One interesting thing about Darwin is how often this city in the so-called Top End of north tropical Australia has been destroyed. Indeed there are those who contend that this is the only interesting thing about Darwin.

Australian celebrity Dame Edna Everage once famously remarked that the place was "a virus, not a city," and that "there was no cure." A trifle harsh in this column's opinion, given the rough treatment the community has endured. In 1897 Darwin was pulverized by a cyclone; in 1935 it was flattened by a second cyclone; and in 1942 the Japanese Air Force bombed it into oblivion.

Several times.

On Christmas Day in 1974, Cyclone Tracy arrived feeling festive. Once again Darwin rode the rocket.

After this, a lot of Darwin's inhabitants decided that enough was enough and cleared out. Many of the rest started drinking heavily. At one time it was calculated that each male Darwinian was consuming on average two "slabs" a week. A slab is a 24-can pack of beer.

Despite its bad press ("the place where the Top End reaches Rock Bottom"), we liked Darwin. True, swimming was off on account of a reliably seasonal plague of deadly box jellyfish (October-May), but Darwin has good botanical gardens, museums covering such themes as pearl diving, aircraft and jails -- and a stuffed 5-meter crocodile called "Sweetheart." Sweetheart, before she was stuffed, made a name for herself by chewing up boat propellers and outboard motors.

Darwin also has a great coral reef display, a huge Banyan tree known as "The Tree of Knowledge," good restaurants, a Chinese temple, a mangrove boardwalk, and man-eating saltwater crocodiles ("salties") in its harbor.

So, no worries, mate.

Darwin is also a great place to find tour operators willing to organize a trip to one of Australia's grandest national parks: Kakadu.

The first thing to emphasize about Kakadu is its size. We're talking 20,000 sq. km here, encompassing rivers, rain forests, mangroves, tidal flats, waterfalls, scrub, rocky escarpments, islands and flood plains. Definitely not a day-trip destination. Allow a week. Much better.

The second point to bear in mind is seasonal change. The local Aborigines have classified six separate seasons. For most Darwinians there are just two: "The Dry" (May-September) and "The Wet," which accounts for the rest of the year.

The Aboriginal Tiwi name for white people is murantani, meaning "hot red face," and if you visit in The Wet that's what you'll get. Humidity is intense, the temperatures oppressive, and the insect action guaranteed. One of our guide books used the word "billions." A ballpark figure, true, but hell, we'll run with it!

This said, there is one school of thought that has it that if you miss The Wet you miss Kakadu. You'll certainly miss the catastrophically spectacular electrical storms, the masses of seasonally lush green vegetation and the sheets of temporary water that make this a paradise for mosquito-proof, wetlands enthusiasts.

Birds are a big draw for many. There are 2.5 million of them in Kakadu, almost half of which are magpie geese. The Dry is the best time to see them, as they concentrate in the diminished wetlands. In The Wet they disperse.

High on the twitching tick-list are Australia's only species of stork, the jabiru; jacanas whose toes are so large and splayed that their owners can run on water; and the dancing brolga. (The dancing brolga, incidentally, dances.) Quite what the emus think they're doing is a mystery, but these barmy-looking flightless birds are as close to living dinosaurs as the bird-world gets.

There are easier places in Oz to see mammals and marsupials than Kakadu, but the park is home to eight kangaroo species, and peculiarities such as the northern quoll (a carnivorous spotted marsupial), and the egg-laying echidna are sometimes spotted. Sometimes.

Now to the reptiles! There are 75 species in all, but the show-stopper is that saltwater, or estuarine, crocodile.

Salties survived the dinosaurs and haven't changed much since then. Hunted for skins or as vermin, their numbers crashed until protective legislation was passed in the mid-1960s.

Herein lies a tale. Stories of man-eating crocodiles overturning boats, snaffling missionaries, chewing up pearl divers, eating dogs and generally raising hell are part and parcel of Top End lore. But as the big adults were "shot out," human fatalities became increasingly rare. Newsworthy, sensational, a lot more headline-grabbing than a car crash -- but rare.

This could change.

A whole new generation of salties -- the swinging sixties generation -- are reaching, or have reached, a size that makes them capable, in scientific-speak, of "interacting" with human beings. For "interacting with" read "eating." They've already developed a taste for Kakadu's imported water buffaloes.

"Beware of Crocodiles" signs are a coveted tourist souvenir and vanish as quickly as the Northern Territory authorities can put them up, so it's safer to assume that there is a crocodile in the water keen to interact with you, than to assume that there isn't. Indeed, on a single fateful night in 1945, salties consumed approximately 1,000 Japanese soldiers who'd decided, unwisely, to hide from the British in Myanmar's Rakhine mangrove delta.

Salties are juggernauts -- 6 meters long and weighing up to 1,000 kg. One was observed more than 600 km out to sea, paddling along, its back covered in barnacles, presumably heading out into the vast Pacific in search of new islands to conquer.

Despite their size, the reptiles are capable of living in surprisingly small billabongs. One hint that you shouldn't don your swimming costume is the color of the water. If you come across a pool that is bright green, bear in mind that vividly colored algae thrives on croc excrement.

One other noteworthy feature of Kakadu is its aboriginal rock art. People have been living here for 65,000 years, but it wasn't until 20,000 years ago that they caught the painting bug.

When they caught it, they caught it big time. Kakadau has at least 5,000 different rock art "galleries" ranging from the earliest efforts -- hand prints -- to sophisticated images of spirits, sailing ships and animals.

Some of these sites still have religious significance for Kakadu's aboriginal inhabitants, so tread lightly.

To get the most out of a trip to Kakadu, be sure to check out the Bowali Visitor's Center. The folks at Bowali provide visitors guides and comprehensive Park notes, as well as laying on slide shows and ranger-led walks around sites of key interest.