When the United States signed an agreement in 2011 to use Australia's tropical port of Darwin as a base for military exercises, it was viewed as a key focus of former President Barack Obama's strategic pivot to Asia.
But ammunition and equipment for war games between U.S. and Australian forces will come ashore in June at Darwin's Chinese-run port under the eyes of a firm that is said to have links with China's military.
China, not the United States, is fast becoming the best hope for rejuvenating long-neglected Darwin, a city named after the 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin and better known for its monster crocodiles and giant beers.