DARWIN, NT. — The city of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, Australia, is located on Darwin Harbour. The land was originally occupied by the Larrakia people of the Top End, who had already been trading with the Macassans for many years before European settlers arrived.
The first Europeans to the area were Dutch traders who visited Australia’s northern coastline in the 1600s and charted the first European maps of the region.
Darwin Harbour was first discovered by Captain of the HMS Beagle, John Lort Stokes, on September 9, 1839 and named “Port Darwin” after British naturalist Charles Darwin, who had been on the Beagle on a previous journey.
The harbour was initially not settled, as Port Essington, 300 kilometres north, was regarded as a more strategic site for settlement and a better prospect to offset any intended French colonisation of Australia’s far north coast.
Like other settlements along the northern coastline that preceded it, Port Essington floundered for some years and was eventually abandoned.
After John McDouall Stuart made the first successful crossing of Australia in 1862, this opened the way for the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to the north coast, opening Australia to direct communication with the rest of the world.
Thus, the settlement of Darwin was more successful than previous incursions into settling the north coast, as it was to serve a very important link in this communication.
Darwin’s first white settlers arrived on February 5, 1869, when George Goyder, the Surveyor-General of South Australia, established a small settlement of 135 men and women.
The town was initially named Palmerston after the Prime Minister of Britain, Lord Palmerston, Henry Temple.
However, all shipping to the area was consigned to “Port Darwin”.
In 1911, when South Australia handed control of its northern half to the Commonwealth of Australia, the name Darwin was officially adopted.
