Documenting Democracy
Australia's Story

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In 1869 South Australia's Surveyor-General, George Goyder, undertook the survey of Northern Territory

In 1869 South Australia's Surveyor-General, George Goyder, undertook the survey of Northern Territory land – which had already been sold at auctions immediately after the Colony's annexation of this vast area in 1863. Boyle Travers Finniss had not been able to do this work from a proposed town site at the entrance to the Adelaide River in 1864–65, and Goyder set up his base camp at Port Darwin, at the foot of Fort Hill, pictured here in 1869. This camp grew into the town of Palmerston (now Darwin), its rough buildings not only serving as the Territory's first Lands Office but housing the incoming population.