Photographer: Buscall, J. C.
Collection: Buscall Collection ;

Description:
Curio Cottage Garage, erected by S. Palmer, completed 30 April 1939.

Don:
I believe that the Garage was situated around the corner from Curio Cottage in Peel Street, one door from Smith Street.

Posted 15-April-2022

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Image Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34506485 Creator: Bleeser, Florenz A. K., 1871-1942

Description:
Unloading of a supply steamship in sand at low tide, Palmerston [i.e. Darwin], ca. 1897.

Andrew King:
This is Kitchener Bay with Stokes Hill to the right and Fort Hill behind the photographer. Town is to the left up the hill.

Posted 16-April-2022

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Photographer: Buscall, J. C.
Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/332793

Description:
Cottage property of J. C. Buscall on Lot 637, Mitchell Street, Darwin. Leased to J. W. Lyons until 10 May 1942.

Don:
Today this is the Mitchell Centre Shopping Mall.

Check the Darwin CBD 1942 Residence Map

Also check the bombing maps and hi-res 1944 images. Looks like Mitchell Street from Knuckey to Peel Street survived.

Posted 17-April-2022

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Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/743876
Jean A. Austin Collection

Date Estimated 1910s.

John Anderson Gilruth (17 February 1871 to 4 March 1937) was a Scottish-Australian veterinary scientist and administrator. He is particularly noted for being Administrator of the Northern Territory from 1912 to 1918, when he was recalled after an angry mob demanded that he resign. This incident is known as the Darwin Rebellion.

Posted 18-April-2022

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Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Photographs possibly taken for Pix magazine (Source: Library volunteer). https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1xqG3XeY/gjEVDQ8zjNdQm

Wedding - Don Royal - Nancy Kerr at Darwin, The wedding was on the 15 September 1943. This marriage was the first civil wedding since the early blitz, and Darwin turned out en masse.

"Gosh, it's been like a wonderful dream," said one lanky A.I.F. lad in Northern Australia. "Mum'll never believe me. Billy tea with the Tivoli ballet away up here, when we haven't seen a white woman for more than a year."

Don:
Both Bride and Groom are members of the traveling Tivoli Show. Eddie Marcel gave the bride away. I have labelled the photos as 206-B, before the wedding, and 206-A, after the wedding,

Saint Mary's Church Smith Street. Now rebuilt Saint Mary's Star of the Sea Cathedral.
Aerial photos and images show both the church at Lot 436 and the house at Lot 503 opposite, survived the war.

Rather than me re-write this story, I have decided to summarize it, and give you the links, so you can read it for yourselves. It sounds like these traveling entertainers carried out a very similar job as Bob Hope and his list of celebrities did, that toured the US front line troops during WWII, as well as many other wars.

Andrew King researched and then chased all of these links about this story. You are a gem Andrew.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article170397803
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46938051
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231608371
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article265022276
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167642857
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55869919

Posted 22-April-2022

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LANT, M. Goodale Collection, PH0345/0126.
Library & Archives NT

Darwin has had many movie venues actually for more than 100 years. In a town where entertainment was scarce the movies were an option for everyone.

One of these was The Don Picture Theatre. The Don cinema was located corner of Cavenagh
and Bennett Street on what became the Gordon’s Don Hotel and what is now the ABC.

It was built by George Wedd in 1912. It was an open air theatre.

If you saw Baz Lurhmann’s movie Australia The Don was depicted beautifully. However the movie Australia was set in 1942, and we know that the Don was not in operation by that date.  
One of the last newspaper ads that mentioned what was on at the Don, was dated March 1932. The Don Theatre closed and the Don Hotel was built on the site opening around the late 1930’s.

Don:
Drusilla with a Million is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by F. Harmon Weight and written by Lois Zellner. It is based on the 1916 novel Drusilla With a Million by Elizabeth Cooper. The film stars Mary Carr, Priscilla Bonner, Kenneth Harlan, Henry A.

Posted 21-April-2022

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Source credit: National Library of Australia.
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-158047306/view

Black and white image (c. 1919) of Harold Nelson, who negotiated a number of pay rises for workers by threatening, or taking, strike action at the Darwin Rebellion.

Harold George Nelson member for the Northern Territory, New South Wales, ca. 1920s.

Described as a "medium-sized nuggety man" and a fiery orator, Nelson was an effective campaigner, as can be seen by his successful campaign to significantly raise the wages of Darwin meatworkers in 1917. He also led protests against the Northern Territory Administrator Dr John A. Gilruth, which officially originated in November 1918 when Gilruth refused requests from barmaids for time off to celebrate the end of World War I (although tensions had been simmering between Gilruth and the union movement for some time). On 17 December 1918, in what has since been called the Darwin Rebellion, Nelson led a protest march to Liberty Square, in front of Government House, to demand Gilruth's removal as Administrator. Continued protests eventually led to the removal of Dr Gilruth from the Administrator position in February 1919, followed by the departure of other senior officials soon after.

Posted 23-April-2022

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Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.

