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History of Parliament House Site
Early Settlement
The site of the Northern Territory's Parliament House has a long history of occupation
and development not only in terms relating to the Territory, but also to Australia
as a whole.
In February 1869, George Goyder, Surveyor-General of the Colony of South Australia, landed at what is now Darwin Harbour close to the present site of Parliament House. His assignment from the South Australian administration was to establish a settlement to facilitate pastoral expansion for that colony. The group arrived in a coastal barque, the Moonta, and comprised 140 people. Mr Goyder named the new settlement "Palmerston", a name that remained until 1911.
The area on which Parliament House is now located was then occupied by approximately 500 Larrakia Aboriginal people.
Before 1863, the Northern Territory was part of the Colony of New South Wales, but in the 1850s when the South Australian Government realised that there was an urgent requirement to identify addition arable land, it was annexed to that Colony.
Port
Darwin Post and Telegraph Office
During
the latter part of the 19th Century, all the Australian colonies agreed
that the establishment of a communications system that would connect Australia
and London should be accorded high priority. It was envisaged that the communications
link would comprise an overland telegraph line from Adelaide which would then
be joined to a submarine cable at Palmerston and connected to London.
In November 1871, the 1100 mile submarine cable between Darwin and Banjoewangie in Java was laid. This in turn was connected through Batavia (now Jakarta), Singapore, Europe and London.
At that time, colonial administrators also envisaged that the northern coast of the Northern Territory would be an ideal site to develop a trading point, which would later be connected to southern centres by rail.
The first substantive building in the new settlement of Palmerston was the Port Darwin Post and Telegraphic Office, which was built on this site from locally-quarried porcellanite stone. Around this time, the Government Residence was also constructed and the original section of that building now forms part of the Administrator's Residence, or Government House.
In 1872, the first official overseas telegram was transmitted from Sydney, via Melbourne and through to Adelaide. A courier then brought the telegram from Pine Creek, near Katherine, to the Palmerston Post Office and it was then transmitted to London by way of the submarine cable.
Port
Darwin Astronomical Observation Pillar
An
event of significant scientific interest occurred in 1882 on the site of what
is now "Liberty Square" within the Parliamentary precincts. A group of scientists
returning from observation of the transit of Venus in the South Pacific stopped
at Darwin with the necessary instruments to set the true longitude for Australian
observatories, which resulted in being able to fix Australian Standard Time. It
was set at eight hours, 43 minutes and 22.49 seconds from Greenwich. The British
Australian Telegraph Company provided a stone plinth and plaque, which became
known as the Port Darwin Astronomical Observation Pillar, to mark this important
site. This pedestal was removed from its original position some time between the
1940s and the 1970s and could not be located.
In March 2000, Mr Speaker McCarthy hosted a ceremony to unveil a replica of the original plinth and plaque.
The scientists were led by Lieutenant Darwin who was a relative, most likely a nephew, of Charles Darwin in whose honour Darwin is named, although he did not personally visit the settlement.
Cyclone
of 1897
On 6 January 1897, Palmerston was ravaged by its first recorded cyclone. Although
the Port Darwin Post and Telegraphic Office was not extensively damaged and was
used as a shelter for other residents of the settlement, the severe winds and
flooding caused a breakdown in communications. Postmaster General installations
were badly damaged and the Overland Telegraph wire was down in a number of places.
Repairs were apparently instigated with due haste because, on 9 January 1897, the Adelaide Register's correspondent in Palmerston was able to transmit a telegram to his offices to advise of the extent of the damage and the numbers of people who were still unaccounted for.
Liberty
Square
Liberty
Square was thus named during World War I as it was here that Australian Workers
Union members conducted their meetings. Members of the Union protested over the
perceived maladministration by the Commonwealth Government's agent in Darwin,
Administrator Gilruth. The chief Union organiser was Harold Nelson, who became
the first Northern Territory Member in the House of Representatives, as an Independent
Member, in 1922.
In 1918, Vestey's Meatworks, the largest employer in the Northern Territory, was closed and this, together with the earlier nationalisation of hotels in Darwin, caused extreme agitation among Union members. The situation culminated on 17 December 1918 when several hundred Union members marched in protest through Darwin and went to Government House to demand the removal of Administrator Gilruth and an investigation into his administration. This event is known as the Darwin Rebellion.
The actions of the Union members resulted in Administrator Gilruth and his family being removed to Melbourne in February 1919.
