Town Hall Ruins
The Town Hall ruins are all that remain today of the original town hall which was designed in 1882 by JG Knight and constructed in local porcellanite during 1882-3.
Early photographs show a simple rectangular stone building with hipped roof surmounted by two roofed ventilators. Each facade was adorned by regularly placed rectangular openings with circular arch heads. An entrance door was symmetrically placed on each wall. The quoins, stringcourses, and sills to the building are a rendered finish. The floor and roof were constructed from Cypress pine obtained from Indian Island.
Following the opening of the hall on 5 March 1883, the building was also used as a Court House until the stone Court House and the Esplanade was completed in 1884. It also functioned as the local Institute and Library.
After the abolition of the Town Council in 1937 the building deteriorated until the opening of a branch of the Commonwealth Bank in the building temporarily until it’s premises were constructed opposite. In January 1941 the bank moved into its own premises and the Taxation Department then occupied the building.
During the Second World War, the Town Hall functioned as a Navy workshop and storage area until the end of the war when a Museum was established.
In 1974 Cyclone Tracy almost destroyed the building and stablisation of the ruins has since been carried out.
Today the Town Hall ruins symbolise the provision of Local Government for Darwin residents and the consolidation of Darwin as a city.
The Darwin community highly values the ruins owing to their association with the development of polictical facilities and Local Government of the town in the 1880s.
Declared: 15 March, 1996.
Produced: April 1996.
