Search this site;

Since March 2020 life as we know it has changed forever due to the coronavirus COVID-19

To read the latest information see the Secure NT website and NT Steps to the New Normal

Local businesses are adjusting to the 'New Normal', please check with the advertised contact for any updates or changes to an advertised service.

Life at Nightcliff High School, 1972

by Kevin
(Adelaide)

I attended Nightcliff High School in 1972. It was not a particularly good time for me. I had better fun working part time at Top End Radio and TV Repairs. Thanks to Mike and his wife for their support while I was there.

I did like Darwin though, the bugs, the frogs, the storms and the way everything grew so fast and lush. I think Darwin lost a lot of character when Tracy blew through. I have been back a number of times and it just seems to miss something.

Comments for Life at Nightcliff High School, 1972

Average Rating

Click here to add your own comments

Rating

Oh boy, it's now 50 year...
by: Kevin

Holy moly, it's been 50 years since I was at school. (Left in 1972) Since then I have had a great working life in electronics and computing, retired in 2020. I was a long haired freaky guy at school with lots of problems. But, we are what the past makes us and I have turned out to be healthy, wealthy and wise. I apologize to those I have offended, thank those who have helped me. I have realized my dreams, travelled the world, learnt to fly (owned my own plane for 12 years) and had a threesome.

Rating

Memories
by: Lesley

Just found this site by accident! I went to Nightcliff High in 1972, living at Carpentaria College. I remember those awful lunch deliveries too, also the hideous breakfasts served up for us boarders! Big huge cockroaches in the bathroom, making lots of friends, having my 17th birthday camping on a river with crocs swimming about and no one cared. School was great, great English teacher, the boarding not so great. But still didn't want to go home - which was Gove at the time. My first job was on Groote Eylandt.

Rating

Darwin
by: Anonymous

I remember you Kevin. You went back to Adelaide to get an apprenticeship as a radio tech. Then learnt to fly. I ran into around 1982 at Parafield, small world.

Rating

Memories of a 10-pound pommy
by: Andrew

I was at Nightcliffe High in 1972/73, in class 101 with teacher B. Howell, and living at Carpentaria College. Just 12 years old and Australia was still so new to me after growing up in England. I especially remember ..

- collecting shell cases at Nightcliffe Beach
- getting "stung" in the water just one day after swimming season started and waiting to die on the beach, until eventually a row of sucker marks appeared across my chest
- lunchtime deliveries from Carpentaria Collge, usually cold spaghetti or baked bean sandwiches!
- buying salty plums and red ginger from the school tuckshop
- reading what must have been the first Australian Edition of the "Little Red School Book" in the college park, and
- lusting after Marie P.

Rating

Darwin before Tracy
by: Anonymous

I am a former student who attended Nightlife High School in 1972, originally I was in 1D1 class (Bulldog Baker's mob) but transferred to 1C3.
After Tracy I ended up at Casuarina until mid way through 1976 then went to Norwood High School in Adelaide for the rest of that year and also 1977. I met my first regular girlfriend named Adele in 1972, she transferred from Darwin High.

Darwin was a fantastic place before Cyclone Tracy, I had my ups and downs, I experienced the usual teenage angst of trying to fit in with different crews but always ended up being the odd one left out, had no problems with having girlfriends, just the guys kind of didn't take to me, maybe it was because I was always with a girl and sometimes she was already with some other guy, hahahaha.

Rating

Texas ex pat
by: Lisa C

I went to Nightcliff High School in 1970-1971. It was OK but more restrictive than what I was used to. I had never had to wear a school uniform before and I got in trouble for wearing makeup, jewelry and nail polish. Loved the meat pies and sausage rolls from the school canteen. We lived in Alawa.
The people in Darwin were great and I had a lot of fun at the beaches, the drive-in and hanging out on Smith Street.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Darwin History.