Darwin Aerial Photo 1948

Andrew King:
The photo was taken as part of a series by Whites Aviation on 20 Aug 1948.
Whites had won a contract to take aerial imagery in the NT. These were taken
back to New Zealand and put in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.

Posted 24-April-2022

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Robert Monteith  Photographer:
Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/629311
Copyright owner: Library & Archives NT
Darwin City

Don:
This same girl features in many of Robert Monteith's Photographs.

Posted 25-April-2022

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Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/312703 M. Goodale Collection ;

Description:
The billiard room at the Cable Station, the Esplanade Darwin.

Don:
Big full-size table. None of this mucking about like today! The sort of table I learned to play on. A string with the chalk hanging on it at the end of the table. The snooker triangle hanging over the electrical paraphernalia on the wall.

Posted 26-April-2022

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Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/727687
Gunn Collection

Description:
The general store of Alfred Edward Jolly, Darwin

Alfred arrived in Australia in 1877 with 17 shillings in his pocket but by 1883 he was able to start the firm of Jolly and Luxton in Bennett Street, Darwin. In 1893 Alfred took the business over and renamed it A.E. Jolly and Sons. A.E Jolly’s general store was famous in Darwin from before the turn of the Century until the 1940s with the company advertising weekly in the Northern Territory Times and Gazette throughout the period 1911-1939.

Don:
Knuckey near Smith Street. (Lot 422) The date is estimated as the mid-1940s. The front of the store was updated in later years with a new fascia and verandah roof.

Posted 27-April-2022

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Photographer: Bradshaw, Walter Herbert
Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/591252 Collection:

Description: Groups of people walking down Bennett Street just passed Gordon Don
stadium. Man riding a bike. There is a couple walk onto the corner of Cavenagh  and Bennett Street.

Donor's Grandfather, Walter Herbert Bradshaw, sent album back to his parents in Sydney in September 1917. He moved to NT mid 1910s and left after 1920. He was married in Darwin in 1919 and worked at Vesteys for some of the time. Letter accompanying donor form gives additional family history.

Don:
You can see the Don stadium, and movie house billboards on the right hand edge of this photo, which is where the ABC Building is today.

Posted 28-April-2022

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Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/733440 Copyright owner: Library & Archives NT https://hdl.handle.net/10070/733439
Collection: Percy Brown Collection PictureNT

Wireless Station. The Gardens Darwin. 1914-18
 
Description:
The operating room at the Wireless Station. "Germany could be heard on the instrument with clock-faces behind the log book on the table"

Posted 29-April-2022

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Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/749019 Copyright owner: Library & Archives NT  Collection: S. S. Godfrey Collection

Description:
At the Victoria (the Vic.) Hotel in Smith Street;  
Back row L-R: Young, Godfrey, Mary Seale, McKenzie. Front row L-R: Dr Richardson, Greg

Posted 30-April-2022

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Image Source: Jill Kinang

Looking down Bennett street, A.E. Jolly & CO far right 1915

Posted 1-May-2022

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Image Source: Andrew King

Not a great photograph, but of great Historical Significance for Darwin.

Jolly's store, on the corner of Smith and Bennett Streets, was destroyed in the air raid of 16 June 1942. It was rebuilt after the war near the corner of Knuckey and Smith Street. It appears Mrs O'Sullivan's boarding house at Lot 422 was used to relocate Jolly's store.

Don:
Looking directly through the ruins of Jolly's bombed out store, you can see the Bank of N.S.W. To the extreme left is the Commercial Bank Of Australia, and in the middle of the two banks is Cashman's Newsagency.

Posted 2-May-2022

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Image courtesy of The Amy Johnson Estate.

Amy Johnson (left) and Amelia Earhart in New York, 2 August 1933.  

On 24 May 1930 Amy Johnson became the first aviatrix to conquer the London to Darwin solo flight. She died in 1941 when her plane crashed in the Thames Estuary. Her body was never recovered and her death has since remained a
mystery.

Amelia was America’s ‘first lady of the air’ the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. 29 June 1937: Leg 28.  Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan flew the Lockheed Electra from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, to Lae, Territory
of New Guinea, where they were last seen. She disappeared in mysterious circumstances while flying over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.

Don:
The image and outfits were so impressive, that I decided to follow up on the image, to find out that they were very good friends, and many family photos had been taken of them together. Sadly, they both died in mysterious circumstances doing what they loved.

I believe the text at the bottom of this image reads: "Hello The Good Old Days".

Posted 3-May-2022

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Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/786755
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/786756
Collection: Charles Micet Collection
Copyright owner: Library & Archives NT

Description:
Darwin Wharf RAN ships one possibly HMS Waterhen (D22/I22) a W class destroyer
that served in the Royal Navy (RN) from 1918 until 1933, and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1933 until her loss in 1941

Posted 11-May-2022

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Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/318674

Description:
Mrs Sue Wah Chin, in the cane chair surrounded by children and grand children. Fannie Bay.
114 East Point Road, Fannie Bay, NT

Posted 12-May-2022

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Photographer: Samuel White Sweet
Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/739849
Collection: Roger Nott Collection
Copyright owner: Library & Archives NT

Description:
Goyders camp. View is from Fort Hill

Posted 13-May-2022

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Photo Source Pinterest: Jill Kinang

On 3 January 1955 the Star Picture Theatre became part of Australian film history when it screened the world premiere of Jedda. Directed by Charles Chauvel

Posted 14-May-2022

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From the State Library of SA. For another view, see B 4652. https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/find/B+4652

Goyder's Camp Darwin. 1870.

