Like Queen Victoria , Pentagon is not amused .
During the 1960s there was concern about the state of defence bases in Darwin- the Northern Gateway to Australia . At the entrance to the RAAF base and airport were two inoperable ground to air missiles which nevertheless made good photograph props. In the case of the Navy , the rather rude Buffalo Code - a printed list of double entendre messages sent over the radio by sailors, which included instructions to insert impossible things up the back passage ( Sundra Strait ?) and remarks about senior officers (one fat) was probably in its early gestation. The Army seemed mainly involved in bush manoeuvres shooting wild pigs , potting Magpie Geese and pub punch ups.
The Darwin border situation prompted the above brilliant Peter Burleigh cartoon in the Melbourne publication , Broadside , edited by one Pete Steedman who , because of his opposition to the Vietnam War , was regarded by the Tory government as a friend of Reds under the bed and the Yellow Peril , the latter massed off the entrance to Luna Park in a fleet of invasion junks .
Burleigh's drawing shows Chinese invading Darwin , the early warning system officer asleep , with one of those wind up missiles visible .
Burleigh's drawing shows Chinese invading Darwin , the early warning system officer asleep , with one of those wind up missiles visible .
Soon after , loyal Burleigh volunteered for service in the Mother Country , on the notorious Earls Court front, engaging in unarmed combat with annoying Pommified Kiwis who danced about like girls singing something called the haka in pubs.
On the serious side, Darwin opened a free trade zone in the port and it took the late award winning journalist John Loizou to reveal there was a Chinese sweatshop operating in the zone , workers lucky to get a buck an hour. This giant step forward in opening up the north to overseas investment went into mothballs , blown away by the knock-em-downs .
Now , incredibly, the Northern Territory Government, which surely needs a cracker inserted up its collective clacker, and will undoubtedly experience a sensation like a keg of TNT in that position at the next election , has granted a Chinese company a 99-year-lease on the Port of Darwin .
Frankly, it was surprising to think there was any part of the nation left which had not been flogged off to overseas buyers, especially to China . Be that as it may , how the hell did Canberra let this deal go ahead ? This comes at a time when the US is building up its military operations in Darwin .This blog, months ago, had heard there was something big brewing on the Darwin waterfront but did no imagine it was anything as absurd as this .
Just imagine the situation facing Darwin . Growing numbers of Yanks and Chinese eyeballing each other in a spirit of suspicious détente and nonstop massive fireworks from the Chinese New Year to the not to be outdone Fourth of July bang up celebrations by the Yanks . All this firepower will , however, be nought compared with the annual Northern Territory statehood cracker night when the city is pulverised, the populace left in a state of shock for a month, all the army of mostly rabid stray dogs roaring like Dinosaurs on heat , most of the smart Australian Armed Forces in soundproof bunkers .
