lifesaving accreditations.
Parks and gardens
Darwin has extensive parks and gardens. These include the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens, East Point Reserve, Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Charles Darwin National Park, Knuckey Lagoons Conservation Reserve, Leanyer Recreation Park, the Nightcliff Foreshore, Bicentennial Park and the Jingili Water Gardens.
Sports
The Marrara Sports Complex near the airport has stadiums for Aussie Rules (TIO Stadium), cricket, rugby union, basketball (and indoor court sports), soccer, athletics and field hockey. Every two years since 1991 (excluding 2003 due to the SARS outbreak), Darwin has played host to the Arafura Games, a major regional sporting event. In July 2003, the city hosted its first international test cricket match between Australia and Bangladesh, followed by Australia and Sri Lanka in 2004.
Australian-rules football and rugby league are played all year round. Melbourne's Western Bulldogs Australian Football League side plays one home game at Marrara Oval each year. The ATSIC Aboriginal All-Stars also participate in the AFL pre-season competition. In 2003, a record crowd of 17,500 attended a pre-season game between the All-Stars and Carlton Football Club at Marrara.
Darwin hosts a round of the V8 Supercars every year bringing thousands of motorsports fans to the Hidden Valley Raceway.
The Darwin Cup culminating on the first Monday of August is a very popular horse race event for Darwin and draws large crowds every year to Fannie Bay Racecourse. While it is not as popular as the Melbourne Cup, it does draw a crowd and, in 2003, Sky Racing began televising most of the races. The Darwin Cup day is a public holiday for the Northern Territory (Picnic Day public holiday)
