On the north coast at the end of the trans-Australian Stuart Highway from Alice Springs. Many places claim to be unique, Darwin undeniably is. Here you’re as close to Singapore as you are to Sydney – with desert for over 2,000 km in one direction, and shark-infested sea for almost as far in the other. The climate is impossible: in summer it’s the monsoon season, in winter it’s drought – with a steady average of 31°C regardless. And every 40 years or so, the place is wiped off the map by a cyclone – last one was named Tracy 1974, though there have been more recent ones on the outskirts of Darwin.

Yet more than 135,000 people choose to live here, and these include more races and ethnic groups than anywhere else of a similar size in the world: over 65 at the last count, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Greeks, Italians, Maltese, Lebanese – and at least one Greenlander. Between them, this mixed bunch manage to consume more beer per hungover head than anywhere else on the planet. Even other Aussies gasp in admiration as the average Darwin resident downs his average 15 litres of pure alcohol a year. (And remember, a sizeable portion of the population are young children who don’t drink any booze at all – thus placing an added responsibility on the older children who make up so much of the rest of the population.)

As you might expect, life is somewhat casual up here, with things moving at a relaxed pace and in large shorts.

As a result of the cyclones, Darwin is a predictably modern-looking seaside town. However, jellyfish, crocodiles and brain-frying heat mean that the beaches usually have that away-from-it-all feel.

There are several sights worth visiting. The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (www.nt-ams.clients.squiz.net/museums) has some superb Aborigine art. You can buy examples of this at the private galleries in town. Try the Aboriginal fine Arts’ on corner of Mitchell & Knuckey Street (www.aaia.com.au/index.html), but don’t expect knockdown prices: this is the real thing.

Air buffs should visit the Darwin Aviation Museum (www.darwinsairwar.com.au), which is 8 km south of town on the main highway. Aviation has played a big part in Darwin’s history, and here they have everything from a US B-52 bomber to a Japanese plane shot down over Darwin in the Second World War.

Also worth a visit are the reconstructed Chinese Temple on Bennett Street (which contains century-old statues from the cyclone-flattened original); and the grim Fanny Bay Gaol (www.magnt.net.au/fannie-bay-gaol), which is out on East Point Road. Here they also have relics of the 1972 cyclone, including a half-hour film showing boats that had leapfrogged buildings, lampposts flattened along the pavement and residents reduced to a similar state for once by the wind.