Since everyone, including Encik G, has had their two cents about how fantastic Darwin is and taken turns to be ambassador for Darwin, I guess its surprising that being the (relatively) outspoken and keen writer I am I haven't written an article on the above topic, so here it is as suggested by editor Nix. Its not that I don't like Darwin, its because I'm an asshole and I don't share good things so all of you don't come here and spoil market, so I tell everyone how fucking miserable Darwin is so we can keep the secret to ourselves.
Just kidding. I'm not Encik G in any case, and I'm not going to go on about how I spend my day meeting friends and sipping coffee at the markets like in some commercial, mostly because I don't have friends because I think everyone is an asshole.
Okay, I've been in Darwin for about 4 years now so this is my valued opinion on "Myths and facts about Darwin". To start off, here are some facts / statistics you could google yourself and sound and look really smart pasting lots of numbers no one really reads:
Existence (confirmed)
I'll be honest, before I moved here, I didn't even know Darwin existed. So, to confirm, yes, Darwin exists, and yes, Buibui Kim did threaten to bomb Darwin. Well Kimmy if you do manage to find us on the map, make sure you send some nice Korean food first.
Darwin to Singapore same distance as Darwin to Melbourne (confirmed)
Confirmed. You can't visit your friend in Melbourne or Perth or Sydney for dinner to catch up and touch base, because it would take a four hour flight (yes, a flight).
Driving would take a nice, easy 2-3 days through the Australian outback and desert. Just to give you an indication, it is almost the same distance (and cost) to fly to Singapore (3,349km) than to Sydney or Melbourne (roughly 3,149km for both - the Australian map senget one).
This is also why the Northern Territory has the highest speed limit in Australia of 130 kph, and up to recently, had unlimited speed limits in remote parts of the NT. Its because everywhere is so fucking far, the 20 kph difference (the maximum speed limit in most other states is 110kph) makes a huge difference over a 10 hour drive, and also partly because the place is so bloody big they can't send police / speed cameras to catch you anyway.
Northern Territory got less people than Tampines (confirmed)
Darwin population according to Wikipedia is 142,000 (approximate). Northern Territory population, which includes Alice Springs, Katherine and all the other towns, is 244,300 according to Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates.
The population of Tampines in Singapore is 261,230 (according to Wikipedia).
So, yes, there are less people in the Northern Territory (land size 1.421 million km²) than Tampines (land size 20.89 km²)
Very hot (confirmed)
Yes, it is very hot here. Not like Melbourne or Sydney, you come out of the airport got the smoke when you talk one. The only smoke you have is because you are burning to death. Here hotter than Singapore, the sun is brighter (UV rays), it is hot all year round but the only difference is that for around 3 months (around May to August) we get dry season weather which means it gets cool and nice (kind of like summer in Melbourne / Sydney).
The "build-up", a period of high humidity and no rain, is also known as the period when people start behaving weirdly (see below), also known as mango madness.
Everything closes early (myth)
I've heard from friends that supermarkets close at 5pm in Adelaide, Perth, etc. Well surprisingly, the supermarkets here are open up until 10pm, with a couple of late night takeaways (pizza, McDonalds, etc.) open up until 11pm to 1am, with 24 hour McDonald drive thru as well. Other than that, it really depends what else you need to do at 3am in the morning and whether you REALLY need to have a prata at 3am in the morning.
Pubs, clubs etc. open until the usual, around 2-3am, no lockout laws unlike Sydney, but I could be wrong (and I'm too old for this shit anyway) so ask somebody slightly younger. Most people just hang out at each others' houses and backyards drinking beer and barbecuing until kena complain by neighbour (unlikely since your neighbour is probably doing the same thing).
People are different in Darwin
Some say its the heat, some say its the remoteness. But before you think I'm getting soft, there really is something special about how people in the NT behave. Their nicer, more friendly and warm, more down to earth, and also a lot more (blissfully) unaware of danger and don't give a rats ass, and it kind of grows on you.
For example, here is a local Darwin hero who almost became mayor of Darwin, and once auditioned on Australia's Got Talent - the great Rubbish Warrior Trevor Jenkins:
Trevor Jenkins Rubbish Warrior Australia's Got Talent Auditions from Fist Full of Films Festival NT on Vimeo.
No traffic jams and other car matters
Cars are cheap like in the rest of Australia. It also depends what you mean by a traffic jam, people here get impatient when 5 cars line up because they're used to driving on an empty road in the rural area or something. It can be cute when they whinge about having to wait 5 minutes at a traffic light, or a real pain in the ass when you are already going 20kph over the speed limit on a single lane crowded road and some bogan behind in his hilux / commodore ute with his "Fuck off we're full" sticker is tailgating you because he's never driven on a road with more than 5 cars before.
Otherwise, compared to Singapore, everyone drives to work. Whole day parking in the CBD costs between $5 to $10 a day.
Easy to get job (depends)
As Nix would have given the impression, jobs here are abundant and it is easy to get a job. Well, it depends - on what type of job you're looking for.
Generally, if you have specific professional skills, your overseas experience is much more likely to be considered (as compared to other states which usually ask for local experience, meaning some Big 4 auditor with 5 years experience has to start at the bottom of the chain as an assistant accountant again type of thing).
Tradie and technical jobs are relatively easy to find as its bloody hot and nobody likes working in 40 degree heat, so it pays well.
For white collar professional jobs, it is not too bad either, with reasonable employment prospects in accounting / finance type positions, however the high flying corporate HQ type jobs tend to be in the capital cities with a small presence in Darwin so there really isn't much of a ladder to climb. This also usually means the Government is the biggest and probably the best employer if you are ambitious (Permanent Residents can work for the NT Government, not the Federal Government).
It also means that, unfortunately for Darwin, and fortunately for us migrants, Darwin tends to be a pretty good stepping stone to bigger cities (just like FTs use Singapore as a stepping stone to other countries).
In the end it really depends on expectations - for example, if you expect your fancy manager title in some stat board in Singapore to carry any weight, you'll probably find that the place sucks and Nix was a lying arsehole.
Conclusion
Every good essay must have a conclusion, so, all i have to say is that, nothing is ever black and white. In the end, Darwin (and any other migration destination) is what you make of it, and won't be the promised magical land of abundant jobs Nix promised if you are stuck up and insist on bringing your baggage and previous status from Singapore with you (like your manager title).
Also, surprisingly, there are quite a few things to do at night once you know where to look. There is one shopping mall, with another two to be built, and something called online shopping, and more and more hipster cafes that you can sip your lattes and take instagram photos of, and late night supper spots. The only difference is that your coffee costs $5, not $0.8 teh tarik.
Unfortunately and sadly, one of the pros of Darwin is the small number of Singaporeans, which forces you to mix with others and get less politics of those organisations like the Overseas Singaporeans Unit and those uni clubs etc., and you lose your Singaporean superiority complex pretty quickly (a good thing). You get to mix with all the people who Singaporeans save their best racist treatment for, like Filipinos, Indians, Ah Tiong, etc. etc. and we are all one big happy family because there isn't enough of us to group together and start our usual penis comparison politics.
Another good thing is that we don't have our rotten reputation of being arrogant (honestly it is because most of them think we are from China anyway) as we do in the other states and everyone knows us as that place they go with the nice airport bigger than the shopping centre here, and next to Legoland.
So, that's all. But then again, I'm just a Singaporean who's lived here and I'm a millennial so my opinion doesn't count.
Ps. Darwin makes pretty nice social media pictures. And Jetstar and Silkair fly pretty cheaply here.
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