Saturday, December 5, 2009

#092-365 Famous Authors



I can't think of another Town/City named after an Author, so I think it particularly fitting that the town of Palmerston had it's name changed to Darwin following the publication of his famous book, to commemorate the time he spent there , even to the extent of naming an adjacent bay as Beagle Bay to commemorate the vessel on which he sailed. The diversity that he uncovered in The Origins of the Species, is further reflected in the city itself, it was cosmopolitan even before places like Melbourne and Sydney found it Trendy to call themselves that. The Aborigine influence on the place is growing daily (as is only fitting), from settlements origins it has attracted many Asian people to come and live here, as it is our gateway to Asia, but in fact now people from all over the world now call Darwin home.
Charles Darwin was, during his life, labelled as different, and that is definitely the word for this City, My collage tries to show this diversity with such points of Darwin's connection to the US Pearl Harbour when a few months after that fateful attack, Japanese bombers carried out a series of raids that created such a shock that the Australian Mainland had been attacked, we survived that and even the more devastating assault by Cyclone Tracy that hit on Christmas Eve 1974. The city is bigger and stronger than ever. Darwin is however a place that doesn't take itself too seriously, where else could you find the Territory Parliament housed in a precinct called State Square when I have heard many notable local entities declare that they oppose statehood vehemently as the would change the name from Northern Territory, to Northern Australia and who wants that! If you look closely at the centre bottom of the collage you will see N.T. Parliament House sporting a Giant Moustach, to celebrate Mo-Vember a month set aside to bring awareness to men's health problems, now that is certainly not taking yourself too seriously, I think Charles would be proud!

3 comments:

Chesney said...

Charles would also be proud of your collage, very cool!

I did look up those songs, fun! The boys didn't like them much - no rap - LOL

Clara said...

What an interesting story, Ron. Charles Darwin was scorned here, but he had a city named after him in Australia. Go figure.

MevetS said...

Ron, seems like you folks down under are a bit smarter then us up here.

Recognizing Darwin as the genius he was and not taking politics too seriously.