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Standing in line outside a fireworks store in Darwin on the morning of July 1, a man mentioned to me that he had acquired some kind of metal pipe, out of which he was planning to shoot fireworks that night. It was morning, and the store hadn’t opened yet, but he had wanted to arrive early to beat the rush on the one day a year when residents could buy and set off fireworks.
He added, offhandedly, that the pipe was illegal. (There are strict rules about what kind of fireworks and fireworks accessories can be sold; it was not something that he could have just walked into a store and bought.)
The next day, I read in the news about how a “couple of blokes” had been using a hollow steel pipe for launching fireworks. A misfire caused the pipe to explode, and flying shrapnel severed one man’s arm at the elbow and struck another man in the groin.
I hope the man I was talking to wasn’t involved — he’d said he lived in a suburb in a completely different part of Darwin. Still, it underscored the risk of giving people access to what are, essentially, explosives.
I was up in Darwin writing about how the Northern Territory is the only place in Australia left where people are allowed to set off fireworks without needing a permit or any permission. Territory Day, also known as Cracker Night, is a celebration of independence in a state that has always prided itself on being a bit wilder than the rest of the country, and where residents see themselves as protectors of Australia’s larrikin spirit.
In the course of reporting the story, I was struck by how people spoke about freedom and personal responsibility, and how they viewed the Northern Territory as Australia’s last frontier of both.
Australia is sometimes criticized for being a nanny state. It takes a strong regulatory approach to issues like public health, and as we saw during the pandemic, residents are generally happy to follow rules and to give up some personal freedoms for the collective good.
But some have questioned whether the country strikes the right balance of regulations and personal freedoms. One politician who tried to bring back fireworks to other states — without success — has argued that banning them was part of a trend of “government intrusion into our personal choices that has diminished our quality of life.”
For some in the Northern Territory, Cracker Night was proof that they lived in a place still ruled by common sense, where residents were trusted to make their own decisions about their safety and well-being.
The night was about “knowing we’re the last frontier of Australia, before it gets to the nanny state,” said Gary Burns, 32.
Chris Lay, who runs Oriental Emporium, an Asian grocery that turns into a fireworks shop one day a year, put it this way: “The ball’s in my court — I have to be safe. If I’m not safe, I’m going to end up in the hospital.”
Accidents happen every year. But supporters of the tradition say that many of those occur as a result of people doing something they shouldn’t — as in the case of the steel pipe. Regulations can’t stop people from willfully doing the wrong thing, they argue.
But opponents have noted that regulations are about protecting the broader community, as well as protecting people from themselves. Bystanders are also injured by fireworks, and there are also concerns about impact on pets and the environment.
Beneath all the festivities, there ran an undercurrent of trepidation that the Northern Territory was on borrowed time. Although residents overwhelmingly supported the event, and any politician who tried to abolish it would face harsh backlash, some worried that the tradition could be one tragedy away from being scrapped.
“I think opposition is gradually increasing,” said Rolf Gerritsen, a professor at Charles Darwin University, adding that despite its spirit of rugged independence, the Northern Territory was gradually gentrifying and becoming more similar to the rest of the country. “It wouldn’t surprise me if within a decade, Cracker Night is abolished like in the rest of the states.”
Now for this week’s stories:
