Palmerston, Northern Territory
From Freepedia
Palmerston is an Australian city, it is a satellite city of the Northern Territory capital, Darwin. Originally, Palmerston was the name given in 1855 to Darwin itself. Darwin assumed its current name in 1911.
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Geography and climate
Palmerston is situated between the outer industrial areas of Darwin and the rural areas of Howard Springs.
Palmerston has a tropical climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. The dry season runs from May to September. In the coolest months of June and July, daily temperature range is 19 to 30°C. The Wet season is associated with tropical cyclones and monsoon rains. The majority of rainfall occurs between December and March when thunderstorms are common and humidity is regularly over 70 per cent.
History
The land for modern Palmerston was acquired in 1971 by the Australian federal government after concerns of under-supply of residential land in Darwin. It was incorporated in 1981 and in 2000 was proclaimed the Northern Territory's second and newest city.
Government and politics
Palmerston City is governed at the local government level by the Palmerston City Council, consisting of the Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Mayor and 5 aldermen. The city is not divided into wards, thus each alderman represent the entire city.
Council elections are held on the last Saturday in May on leap years.
Landmarks
The major land-mark in Palmerston is the Power and Water Corporation's water storage tank, which supplies the city with fresh potable water.
The City also has a natural escarpment on it's eastern side, which has extensive walking paths.
Culture
Asian style markets are held in the Francis Mall, located in the CBD area on Friday evenings during the dry season from early May until late October.
Media
A local free tabloid news paper called the Palmerston Sun is published weekly by News Limited. The Northern Territory News tabloid published daily by News Corporation is also widely available in Palmerston. Most large state-wide inter-state newspapers are also available from local reatilers, albiet with a delay in arrival.
Radio and television
Radio and television services are sourced from transmitters located in the Darwin region. Pay Television is also available through both satellite and fixed cable from the encumbant provider, Austar.
Sport and recreation
The city has a "skate park" located on University Avenue that is funded by the Palmerston City Council. There is a local near-Olympic size swimming pool with a gymnasium.
There is also a boat ramp allowing access to the Elizabeth River for small trailable marine craft. Persons utilising the area are cautioned that both Box jellyfish and crocodiles are present in the river.
A branch of the YWCA is located at the CBD.
The Palmerston Scouts are located on University Avenue, adjacent to the Palmerston branch of the [RSL].
The Archer Sporting Complex has an Aussie Rules Football field, a senior Softball diamond and senior Baseball diamond. There are also a number of sporting clubs located at the Archer Sporting Complex.
Palmerston is well served by it's many park reserves. The following parks also offer barbecue facilities:
- Archer Oval; Flack Road, Archer
- Pretty Park; Dwyer Circuit, Driver
- Flinders Park; Woodlake Boulevard, Durack
- Phoenix Park; Phoenix Circuit, Durack
- Gager Park; Gager Way, Gunn
- Kintore Park; Kakadu Parade, Gunn
- Reggie & Friends Park; Gunn Crescent, Gunn
- Sanctuary Lake; Lakeview Boulevard, Gunn
- Marlow Lagoon; Elrundie Avenue, Marlow Lagoon
Transport
The city has a network of approximately 32 km of bicycle paths, most of which are lit for night-time usage.
There is also a public bus service that offers transportation around Palmerston, into Darwin City and out to Darwin's Northern Suburbs.
The Darwin City Airport is the closest air terminal, being serviced by both Qantas and Virgin Blue, with daily flights to and from all Australian capital cities. The airport is located in the Darwin suburb of Marrara, approximately 20 minutes away from Palmerston.
Darwin based taxis are also available in Palmerston, as well as a number of local and Darwin based mini-bus operators.
Education
As with other regions in Australia, education is compulsary up to and including year 10. The education system is broken down into 4 discrete sections.
- Pre-Schools - Cater for students younger than 5 years old.
- Primary Schools - Cater for students from approximately 5 years old (so-called transition students), from grade 1 through to grade 7.
- High Schools - Cater for students from grades 8 through until grade 10 or grade 12.
- Secondary Schools - Cater for students from grade 10 through until grade 12.
The school calendar endorsed by the Northern Territory Department of Education generally consists of the following arrangement:
- Term 1: 10 weeks
- Break: 1 week
- Term 2: 10 weeks
- Mid-year break: 4 weeks
- Term 3: 10 weeks
- Break: 1 week
- Term 4: 10 weeks
- End of year break: 6 weeks
Some private schools may follow a slightly different calendar.
University
The Charles Darwin University Palmerston campus is located in the suburb of Durack, surrounded by bush-land. The campus hosts the School of Tourism and Hospitality as well as expanding into a mini-School of Conservation and Land Management.
Regions and suburbs
The City of Palmerston initially consisted of the Palmerston Town (CBD), Driver and Gray. These were followed by Moulden and Woodroffe after development in those areas commenced in 1983. Also included in the City of Palmerston are the semi-rural suburb of Marlow Lagoon, the suburb of Archer and the industrial zones of Yarrawonga and Pinelands. Due to the explosive growth of Palmerston further developments have occurred leading to the creation of the suburbs of Rosebery, Bakewell, Gunn, Durack and more recently Farrar.
The suburbs of Farrar and Gunn also have colloquial names as assigned to them by the developers of the area, being "Fairway Waters" (due to the man-made lakes and golf course) and "The Chase" respectively.
Future areas of land for expansion are the proposed suburbs of Johnson, Zuccoli and Mitchell and are located on the south-east side of the existing city. These plots of expansion are expected to allow an increase of up to 14,000 additional residents in the city of Palmerston.
