Darwin Transportation

DARWIN CITY
Needing a tranfer to the Airport from your hotel ?.. So easy to organise a pickup from your hostel/hotel as I did by booking a pickup time at the Bus transfer station .The Station is located at the Transit Centre top end of Mitchell St. Darwin.. They also hold your luggage for you.
A lot of flights leaving Darwin leave at dreadful hours most around midnight or later so these transfer busses are just the shot...Luggage was no problem and they are on time..The pickup was directly from my hostel at 12.30.am.
These transfer costs are a lot cheaper than a Taxi..make sure though you book early in the day for that night flight.

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Darwin
Well my trip from Adelaide to Darwin was a long one of nearly 3000 kilometers and I must add that it was a really enjoyable journey...being a person who loves train travel and whenever the opportunity arises will always opt for this type of travel..and as these tickets were on special I jumped at the chance...I decided to break the journey in Alice Springs as I wanted to visit ULURU National Park and Wartarkka National Park.( a most fantastic place to see).the five day break in the journey enabled me to do this...then I boarded the train once again for the rest of the trip to Darwin..such a long train ..so many carriages etc.must be nearly a kilometer long...The train trip I found to be most comfortable ..with dining car serving good fresh large portioned meals at a very reasonable price compared to other train journeys that I have been on..there is plenty of room to move about and there also was a lot of interaction between the so many different nationalities of travellers on board.I find train travel to be so good as one can get up and walk around on such a long journey with many parts of the train to utilise..unlike busses or Aircraft that can be so cramped for long periods...There is a lounge car that has outlets for PC's and also recharging points..and many choose to sit and chat also in the dining car which sells good food and all forms of drinks....so easy to sit and look out the windows at the vast changes in the landscape.. from the vast wheatfields of South Australia to the arid desert scenery of the centre and the beginning of the tropical vegetation in the north.The trip from Alice Springs to Darwin is one of about 26 hours and about 1500 kilometers.The train makes a stop at Katherine for around four hours for everybody to either visit Katherine Gorge (Nitmuluk National Park) tours are organised on train..or ..spend the time in Katherine..The difference in temperature upon arrival in tropical Darwin was really such a change from the minus temperature experienced in Adelaide's wet winter cold..Also some people decide to transport their car on the train and then drive back...I can only say that I recommend this trip to anyone wishing to travel to the Red Centre and then on to Darwin..one of the worlds great train journeys.
more on these train journeys on my Adelaide and Alice Springs pages..(see transport tips)
Tickets were purchased on special from Great Southern Rail.

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I decided to take the Greyhound Croc Stopover Package to get from Darwin to Alice Springs. At 269 AUD, it was reasonably priced and included coach travel between Darwin and Alice Springs with 2 stops. One stop was optional and the other was an all inclusive stay at the Nitmiluk Katherine Gorge tent village for one night (shuttle to and from Katherine bus station, linen, bedding, pillow, dinner at the poolside kiosk or bistro, and a pancake breakfast). You have up to 14 days to complete the trip but I planned to do it in 4 days. Besides Katherine Gorge, I picked the Mataranka Homestead as my other overnight stop.

Everything would have been fine except that the bus departed Darwin at 13:40 instead of noon because it was stuck behind another bus with mechanical problems at the maintenance facility. We arrived in Katherine at 17:30 instead of 16:10. The station was closed and no one was there from Nitmiluk Tours to pick me up. When I called them, they refused to pick me up in Katherine since the bus arrived 30 minutes after my scheduled pick up time, which was 17:00. When I asked the bus driver what to do, he said to call the head Greyhound office. That was no help, so I decided to stay on the bus and go to Mataranka Homestead a day early. Fortunately they had plenty of vacancies and I got a room with no problem. All is well that ends well. Mataranka Homestead turned out to be a very nice place to visit.

Darwin's Greyhound Australia bus station is located in the back of the Transit Center in the Mitchell Street Tourist Precinct. The Transit Center has places to eat and shops (e.g. Chilli's Backpackers Travel Shop and Internet Cafe). The restrooms are in the Mantra on the Esplanade Hotel across the street from the bus station.

We rented our car in Darwin from Hertz. We all had a day or two after the big vt meet to have a look around so we decided to share the cost.
We had no problem with Hertz and considering some problems people have with car rentals wanting to pin everything on you.....I don't have a problem with recommending this mob.

Darwin International Airport (DRW) is probably the smallest of Australia's International Airports. It is however a nice little place for a layover believe it or not.

I prefer to fly with oneWorld Carriers (AA, British Airways, Qantas, Cathay), so I had the privledge of checking out the Qantas Club lounge while waiting for a 1am! flight back to Sydney!

If you do not have status on the OW airlines, then I would wait until the last possible second to enter the Darwin Airport as there really is not much else to the place. You walk through security and are immediately at your gate, which is nice, but also tedious for longer amounts of time. There are a couple little places to eat, but as you can imagine, no grandeous fine dining locations or gift shops here.

The MVR (Motor Vehicle Registry) has Customer Service Centres throughout the NT. If in a remote locality, or outstation you may attend your nearest Police Station.

Main Branch
Location
Goyder Road
Parap
All telephone enquiries: 1300 654 628
Fax (08) 8999 3189

Postal Address
GPO Box 530
DARWIN NT 0801

Hours Of Business
Monday to Thursday
8am to 4pm
Friday 8am to 5.30pm

Other branches are located in Darwin, Casuarina and Palmerston

The bus services in Darwin turned out to be one of my most important tools of travel in exploring Darwin.

There are many fare structures - single trip fares (demarcated by zones), multi-ride cards and daily/weekly tour cards. Depending on how long you would be staying in Darwin, all you need is to purchase the card of your need and hop on and off the bus services at will.

Most of the sights around the city are within Zone 1, so a single-trip fare will be A$1.40 (circa 2003).

Getting to some of the outer lying beaches however may cost you more as they lie outside Zone 1.

Generally, waiting intervals between buses are around 20-30 minutes, so you should plan your arrival at the bus stop well, in case you miss your bus! Bus schedules can be obtained from the bus-stops, bus terminals and from the website provided below.

I found bus service route No.4 to be most useful for my forays outside the city. The bus brings you from the city to The Museum and Art Gallery of The Northern Territories, as well as to all the major beaches - those at Fannie Bay, Nightcliff and Casuarina Beach.
(The border between Zone 1 and 2 for bus service route 4 lies just after Fannie Bay)

Darwin International Airport is pretty near the city, just 13 kms away, barely a half a hour journey.

There is an airport-city shuttle bus which you can take to & fro airport and city and you can purchase it easily through your accommodation.

In 2003, it cost me A$5.50 one way.

The earliest bus takes off at 4.00am for folks who need to take the earliest flights which are at 6.00am. (I know, because I had to catch the 6.00am flight from Darwin to Cairns)
The bus terminal is located very conveniently just behind my hostel, at the Transit Centre along Mitchell Street.

Local freecall: 1800-358945