Editing Darwin, Northern Territory (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of Darwin}}
{{See also|Timeline of Darwin History|History of the Northern Territory}}

=== Indigenous history ===
The [[Aboriginal Australian|Aboriginal people]] of the [[Larrakia language]] group are the traditional custodians and earliest known inhabitants of the greater Darwin area.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.larrakia.com/AboutUs.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311090619/http://www.larrakia.com/AboutUs.html|archive-date=11 March 2009|title=Our People and History|publisher=Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation}}</ref> Their name for the area is Garramilla,<ref name="ldc"/> pronounced {{IPAc-en|g|a:r|@|m|I|l|@}} and meaning "white stone", referring to the colour of rock and sea cliffs found in the area.<ref name="placename">{{cite web|title=Place Names Register|url=https://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/placenames/view.jsp?id=24955|access-date=4 July 2021|website=NT Place Names Register}}</ref> They had [[trading routes]] with Southeast Asia (see [[Macassan contact with Australia]]) and imported goods from as far afield as [[South Australia|South]] and Western Australia. Established [[songlines]] penetrated throughout the country, allowing stories and histories to be told and retold along the routes. The extent of [[Culture of Australia|shared songlines]] and history of multiple clan groups within this area is contestable.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

=== Pre-20th century ===
The Dutch visited Australia's northern coastline in the 1600s and landed on the [[Tiwi Islands]] only to be attacked by the [[Tiwi people]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tiwilandcouncil.net.au/AboutUs/About_us.htm |title=Tiwi Land Council History |date=21 October 2007 |access-date=26 June 2016 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050407223320/http://www.tiwilandcouncil.net.au/AboutUs/About_us.htm |archive-date=7 April 2005 }}</ref> The Dutch created the first European maps of the area. This accounts for the Dutch names in the area, such as [[Arnhem Land]] and [[Groote Eylandt]]. During this period, [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] [[Dutch exploration of Australia|explorers]] named the region around Darwin&mdash;sometimes including nearby [[Kimberley, Western Australia|Kimberley]]&mdash;variations of "Van Diemen's Land",<ref>{{citation |last= |first= |editor-last=Smellie |editor-first=William |editor-link=William Smellie |display-editors=0 |contribution=[[:File:EB1 Plate LXXXVII Fig. 2 World.png|Plate LXXXVII. Fig. 2. World.]] |title=[[:s:EB1|Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |edition=1st |volume=II |date=1771 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=[[Colin Macfarquhar]] }}.</ref> after the [[Dutch East India Company|VOC]] [[Governor-general of the Dutch East Indies|governor-general]] [[Anthony van Diemen]]. This should not be confused with [[Van Diemen's Land|the more general and prolonged use of the same name]] for [[Tasmania]].

