Survey parties to the Northern Territory 1864–1870

In 1863, the part of New South Wales to the north of South Australia between the 129th and 138th parallels of longitude East was annexed to South Australia, by letters patent, as the "Northern Territory of South Australia", which was abbreviated to the Northern Territory (6 July 1863).[1] The South Australian Government, with the Wakefield plan for colonisation of South Australia as a basis, believed that European settlement of the Northern Territory could be achieved in much the same way: by selling "off the plan" parcels of land to investors, and a great deal of money would go into Government coffers, which would be used for infrastructure, thus attracting further investment. All that was required was another Col. William Light, another George Gawler and a location for the new capital, which from the start was to be named "Palmerston".

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The first requirement for such a settlement was a safe harbour, and from previous explorers' experience, one stood out: Adam Bay, into which the Adelaide River flows, a river navigable for a considerable distance, where all kinds of wharfs and berths could be erected. There was little land at the mouth for buildings, but no doubt suitable areas would be found upstream.

Boyle Travers Finniss, a career public servant with some surveying experience, was put in charge of a body of some 40 officers and men, and whose task it was to establish a camp at a site of his choosing and mark out some 1000 town sites and a similar number of rural sites.

Finniss was not obliged to settle at Adam Bay; he chose it in preference to Port Darwin or Port Patterson on account of its harbour and the Adelaide River, which is navigable for a great distance inland, ignoring the lack of building materials, the low-lying boggy nature of the country. He chose two settlement sites; Escape Cliffs on the east coast of the bay, and The Narrows, a short distance up the Adelaide River, where there was a good landing for boats, and planned a connecting road of 6 miles (10 km).[2]

No substantial building was ever erected, apart from the Government Resident's house, in front of which he daily drilled his Guard, to the delight of the natives, who mimicked their exercises.[3]

No surveying could be done in first dry season due to insufficient manpower;[4] much of the stores never made it under cover, and much manpower was wasted keeping a lookout for marauding Aborigines. The Protector of Aborigines, Dr. Goldsmith, was refused membership of a party sent to recover stolen property, which turned into a reprisal, then after some horses were speared, refused inclusion in an armed party led by Finniss's son, when many shots were fired and at least one Aborigine killed.

Morale was low from the start. Only the Government Resident (Finniss) and a few favourites refused to admit that the choice of site was a huge mistake. Jealousies developed between various sections of the workforce as to who was getting preferential treatment or having the more odious duties to perform, the Government Resident and Surgeon (Sweet) were seen going off on "jaunts" with "favorites". Jealousies erupted and operations stumbled from crisis to crisis. The number of staff was augmented somewhat to replace those whose year's contract had expired; Finniss was recalled to answer accusations levelled against him, and others at the same time as witnesses or to answer charges related to the murder of several Aborigines. Some resigned and found their own way back to Adelaide. Many, whose one-year contract was over, returned at the same time.

Manton, left in charge of the depleted party, reported that it was certain there was no land within a hundred miles worth surveying, and they could do nothing more than protect themselves and their stores from the natives. In October 1866 Government ordered a recall of Manton and his men, along with those remaining of McKinlay's party on the steamer Eagle, Captain Hill, which left 11 January 1867, transhipped to the Rangatira at Sydney, and arrived at Port Adelaide 2 February 1867.

The Finniss expedition, which had left Adelaide with high expectations had, with each depressing report from the Territory, become a drag on Government, who decided what was needed was a small exploration party, unencumbered by such mundane tasks as erecting buildings and maintaining and protecting stores, to make a clear decision as to where the fertile land was, and where the capital should be. To that end they appointed John McKinlay to lead a party of twelve, to receive all support from the Finniss party, but to go where they might. Their ship also carried instructions to Finniss to return to Adelaide to answer criticisms of his administration. McKinlay did not receive the support he expected from Finniss's successor Manton, and did not commence exploration until 20 January, when rain interfered with his travels. They never reached Cape Hawkesbury, the Roper or the Victoria. Their lowest point came in June 1866 (not the Wet Season as sometimes reported)[19] when McKinlay, Edmunds and party, having one by one slaughtered their horses for food, were trapped in boggy land by the East Alligator River. Weak and malnourished with no chance of making it back to camp alive, they killed their two remaining horses for jerky and built a raft 21 by 9 by 4 feet (6.4 m × 2.7 m × 1.2 m) of horses' hides around a structure of green branches, and on 29 June started paddling down to the sea, and arrived back at Escape Cliffs on 5 July 1866.[20]

After recovering from their ordeal they made several coastal expeditions, visiting Anson Bay, the Daly River and Port Darwin.[5] He returned to Adelaide to a hero's welcome, despite having achieved nothing, though he did report having seen some good land near Anson Bay,[21] and thought Port Darwin had many advantages, but lacked fresh water.

