Gallery of log for Then and Now
WanderingAus wandered by on day 56 of our annual Climatic Refugee trip, after dropping the geoPajero at the local Mitsubishi dealer for it's 45,000 Km service I was on foot with about 6 hours to spare.
After walking around Cullen Bay I headed in toward Darwin City, then started walking around looking for possible locationless cache finds. I came across the Darwin Administrator's Office, which was originally constructed as the Court House and Police Station, with a cell block at the rear. It was constructed using locally quarried porcellanite stone and cyprus stone in 1883. The court house survived the Japanese air raids in 1942 and was then occupied by the Royal Australian Navy as Naval Headquarters HMAS Melville due to it's proximity to the port. The buildings remained the Navy's headquarters until their partial destruction by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve 1974, when rooves were torn off and many of the walls came down. The remaining walls were braced against further collapse, and the ruins were on occasion occupied by squatters.
In 1979 it was suggested that the original pre-WW2 poloice station and court house should be rebuilt for use mby the Administrator as offices. The Chief Minister, the Honourable Paul Everingham MLA, was receptive to the proposal, although apparently advised by a senior public servant that "the old stone building was a "heap of rubble" and it would cost way too much". The Chief Minister was firm that the proposal should proceed.
The ruins were cleared and a large quantity of the original stone was saved and stockpiled on site, so that the buildings could be restored as closely as possible to their original state. The buildings were officialy re-opened on 24 December 1981, the seventh anniversary of the devastation of Cyclone Tracy.
I think I'm pretty close to the original spot for the photo, although it was difficult to match because of the wide angle lens of my modern digital camera compared to the old glass plate camera which would have taken the original.
After 5 hours 50 minutes and 13.271 Km total walking in 32 degree heat and 50% plus humidity my caching success for the day was a revisit of GC1Q8HA Old Darwin Hospital by CHEDENT which I found two years ago, collection of two travel bugs from there, and eight locationless cache finds including this one. My feet were aching like you wouldn't believe, so I surrendered at the bus stop - after all for old blokes like me the buses in Darwin are free.
*Recommended* *Overall Experience: 2*
T4TH big dazza
Keith
After walking around Cullen Bay I headed in toward Darwin City, then started walking around looking for possible locationless cache finds. I came across the Darwin Administrator's Office, which was originally constructed as the Court House and Police Station, with a cell block at the rear. It was constructed using locally quarried porcellanite stone and cyprus stone in 1883. The court house survived the Japanese air raids in 1942 and was then occupied by the Royal Australian Navy as Naval Headquarters HMAS Melville due to it's proximity to the port. The buildings remained the Navy's headquarters until their partial destruction by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve 1974, when rooves were torn off and many of the walls came down. The remaining walls were braced against further collapse, and the ruins were on occasion occupied by squatters.
In 1979 it was suggested that the original pre-WW2 poloice station and court house should be rebuilt for use mby the Administrator as offices. The Chief Minister, the Honourable Paul Everingham MLA, was receptive to the proposal, although apparently advised by a senior public servant that "the old stone building was a "heap of rubble" and it would cost way too much". The Chief Minister was firm that the proposal should proceed.
The ruins were cleared and a large quantity of the original stone was saved and stockpiled on site, so that the buildings could be restored as closely as possible to their original state. The buildings were officialy re-opened on 24 December 1981, the seventh anniversary of the devastation of Cyclone Tracy.
I think I'm pretty close to the original spot for the photo, although it was difficult to match because of the wide angle lens of my modern digital camera compared to the old glass plate camera which would have taken the original.
After 5 hours 50 minutes and 13.271 Km total walking in 32 degree heat and 50% plus humidity my caching success for the day was a revisit of GC1Q8HA Old Darwin Hospital by CHEDENT which I found two years ago, collection of two travel bugs from there, and eight locationless cache finds including this one. My feet were aching like you wouldn't believe, so I surrendered at the bus stop - after all for old blokes like me the buses in Darwin are free.
*Recommended* *Overall Experience: 2*
T4TH big dazza
Keith
Rated: for Overall Experience.
Darwin Administrator's Office in 2011 - Former Court House and Police Station.
By WanderingAus
In Then and Now