The first Briton to see Darwin harbour appears to have been Lieutenant [[John Lort Stokes]] of {{HMS|Beagle}} on 9 September 1839. The ship's captain, Commander [[John Clements Wickham]], named the port after [[Charles Darwin]], the British naturalist who had sailed with him when he served as first lieutenant on the earlier [[second voyage of HMS Beagle|second expedition of the ''Beagle'']].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Discovery and Exploration of Australia |work=Australia on CD |url=http://www.australiaoncd.com.au/discovery/names7.htm |access-date=24 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303094228/http://www.australiaoncd.com.au/discovery/names7.htm |archive-date=3 March 2011}}</ref>
[[File:Admiralty Chart No 18 Australia - N.W. coast, Port Darwin and adjacent inlets, Published 1870.jpg|thumb|A map of Port Darwin, (1870)]]
In 1863, the Northern Territory was transferred from [[New South Wales]] to [[South Australia]]. In 1864 South Australia sent [[B. T. Finniss]] north as Government Resident to survey and found a capital for its new territory. Finniss chose a site at [[Escape Cliffs]], near the entrance to Adelaide River, about {{convert|60|km}} northeast of the modern city. This attempt was short-lived, and the settlement abandoned by 1865.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ling|first1=Ted|title=Commonwealth Government Records about the Northern Territory|publisher=National Archives of Australia|isbn=9781920807870|access-date=26 June 2016|page=6|url=http://guides.naa.gov.au/content/20141219-Guide022_tcm48-58753.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309133412/http://guides.naa.gov.au/content/20141219-Guide022_tcm48-58753.pdf|archive-date=9 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 5 February 1869, [[George Goyder]], the Surveyor-General of South Australia, established a small settlement of 135 people at Port Darwin between [[Fort Hill, Darwin|Fort Hill]] and the escarpment. Goyder named the settlement Palmerston after [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]] [[Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ntl.nt.gov.au/story/surveying-darwin-1869|title=Surveying Darwin 1869 |website=Northern Territory Library|access-date=26 July 2019|archive-date=26 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726023852/https://ntl.nt.gov.au/story/surveying-darwin-1869|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1870, the first poles for the [[Australian Overland Telegraph Line|Overland Telegraph]] were erected in Darwin, connecting Australia to the rest of the world. The discovery of gold by employees of the [[Australian Overland Telegraph Line]] digging holes for telegraph poles at [[Pine Creek, Northern Territory|Pine Creek]] in the 1880s spawned a gold rush, which further boosted the colony's development.{{efn|The story around the pole holes is commonly perpetuated, though no first hand accounts have been uncovered to authenticate this}}{{efn|In 1872 it was reported that "A great many statements have been made about gold being found in holes of the telegraph post, and other unimaginable places. Such statements are incorrect, and given out by interested parties."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27273906 |title=Gold at Port Darwin |newspaper=[[The Queenslander]] |volume=VII |issue=358 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=14 December 1872 |access-date=23 June 2016 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>}}{{efn|The nearest first hand account is of linesmen finding gold near the telegraph line.}}
[[File:Mitchell Street, Port Darwin 1879.webp|thumb|Mitchell Street, 1879|left]]
In February 1872 the [[brigantine]] ''Alexandra'' was the first private vessel to sail from an English port directly to Darwin, carrying people many of whom were coming to recent gold finds.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28682755 |title=IV.—The Northern Territory and the Overland Telegraph |newspaper=[[The South Australian Advertiser]] |location=South Australia |date=2 February 1872 |access-date=23 June 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
[[File:Walter Spinks - Port Darwin.jpg|alt=|thumb|''Port Darwin'', 1886]]
In early 1875 Darwin's [[white people|white population]] had grown to approximately 300 because of the gold rush. On 17 February 1875 the {{SS|Gothenburg}} left Darwin ''en route'' for [[Adelaide]]. The approximately 88 passengers and 34 crew (surviving records vary) included government officials, circuit-court judges, Darwin residents taking their first [[furlough]], and miners. While travelling south along the north Queensland coast, the ''Gothenburg'' encountered a cyclone-strength storm and was wrecked on a section of the [[Great Barrier Reef]]. Only 22 men survived, while between 98 and 112 people perished. Many passengers who perished were Darwin residents, and news of the tragedy severely affected the small community, which reportedly took several years to recover.<ref name="NTLIB">{{cite web |url=http://www.ntlib.nt.gov.au/tracy/advanced/History_Cyclones.html |title=Previous cyclones in Darwin |work=Cyclone Tracy |publisher=Northern Territory Library |date=21 April 1998 |access-date=7 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206005507/http://www.ntlib.nt.gov.au/tracy/advanced/History_Cyclones.html |archive-date=6 February 2008  }}</ref>

In the 1870s, relatively large numbers of [[Chinese people|Chinese]] settled at least temporarily in the Northern Territory; many were contracted to work the goldfields and later to build the Palmerston to Pine Creek railway. By 1888 there were 6,122 Chinese in the Northern Territory, mostly in or around Darwin. The early Chinese settlers were mainly from [[Guangdong Province]]. The Chinese community established [[Chinatown, Darwin|Darwin Chinatown]]. At the end of the 19th century, anti-Chinese feelings grew in response to the 1890s economic depression, and the [[White Australia policy]] meant many Chinese left the territory. But some stayed, became British subjects, and established a commercial base in Darwin.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chungwahnt.asn.au/|title=Home|website=Chung Wah Society|access-date=26 January 2019}}</ref>

===Early 20th century===
[[File:Smith-st-looking-towards-harbour (Darwin).jpg|thumb|Smith Street in the 1930s]]
The Northern Territory was initially settled and administered by [[South Australia]], until its transfer to the [[Australia|Commonwealth]] in 1911. In the same year, the city's official name changed from Palmerston to Darwin.<ref name="history">{{cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/Northern-Territory/Darwin/2005/02/17/1108500201604.html/|title=Darwin|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=8 February 2004|location=Darwin, Australia|access-date=2 August 2010}}</ref>

