ancestor Luma Luma. The decaying body of Birrkilli, the sacred whale of the Girrkirr clan, gave them the colours and diamond patterns used in their rituals.

NORTHERN TERRITORY: THE CULTURE

Regional Identity
To the outside world, the Northern Territory has never really had a proper identity. First, it was considered too tough to settle; then it was annexed by South Australia and eventually ditched like some kind of ugly duckling; then it was under military control; then the Federal government, in the immediate post-war period, ignored it. It only became self-governing in 1978. On top of that, it’s not even a ‘state’, it’s a territory – an ‘in-between state’ – and that seems a bit wishy-washy. Doesn’t it?

Well, no. Territorians are proud of their rugged individualism, proud of their ability to make a go of it in Australia’s harshest terrain, where generations before have failed. Territorians point to the struggles of the past as a badge of pride, and there’s a palpable sense that the place is remarkably different from the mainstream of Australian society. Some Territorians go further, seeing themselves as a separate nation to the rest of Australia.

In fact, Darwin is closer to Jakarta than Sydney and has subsequently developed a distinctive cultural hybrid of Australian, Indigenous and Asian influences. Whereas the term ‘Territorian’ may have excluded ethnic groups in the past, now it’s being reclaimed to embrace the Territory’s diverse multiculturalism; 17% of the Territory’s population was born overseas, and many of this sector’s children and grandchildren continue to identify with their forebears’ tradition. The local politicians are even starting to talk of how the Territory is more a part of Southeast Asia than Australia – a model that’s held up as the way forward for the rest of the country.

The Northern Territory also has Australia’s largest Indigenous population – 28% are of Aboriginal heritage. There’s been cautious recognition by white Territorians of the importance of this heritage, and tribal law – which had been outlawed by white-Australian laws – has begun to be reinstated in some areas.

Lifestyle
As you can imagine, there’s not a great deal of urban living here (except for Darwin, of course); if you’re coming from Melbourne, don’t expect your coffee to be a macchiato and if arriving from Sydney, get ready for more of a tan than even the hottest Double Bay solarium could ever prepare you for.

In the outback, some station properties are around 500km from the nearest doctor, supermarket and school; children might have to sit down in front of a high-frequency (HF) radio transceiver to receive an education. But the strain of outback life has eased somewhat, with developments such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the School of the Air and the expanding national telephone network softening the tyranny of distance.

Despite the population being spread over such a huge area, the sense of community spirit still binds the land, reflected in the turn-out to social functions and to more esoteric pursuits like beer-can regattas and dry-river racing, activities that can only thrive in a place used to making its own fun.

Aboriginal Society
Many Aborigines living an urban life still speak their Indigenous language (or a mix), while retaining knowledge of the environment, bush medicine and food (‘bush tucker’). Across the region traditional rites and ceremonies are being revived.

Indigenous ceremonies revolve around the activities of ancestral beings, prescribing codes of behaviour and responsibilities for looking after the land and all living things. The links between the people and their spirit ancestors are totems; each person has their own totem, or Dreaming, and these take many forms – caterpillars, snakes, fish, birds and so on. Songs tell of how these powerful creator ancestors exert benign or malevolent influences, or of the best places and times to hunt, of where to find water in drought years, or of specific kinship relations and identification of correct marriage partners.

Some areas feature Aboriginal community schools, where pupils are taught in English and their tribal language. Larger towns also have residential colleges for Aboriginal students.

FOOD & DRINK
Australia doesn’t really have a national dish. What we do have, instead, is ‘Modern Australian’, an attempt to classify the unclassifiable. If it’s not authentically French, or Italian, or if it’s a melange of east and west, it’s Modern Australian. Cuisine doesn’t really alter from one region to another, but some influences are obvious, such as the southeast Asian migration to Darwin. For the Northern Territory government, that’s your authentic Australian cuisine right there – inherent in that glorious jumble of Indigenous and multicultural infusions. Accordingly, they’ve initiated a ‘New Tastes of Australia’ branding campaign for local food and produce, inaugurated various festivals including the Northern Territory Seafood Week, and rebranded Darwin as a centre for ‘food tourism’. There may come a day soon when the Territory’s mooted harvesting of magpie geese, freshwater long-neck turtles, crocodiles, mud-mussels and other native wildlife species is embraced by the rest of the country’s culinary scene.

