Darwin Is Dancing To Timorese Tunes
Illawarra Mercury
Wednesday September 22, 1999
Sales clerk Anna Cussen, 31, remembers the good old days when Darwin was a sleepy town, attracting mainly tourists who were drawn to breathtaking coastline and nearby Kakadu National Park.
That was two weeks ago.
Darwin's role as the launch pad for Timor aid has since spawned a mini-renaissance.
The town, long the home of many exiled East Timorese independence campaigners, is abuzz with political events not seen since the Vietnam War, and cash registers are ringing in a mini-boom that is fed by thousands of new arrivals.
``It's so busy, it's unbelievable," Ms Cussen said. The electronics store in central Darwin where she works has been inundated by foreign journalists in need of equipment. ``I think it's good," she said. ``It promotes the town."
Darwin has gone from northern Australia's outback adventure tourism hub to staging point for a multinational peacekeeping force of several thousand, led by 4500 troops from the host country.
The UN has set up shop near Darwin's City Hall to coordinate the military deployment and massive humanitarian aid effort to help as many as 250,000 refugees.
Darwin lies 300km off East Timor's south coast and has a large military base.
``There's the sense that something needs to be done, and also in a business sense they're happy," one hotel worker said. Most hotels were at 100 per cent occupancy with the influx of aid workers, journalists and military.
While Australia's leading role in the East Timor peacekeeping operation has heightened the nation's sense of pride and morality, Darwin has not forgotten its unique style of Aussie humour.
Among the bands performing at a weekend benefit concert were The Screaming Brendas and a group whose name was a not-so-subtle jab at Indonesia's armed forces chief - General Wiranto and The Worse-than-Evils.
© 1999 Illawarra Mercury
