FOI documents show Darwin’s $2.7m shade structure reduces heat by less than 1C

A $2.7 million government-funded shade structure in Darwin’s CBD has cooled temperatures underneath it by less than 1 degree Celsius in the two years since it was built, documents obtained by the ABC reveal.

The 55-metre structure on Cavenagh Street was completed in late 2018 as part of the NT Government’s plan to transform Darwin into “a cool, tropical, world-renowned destination”, after a 2017 heat study revealed some surfaces in the city were hitting temperatures between 45C and 67C.

At the time, Chief Minister Michael Gunner described Cavenagh Street as “a river of fire” and said a reduction of between 2C and 4C was necessary to make Darwin “walkable and liveable”.

But two years since the shade structure was built, the…