Crocodile-Fighting Darwin Hits Gas-Fueled Economic Fast Lane

Near the site where the first bomb landed on Australia in World War II, Il Lido restaurant serves watermelon cubes with aged balsamic vinegar at A$3 ($3.12) each to diners overlooking a swimming lagoon and artificial wave pool.

This is the new face of Darwin, a transformation from the capital of Australia’s hardest-drinking region, where a crocodile is caught almost every day, into a boomtown enriched by gas and bolstered by its location between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, where Asia and Australia meet. The heart of the change is a $34 billion liquefied natural gas project by Inpex Corp. and Total SA that will help fuel Japan for four decades.