Northern Territory

The Northern Territory was part of New South Wales from 1825 to 1863. It was then separated from that colony and became part of South Australia (1863 – 1911). In 1911, ten years after its federation, control separated from South Australia to the Commonwealth of Australia. For a brief period of time between 1926 and 1931, the Territory was divided at the 20th parallel of southern latitude. The new territories were North Australia and Central Australia. However, the Law that had established this division was repealed in 1931 and the Territory reverted to its original name.

As with all of Australia’s territories and states, the first people to inhabit it were the Aborigines who arrived from Southeast Asia 40,000 years ago. Its history is traced through oral narrative passed down from generation to generation, and in rock art, which has been studied by archaeologists from around the world.

The first recorded sighting of the Territory was made by a Dutch ship in 1623. However, it is likely that other Europeans visited the coast much earlier. The Dutch influence was evident in the maps of that time and in the names given to islands, capes and gulfs.

John Stuart became the first explorer to cross the territory from its southern tip to its north. Exploration of it preceded the arrival of the Overland Telegraph line, which followed its trail and linked Australia with the rest of the world. The telegraph facilitated the opening of the region for colonization and settlement. Once the lines from Darwin to Adelaide were laid (completed in 1872), settlers (called pastoralists) became more inclined to lease property in the Center settlement. The event that caused the largest influx of immigrants was the discovery of alluvial gold in a settlement some 100 km away. (62.5 miles) east of Alice Springs in 1887.

The city of Darwin was founded in 1869, and is the Territorial capital. It is the northernmost port in Australia. The population increased after gold was discovered in nearby Pine Creek in 1871. The current population is over 105,000, which is the largest concentration of people in the entire Territory. The unofficial nickname of this beautiful port city is “The Gateway to Asia.” Its location is called, locally, the “Top End”.

Alice Springs was called Stuart Township until 1933. Until then, Alice Springs was the name of the telegraph station, which was the site of the original white settlement in Central Australia. This caused so much confusion among Adelaide’s administrators that, in August 1933, the borough was officially renamed Alice Springs.

Another prominent city is Tennant Creek. It takes its name from the nearby watercourse named in 1860 by John Stuart, in honor of John Tennant, who helped him financially in his explorations. Local legend has it that the settlement began in 1934 when one man’s beer wagons got stuck in the mud from the seasonal rains. Instead of digging them up, he built his tents around them and the city grew from there. While the story is not true, it paints a very colorful picture of the type of settlers who established the city.

One more city, which should be noted here, is Katherine. It was also developed once the Overland Telegraph line was in place and operational. In 1879 two men, Alfred Woods and Alfred Giles, bought cattle and started a farm, which they named Spring Vale. His original Homestead is the oldest in the Northern Territory and is open to the public as part of the Territory’s historic heritage.

The government of the Northern Territory is one of the Legislative Assembly. It is still a Constitutional Monarchy, but has an Administrator and a Chief Minister. The Assembly has roughly the same powers as the Australian state governments, but does so by delegation of powers from the Commonwealth Government, rather than constitutional rights. It is represented in the Federal Government by two members of the House of Representatives and two Senators.

Although there was a proposed referendum in 1998 for the Territory to become a state, it was defeated. This surprised both the Territorial Government and the Commonwealth because polls indicated that the majority of Territorians supported statehood. The defeat is thought to have been caused by the Federal Government’s offer of three Senators, as opposed to the normal twelve Australian states have, and the Territories were possibly not satisfied with this offer. However, under the Australian Constitution, the Federal Government can set the conditions for entry into Statehood. Due to the sparse population in the Territory, an equal number of Senate seats would have meant that a Territory’s vote for a Senator would be worth more than thirty votes in any of the States.

Northern Territory covers 1,420,968 sq. kilometers (548,848 square miles), but in all of this huge hard area, there are only 200,800 residents, making it the eighth most populous of the states and territories. While there are many small settlements throughout the Territory, the largest population centers are between Darwin and South Australia on the only paved road called the Stuart Highway.

Of special interest is that the Northern Territory is the location of two wonderful and magnificent rock formations: Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas).

Australian Capital Territory

Although the smallest area of ​​the states and territories, the population of the Australian Capital Territory outnumbers that of the Northern Territory. The ACT, as it is called “down”, is located in south-eastern New South Wales in an area known as “scrubland”.

The concept of ACT arose in the 19th century during the Federal Conventions. There has been an ongoing dispute between Sydney, New South Wales and Melbourne, Victoria over which of them should be the national capital. The Conventions agreed that it was necessary to establish a neutral Territory on which to build a new and separate Capital. When the Australian Constitution was promulgated, it provided that, after the Federation of States in 1901, land would be ceded to the new Federal Government for this purpose.

Three sites were on a list of options: Bombala, Yass-Canberra and Orange (all in New South Wales). The site for the ACT (Yass-Canberra) was chosen in 1908 by the Commonwealth Parliament and the Commonwealth Surveyor was sent to stake out the Capital Hill site. NSW signed over the Territory in 1911 and construction of the Capital began in 1913. The official name of the city became Canberra during the groundbreaking ceremony for Capital Hill.

In the late 1980s, the Federal Government considered that the ACT needed its own system of self-governance. Legislation was enacted in 1988 and the Territory held elections in 1989 to launch the First ACT Legislative Assembly. This Assembly is composed of seventeen Members. It is unique in that the Crown does not play a direct role in its legislation. If the Assembly passes a bill, it is published by the Chief Minister (published in the Gazette) and then becomes part of Australian Capital Territory law.

The ACT is the smallest (eighth in size) of the six states and two territories. It covers 2358 m2. kilometers (910 sq mi). The total population at the end of March 2005 was 325,100 inhabitants, which places it in seventh place in population. The area is not all urban. There is also agricultural land and a large National Park within its borders. Canberra is the site of the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, which is operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of its Deep Space Network.