Staples & Specialties
Barramundi is the Territory’s ubiquitous, iconic fish dish and it’s generating a buzz overseas, too – at the recent Danish royal wedding, NT barramundi was served in favour of the traditional Atlantic salmon.

Territorian tiger prawns, yabbies, mud crabs and prawns are delectable, while on a different tack (still aquatic, though) the government is looking to trial, in consultation with Indigenous communities, the culture of trepang (also known as the ‘sea cucumber’ or ‘sea slug’) for Asian food markets. If successful, the trepang would be making a rousing comeback – it’s a symbol of early Indigenous history in the Territory, of cooperation and peace with other cultures.

In Darwin you can wrap your laughing gear around dishes from Indonesia, India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Brazil, Portugal, the Philippines, Laos, Japan, Germany, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Italy, Greece and more.

In some of the flashier restaurants, you might find bush-tomato roesti with munthari chutney, camel-eye fillet salt bush wraps with Borroloola mud crab, Barramundi Moulie, Thai Camel Salad with yam bean and tamarind, or char-grilled kangaroo dusted in wattle seed and native peppers.

Generally, meat, meat and more meat is the go – in the Territory, old habits die hard and cholesterol is for wimps. If you are into dinner-plate sized, inch-thick steaks, you’ve come to the right place. Novelty meats such as kangaroo, camel, crocodile and buffalo also feature prominently, especially in places where gaggles of tourists congregate.

As a rule, outside of Darwin the food scene is pretty much standard – your barramundi will come with chips, or it won’t come at all. You might also find that the croc meat you’ve heard so much about will be crumbed and fried. Alice Springs, Yulara and Kakadu, however, feature restaurants with innovative menus touting many native Australian ingredients, such as wattle seed and quandong.

Drinks
In the Territory, it seems, you can order any type of drink you want – as long as it’s beer. That’s largely due to the climate: after a long, hot day working, walking or driving, a cold ale is almost a necessity, so much so that alcohol consumption here ranks above all Australian states – a recent estimate attributed 1120 standard drinks per Territorian per year, among the world’s highest.

Many roadhouses pride themselves on the variety of beer they stock, but if you’re wondering what to ask for, a 285mL glass of beer is a ‘handle’, a 425mL glass is a ‘schooner’ and a ‘stubby’ is a 375mL bottle with a cap. Most beers have an alcohol content between 3.5% and 5%. That’s less than many European beers but stronger than most North American beer (which, as we all know, is like making love in a canoe). Light beers come in under 3% alcohol.

Well-known beers in the Territory include Fosters, Victoria Bitter (or VB), Melbourne Bitter and Carlton Draught; the only brew indigenous to the Territory is NT Draught, but it’s not terribly popular. The best Aussie beers are produced by the smaller breweries, including Cascade (Tasmania) and Coopers (South Australia). You’ll find Guinness on tap in numerous pubs in Alice and Darwin.

Excessive use of alcohol is a problem in many Aboriginal communities and for this reason many are now ‘dry’; it’s an offence to carry alcohol into these places. The problem has also led to restricted trading hours and even ‘dry days’ in some places.
If you don’t fancy a beer, you could always turn to wine as many Australians have done. Good-quality Australian wines are relatively cheap and readily available. Most wine is sold in 750mL bottles or in 2L and 4L ‘casks’ (a great Australian innovation, sometimes called ‘Chateau Cardboard’, or ‘goonies’).

White wines are almost always consumed chilled; in summer or in the outback many people chill their reds, too. Australia also produces excellent ports (perfect for around the campfire) and superb muscats, but average sherries.

But the Territory always has to do things different, and in the case of wine it really has no choice; the harsh climes make grapevines a non-starter. Instead, while you’re here, try some mango wine – from the Kakadu Mango Winery, for example. The extra-dry variety complements spicy dishes, while sweet mango wine is terrific with desert.