Postcard from... Darwin

Only a handful of people live in the old mining town of Darwin, just beyond Death Valley. At first glance it appears that this is a true ghost town, where mobile phones have no reception and the nearest open supermarket is over a hundred kilometres away. But then we met Jay. Jay came to Darwin a few years ago… or was it that he moved into his current trailer then as his house had burned down… it was hard to follow the story, and Jay liked to talk a lot.

He showed us around his rock garden, an open air exhibition made up of stones collected from around about as well as the abandoned mines. Sometimes Jay spent days underground before resurfacing to make his rock carvings, as well as sculptures out of scrap metal and glass. After we had admired his work for a while we moved on, eventually meeting a friend and neighbour of Jay’s who also calls this ghost town home. She was on her way to bring gas to someone whose car had run dry in the desert. She told us that she organised the annual dance in the dancehall. Even in Darwin, there is still some life to be lived.