Surveying Darwin 1869

Between February and September 1869, Goyder and his team of 138 men surveyed nearly 270 000 hectares of land including four township sites, 2236 rural lots, roads and reserves. The main township, originally named Palmerston, was surveyed in only five weeks. But it was not easy. The tropical climate and landscape were challenging, supplies were distant, and Aboriginal people resisted the colonisation of their lands.

South Australia acquired control of the Northern Territory by Letters Patent in 1863. In November that same year, the Northern Territory Act was passed. It allowed for land to be sold before survey. Buyers could purchase ‘land orders’ – agricultural blocks of 160 acres each – and for each land order, the buyer would receive a half-acre town lot. The Act decreed that within five years the survey had to be completed and the land order holders had to select their agricultural blocks and town allotments

On 1 March 1864 the land orders went on sale. All were sold. The money generated funded an expedition headed by Colonel BT Finniss to survey a site for the Northern Territory capital and its rural hinterland.

Finniss’s expedition arrived at the mouth of the Adelaide River in June 1864. For nearly 18 months Finniss argued for the suitability of this site. However, others disagreed and Finniss was recalled to Adelaide to answer charges regarding poor management of the survey. The expedition had been an abject failure. Agents for the land order holders were frustrated – how could they satisfy their purchase agreements if the survey had not been completed?
 

Further exploration failed to identify a site for the capital. With only eight months left until the deadline proclaimed by the Act, the South Australian government offered the land order holders a refund on their purchases or they could choose to double the amount they had purchased with more time to select their lands. But a site for the Northern Territory capital was yet to be found. The Surveyor-General, George Woodroffe Goyder accepted the challenge.

Goyder deftly selected his expedition team, outfitted a ship, and studied the reports, maps and charts of the northern Australian coast. The Moonta embarked from Adelaide on 23 December 1868 and set its sights on the harbour and lands of Port Darwin. Forty-one days later they reached their destination and dropped anchor. The Moonta Herald (the shipboard newspaper) recorded the expedition’s first impressions:
"…our eyes rested on one of the finest harbours in the world, dotted here and there with wooded islands, small bays, and headlands tapering off into the sea, fringed in some places with mangroves, in others with hills and ravines covered with trees of the most beautiful and luxuriant foliage" – Moonta Herald, 24 February 1869
 

The views seen so favourably by the expedition were the traditional lands and waters of the Larrakia people. The number of large shell middens and campfires observed around the harbour indicated that the area was inhabited and well used by them.

Aboriginal people from this region had encountered the previous survey expedition at Escape Cliffs. The day following the arrival of the Moonta, two Aboriginal men in a canoe visited the surveyors and spoke to members of the old survey party. They may have been wondering how long the surveyors were going to visit this time?

A permanent supply of fresh water was found at Doctor’s Gully. A suitable landing place was selected and stock and supplies brought ashore. The main camp was set up in the saddle between Fort Hill and the tableland.

Vegetation was cleared from the foreshore, wells sunk, tracks cleared, trees felled and timber cut to build stockyards, stables, store and a smithy. Huts and tents were erected. Rock was removed from the beaches to lay out a road to the tableland. The top of Fort Hill was cleared, a flagstaff erected, and the Union Jack hoisted. The land of the Larrakia was changing.

Many Aboriginal people visited the main camp, engaging in bartering, exchanging fish and crab, and supplying specimens to the expedition’s naturalist.

Six teams completed the survey of the main township in just under five weeks. Such efficiency was due to Goyder’s determination to complete the survey and his skill in adapting Adelaide’s rectangular grid pattern to fit the narrow Darwin peninsula.

Originally called ‘Palmerston’ after the former British Prime Minister, the town’s major streets were named after the senior members of the expedition. The only square was named ‘Cavenagh’ after the Commissioner for Crown Lands. Goyder added two more squares on his return to Adelaide.

At the end of March, Goyder advised that the land order holders could select their town lots. He thought the harbour ‘splendid’ and the surrounding country suited to agriculture and first class for horses and cattle but ‘too hot for sheep’.
 

With the survey of the main town completed, teams were sent out to survey the rural lots and three subsidiary townships – ‘Virginia’ on the Elizabeth River, ‘Southport’ at the head of the Blackmore River, and ‘Daly’, west of the Adelaide River at Fred’s Pass.

These towns were also laid out in the grid pattern, bordered by terraces, and named for junior members of the survey. Southport was the only one of these towns that developed, providing a convenient depot for thousands of miners travelling to the Pine Creek goldfields.
 

Relations between the survey expedition and Aboriginal people were initially friendly enough but Goyder was wary and cautioned the expedition against over-familiarity. 

Rumours spread that retribution was planned for previous attacks on Aboriginal people by the Escape Cliffs expedition. Tension increased and on May 24, John Bennett and William Guy were speared while in their Adelaide River camp. The injured men were conveyed to Port Darwin and Dr Peel discovered a nine-inch spearhead embedded in one of Bennett’s lungs. Nothing could be done to save him and he died on May 28.

Relations deteriorated drastically and after armed conflict near Doctor’s Gully in late June, Aboriginal people avoided the survey expedition for nearly six months.

Salted and tinned meat, flour, oatmeal and rice were the staple diet. New gardens grew cress, radishes, cabbage, lettuce, shallots, bananas and sugarcane. In appreciation of his excellent work, Dr Peel was presented with a pineapple on his birthday on June 3.

Fruit and vegetables were brought by ship from Koepang and turtle, fish and birds were caught locally. Native plants were tested and a pie made from the local plum was pronounced ‘very good’.

Regular doses of quinine in lime juice were given to prevent scurvy, but the humid weather saw many suffer from boils, prickly heat and infected mosquito bites. Heat stress, nausea, diarrhoea, dysentery and rheumatism were other complaints.

By mid-July, the work of surveying the hinterland was nearly done. Teams began returning to main camp and, with a larger workforce at his disposal, Goyder made improvements about the camp – accommodation was upgraded, roads built, and wells dug.

The iron store at one end of the Mess hut was removed so that a stage could be built; it was immediately dubbed the ‘Theatre Royal’ after the most prestigious theatre in Adelaide. Recitations, songs and instrumental concerts were enjoyed by many – although Goyder was once forced to leave when a performer made ‘an impious remark’.
 

By August the majority of the survey had been completed. The land had been carefully measured and described in terms of its agricultural, pastoral and urban potential.

Goyder’s General Plan of the Northern Territory also identified portions of ‘four native districts’ – the ‘Woolner’, ‘Woolner-Larakeeyah’, ‘Larrakeeyah’, and ‘Warnunger’. The surveyors included on their maps Larrakia names – ‘Marrara’, ‘Leanyer’, ‘Ilwaddy’, ‘Moerk’.

Although Goyder understood that colonisation would make it impossible for Aboriginal people to maintain their former ways of life, he made no provisions for Aboriginal reserves in the survey.
 

Goyder made preparations to return to Adelaide. September 27 was declared a holiday in the main camp. Sporting events were organised during the day and farewell dinners went into the night. At 10am the following morning, Goyder and 36 members of the expedition embarked on board the Gulnare and ‘tripped anchor for Adelaide via Koepang’. Apart from the paperwork, Goyder’s work in the north was done.