[[File:Darwin 42.jpg|thumb|The Japanese [[Bombing of Darwin|bombings of Darwin]]]]
The period between 1911 and 1919 was filled with political turmoil, particularly with trade union unrest, which culminated on 17 December 1918. Led by [[Harold Nelson (Australian politician)|Harold Nelson]], some 1,000 demonstrators marched to [[Government House, Darwin|Government House]] at Liberty Square in Darwin, where they burnt an [[effigy]] of the [[Administrator of the Northern Territory]], [[John A. Gilruth|John Gilruth]], and demanded his resignation. The incident became known as the [[Darwin Rebellion]]. Their grievances were against the two main Northern Territory employers: [[Vestey Group|Vestey's Meatworks]] and the federal government. Both Gilruth and the Vestey company left Darwin soon afterward.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Hughes: timeline |url=https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/australias-prime-ministers/william-hughes/timeline}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hitch |first=Georgia |orig-date=12 December 2017 |date=12 December 2018 |title=What was the Darwin Rebellion |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-12/curious-darwin-what-was-the-darwin-rebellion/9200424 |access-date=6 April 2024 |website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}}</ref>

On 18 October 1918, during the [[Spanish flu pandemic]], the SS ''Mataram'' sailing from [[Singapore]] with infectious diseases arrived in Darwin.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Swinden |first1=Greg |title=The Navy and the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic |journal=JMVH |date=October 2020 |volume=28 |issue=3 |url=https://jmvh.org/article/the-navy-and-the-1918-19-influenza-pandemic/ }}</ref>

In 1931, the 17 remaining patients from the [[leprosarium]] at [[Cossack, Western Australia]] were moved to Darwin, after it closed down. It was at a time when many Aboriginal people who were thought to have [[leprosy]] or other infectious diseases were sent to [[lock hospital]]s and leprosariums under the ''[[Aborigines Act 1905]]'',<ref name="Carr 2022"/><ref>{{cite web | title=Aborigines Act 1905 | website=Find & Connect  | url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/wa/WE00406 | access-date=12 July 2022}}</ref> which gave the [[Chief Protector of Aborigines]] powers to arrest and send any [[Indigenous Australian|Indigenous person]] suspected of having a range of diseases to one of these institutions.<ref name="Carr 2022">{{cite web | last=Carr | first=Cameron | title=Archaeologists investigate medical incarceration of Indigenous Australians in leprosariums  | website=ABC News| publisher= [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] | date=10 July 2022 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-11/leprosariums-medically-incarcerated-indigenous-australians/101213394 | access-date=12 July 2022}}</ref>

Around 10,000 Australian and other [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] troops arrived in Darwin at the outset of World War II to defend Australia's northern coast. On 19 February 1942 at 9:57{{nbsp}}am, 188 [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] warplanes [[Bombing of Darwin|attacked Darwin]] in two waves.<ref>{{cite Q |Q131293822 |chapter=2/19/42 Fifth AF |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/AFD-100525-035/page/n10 |access-date=2024-11-30 |mode=cs1}}</ref> It was the same fleet that had bombed [[Pearl Harbor]], though considerably more bombs were dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbor. The attack killed at least 243 people and caused immense damage to the town, airfields, and aircraft. These were by far the most serious attacks on Australia in time of war, in terms of fatalities and damage. They were the first of [[Air raids on Australia, 1942–43|many raids]] on Darwin.<ref>{{cite Q |Q131294615 |page=127 |access-date=2024-11-30 |mode=cs1}}</ref>

[[Chinatown, Darwin|Darwin Chinatown]] which lay within the heart of Darwin was razed to the ground by the Japanese bombing and was never rebuilt. Northern Territory administrator [[Aubrey Abbott]] wanted to eliminate the Chinese community and forcibly seized their land as it was considered prime real estate.<!-- The statement about Sydney and Newcastle was wrong; there were about 100 air raids, including one on Broome which killed more than 80 people. -->

Darwin was further developed after the war, with sealed roads constructed connecting the region to [[Alice Springs]] to the south and [[Mount Isa]] to the southeast, and [[Manton Dam]] built in the south to provide the city with water. On [[Australia Day]] (26 January) 1959, Darwin was granted city status.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.australiadaynt.com.au/fun/quiz/quiz2004.html |title=Australia Day (Darwin) |access-date=11 February 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060211065041/http://www.australiadaynt.com.au/fun/quiz/quiz2004.html |archive-date=11 February 2006  }}</ref>

