It checks heaps of different noise types (traffic, pubs, schools and more) for any Darwin address. Would love your locals feedback.

No older than like six months for sure, no microchip, pet her through the neighbour’s fence a few weeks ago, then she came under our fence from a DIFFERENT yard yesterday night.

Both neighbours said she’s not theirs so now we’re stuck with a cat and not wanting to be the reason she gets put down in a pound before even having a chance at a life.

If you recognise her as yours or are even looking for a chill as fuck indoor pet shoot me a dm.

Can't believe its been one year already, how much has the buses and Cas improved??

I’m coming up to Darwin for a few days next week, Thursday - Sunday or Monday. Never been to the territory before. I’ll be there mostly solo but my son is attending a number of functions, some of which I’ll also be attending. I won’t really have the time for full days excursions, except maybe for Sunday if I stay an extra night. I’m also well past looking for a big night out, I’d just like to see a bit of the place while I’m there.
I’ll be staying in the Waterfont area and need to get to the state netball centre a couple of times. Is the bus network ok for that?
I’m thinking about going to Mindil markets (or a sunset harbour cruise, has to be one or the other), visit the mangrove boardwalk, the botanic gardens Museum and Art Gallery, Larrakia cultural centre.
I’d love to have been able to get out to some of the national parks but I don’t think I can spare a full day for an organised excursion.
What’s an absolute must not miss? What’s not worth the entry fee? What local knowledge will help me make the most of my tropical weekend?
Thanks Territorians!

Hey gang,
39M here. Had a year off the gym and now need to get back into it haha.
Thought a PT might help, any recommendations in D-town?

I can see people buying them but never heard of any tournaments.

Hello Darwin,
I am hoping someone has a recommendation for a Concrete company that does concrete rectifications in a domestic setting. I have called and emailed everyone that comes up in a Google search and have had no luck past an initial phone call and follow up email with details. I will try them all again next week, I’m happy to be persistent but also thought I would reach out to Darwin locals in case there is hidden knowledge!

Thanks in advance!

I brought my hatchback up to darwin and am now weighing up options for selling it.

Are carsales, gumtree and facebook the main go to platforms? I've only ever used carsales as a buyer and sold via a dealer so am a bit out of the loop. I've got a bit of time to try selling privately before considering a dealer.

Can someone buy it with interstate plates and rego still on it, or would I need to sort that out first? Id rather drop the price a bit for them than sort it myself.

I get the impression that 4wd/suv's are far more popular up here, given the terrain and lifestyle, so I'm not sure how strong the second hand market is for smaller cars? Just wondering whether there's enough demand to justify paying for a Carsales listing..

The last car I bought/sold privately was through carsales but im shocked at how expensive it is. I know of gumtree and facebook (never bought or sold anything on these platforms) but

Hey everyone ❤️ I’m currently in Palmerston and going through a difficult financial situation. I’m actively looking for work and willing to do any honest job, day or night. I’m happy to work in cleaning, hospitality, labouring, or anything else available.

I’m also hoping someone might have an old bicycle they no longer need and would be willing to donate, as it would really help me get around and attend job interviews.

I’m not afraid of hard work. I just need a little help getting back on my feet. If anyone knows of any job opportunities or can help with a bicycle, I’d be genuinely grateful. 🙏

Thank you for taking the time to read this. ❤️

Seeking any info about local aged care providers for level 8 support at home. Have received some interim funding given a whirlwind life change for someone I'm caring for. Would love some insight in to who to go with for various services such as flexible respite, personal care, maybe meals and cleaning too.

Trying to get around the aged care system while juggling everything else is doing my head in.

I love Darwin but I swear people are getting worse. I am in a customer facing role and I swear people are getting more and more vile as time goes on. The abuse I cop because THEY broke rules is mind blowing. Sigh.

I’m looking to screen in my front verandah as other units in my complex have done. No one has done it recently and some of those owners have sold and moved on so I can’t really get advice from anyone here.

Can anyone recommend a business that does screens/security screens for areas larger than a door? I don’t want crimsafe (doesn’t let air in), more the old school diamond screen. I want something that will stop rain coming in so am considering louvers inside the screen but apparently need building permission and certification.

I went to Dabsco today (and spoke to a young woman who clearly didn’t care about being there), then Easy Glass who were helpful but had limited options.

I am a 22 year old girl who has a full time job (at night!) i do Uber during the day. Im usually in Palmerston with the Silver Audi blasting music.