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In January 1867, realising they had no alternative site chosen for the capital, the South Australian Government instructed Captain Francis Cadell to assemble a party to investigate the coast of the Northern Territory, to choose areas suitable for agriculture, and a site for the settlement. Cadell and a few associates left for Sydney, where he engaged the wooden steamer Eagle for six months, with the option of extending for another three or six. There he also hired a crew (preferring not to employ South Australians)[36] which would have included a number of woodcutters to feed the steamer's voracious boilers once the coal had been consumed. He had the ship refitted in Brisbane, and on 20 April the party of 26 men left for Victoria River.[37] Cadell had an interesting nine months' expedition and made several useful findings, including the true nature of Flinders' Probable Islands in Arnhem Bay. He named the strait between Elcho Island and the mainland Cadell Strait after himself and the mainland peninsula Napier Peninsula after his surveyor. He discovered the mouth of the Roper River,[38] and the condition (untouched) of the Escape Cliffs settlement. They visited Koepang for re-provisioning. They also returned to Burketown, Queensland at least once for the same reason.[38] He took only 20 horses, so was unable to investigate far inland, and made no strong recommendation for the site of the capital, though his choice ultimately fell on the Liverpool River, in Arnhem Land.[39]

A. T. Saunders (1854–1940), South Australia's noted amateur historian and critic of Cadell the self-publicist and influence-peddler, had little to say on this page in his history. One contemporary newspaper editor however, held nothing back in his satire on Cadell's pomposity.[40]

After four years of hearing nothing but reports of lack of progress in surveying land they had paid for, land-order-holders in England and Australia (mostly speculators with no intention of ever settling in the Territory) began agitating for a refund of their money, with interest, and would not be mollified by explanations of the difficulties involved, and the expense to which the Colonial Government had been put. In March 1868 it was decided to offer a refund with interest to those who wanted out, and to those who were prepared to hang on for an extra year, a sweetener in the increase of the plot size from 160 to 240 acres (later increased to 320).[45] Public tenders were called for the surveying of 420,000 acres, which The Advertiser cynically reckoned would result in no, or exceedingly inflated, bids and would therefore be undertaken by the Surveyor-General's department.[46] The outcome was a little of both: George Goyder (the Surveyor-General) offered to organise and lead the expedition, and survey 420,000 acres (1,700 km²) receiving his usual salary plus a bonus of £3,000 for successful completion within a year at a cost of £25,000, not counting shipping costs. Parliament leapt at the proposal, such was Goyder's reputation for integrity, energy and vision. The fact that the South Australian Government was losing no time and grudging no expenditure on a successful outcome, and putting their best man in charge of the venture, restored much confidence in the investors in Northern Territory property.[47]

Goyder's plan was to appoint six 1st Class Surveyors of his choosing; they would appoint their own 2nd Class Surveyors and Cadets, and where possible the "arms and legs": the chainmen, trenchers, cook and stock handlers, otherwise these appointments would be made by Goyder from men he knew. He agreed with the purchase of horses and cattle from Brisbane, but rejected suggestions that any men should be picked up there; he wanted men he knew and who respected him. They would land at Port Darwin and work their way towards the fertile lands of the Upper Adelaide and Victoria Rivers.[48] He insisted on all provisions being supplied in Adelaide to his specifications (10,000 lbs beef and mutton prepared by the Melbourne Meat Preservation Company (S. S. Ritchie's process), rather than relying on store cattle and sheep.[49] He also ordered 20 tons of dry-ground flour, being less affected by tropical conditions than the moist-ground flour used by bakers).[5] and personally inspected by him.

Goyder gave strict instructions to his men that for their own safety, interactions with the natives should be strictly limited: none to be allowed in the camp; strictly no touching Aboriginal women under any circumstances, the greatest source of animosity; never to go out alone, and not to leave the camp unarmed; to use firearms as a last resort and to aim at a person only when one's own life was in peril. To respect Aboriginal property, and not to engage in any form of retribution. Two men, Hardy and Greene, ignored this last injunction and smashed several of their canoes and pushed two others into the current, for no good reason, and received a dressing-down from the Surveyor-General.

