Originally Posted by jad n rich

We have about 70 lizards of many varieties, including a 1 metre+ plus goanna, one hour north of bris, you def get them there too, theres a KFC in north bris that is surrounded by them

Masses of tropical birds too, but we do live in bushland not suburbia.

Originally Posted by oldandbold

Lots of tree frogs - just fished three pairs out of the pool, humping in it again.

Originally Posted by ShawnMcCrea

Oh definately saw my share of lizards along the east coast. Lots of goannas, geckos and water dragons i would see in the mangroves.

Thats awesome though, your saying you have about 70 diff lizards that live around your house you mean>

What kind of tropical birds do you get, the rainbow lorikeets and white cockatoos are awesome but loud. Do you get the black cockatoos and other diff species?

Originally Posted by mohogony

Yes beautiful Darwin, The highest murder, assualt and Alcohol abuse rate in OZ, the lovely ocean swarming with deadly stingers , crocs, sharks and every deadly speices of marine life know to man . Home of the Taipan snake the world most deadly snake, all year round oppressive hot humid tropical weather, the whole city has actually been destroyed and rebuilt twice is its history, first the Japanese bombed it to the stone age during ww2 then Cyclone tracy destroyed it in the 1970's , whats next a huge Tidal wave or tsunami maybe.

Originally Posted by oldandbold

Well as I think has been said already murder/assault and alcohol rates - I believe it is the Northern Territory as a whole and not Darwin. Further I think that most of this comes from indigineous communities, not to belittle their problems but most of this isnt in Darwin.

Stingers/crocs - yes , also in Cairns,Broome etc and sharks I think you will find everywhere. Beatiful beaches but I will only swim in a pool.

All year round hot,oppressive weather - rubbish, have you actually been here. The dry season is lovely, overnight temp down to about 20 and during the day maybe 30 with no noticble humidity at all.

Japanese destroyed it during WW2 - yes, your point is??? I think many cities were flattened around the world but what relevance does that have to now??

Cyclone tracey 1975 - agreed. I assume most buildings are stronger now but yes cyclones are one of the problems living in the tropics.

Taipan - you may be right although I thought they were more common in queensland. Having said that not seen a single snake apart from down the wildlife park. I assume you are warning everybody in oz of the dangerous spiders as well.

Have you actually spent any time in Darwin. We chose it for the laid back tropical life style. Apart from work I havnt been out of shorts in over a year and certainly dont miss the cold.

Originally Posted by mohogony

All lizards in OZ are non-venomous, so theres nothing to worry about if you see one.

Originally Posted by oldandbold

Well as I think has been said already murder/assault and alcohol rates - I believe it is the Northern Territory as a whole and not Darwin. Further I think that most of this comes from indigineous communities, not to belittle their problems but most of this isnt in Darwin.

Stingers/crocs - yes , also in Cairns,Broome etc and sharks I think you will find everywhere. Beatiful beaches but I will only swim in a pool.

All year round hot,oppressive weather - rubbish, have you actually been here. The dry season is lovely, overnight temp down to about 20 and during the day maybe 30 with no noticble humidity at all.

Originally Posted by mohogony

No l haven't been there, l've heard some people really like the place, l guess if your going to live in The N.T its the best place to live there, anywhere would have to be better then Alice Springs , thats a real hell hole.

Originally Posted by oldandbold

I arrived oct 2008 and wife and son in feb 2009.
Weather:-
Hot and humid in the wet season, but you do start to get used to it.
Last year had the air con on most of the wet season, this year the lounge for about 4 hours in the evening and the bedroom ones on for a couple of hours when going to bed.In the dry dont have it on at all.
Most days don't tend to notice, only thinking about it when I hear someone from down south commenting on the humidity.
Dry season absolutely georgous, although the down side is the pool is a bit too cold for me then.
All depends on the individual, I wouldnt much like some of the 40 degree days recently seen in other places!

Crime/broken jaws/murder:-
I believe most of those murder statistics relate to crimes in aboriginal communities. Broken jaws relate to people who have drunk quite a lot. Most of the violence seems to relate to either remote communities or leaving night clubs/pubs at 4.00am in mitchel street in the CBD.Personally I havnt seen any violence/crime but then I am a bit old for the early morning clubbing!!

Employment:-
Plenty of job adds in the paper and internet. People will say there is not many job adds for a _______ but then in a city with only 120.000 ish people the amount of jobs will be less but unemployment is very low.

Prices:-
Shops more expensive than other cities (maybe in the order of 20%) but you need to look around.Just picked up 3 steaks for $6.00 which I thought was pretty good. Petrol more expensive, just been out and the local garage $1.32 at coles and $1.26 at woolies per litre.
Power and water prob more expensive, last bill $630 for the 3 months but on the other hand a friend of mine was $1900 (I think his air con is on all the time).

Biggest down side is the price of housing, have a look at realestate.com.au .
Darwin and northern suberbs in particular but houses in palmerston which is 20km or so down the road is much cheaper. Renting also expensive, I pay $625 per week for an old 3 bed elevated in the northern suberbs although it does have a massive pool.There are cheaper ones near me but I was in a bit of a rush to get things sorted before the rest of the familly arrived.

The locals are mostly friendly and very laid back. We love living in the tropics, even though occassionly it can be a little challenging with the humidity and even my son (an awkward 12 year old) has settled down. We have no regrets (and we did have some aprehension before arriving mostly due to starting this in our mid forties). I dont know if we will still be living in Darwin in 20 years time but at this stage have no plans to move.

Old.

Originally Posted by Cornish Paul

and the 3rd...lets see if messaging now works,lol. Reason being, is i've been offered a job in Darwin, but naturally would like a complete breakdown on what life is actually like there

Originally Posted by Pozz

We had been planning to head to Perth but now having a peek at other areas.... especially since my OH watched WDU the other day and quite liked the look of Darwin.

Having never been to Darwin, what is it like.... compared to other areas of Oz?