[7] The Central Australian Rugby Football League was formed in 1942 by soldiers based in Alice Springs and competition began in 1943.
[8] It was the first football league in Alice Springs, with the now popular Aussie Rules competition not formed for another 5 years.
The competition was cancelled due to the bombing of Darwin and the air raid attacks on the city.
[9] However the competition was short lived and over subsequent decades, teams from Tennant Creek were instead entered into the other leagues.
In 1950, a small group of men, mainly ex-servicemen, joined together to form the Northern Territory Rugby League.
The first official season of the reformed Darwin league was started in 1950 with a number of pre-season trial matches and tournaments.
[10] However unlike other parts of the Northern Territory, there were no Australian rules football leagues there to compete with until the 1980s as a result the Katherine competition became quite well established and popular with locals.