The men worked hard and efficiently and the whole of the surveying job was completed by August 1869.

From an article entitled "The Administration of Sir Dominick Daly, K.B." in the Adelaide Register, dated 28 February 1868:

SETTLEMENT

From the close of Stuart's first overland journey in 1859 little doubt seems to have been entertained by his fellow-colonists as to his ultimate success. So enthusiastic was our then Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, about the capabilities of the newly-discovered country that he applied to the Colonial Office for its immediate annexation to South Australia. The Duke of Newcastle replied that it was too soon to speak of that until the practicability of the overland route had been demonstrated. During the next few years additional evidence was discovered, not only by Stuart himself, but by Burke and Wills, McKinlay, Landsborough, and other contemporary explorers. The Duke of Newcastle was applied to a second time, not in the interests of South Australia, however, but of Queensland. Ignoring altogether the large share of credit due to South Australian explorers, and the prior claim of the South Australian Government, he offered the whole of the north coast to Queensland, the then pet colony of Downing-street. She had the modesty to confess that one-half of the white elephant would be enough for her, and so a line was drawn at the west side of the Gulf of Carpentaria. South Australia repeated her request for Arnheim's Land, unfortunately with success. The Waterhouse Ministry, before they retired from office in July, 1863, had the satisfaction of hearing from the Duke of Newcastle that their resolutions passed in Executive Council on the undesirability of annexing the whole of Northern Australia to Queensland had carried conviction to his mind. All that portion between the 129th and 138th degrees of east longitude was to be handed over to the "temporary guardianship" of South Australia. So ended the prologue to our Northern Territory melodrama. The first act must needs open with a Ministerial crisis, and in the transformation scene those who had opposed annexation became its executive, while some of its official originators enrolled themselves in the opposition. Among the founders of the Adam Bay settlement were a Chief Secretary (Mr. Ayers), a Treasurer (Captain Hart), and a Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr. Glyde), who on the shady side of the House had spoken against annexation as a very equivocal benefit. They had deprecated the ambition of the Waterhouse Government in proposing to send stock overland, and within twelve months they shipped from Port Adelaide a full-blown colony, with Government Resident, Secretary, guard of honour and valet-de-chambre for His Excellency, Police and Police Inspectors, Surveyors and Surveyor Generals, labourers and gentlemen farmers — altogether a perfect specimen of a ready-made municipality. But hothouse colonization did not suit the climate of Adelaide River. Disgusted with two years' experience of it, we tried a little exploring again, and Mr. McKinlay spent a pleasant winter on the East Alligator River at the expense of the Northern Territory Fund. To complete the programme of dilettante colonization our only further requirement was a marine survey à la Marco Polo, which Captain Cadell has given us. Now we can turn round and conscientiously say to the land-order-holders — the would-be cotton-planters and paddy-cultivators of Adam Bay — that we have done our best for them in that particular direction. Had the Duke of Newcastle been alive, with what gusto might the land-order-holders have poured their grievances into his sympathetic ear ; what invidious comparisons might they not have drawn between the Queensland style of settlement and our own ! There on one side of the boundary is Escape Cliffs, with its abandoned stores hid away under tarpaulins, and "the old Chief Mira" as special constable keeping guard over them. On the other side is Burke Town, a flourishing depot for the squatting stations on the Plains of Promise. From Queensland stock has been allowed to eat its way gradually down the Flinders, the Cloncurry, and the Albert Rivers. It has not only cost nothing to the Brisbane Government, but has been a large source of profit to the country. From South Australia not a single head of cattle has entered Arnheim's Land, unless by sea, and after eating its head off half a dozen times over on the voyage, seventy thousand pounds spent on a four years' infatuation, and the net result is— two hundred pounds worth of marine stores left on Escape Cliffs as a souvenir of the Finniss regime ! If history could be expunged as easily as Parliamentary votes, the words "Northern Territory" would never more be seen in our annals.[89]

• Cross, Jack (2011) Great Central State: The Foundation of the Northern Territory Wakefield Press.

Substantial sections of this work are free to view on-line.

• Officers of the Northern Territory Surveying Expedition — SLSA Photographs