@kitkatb
I love Darwin. If I ever have to leave my little town because travelling for medical became too difficult, Darwin is where I would head.
My parents were in Darwin from 1937 to 1942. My older sister was born there and was 3 weeks old when she and my mother were forcibly evacuated on the SS Koolinda.
My father was still in Darwin when the Japanese bombed. He had just left the Post Office, heard the sound of planes, looked up and realised they were not friendly.
He owned a block of land (as well as a house at Vesteys Beach where Darwin High School is) just near the post office. He had dug drainage ditches on the block and took shelter in one of them.
My father was employed by the Public Works Department and worked on the airstrips along the Stuart Highway.
My parents never returned to Darwin to live after the war. I think that having lost the land and house and having to leave everything they had worked for behind affected them deeply.