Friday, July 01, 2005
Territory Day
Territory Day celebrates the declaration of the Northern Territory as a separate entity (I think) but to Territorians, what it means is crackers; fireworks, lots and lots of fireworks!
They're a mad bunch up here in the far north of Australia.
If I had sound attached to this post, you'd hear a deafening bombardment of whistles, cracks, bangs, pops and downright blasts.
But this year it's relatively quiet around my place.
The first year I lived here, the government put on the official fireworks display from the Casuarina cliffs, just across the water from me. The park opposite my unit was jam packed with people. Family groups, friends and mobs of hoons, each with their own bag of crackers. To amuse themselves while they watched the big starbursts zooming across the bay, they all let off their own fireworks. Having so many people in one place, all letting off fireworks, is a sight to behold, especially when one group decides they are being attacked by a neighbouring group, because then they start deliberately pointing the skyrockets and throwing the biggest bungers at each other.
I can only liken the level of noise and brilliance of the explosions to living in a war zone. It was funny for a while - but when the booms were still echoing off the buildings at 2am, my sense of humour just about deserted me.
The next year the government put on the big display at Mindil Beach but people still came to the park opposite my place and the noise and light show was almost as big as the first year.
Since then the crowds have gradually dwindled and tonight when I got home there appeared to be only a dozen groups in my park.
That was 7.30pm. It's now 10.30pm and still the bangs and shouts, crashes, crackles, whistles and booms are resounding around the unit. Those people sure must have spent a lot of money on fireworks.
The later it gets, the closer and louder the bangs get. I think the stalwarts decide it's even more fun to throw the crackers under the buildings or into the carparks - and these tall unit buildings echo. You can listen to the one cracker six or seven times.
Still, it's quiet here tonight; relatively speaking.
I was in Darwin at 6pm when the fun began and there are more units in taller buildings there. The noise was physically painful.
I saw the giant starbursts of the official display lingering above the palm trees while nearby children scared hundreds of bats out of their feeding grounds with lesser but louder crackers; and they rose in screeching black clouds across the reds, greens and silvers pulsing through the night.
Ah, the first fire engine; probably not the last...and for another week, the shock of a huge bunger thrown into the front garden when you least expect it!
Territory Day! The only place in Australia where people can still burn up thousands of dollars in one night of mayhem while dogs cringe in terror and small children wail with exhaustion, rocked by the rhythm of flashes and crumps and bomb blasts!
They're a mad bunch up here in the far north of Australia.
If I had sound attached to this post, you'd hear a deafening bombardment of whistles, cracks, bangs, pops and downright blasts.
But this year it's relatively quiet around my place.
The first year I lived here, the government put on the official fireworks display from the Casuarina cliffs, just across the water from me. The park opposite my unit was jam packed with people. Family groups, friends and mobs of hoons, each with their own bag of crackers. To amuse themselves while they watched the big starbursts zooming across the bay, they all let off their own fireworks. Having so many people in one place, all letting off fireworks, is a sight to behold, especially when one group decides they are being attacked by a neighbouring group, because then they start deliberately pointing the skyrockets and throwing the biggest bungers at each other.
I can only liken the level of noise and brilliance of the explosions to living in a war zone. It was funny for a while - but when the booms were still echoing off the buildings at 2am, my sense of humour just about deserted me.
The next year the government put on the big display at Mindil Beach but people still came to the park opposite my place and the noise and light show was almost as big as the first year.
Since then the crowds have gradually dwindled and tonight when I got home there appeared to be only a dozen groups in my park.
That was 7.30pm. It's now 10.30pm and still the bangs and shouts, crashes, crackles, whistles and booms are resounding around the unit. Those people sure must have spent a lot of money on fireworks.
The later it gets, the closer and louder the bangs get. I think the stalwarts decide it's even more fun to throw the crackers under the buildings or into the carparks - and these tall unit buildings echo. You can listen to the one cracker six or seven times.
Still, it's quiet here tonight; relatively speaking.
I was in Darwin at 6pm when the fun began and there are more units in taller buildings there. The noise was physically painful.
I saw the giant starbursts of the official display lingering above the palm trees while nearby children scared hundreds of bats out of their feeding grounds with lesser but louder crackers; and they rose in screeching black clouds across the reds, greens and silvers pulsing through the night.
Ah, the first fire engine; probably not the last...and for another week, the shock of a huge bunger thrown into the front garden when you least expect it!
Territory Day! The only place in Australia where people can still burn up thousands of dollars in one night of mayhem while dogs cringe in terror and small children wail with exhaustion, rocked by the rhythm of flashes and crumps and bomb blasts!
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