We will be flying from Florida to Darwin. Is it better to fly into Sydney and then up to Darwin or better to fly to Indonesia/Bali or someplace in that area and then down to Darwin? Any suggestions to make the trip as short as possbile will be appreciated!

You can fly from Sydney or perhaps from Brisbane, you can also fly in there direcvt from Singapore ( about 4 hrs 20 mins flight ) or from Bali or from Brunei. A quick route via say LAX would be the Singapore Airlines non stop to Singapore but you would then have to change to Qantas on to Darwin, or fly from LAX to Brisbane and then fly from theire to Darwin. Note that there is now a rail service south from Darwin which although I haven't done it is an apealing journey.
For fares within Australia www.qantas.com or www.virginblue.com.au

Thank you James. Has anyone out there gone through Singapore to Darwin? How long was the trip from the West Coast of the USA? Any other suggestions?
Thanks.

Your fastest might be the non-stop LAX to Singapore, the onward flight on Qantas to Darwin is about 4 hrs 30 mins. Look at the LAX to brisbane route too.

I think I would probably go via Singapore however do check the arrival times into Darwin because the last time I flew Sin - Darwin we arrived about 3AM .....URGH!!!!!!
Singapore has an excellant hotel in the airport and you can book for as little as 6 or 8 hours which could help you indeed and it is reasonably priced as well although I do think that Singapore is worth a stopover for at least a couple of days. Being the most efficient airport in the world you can afford to stop over there en route without any problems.

Thank you all. Looks like it will take 3 different bookings on 3 different airlines....From Tampa to LAX, then LAX to Singapore, then Singapore to Darwin. Still working on it! I have also considered a stop over in Hawaii. I almost think the "trip around the world" flight would be cheaper. I have been looking into that as well.
Any more suggestions appreciated.