===1970–present===
[[File:Town Hall ruins, Darwin, 2023 (01).jpg|thumb|right|Remains of Palmerston Town Hall, destroyed by [[Cyclone Tracy]]]]
On 25 December 1974, Darwin was struck by [[Cyclone Tracy]], which killed 71 people and destroyed over 70% of the city's buildings, including many old stone buildings such as the Palmerston Town Hall, which could not withstand the lateral forces the winds generated. After the disaster, 30,000 of the population of 46,000 were evacuated in the biggest airlift in Australia's history.<ref name="DCC" /> The town was rebuilt with newer materials and techniques during the late 1970s by the Darwin Reconstruction Commission, led by former [[Brisbane]] [[Lord mayor]] [[Clem Jones]]. A [[satellite city]] of [[Palmerston, Northern Territory|Palmerston]] was built {{convert|20|km|mi|abbr=on}} east of Darwin in the early 1980s.

On 17 September 2003, the [[Adelaide–Darwin railway]] was completed, with the opening of the Alice Springs–Darwin standard gauge line.

=== Aviation history ===
[[File:Darwin 1921.jpg|thumb|Darwin Aviation Heritage Centre – 1st Ultralight – Hover Bird]]
Darwin hosted many of aviation's early pioneers. On 10 December 1919, Captain [[Ross Macpherson Smith|Ross Smith]] and his crew landed in Darwin and won a £10,000 prize from the Australian government for completing the first flight from London to Australia in under 30 days. Smith and his crew flew a [[Vickers Vimy]], G-EAOU, and landed on an airstrip that has become Ross Smith Avenue.

Other aviation pioneers include [[Amy Johnson]], [[Amelia Earhart]], Sir [[Charles Kingsford Smith]] and [[Bert Hinkler]]. The original QANTAS Empire Airways Ltd Hangar, a registered heritage site,<ref>{{cite web|title=Heritage Register|url=http://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/heritageregister/f?p=103:302:4229181194015530::NO::P302_SITE_ID:119|publisher=Northern Territory government|access-date=23 June 2016}}</ref> was part of the original Darwin Civil Aerodrome in Parap and is now a museum that still bears scars from the [[bombing of Darwin]] during World War II.<ref>[http://www.enjoy-darwin.com/qantas-australia.html "QANTAS hangar"]. ''Enjoy Darwin''.</ref>

Darwin was home to Australian and U.S. pilots during the war, with airstrips built in and around Darwin. Today Darwin provides a staging ground for [[military exercise]]s.

Darwin was a compulsory stopover and checkpoint in the London-to-Melbourne Centenary Air Race in 1934. The official name of the race was the [[MacRobertson Air Race]]. Winners of the race were [[Tom Campbell Black]] and [[C. W. A. Scott]].

The following is an excerpt from [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]], 29 October 1934:

{{blockquote|Third Day. Biggest sensation of the race came just before dawn on the third day, when burly Lieutenant Scott and dapper [[Flight Lieutenant|Captain]] Black flew their scarlet [[De Havilland DH.88|Comet]] into Darwin. They had covered the last {{convert|300|mi|km|disp=sqbr}} over water on one motor, risked death landing on a field made soggy by the first rain in seven months. Said sandy-haired Lieutenant Scott: "We've had a devil of a trip." But they had flown {{convert|9000|mi|km|comma=off|disp=sqbr}} in two days, had broken the England to Australia record of 162 hr. in the unbelievable time of 52hr. 33 min., were only {{convert|2000|mi|km|comma=off|disp=sqbr}} from their goal at Melbourne.}}

The [[Darwin Aviation Museum]] is about {{convert|8|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} from the city centre on the Stuart Highway and is one of only three places outside the United States where a B-52 bomber (on permanent loan from the United States Air Force) is on public display.<ref>
*{{cite web |title = Things to do |url = http://www.withincooee.com/northern-territory/darwin/darwin-things-to-do/ |publisher = Within Cooee |access-date =2 April 2008}}
*{{cite web|title=Australian Aviation Heritage Centre |url=http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/04/01/3760_ntnews.html |publisher=Australian Aviation Heritage Centre |access-date=2 April 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118200253/http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/04/01/3760_ntnews.html |archive-date=18 January 2012 }}</ref>