Doctors Gully

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Doctors Gully
Gully
Doctors Gully from the south
Interactive map of Doctors Gully
Coordinates: 12°27′31″S 130°49′18″E / 12.45861°S 130.82167°E / -12.45861; 130.82167
Location	Darwin
Water bodies	Darwin Harbour
Geology	fine-grained Cretaceous sediments
Area
• Total	4290 sqm
Dimensions
• Length	400m
Elevation	20 m (66 ft)

Doctors Gully is a small but historically significant^[1] coastal enclave and aquatic reserve^[2] in Larrakeyah, Australia, close to Darwin’s city centre and overlooking Darwin Harbour. Positioned between Fort Hill and Point Emery, the area combines harbour scenery, early settlement history, wartime heritage and, in modern times, is home to a fish feeding sanctuary.

The Larrakia people are the Traditional Custodians of the Darwin region and inhibated the area for man thousands of years before European settlement. Doctors Gully was named after Dr Robert Peel, the surgeon on the SS Moonta (under George Goyder which arrived from Adelaide to create a settlement in area. Doctors Gully was the site of Peel’s Well, one of the settlement’s first freshwater sources which was originally sourced by Peel after the boat landing.

The area was subsequently used for Chinese market gardens and was the original location of Royal Darwin Hospital.^[3] During World War II, Doctors Gully also formed part of Darwin’s wartime defence network as a support base for Catalina flying boats, including the “Black Cat” squadrons that undertook reconnaissance and mine-laying operations across the Pacific.

Carl Atkinson lived at, and retained a lease for, Doctors Gully between 1945 and 1979. He salvaged wrecks of vessels in Darwin Harbour, including that of the Sea Fox, which belonged to John Calvert, a famous American magician. Atkinson is credited with the decision to open Doctors Gully up to fish feeding for the general public.^[4]

The feature of the area is now the Aquascene Fish Feeding sanctuary.

Visitors can hand feed milkfish, diamond-scaled mullet, catfish, tiger scats, shovel-nose rays and barramundi during high tide around mangrove trees.

Although the area theoretically is subject to marine hazards such as box jellyfish and crocodiles, the staff of the sanctuary are able to ensure feeding is safe.

There is a heritage walking route through rainforest featuring Peel’s well^[5] and the opportunity to visualise relics from World War II including buoys, oil tanks, and Catalina base history^[6] with plaques explaining the features to visitors.