[6] It is original site of occupation and includes many of the city's important institutions and landmarks, such as Parliament, Government House, the Northern Territory Supreme Court, Bicentennial Park and the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens.

[3] Although the city centre is one of the most developed areas of Darwin, demographically it is one of the less densely populated, due to its core being commercial.

[8] The first British person to see Darwin harbour appears to have been Lieutenant John Lort Stokes of HMS Beagle on 9 September 1839.

The ship's captain, Commander John Clements Wickham, named the port after Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who had sailed with them both on the earlier second expedition of the Beagle.

On 5 February 1869, George Goyder, the Surveyor General of South Australia, established a small settlement of 135 people at Port Darwin.