Darwin rebellion
This enabled national governments to avoid a hypothetical impasse where a thousand Territory voters might some day hold the balance of power in an evenly divided Commonwealth Parliament.
[4][7] Dr John A. Gilruth arrived in Darwin in April 1912, after prime minister Andrew Fisher invited him to join a scientific mission to investigate the potential of the Northern Territory.
He went to Darwin predisposed "to treat the Chinese with reserve, the Aboriginals with heavy-handed paternalism and the white trade unionists with suspicion".
[4] With Gilruth hindered by the Commonwealth Government, "which neither gave him the powers he needed to rule effectively nor evolved consistent policies for the region", a confrontation between his administration and the townspeople was inevitable.
[9][14] The construction of the railway line from Port Darwin to Pine Creek in the late 1880s required the immigration of Chinese labour.
Not only did Asians compete successfully against Europeans for jobs that were scarce, but they also diversified into other profitable areas such as vegetable growing, cooking, tailoring and cleaning.
Gilruth was given a free hand to deal with the situation in Darwin and arrived in the midst of a long pay dispute involving wharf lumpers and shipping agents.
[4][19] Although the Darwin strike was in itself insignificant, the threat of widespread national disruption if Chinese labour were used to keep the northern port operational, was significant.
In late May, AWU representatives met with Gilruth to negotiate their terms of surrender; the unionists were prepared to return to work as long as the strikers were re-instated to their former positions.
[17] Although the strike was called off in the first week of June, it shaped future industrial relations in the Northern Territory, as the "White Australia" policy and anti-Chinese feeling fuelled support for the Unions.
[20] Most members were employed in key infrastructure areas including occupations at the wharf, on the railway line, truck owners, and in the construction of the Vesteys Meatworks at Bullocky Point.
In 1914 and early 1915, through a campaign of boycotts and strikes, Nelson forced Vestey Brothers to raise wages for their construction workers and meatworks employees in Darwin.
[17] Gilruth had correctly envisaged that, for the foreseeable future, large-scale private enterprise in Darwin would be based on the mining, agriculture and cattle industries.
[23] The large British conglomerate, Vestey Brothers, proposed setting up a meat processing plant in Darwin and work commenced on this in 1914.
[4][30][31] It was widely thought that Vestey Brothers, with its experience in similar ventures elsewhere and access to substantial capital, would be able to develop large-scale cattle rearing in the Territory without significant government intervention.
The Darwin venture existed in a vacuum filled only by the emergent Australian Workers' Union (AWU) and by World War I.
[34][35] On 4 February 1915 the Minister for External Affairs, Hugh Mahon, decided to abolish the council, thus depriving Territorians of their slight vestige of democratic government.
The council's importance, however, lay in the fact that it was "the only symbol of representative government and democracy in the Northern Territory", and was made up of a small but influential middle class of Darwin, such as shipping agents, mine owners, landlords and ranking public servants.
[37] In the weeks that followed the announcement of the demise of the Palmerston District Council, support for the AWU organiser, Harold Nelson, rapidly grew.
[17] On 29 September 1915, an ordinance passed by the Federal Executive Council in Melbourne nationalised the supply of liquor in the northern part of the Territory.
[38][39] The legislation was ostensibly aimed at Chinese 'sly-groggers' often accused of selling low quality liquor,[12] but in effect was designed to curb consumption of alcohol in northern Australia and provide some revenue to the Federal budget.
[45] On Saturday afternoon, 7 December, there was a meeting at Darwin Oval, attended by several hundred people, about ever-increasing alcohol prices and the re-opening of the Victoria Hotel public bar.
On 16 December, Nelson met with the Police Inspector and asked for permission to stage a peaceful protest march from Parap to Government House.
Over 1,000 men walked to Government House demanding "no taxation without representation", behind a car carrying an effigy of Gilruth tied to a stake.
This meeting will guarantee him safe conduct to the steamer....[12]Gilruth initially refused to address the crowd other than making a statement that he was answerable to the Minister and would not and did not recognise the citizens of Darwin as having any authority over him.
Eventually, the crowd dispersed, but not before they carried Gilruth's effigy to the front gate of Government House, soaked it in kerosene and set it alight.
[4] In a subsequent letter to the Prime Minister, Gilruth stated that "he was perfectly aware that had he promised to reduce the price of beer (at the expense of the Australian taxpayer) the mob would have departed peacefully.
[4][9][48] Wartime censorship prevented news of the storming of Government House in Darwin reaching the national press until the following Thursday afternoon.
The national press reacted by blaming a Soviet establishment in Darwin, total anarchy, an uncaring federal government and Gilruth himself.
Norman Kirkwood Ewing of the Tasmanian Supreme Court was appointed to chair a Royal Commission on Northern Territory Administration.