I have experienced all kinds of people, things, places and the way uber drivers get treated by restaurants and customers. ask me about the wait times, or how it works. or something that pissed you off that i maybe can explain away

-Asha

Would you sue the tattoo artist who did this to you ? Is Darwin dodgy ? Who would get a tattoo here ? This was done at Jape Homemaker . Actual tattoo photographed - am I crazy for letting the ninja stink near me ? I’ve been punished for my stupidity should they pay too?

Hi everyone,

I am weighing up two similarly paid job opportunities: one in Melbourne, and one in Darwin in a sector I would prefer to work in. The Darwin role currently looks slightly better suited to my interests just because of the sector focus. Relocation assistance and initial temp accommodation would be provided. Darwin role is 5k more in base salary (not a factor for me).

However, there is more to life than work, and I am trying to understand whether Darwin would suit me personally.
I recently moved from Adelaide to Melbourne because I wanted a bigger, more international city with broader career opportunities, more cafés and restaurants, amenities and places to explore. Melbourne’s crowds and constant activity have been overwhelming at times after 3+ years in Adelaide, although I am gradually adjusting. I really enjoy the convenience and variety, and I feel I have not given Melbourne a proper chance yet.

I have heard great things about Darwin from former colleagues who live there. They are all local Australians with families, strong community connections and fairly outdoorsy lifestyles. Their experiences sound positive, but my circumstances and interests are different, so I would like to understand what life might look like for someone in my position.

I am a single male immigrant in my early 30s and fairly introverted. I enjoy my own company and going out alone. Ideally, I would build a small circle of friends around their mid-20s to 30s and potentially meet a partner. My interests are mainly food, coffee, travel and football. I like a quiet personal life while having plenty of options around me.

Specifically:

Food and cafés: Variety of cuisines and cafés is important to me. I enjoy exploring different places regularly; the pub scene is less of a draw. How satisfying is Darwin for someone whose weekends often involve coffee, a good meal and wandering around?

Housing: I currently live in a premium, professionally managed build-to-rent apartment in Melbourne. Can I find a comparable standard in Darwin - modern, well maintained, quiet, secure and with reliable facilities? Which buildings or areas would you suggest, and what weekly budget is realistic for a good one-bedroom apartment?

Heat and wet season: How difficult are the summer heat, humidity and wet season in everyday life? Can you comfortably maintain your usual routine with some adjustments, or does it substantially limit walking, going out after work and enjoying weekends? I enjoy cold but don’t hate melb/adl summers.

Safety: How comfortable do you feel going about life alone, including getting dinner and coming home afterwards? How much do crime or antisocial behaviour affect your routines? Practical experiences with neighbourhoods and apartment security would help.

Friendships and dating: What is it like arriving alone in your early 30s? Can you build connections without being particularly outgoing or heavily involved in outdoor activities or community groups? How have people found dating and avoiding loneliness?

Career options: For people in professional roles, has Darwin helped your career through greater responsibility and experience? If a role does not work out, how realistic is finding another suitable position locally?

Other considerations: What might I be overlooking-needing a car, ongoing living costs, flight options or anything that only becomes apparent after living there?

The work in Darwin appeals to me. My uncertainty is whether the overall lifestyle would give me enough of what I enjoy outside work to justify another move so soon.

I would appreciate honest experiences, especially from people who moved from Adelaide or Melbourne alone especially as introverts. What did you gain, what did you miss, and how did you feel after the first year?

Thanks!

Kia ora everyone, I'm considering coming to CDU for my PhD to work on a project that is super aligned with my future career goals. I haven't been able to find much information about what CDU is actually like as a postgraduate student. There's some stuff out there about the undergrad level but I've found being a master's student is a completely different experience to undergrad, and not all universities have equal quality offerings across the different qualification levels. I've also gotten the impression that the university is a bit disorganised, which I'm concerned about.

Has anyone done a PhD at CDU who can give me some info on what it was like, or does anyone have any insight from other sources on life as a PhD candidate at CDU?

​

Law & CrimeNo 622 Oct 17 – 23, 2026

Cuts to legal aid services have caused a spike in ‘stay applications’, disproportionately slowing justice for Indigenous women accused of domestic violence.

By Russell Marks

Exclusive: Dozens of cases ‘paused’ in NT courts



The Local Court building in Nichols Place, Darwin.AAP Image / Esther Linder

Dozens of unrepresented defendants – including Indigenous women who may have been wrongly accused of domestic violence – have been asking Northern Territory courts to “stay”, or indefinitely postpone, the prosecution of serious criminal charges against them as Legal Aid NT’s mystery service cuts enter their 12th month.

