Hi, I will be in Darwin soon, and am thinking of taking a day trip to the Tiwi Islands on the Sealink Ferry. Has anyone done it, and would it be worth staying a night.
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Have not done the commercial tours, but some years ago, used to take a group of Melbourne secondary students to Melville Island, each year. We had a special arrangement with a community, and stayed 4 nights each time.
Definitely worth going there. The Tiwi people were somewhat different from other communities I've experienced. The Catholic influence was still very strong. Their art shows some influence from regular contact with Asian fishermen and trepang gatherers.
Can't comment on Bathurst Island scenery but always found Melville had some interesting diversity.
If there are tours that involve flying over, and staying one or more nights, would suggest that option. Might be more expensive, but would experience more. A day trip on the ferry means that you will see a lot of sea and not too much else!
Had a look at the reviews. Mostly positive but all a bit dated & a couple were 1 star.
A lot of boat time.
I spent 3 months in Darwin doing cyclone Tracey restoration, so it was a long time ago. circa 1976
I was fortunate in that one of my mates had a light aircraft so we would slip over to GROUSE Is.(not Groot). A friend had the task of maintaining the emergency runway (that means chasing off the buffaloes) when it was required.
He was there alone except for the locals who kept him supplied with mudcrabs. He supplemented these with lots of fish that he netted in a nearby sandy cove. One of his helpers would run it across at at high tide & walk the net at low tide & pick off what ever fish they wanted. He made great rollmops.
All we had to do was supply all the drinks for the day plus each person gifted him a carton of beer that went straight into the refrigerated shipping container perched just above the high tide mark.
Fantastic sitting under a palm tree scoffing heaps of muddies and rollmops washed down cold beer with him relating stories of life on his 'deserted' island.
We flew over a few WW2 aircraft crashed in the shallows on the way over to add a bit of colour.
A bit cheaper & quicker than the trip to the Tiwis but no gift shops ... I picked up one of those distinctive Tiwi carvings in a shop at Katherine (I think) a few years later. But my best buy on that trip to Darwin was two ochre on bark paintings by the late Johnny Bullen Bullen who had art on display in the National Gallery.
-- Edited by Cupie on Thursday 28th of June 2018 09:06:44 PM
