"Phew! Build-up Worst in Years" read the headline in North- ern Territory News, Darwin's daily newspaper, one day last week.
The tabloid was not referring to a military build-up but the prospect of a hot, humid climax to the dry season which has been going on since May.
There would be no relief until late October, forecaster Ashley Patterson told the News.
This is a matter for some concern to Darwin's 87,000 residents, as the tension during the build-up to the first rains accounts for a rise in suicides at this time of year in the town at the northern tip of Australia, or the "`Top End" as it is popularly known.
Well, it actually rained a little on Saturday night, just after the little fleet of East Timor-bound war ships - a destroyer, one landing craft and four frigates - sailed out of the harbour against the backdrop of a glorious red sunset.
There were only a handful of people to see them off, mainly tourists staying at the Carlton, the Top End Hotel, Rydges Plaza, or one of the other hotels near the Esplanade.
Darwin people support the Australian-led venture into East Timor ("Top-Enders Right Behind You", said the News) but display little excitement about the invasion of their town by hundreds of soldiers, sailors, UN staff and journalists, for whom the word "build-up" refers only to the military preparations for the international force . . . Perhaps this lack of curiosity stems from the fact that they are used to strangers coming for brief stays to this resort town, or because many Darwin residents are themselves in transit.
It is difficult to find adults here who were born in the Northern Territories, or teenagers who aren't planning to leave. Darwin is modern and pleasant, with something of the atmosphere of a small town in California.
It has coffee shops, such as Salvatore's, which serves real Italian coffee; sophisticated shopping malls, designer stores, craft shops and restaurants specialising in the local and very tasty barramundi fish - and it also boasts two big, lively Irish pubs, Kitty O'Shea's and Shenannigans, which are popular with backpackers.
There are pleasant beaches - though the deadly box jelly-fish are so prevalent that families always take vinegar to the beach to treat stings - and spectacular natural parks, such as Kakadu and Litchfield, with waterfalls, termite mounds and Aboriginal rock art galleries.
But for most Australians it is still the "`never, never", a far-off place surrounded by mangrove swamps and crocodile-infested rivers and mudflats, actually nearer to Jakarta than Canberra. It is a two days hard drive through a flat landscape of gum trees and bush to the nearest city, Alice Springs, along a highway pounded by the ubiquitous Australian road trains - trucks pulling several trailers.
It owes its modern, cosmopolitan aspect to the fact that it was destroyed and rebuilt twice in the last 57 years. On February 18th, 1942, Japanese fighters and bombers began a series of air attacks which devastated Darwin, then a supply base for Pacific fleets. On Christmas eve, 1974, Darwin suffered modern Australia's worst ever natural disaster when Cyclone Tracy ripped through the port, destroying 95 per cent of houses and killing 66 people.
The East Timor crisis at least has been good for business, coming at the tail end of the holiday season. Every hotel is booked out. Back-packer stores like Snow gums have been doing a roaring trade as visitors bound for East Timor queue up for Bushman Plus insect repellent, Mozzie Dome screen shelters, self-inflating earth mats, Swiss army knives and backcountry cuisine packs (the "freezedri" apple crumble is a favourite), and other items considered essential for anyone venturing onto a semi-tropical island stripped of all modern conveniences.
It has been especially good business for the Indonesian consulate which made a killing of A$30,000 (£12,000) by insisting on the 300 Dili-bound journalists obtaining Indonesian visas at A$100 each.
The world's heavyweight correspondents, most of whom have never been to East Timor, have moved in for this story, cleaned out the "outback" stores and bagged the few seats on the Australian Ministry of Defence pool accompanying the first wave of international troops today (leaving in their wake many of the committed reporters who had been covering Dili for months and really know the territory and its people).
For Darwin all this is but the beginning. It will continue to be a staging post for the peacekeeping forces and the UN mission in East Timor for many years. Business will continue booming at the Top End long after the press pack has disappeared across the horizon to Dili.