Stories
Derek Henderson’s story
At the end of 1929, Jim Henderson came to Darwin to begin work as Manager for the cable company, often called the British Australia Telegraph and more commonly known as BAT. Jim, his wife Alice, and three children, Derek, Agnes and Padraic, sailed to Darwin aboard the Morella. Derek remembers that the Harbour Bridge was still incomplete as they left Sydney.
The family, with a domestic staff of three, Betty, Nim and Bella, lived at the cottage on the corner of The Esplanade and Knuckey Street. Betty was the European cook; Bella worked at the laundry, while her husband Nim performed sundry tasks including pulling the string which powered the punkah fan on the back verandah where the family ate their meals. Each night Betty, Bella and Nim had to return to the Kahlin Aboriginal compound, as there was a curfew in place for all Aboriginal people and they were not permitted to be in the town after dark.
Derek recalls that tennis at the Cable Company courts, down the road, was always popular. The afternoon teas were given added spice when dignitaries from visiting ships attended. Derek describes one such afternoon tea when the senior VIP was holding forth, only to be interrupted by Alice Henderson’s alarm that a snake was coming up the front steps of the cottage.
As a child, Derek was close to Nim and Bella and he enjoyed both their company and their style of work. Derek recalls that when there were domestic arguments, Bella would throw off all her clothes in protest and head out the front door and into town. This had the immediate effect of bringing the law down on Alice Henderson for not controlling her staff. Nim taught Derek Aboriginal ways of picking up objects from the ground using his toes, stamping with bare feet to put fires out, and, at the age of four, to smoke cigarettes. Smoking was a luxury shared between friends, and more valued as tobacco was the currency of the day for the Aboriginal staff.
Derek’s childhood was idyllic, with stories of climbing trees, having a pet crocodile, holidays on pastoral properties and going with his family to the Star Picture Theatre. Together the Hendersons travelled by lugger to Bathurst Island to visit the famous Bishop Gsell, Bishop of a Thousand Wives. He remembers Amy Johnson’s little plane spiralling in to land behind Fannie Bay Gaol. The Henderson family attended corroborees in town and Derek vividly recalls the dancers strutting in the emu dance. Over the years, Alice Henderson gathered a formidable brasswear collection, purchased from a Chinese merchant, Ming Sun, including an incense burner. But the cottage also witnessed family sadness when newborn baby brother Michael died of heat exhaustion. As Derek remarks, one of the family remains in Darwin.
Jim Henderson was a clever man who built a radio from an old tea chest. Derek recalls that it was the only set he knew of in town, a wonderful sight: its metal condensers, huge glowing valves, conglomerate of wiring, and a huge aerial strung across the backyard. According to Derek, the local townsfolk, including the Administrator and others, would take turns crouching around the unit with bakelite headphones over their ears and straining to hear something through the static.
The family left the cottage in the 1930s, but Derek’s father and brother returned again to Darwin in late 1941 to work for Guinea Airways. When the Hendersons left, in honour of the contribution the family had made to the town, the Chinese community presented Jim with a magnificently carved dragon lamp and hand painted silk pagoda shade. In 2005 Derek donated this lamp, along with other items from his mother’s Darwin brass collection to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
