Experience Aussie culture at Darwin Festival

There’s a lot to love about Australia. It has fantastic surfing, gorgeous natural wonders and neat accents. But if you want a taste of true Aussie culture, you should head up to Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, for Darwin Festival. From August 13-30, Darwin Festival features indigenous dance performances, art exhibitions, concerts, cabaret, comedy and much more. This year’s festival features the Lighthouse, a tent-like open-air venue constructed almost entirely out of festoon lighting.

Darwin Festival features some of the best in world music and is also host to the Indigenous Music Awards on August 21. For travelers looking for an authentic Australian experience that goes beyond photo ops at the Sydney Opera House and zoo visits to see koalas, Darwin Festival is a must.

The Northern Territory is home to Australia’s Outback, numerous indigenous cultures and vast landscapes. If I haven’t enticed you to head to the Darwin Festival yet, let me throw in this tidbit: Many of the events are free.

And if that wasn’t enough, how about this: I’ll be in attendance! Look for me wandering around in my Gadling t-shirt. If you see me, please say hi. Us Gadlingers are very friendly and it can get lonely on the road. But you can’t rock out with me unless you you make your way to Darwin. So, get booking!

Australian Town Bans Alcohol

Well, it appears that dry towns are no longer an American anomaly. The Australian town of Alice Springs has banned alcohol drinking in public places because “large groups of people, mostly Aborigines, binge drink in ‘full view’ of other residents and tourists”, The Guardian reports.

The restrictions apparently do not affect Alice Springs’ 90 licensed clubs, hotels or restaurants, and a park near the town used for picnics. It seems that this ban is de facto directed mainly at the 3,000 Aborigines who live in town camps in the area. Great! Now, the impoverished Aborigines will also be more likely to be engaged in criminal activity (of making illegal alcohol and drinking it.)

Is there one place on this planet where prohibition actually solved a major drinking problem?

Word for the Travel Wise (05/23/06)

Unlike some great travel deals that come and go, Qantas seems to be having the never ending fare sale to Australia. Can’t say that I’ve really priced out a ticket to the land down under, over, and out, but $999 smack-a-roos doesn’t sound too bad considering the distance. In fact you can even discover the country through one of their pretty awesome Aussie vacation packages in partner with National Geographic. Don’t bother sticking around for much more of my babble – head over and check em’ out with your own two and then promise you’ll back to scope out the word. You may or may not need it.

Today’s word is an Aboriginal word used in Australia:

yabber
– to talk

Hiroyuki Yokose does a great job outlining Aboriginal words used in Australian English like our vocab word today from which I plucked this piece of information. For additional words you may wish to check out his findings. The Bangerang Cultural Centre is one of the first Aboriginal museums in the country and has a list of words online from this particular tribe. Wiki lists a large number of tribes and languages found in Australia which if you already haven’t set your mind on one in particular you can try picking one off their list. Try Lonely Planet’s Outback Australia guide for additional offline reading and trip planning.

Past Aboriginal words: cooee