Darwin (Australia)

Port and capital of Northern Territory, Australia; population (2001 est) 72,100. Darwin is situated at the centre of Australia's north coast, in the northwest of Arnhem Land on a peninsula bordering the Timor Sea. It is a service centre for the northern part of Northern Territory, and industries include mining (uranium and copper), fruit and meat canning, and brickmaking, while in the surrounding area pastoral farming, tropical horticulture (producing rice, bananas, mangoes, rock melons, Chinese cabbage, avocado, and other fruits), and tourism are important occupations. Darwin is the most northerly city of Australia, and the terminus of a number of routes including the railway to Birdum (509 km/316 miles to the southeast), the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs (1535 km/954 mi southeast) and east and west coast shipping routes of Australia. The city was destroyed in 1974 by Cyclone Tracy, and rebuilt on the same site. It is a base for tourists visiting Kakadu National Park, Bathurst Island, and Melville Island.

History
Founded in 1869, under the name of Palmerston, the city was renamed after Charles Darwin in 1911. During World War II it was an Allied base for action against the Japanese in the Pacific, and suffered repeated bombing, the only Australian town to do so.