Among the pandanus and mango trees near Darwin Airport, an enormous shed houses an unlikely resident: a giant chunk of ice.
In a city famous for crocs and hot, steamy weather, the ice hockey rink, barely 12 months old, sits in stark contrast to the surrounding tropics.
Darwin's ice hockey team, Evolution, is named after Charles Darwin's work, and is set to compete for the first time on the national stage at the Challenge Cup in Adelaide.
At the final training session before the team flies south there's a palpable sense of excitement in the air.
"If we win we'll probably all get drunk," joked captain Tracey McIntosh.
"We just want to do the Territory proud."
The team's fictional counterparts were made famous in a Vegemite commercial, but Evolution is serious about competing, and boasts a butcher, a baker, and a retired police officer among its players.
The relative newcomers to ice hockey feel they've discovered the perfect way to beat the heat.
"When it's stinking hot out there it's about 10 degrees in here," player Allan Brown said.
"At the moment it's hot, and it gets even hotter. Once we start out there we generate a lot of heat and usually I wear the bandana because I sweat and I can wring everything out when I finish."
Mr Brown, who served on the police force for 20 years, has only been playing ice hockey for eight months, and said it was a great way to stay connected to the community.
"Generally, we get along well off the ice, but on the ice … " Mr Brown paused, before grinning.
"Nah, it's good comradery, we do get competitive out there, it's only natural."
'What happens on the ice stays on the ice'
The team, who are off to Adelaide to compete for the first time at a national level in the Challenge Cup, also boast Darwin's only mother-son hockey duo.
"Not many parents get to do that, to play a full-on sport with one of their kids, so I'm pretty proud," said Ms McIntosh.
She described her team mates as "hooligans" with good hearts.
"They're a great bunch, mixed ages, occupations, personalities, we're a great team," Ms Mcintosh said.
Her son Damien, 22, said it was "awesome" playing with his mum, and said a love for the ice ran in his family, with his father being an ice hockey player and referee and his mother a figure skater and ice hockey referee.
"It's in my blood, I could skate before I could walk," he said.
When asked what happened if there was argy-bargy on the ice, the left wing-defender said he just shrugs it off.
"It's a case of what happens on the ice stays on the ice, it's one of them sacred rules: you hurt someone, you shake it off, it's all good," he said.
Mr McIntosh is a baker by day and an actor in his spare time, and also starred in a web series called Growing Pains.
When asked how he felt about competing in the Challenge Cup in Adelaide from Monday, he said he felt nervous but excited to play on the national stage.
"I've never competed nationally before, it's obviously nerve-racking but I'm excited," he said.
"It's going to be good fun and I want to do the Territory proud."
