Portside Darwin City Highlights

Welcome to my brief biography! I was born in New Zealand and raised in Canada, and have lived in Australia for several decades. I’m now happily an Australian citizen. I’ve been in Darwin since 2009, and worked in communications and marketing for several departments in the Northern Territory Government, for Aboriginal Corporations, Charles Darwin University, and others. I picked up a lot of knowledge along the way. I'm an upbeat and positive guy, and people find me easy to get along with. I know Darwin and surrounds well and have a passion for tourism and hospitality. I look forward to showing you the best the Top End has to offer. My tours are fully customisable to your interests and preferences. There's so much to see and do here. And I can talk on a range of topics relevant to the Northern Territory, including settlement, Aboriginal traditional culture, economics, street art, military, architecture, horticulture, pearling, crocodiles, contemporary culture, pre-colonial Aboriginal trade, fishing, WWII, wildlife, cyclone Tracy, food culture, communications, resource development, geopolitics and more. I'm a mature man with a broad range of experience. I’ve lived and worked in Indonesia, USA, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and Japan, with lots of adventure travel along the way. I’ve worked in tourism, hospitality, mining, TV production, radio, and more. I was a national TV news reporter before producing TV for the Discovery Channel. I also worked as a literary analyst for a film studio, and taught screenwriting. I’ve had lots to write about—among my exploits, I was a manager at a high-altitude gold mine in West Papua, a morning man on national radio in Tokyo, and director of communications for a government council composed entirely of small tropical islands. Along the way, I’ve done everything from living in a tent in the Daintree to camping on an uninhabited desert island in the Sea of Cortez. I also managed to sail across the Pacific twice—the second time solo in my own sailboat. (It was all sunsets and pina coladas.) Some of my qualifications: • Guide, Tour Guides Australia • Member of Tourism Top End, the Northern Territory’s peak tourism body • Endorsed by Department of Tourism, Northern Territory Government • Permits to operate in Territory Parks • Senior First Aid Trained • $10 million Public Liability Insurance • Licensed tourism vehicle with endorsement to carry passengers I hope to see you soon in Darwin, and I look forward to serving you! Sincerely, Darrel