Description:
Goyder's Camp in the Northern Territory in 1870.

Additional info on source and description provided by Greg Coonan.

Summary Port Darwin (1868-1870). This view is of the main camp at Port Darwin showing tents, buildings and in the centre, the stables. 

Posted 15-May-2022

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Copyright owner: Library & Archives NT
Robert Monteith Photographer:
Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/629268
Robert Monteith Collection Darwin City

Don:
This same girl on the left, features in many of Robert Monteith's Photographs.

Posted 16-May-2022

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https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+5039

In a clearing in the foreground is the Government camp which is a mixed collection of buildings in various states of repair. Some are of corrugated iron, earlier ones of timber. The Government residence on the hill on the left has a flagstaff and appears to be having building work done. There are other well built houses or public buildings in the distance. [On back of
photograph] 'Palmerston / The Government camp / 1878 / Govt. residence on hill at left' (Another hand) 'For note see B 4652'.

Cheryl:
See the washing on the line?

Posted 17-May-2022

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Photo and description: Andrew King

Photo and description: Andrew King
HMS Moonta which brought the 1869 survey party under George Goyder to Port Darwin

Greg Coonan:
The Moonta was named after the town of Moonta in South Australia.

Costa Karaolias:
Moonta House Mitchell Street Darwin was named after this ship.

Posted 18-May-2022

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https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+5041 Approximately 1878

A clump of banana palms are seen in the foreground of this view of Port Darwin, looking out to sea. Vegetation has partially obscured buildings around the wharf area where a single ship is moored, the three-masted barquentine 'Estelle'. [On back of photograph] 'Port Darwin / August 1878 / showing the 'Estelle'' (Another
hand) 'For note see B 4652'.

Posted 19-May-2022

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Photo Source and Description: Kerry Mark

House built by John Cobb Buscall at Darwin Dec 1914. Contract price £637 THe kitchen block at the back detached. Concrete piers. Ridge ventilators. No chimneys. The Verandah is 12ft wide.

He built this at age 31. He had designed and built a lot in Darwin before his accident. I can't work out how he was a trader, builder, designer, ALP rep, father, husband and friend to many as well as be the drunkard the gossip tells me he was. Was tall poppy syndrome around in those days.

Bryan Baker:
Bennett Street? The 2nd house on left in this image is a possible match. Hip roof, same fence and ventilators and the power pole is the same too. Only the adjacent fence doesn’t join. https://hdl.handle.net/10070/696264

Andrew King:
Maybe it was this one. Right date 1914 'Items of interest.', Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin, NT : 1873 - 1927), 17 December, p. 13. , viewed 20 May 2022,
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3281804

A nice type of house, and one that is eminently suitable to Darwin and! Northern Territory climatic conditions generally is the one built by Mr. D. C. Watts, under the supervision of Mr. James C. Buscall, for Mr. James Bell, in Bennett-street, and now (occupied by Mr. F. I. H Finniss. With ample verandah accounts modation." and every possible provision for complete ventilation, it is the kind of residence which should commend' itself to the seeker after comfort. It is neatly and substan cheaply built, and most of the joinery work was done locally, proving as it does what can be done in Darwin without sending south.

Don:
The population of Darwin in 1911 was 1082. Assume 4 people per house equals about 250 houses. If it was anything like my grandparent's day, the number could have been closer to 8 per house, which would make it 125 houses in greater Darwin. Looking at Sean Casey's map of Darwin up to Daly Street in 1942, I doubt if there were 200 houses then. So how many new houses would be built in 1914? With the info available, I figure this stands a very strong chance of being the Finnis House at Lot 542 Bennett Street Darwin. 

Posted 20-May-2022

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Photo Source and Description: Andrew King

Government House under construction in 1878 photo taken from Fort Hill.

Posted 21-May-2022

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Title: Izod Motors Cavenagh
Citation address: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/748208
Collection: Izod Collection.
Notes: Northern Territory Library was given this donation as a scanned copy of the original image.

Description:
From left to right, Ernie Izod, Leo Izod, and George (mechanic) with a crane and ute. The photo was taken sometime in the 1940s.

Marcia Davis
Eric and Leo Izod in front of the first Izod Motors, Cavenagh St, Darwin . 1947-48. They had the only crane in town. Eric at front and Leo leaning at back of crane . Eric came to Darwin 1945. This was Callaghan's Lolly water factory before the War. Eric had to clear it, go to Army auctions to set up a garage, find a house for the family to arrive 1946. This garage was situated next to Darwin's primary school.

Jeffrey Fong:
This has been mentioned before in Old Darwin. This is the site of our family's Darwin Aerate