The stays add significant delays to a justice system that is already straining under a two-year-old Country Liberal Party administration. Supreme Court delays are now the longest on record.

The Attorney-General’s Department says it is aware, as of October 2, of 44 matters involving unrepresented defendants that have been listed for hearings in the Local Court to determine whether the prosecution of serious charges – including serious assaults – should be paused or deferred.

However, The Saturday Paper understands the true number is likely to be significantly higher. Statistics are not being well captured by the Territory’s courts, lawyers say, and nobody is coordinating the stay applications made by unrepresented defendants.

At least two matters involving very serious charges in the Supreme Court – including one of alleged child sexual offending – have been indefinitely postponed.

The stay applications are a consequence of Legal Aid NT’s decision in mid November last year to dramatically cut funding for criminal law representation, which has meant that for 11 months, Legal Aid NT has not represented people who are not already in custody.

It is an extraordinary situation without precedent in Australia since government-funded legal aid services were introduced in the 1970s.

Courts have a responsibility to ensure defendants receive fair trials. In 1992, the High Court held that a defendant who faces serious criminal charges and who is unrepresented through no fault of their own – because they can’t afford to pay a lawyer and a lawyer is not otherwise available to them through legal aid – is unlikely to get a fair trial. In these cases, courts have the power to pause or delay prosecutions until such time as the defendant is legally represented.

The Territory’s Supreme Court confirmed in June that the High Court’s ruling extends to serious matters – including charges that, if proven, may result in imprisonment – in the Local Court. Since then, dozens of applications have progressed to hearings in the Local Court.

In cases where courts have accepted that an unrepresented defendant cannot afford a lawyer, courts are often simply adjourning for lengthy periods – often six months – hoping Legal Aid NT’s services will resume, despite there being no evidence that they will. “That is undesirable for everyone,” says one Darwin barrister who does not wish to be named. “It puts no pressure on the government to do anything about funding Legal Aid.”

“The increasing numbers of stay applications in the NT is a symptom of the Northern Territory government … failing to understand that a healthy and functioning criminal justice system is good for all Territorians, including victims and affected families.”

Gerard McGeough, chief executive of Victims of Crime NT – a community organisation that was forced to close its Darwin office in June, citing a shortfall in NT government funding – says the delay in justice for victims “invariably puts a hold on their recovery and damages their sense of faith in the criminal justice system”.

There is also an impact on those accused. The Saturday Paper has been told that the current Legal Aid NT service restrictions disproportionately affect vulnerable Indigenous women. Many unrepresented defendants are Aboriginal women who have been charged with assaults on their domestic male partners.

The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) receives federal funding to represent Indigenous defendants but cannot represent a person where to do so might involve cross-examining an existing or former client. When a woman is charged with assaulting her male partner, NAAJA is often ethically barred from representing the woman if it has represented the partner. Under a longstanding memorandum of understanding, NAAJA typically refers such women to Legal Aid NT. If the woman is on bail, however, then Legal Aid NT also cannot represent her under the present service restrictions.

“Our lawyers are identifying increased cases of misidentification where the woman is a victim of family violence but is mistakenly identified by police as a perpetrator,” says NAAJA’s chief executive, Ben Grimes.

When that happens, the woman is arrested and charged instead of being treated as a victim in need of protection.

“Based on our Custody Notification Service numbers, it is now frequently the case that 20-25 per cent of arrests of Aboriginal people in the NT are women, which is a noticeable increase from previous years,” Grimes says.

Misidentification by police of women as perpetrators of domestic violence remains a major concern in the Northern Territory, despite 2023 amendments to domestic violence laws requiring police to consider whether there is a “pattern” of violence that indicates that one person in a relationship “is the person most in need of protection”.

Of the 44 matters listed for stay hearings, according to the Attorney-General’s Department, 34 are in Darwin and nine are in Katherine. Only one is in Alice Springs. Alice Springs is also the only centre where a third funded legal service – beyond Legal Aid NT and NAAJA – is available to women charged with criminal offences. That is the Central Australian Women’s Legal Service (CAWLS), which received federal funding two years ago to begin representing criminalised women.

The Saturday Paper has been told most of the nine matters listed for stay hearings in Katherine involve Aboriginal women, many of whom are charged with domestic violence-related assaults on male partners with histories of violence – including for assaulting the woman who is facing charges.

“There is substantial public interest in having these women represented,” a Darwin barrister told The Saturday Paper, “including the complex defensive conduct arguments that may arise and the significant consequences that can flow for them and any children in their care.”

On November 17, 2025, Legal Aid NT director Catherine Voumard announced the agency would issue grants of aid for adults charged with criminal offences under NT legislation only if they were in custody, having been refused bail. The same unprecedented restriction also initially applied to children, until Legal Aid NT reversed its position in June.

The reasons for the cuts to Legal Aid NT remain a mystery. Voumard announced the cuts just six months after the CLP government had announced it had “fixed” Legal Aid NT’s longstanding funding problem by allocating additional millions to the agency as part of its first multi-year funding agreement. Yet when she announced the cuts, Voumard claimed that Legal Aid NT was “projecting an end of year financial deficit”.

In June, a spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Department told The Saturday Paper $4.4 million of allocated funding for 2025-26 – almost all of that year’s budgeted increase – had been withheld “subject to the execution of a funding agreement”.

Legal Aid NT had campaigned for years for a multi-year funding agreement until the CLP offered it one in May 2025. Legal Aid NT’s board of commissioners, all of whom were appointed by the CLP, has not yet signed the agreement. “Part of that agreement is when the department asks for information from Legal Aid, that the information is forthcoming,” NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby told parliament’s estimates committee in June. “That has been a real challenge.”

Since November, The Saturday Paper has asked Legal Aid NT multiple times why it has not signed the agreement. It did not respond until last month, when a spokesperson said: “The service restrictions were not, and are not, linked to the negotiation process for funding agreements.” The spokesperson told The Saturday Paper it “will not comment further”.

This response appears to directly contradict the government. “It is Legal Aid not wanting to do the work and make the changes for its own organisation and to sign a multi-year funding agreement so that we can give the money over, okay?” Boothby told parliament in May.

The Saturday Paper asked Boothby what information she has requested of Legal Aid NT and what changes she has asked it to make. Her office provided a nonsensical response, attributable to the attorney-general, claiming the CLP had “increased Legal Aid NT’s baseline funding by 80 per cent after years of chronic under-resourcing under Labor”, that “taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for alleged offenders who can genuinely afford a lawyer” and that “the Government will continue to ensure eligible defendants receive Legal Aid representation”.

Voumard’s appointment as director was widely criticised – with lawyers noting she was Boothby’s “captain’s pick”, had no management experience and was not the preferred candidate following two rounds of recruitment.

The service cuts “are producing significant system wide consequences”, says barrister Beth Wild, president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association of the NT. “The absence of representation is contributing to congested court lists, with hearings now being scheduled as far out as April and May next year. This results in substantial delays for victims and accused persons alike.”

“Unnecessary delays in criminal proceedings are bad for everyone involved,” says Ben Grimes. “The increasing numbers of stay applications in the NT is a symptom of the Northern Territory government creating an imbalanced criminal justice system, and failing to understand that a healthy and functioning criminal justice system is good for all Territorians, including victims and affected families.”

Russell Marks is an adjunct research fellow at La Trobe University and works as a criminal defence lawyer in the Northern Territory

Hey Darwinites. Is the Nine Darwin multiplex now:
9/90 9HD Darwin (MPEG-4 HD)
91 9Gem (MPEG-4 HD)
92 9Go! (MPEG-4 HD)
93 9Life (MPEG-4 SD)
95 Extra (MPEG-4 SD)

Can anyone from Darwin please confirm for me?

EDIT: I'm not from Darwin but in another WIN market, just researching. According to their website, there is no mention of channel 95.

The list according to WIN:
To streamline the viewing experience, the WIN Network will also adjust its Logical Channel Numbers (LCNs) in Darwin as follows:

• Channel 9 & 90: 9HD
• Channel 91: 9Gem HD
• Channel 92: 9Go!
• Channel 93: 9Life

G'Day everyone.

I'm moving from Perth to Darwin, and have temporary accommodation to start with where I will live in for a few months till I get a place. The relocation company provided by my employer have a storage facility for my stuff, but it's non-accessible until I terminate the lease and all items are moved out.

Could anyone recommend a good self-storage facility in Darwin that can store my items and allow me to access them as needed? I've got a fair amount of stuff (about 20 cubic meters).

Also, any advice on how to prevent storage items getting moldy in the humid weather? I hope self storage facilities have climate control, but once I move them to my own place, what should I do? Keep a room with air conditioning on all day (but electricity bill would be sky high)? I've got quite a collection of cold weather clothing and will still need them as I do frequent trips to the UK and eastern states for work and to visit family. Perth is dry heat, so never had problems with mold.

Any advice appreciated. TIA!

My thoughts and prayers are with the owners