HALF a world away in the Northern Territory of Australia, Neil McDonald says he can't help bumping into people from Huddersfield.

Neil says: "One was a nurse from Storthes Hall whose father I worked with while nursing.

"An old chap spoke to me when I was on a police horse at a show in a small town about 90 kilometres outside Darwin. He was from Lowerhouses.

"And a member of the motorcycle club I ride with is from Rochdale and has a son living in Bradley. It really is a small world."

Almondbury-born Neil, lived for a while in Dalton and went to Dalton Junior and Almondbury Secondary schools.

It was while working at Storthes Hall Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary that he met his wife Kim, from Penang in Malaysia who was training as a nurse.

Says Neil: "We married in 1974 and lived in Fartown. From 1976 to 1979 we worked in Livingstone, Zambia, nursing at the local hospital. While in Zambia we had a daughter, Thea. When we returned to Huddersfield we moved to Golcar and she attended Golcar infants and junior schools.

"I joined the West Yorkshire Police and was stationed at Milnsbridge. Kim worked at the Halifax General Hospital.

"Our last home was the old police station and house in High Street, Scapegoat Hill. We still have family in Mirfield and friends in the Huddersfield area, so we have been back to town a few times."

The last visit was in June last year when Neil was accompanied by daughter Thea.

It was in 1997 that the McDonalds left Huddersfield for Australia. At first Neil and Kim worked in nursing on Queensland's Gold Coast but by 1998 they were residents of Darwin in the Northern Territory.

Neil joined the police, first working on the beat and in the mounted section. He says: "I am currently working in the Communications Centre. Kim has worked at the local hospital and currently works in a travel medicine clinic in the city."

Thea went to school in Darwin and first worked in banking. In 2001 she married and moved with her husband to Loxton, on the Murray river about 2½ hours travel from Adelaide in South Australia.

Curiously the city of Darwin, with its 2005 population estimated at over 110,000, has fewer people than the town of Huddersfield.

Neil tells the Examiner: "You did a story a couple of years ago on Robert and Regina Holmes from Adelaide. I grew up with Rob. We were married in the same year and socialised until we emigrated. We have kept in touch and have met up on a couple of occasions."

He adds: "It is nice to read the Examiner on line and see what is going on.

"We are very happy with our move and both like our tropical lifestyle. We have a dry season, May to September - 16ºC (61ºF) overnight, 28ºC (82ºF) daytime, no rain; wet season October to April 26-28ºC (79-82ºF) overnight, 32-36ºC (90-97ºF) daytime, average rainfall 1,500mm (58in).

"We live in Howard Springs, about 30kms (19 miles) south of Darwin. It's a rural area and we are on a half-acre block."

Contact: neilandkim@smartchat.net.au

* The original inhabitants of the Darwin area were the Larrakia aborigines.

* The Dutch were the first Europeans to visit the area in the 1600s.

* The first Briton credited with seeing Darwin harbour was Lt John Lort Stokes of HMS Beagle in 1839. Today's city gets it name from Charles Darwin, who famously sailed on an earlier voyage of the Beagle.

* Darwin, with its tropical climate, has heavy thunderstorms and suffers major cyclones on average every three decades. Much of the city was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974.

* Strangely, initially the settlement and adminstration of Darwin was arranged from South Australia.

* The population increased after the discovery of gold at Pine Creek in the 1880s.

* During the Second World War the same aircraft carrier fleet which had bombed Pearl Harbour three months earlier raided Darwin on February 19, 1942, dropping more bombs than on Pearl Harbour and killing at least 243 people. It was the first of 64 attacks until November 1943.

* Today Darwin is Australia's most northerly and least populated state capital (of the Northern Territory). It is also the nation's multicultural capital, with the largest proportion of indigenous Australians, and more than 50 nationalities, including Timorese, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Chinese, Papuans, Northern Europeans, Greeks, Italians and Britons.

* Darwin is modern Australia's gateway to Asia. The AustralAsia Railway (Adelaide to Darwin) arrived as recently as September 2003.

* The population is growing rapidly, attracted by the strong economy and relaxed tropical lifestyle.