Top End Tale

I will go to the Northern Territory again but I think I will fly in, have a look at the rock, visit Kakadu and fly out. It's a big place and unsettling. My last venture there followed on from my trip to Cairns but couldn't involve hitchhiking. It's just not safe; too many lonely miles between nothing and nowhere, as Aus filmmakers have woken up to with their more recent spate of thrillers set there.

I failed to heed a warning less fatal as I heard backpackers in one of the two hostels I stayed at in Cairns discussing how awful the Darwin youth hostel was. Thinking that the Youth Hostel organisation had strict requirements about membership, I found its location - well out of town - and got off the bus there and wandered in. Well, it looked like a shearer's camp. There was a big hole in the floor. I headed straight back out, accidentally cutting across a machinery yard in my haste to depart. "You won't do that again!" yelled out the owner. And he was right, I never have.

I stayed in a lodge in town where the fans went all night and visitors stood in the pool reading a book during the heat of the day. The first night there was a guy moaning and shouting gibberish. "He's gone troppo" explained another guest.



King George V


Government Residents of the Northern Territory when annexed to the colony (later state) of South Australia:

Government Resident (1846 to 1912)

* Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy; 21 February 1846
* Boyle Travers Finniss; 3 March 1864
* William Bloomfield Douglas; 27 April 1870
* George Byng Scott; 6 October 1873
* Edward William Prince; 1 July 1876
* John Langdon Parsons; 19 March 1884
* John George Knight; 16 July 1890
* Charles James Dashwood; 24 February 1892
* Charles Edward Herbert; 1 February 1905
* Samuel James Mitchell; 1 April 1910

Commonwealth of Australia (1912 to present)

Administrators and Government Residents of the Northern Territory after transfer of control to the Commonwealth Government:

Administrator (1912 to 1919)

* John Anderson Gilruth; 25 March 1912

Director (1919 to 1921)

* Henry Earnest Carey; 1 August 1919

Administrator (1921 to 1927)

* Frederic Charles Urquhart; 17 January 1921

Government Resident (1927 to 1931)

There was a brief experiment splitting government with an additional Government Resident (Centre Australia) in Alice Springs.

* John Charles Cawood (Government Resident for Centre Australia); 1 March 1927
* Robert Hunter Weddell (Government Resident for North Australia); 1 March 1927
* Victor George Carrington (Government Resident for Centre Australia); 11 December 1929

Administrator (1931 to present)

* Robert Hunter Weddell; (12 June 1931 - 1937)
* Charles Lydiard Aubrey Abbott; (29 March 1937 - 1946)
* L. H. A. Giles; (1946, acting)
* Arthur Robert Driver; (1 July 1946 - 1951)
* Frank Joseph Scott Wise; (1 July 1951 - 1956)
* James Clarence Archer; (1 July 1956 - 1961)
* Roger Bede Nott; (1 April 1961 - 1964)
* Roger Levinge Dean; (1 October 1964 - 1970)
* Sir Frederick Chaney; (4 March 1970 - 1973)
* T. A. O'Brien; (1973, acting)
* John Norman Nelson; (10 December 1973 - 1975)
* E. F. Dwyer; (1975 - 1978, acting)
* John England; (1 June July 1, 1978 - January 1, 1981)
* Commodore Eric Eugene Johnston; (January 1, 1981 - July 1, 1989)
* James Muirhead; (July 1, 1989 - 1993)
* Austin Asche; (1 March 1993 - 1997)
* Neil Raymond Conn; (17 February 1997 - 2000)
* John Anictomatis; (28 November 2000 - 30 October 2003)
* Edward (Ted) Joseph Egan; 31 October 2003 - 31 October 2007
* Tom Pauling; 31 October 2007 - present

Chief Ministers of the Northern Territory

Chief Minister Party Period in office
Dr Goff Letts 1 Country Liberal Party 1974 - 1977
Paul Everingham Country Liberal Party 1977 - 1984
Ian Tuxworth Country Liberal Party 1984 - 1986
Stephen Hatton Country Liberal Party 1986 - 1988
Marshall Perron Country Liberal Party 1988 - 1995
Shane Stone Country Liberal Party 1995 - 1999
Denis Burke Country Liberal Party 1999 - 2001
Clare Martin Australian Labor Party 2001 - 2007
Paul Henderson Australian Labor Party 2007 - present

and, though you've probably got some of the colour of the place, normal life and commerce up north.