Transfer of the Territory

The South Australian Government gained control of a large part of northern Australia in 1863, hence the name the Northern Territory (of South Australia). The government believed there was huge potential in this land to the north of its border, which had been successfully crossed by John McDouall Stuart in 1862. The government had sent Stuart out on the last of his expeditions in late 1861. It was hoped that he would be able to pioneer a route to the north coast which could be used for the Overland Telegraph Line, being planned to connect with an overseas cable. Once the Territory was acquired there was a need for surveys to be done so that land sales to go ahead. There were initial mistakes in the siting of a main town and in surveying the country acres. After this was resolved by George Goyder, Charles Todd and his men built the Overland Telegraph Line and the future of the Territory looked bright.

However it soon proved otherwise taking huge reserves of money and returning little. Europeans struggled to work in the humidity of the tropics, Chinese labour was brought in, the gold rush never reached the size of those in the other colonies, and the pastoral industry stagnated. By 1895 as the Australian colonies began making moves towards Federation, South Australia began investigating how to shift the burden of its Territory ownership back to the British Government. Meanwhile the Federation movement gathered strength with several inter-colonial conferences. In 1898 a referendum sought the opinion of all Australians on whether the colonies should unite into a Commonwealth of Australia. Territorians voted strongly in favor of this.

Shortly after Federation in 1901 the South Australian Premier FW Holder offered the Territory to the Commonwealth. While there was interest there was also the huge task of organising a new federal government and the question of the Northern Territory went on hold. By September 1902 the Commonwealth was prepared to move forward on this matter but in South Australia opposition had arisen. The question of the Northern Territory shuttled back and forth for several years. The question of the east-west railway had persuaded Western Australia to join the Commonwealth and it was only when this issue needed to be put into action that matters came to a head. The Commonwealth needed to cross South Australia with its proposed railway and to do this, needed to negotiate with Premier Tom Price. He used this as a bargaining chip to pass on the Territory to Commonwealth control. Finally a compromise was reached between Price and Prime Minister Alfred Deakin. In return for right of passage for the Commonwealth's east-west railway, the Commonwealth would take over the Northern Territory with all its liabilities plus the Port Augusta-Oodnadatta railway. In return the Commonwealth would complete the railway line to Darwin. Unfortunately no time frame was placed on the completion of the railway and this would not be accomplished until the 21st century.

There were reservations on all sides. Delays resulted but on 16 November 1910 the Northern Territory Acceptance Act was passed into law. On 1 January 1911, the Northern Territory came under the administrative control of the Commonwealth Government.

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