the Northern Territory's lifestyle magazine. - Australian Hotels ...

fresh lifestyles Australia’s Northern Territory The NorTherN TerriTory: A brieF hisTory
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discover
Waves of other migrants followed
later, enticed by jobs in pearling,
pastoralism and other emerging
industries, and the chance to make
a new start in a new frontier.
honour it.
Darwin was founDeD as ausTralia’s mosT
norTherly porT in 1869, anD iTs populaTion
surgeD afTer golD was DiscovereD aT nearby
pine creek in 1871.
World War II put the town on the map
as a major allied military base. Darwin
was devastated again on 24 December
1974 when Cyclone Tracy swept across
the coast. The city was rebuilt with much
improved construction codes and is a
modern, landscaped metropolis today.
The Macassans who sailed down from
the Spice Islands on the trade winds
to gather prized trepang are thought
to have been the first non-Indigenous
people to set foot on Northern Territory
soil. Dutch explorer William Jootszoon
van Colster recorded the first official
sighting from his tallship Arnhem in
1623 – but the Macassans and other
seafarers are thought to have visited
long before then.
The 1880s gold discoveries lured an
influx of Chinese fortune-seekers and
Malay, Filipino and Japanese divers
were brought in to collect mother-ofpearl
shell. Greek people also came in
large numbers and, together with their
fellow European and Asian immigrants,
helped create the multicultural city that
Darwin is today.
Explorer John McDouall Stuart became
the first explorer to cross Australia
from south to north, paving the way for
construction of the Overland Telegraph
line. When completed in 1872, it
provided Australia’s first communications
link with the outside world.
It also opened the way for pastoralists to
take up leases in Central Australia – but
it was the discovery of alluvial gold at
Arltunga to the east of Alice Springs in
1887 that provided the impetus for the
region’s population boom.
Tennant Creek took its name from the
nearby watercourse named in 1860 by
John McDouall Stuart to acknowledge
the financial help he received from South
Australian pastoralist John Tennant.
Katherine developed with the arrival
of the Overland Telegraph Line and a
new telegraph station in 1872. In 1879,
after good reports from Stuart and other
explorers, Alfred Giles and Alfred Woods
brought stock to the district and built
‘Spring Vale’ homestead with a view to
establishing a pastoral empire.
World War II put the town on the map
as a major allied military base for troops
fighting the Japanese in the Pacific.
More than 200 Defence personnel and
civilians perished when the Japanese
bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942.
Today travellers can see evidence of
Darwin’s World War II history at a variety
of preserved sites including ammunition
bunkers, airstrips and oil tunnels in and
around the city.
www.ntl.nt.gov.au
www.darwintours.com.au
www.darwinsairwar.com.au
23
1863
briTain vesTeD conTrol of The TerriTory in
souTh ausTralia
1911
souTh ausTralia relinquisheD conTrol To The
commonwealTh governmenT
1 july 1978
the territory wAs grANted self-goverNmeNt