Liberty Square again became a focal point in Darwin during the 1930s Depression when unemployed labourers gathered to seek work at union rates and protest over the discontinuance of the ration system.
World War II
By
the second half of the 1930s, the Darwin Post and Telegraphic Office had expanded
and occupied almost an entire block between the new Hotel Darwin and Government
House. It included the Post Office proper, the telegraph office, the telephone
exchange, cable company offices, stores, staff residences and staff messes. In
1937 the Commonwealth assumed most of the British Australian Telegraph's land
and buildings. This action was to facilitate a more efficient postal service that
could now be effected through progress in aviation.
As the probability of a second world war became imminent due to Japan's invasion of China and Hitler's occupation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, the Lyons Commonwealth Government announced, in June 1938, that Darwin would be developed as a large military base that would be linked strategically to Singapore. In addition to these preparations for possible enemy attack, it was anticipated that Darwin Post and Telegraph Office would become a focal communications centre should conflict occur.
By the end of 1941, after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the fall of Singapore and the occupation of Malaya, it seemed inevitable that Australia would be attacked and this would occur most likely from the north. In December 1941 and January 1942, evacuation of women and children to southern centres was undertaken and by February 1942, it was estimated that only about 60 civilian European women and children remained in Darwin. Important administration records and other materials were also relocated to southern centres.
On 19 February 1942, 188 Japanese aircraft were involved in an attack on Darwin, the prime targets being the Darwin Wharf, the naval vessels in Darwin Harbour and, as anticipated, the Darwin Post and Telegraph Office. The official death rate on that day was 243 people with many more being injured. Darwin was to undergo another 63 enemy bombing attacks during the following several months.
Ten people were killed at the Post Office during the first of the raids and the buildings were virtually razed. Those who lost their lives were the Postmaster, Mr Hurtle Bald; his wife, Mrs Alice Bald; their daughter, Miss Iris Bald; Mr Archibald Halls; Mr Arthur Wellington; Miss Jennie Stasinowsky; Misses Jean and Eileen Mullen; and Mrs Emily Young, all of whom were employees of the Postmaster General.
After this raid, the site was abandoned and telegraphic responsibilities were assumed by the Army from a site in Cavenagh Street. The less damaged building of the Post Office complex were used by Naval personnel between 1942 and 1945 and the gutted remains of the original Post Office were used as a temporary repair shop for Northern Territory Administration vehicles.
During the construction and fit-out of the Parliament building, the Speaker, Members and Clerks of the Legislative Assembly, were very conscious of the responsibility of commemorating those who were killed and maintaining and caretaking this significant historic site in the Northern Territory's history. A remnant of an original porcellanite wall of the Post Office was relocated to the historic lobby, the entry to the Northern Territory Library, together with a piece of shrapnel that was recovered from the ruins and a commemorative plaque was placed in the Main Reception Hall which is purported to be the exact location of where the bomb fell.
On 18 February 2000, the eve of the annual commemoration of the Bombing of Darwin, Mr Speaker McCarthy hosted a reception to unveil commemorative panels in the Main Reception Hall. The panels comprise of photographs and biographical information of the ten people who were killed in the first raid and photographs and information relating to the former Darwin Post Office. Surviving relatives of some of those victims travelled to Darwin for the event.
Legislative
Council and Assembly
The
ruins of the Post Office buildings remained on this site until 1954 when they
were cleared to construct a building to house the Legislative Council, which had
not had permanent accommodation since its appointment in February 1948. An opening
ceremony for that building was held on 25 March 1955 and was presided over by
His Excelllency the Governor-General, Sir William Slim and the Minister for Territories the
Honourable Paul Hasluck.
Meetings of the Legislative Council were conducted in this building between 1955 and 1974 and the fully-elected Legislative Assembly continued to occupy it from November 1974 to December 1989. The building was extensively damaged during Cyclone Tracy in December 1974 and extensive repairs were undertaken. However, by the late 1970s, it was evident that this building was inadequate for the purposes of the efficient operation of the Legislative Assembly.
Some are of the view that the impact of Cyclone Tracy was a catalyst for demands by Members for a new Parliament. After many impediments and delays, the decision to proceed with the construction of "State Square", to comprise a new Parliament House and Supreme Court, was announced in 1988.
Construction of both buildings extended over approximately six years and the new Parliament House was officially opened by the Honourable Bill Hayden AC, then Governor-General of Australia, on 18 August 1994.