Editing Darwin, Northern Territory (section)

=== 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>