Journal - NT History & Memory Consultancy | Research, Writing, Photographs, Oral History

The Top End climate as always drawn people to the water. Despite the dangers of swimming in Top End waters, like crocodiles and stingers, swimming has was a favourite pastime in Darwin from the 1880s. Darwin had sea baths at Fort Hill 1880-1919 and later Lameroo Beach 1922-1950s. As a British colony sailing was also a popular pastime. During World War II the Fannie Bay Sailing Club was the first to be established in the Northern Territory. The early water sports pioneers could only imagine the luxury of inground swimming pools and the facilities of today’s sailing clubs on the shores of Darwin Harbour.       

Rifle shooting and other gun target sports are some of the longest running sports clubs of the Northern Territory. Competency with a gun was an essential skill for much of our history. Almost every colonial era ‘sports’ competition included a rifle shooting competition. Palmerston’s or Darwin’s first rifle shooting competition was held on 1 March 1869. The Palmerston Rifle Club was formed in 1881 and there has been clubs in Darwin almost ever since. Rifle ‘matches’were often held in association with 19th century horse race meetings in some of the Northern Territory’s remote communities. A Central Australian Rifle Club was established in Alice Springs in 1936 although it is likely that there had been competitions prior to this time. Northern Territory marksmen often competed interstate in the premier King or Queen’s shooting competitions and continue to compete in national competitions today.    

Cycling first came to Darwin in 1894 when Overland Telegraph staff imported ‘safety cycles’ to town to deliver telegrams. The Northern Territory Athletics Association sports program of 1895 introduced cycling races for the first time. In 1898 Cycling was kept in the public eye when Albert McDonald, a member of the Overland Telegraph Department, cycled across Australia in 1898, setting a new transcontinental record of 29 days from Darwin to Adelaide, making him the Northern Territory’s first national sports star. In the 1930s the NT Cycling Club, a Road Racing Club was formed and the Darwin Amateur Cycling Association followed in 1936. Post World War II cycling re-emerged in both Darwin and Alice Springs. A cycling track was built on the site of the present Aviation Museum on the Stuart Highway by the Darwin Amateur Cycling Club. The current velodrome was established in the 1970s.

Hockey is the Northern Territory’s most successful sport when measured by Olympic success. Hockey was first played in Darwin in 1938 with two teams from the Darwin Garrison and a town team named Palmerston. During the war years prior to the Bombing of Darwin there were as many as 28 defence force teams playing in regular competitions in Darwin. The Northern Territory Hockey Association was formed in Darwin in 1948. Alice Springs also formed a hockey competition in 1953. Since that time the game has grown from strength to strength.

The Mitchell Mile is the most recent effort to revive Northern Territory athletics. Few would know that races were held on Mitchell Street in the 19th Century. Athletics is one of the first sports practiced in the Northern Territory. Almost everyone can run! Athletics events were held throughout the Territory. Often they were held in conjunction with holidays and other events like the horseracing. New Years Athletic carnivals were common even in the most remote locations. In the late 19th Century matching racing, racing for gambling stakes, was very popular. These races were sometimes held on Mitchell Street. Handicap racing, similar to the Stawell Gift, were a popular event at sports carnivals and from time to time are still held in the Territory.  

Horseracing was a marker in all British colonial societies and was often one of the first sporting events established in early settlements. While the races in Palmerston and Darwin after 1911 were considered the preeminent Northern Territory event in the Top End races had been held in Central Australia at Christmas time by the McDonnell Ranges Turf Club from the late 1870s. Race meetings were also held in mining communities and various locations in the bush. The annual race meeting was not only a sporting event but a major social occasion with people coming from far and wide to attend. It was often the only sporting social occasion that some settlers attended.The first horseraces in Palmerston were on the beach at Fannie Bay. The first Northern Territory race meeting was held in in the vicinity of the current Fannie Bay course in 1873. Racing became organised under the auspices of the Northern Territory Racing Club in 1882. The NTRC organised racing in the Northern Territory up until just after World War II. Today’s Darwin Turf Club was formed in 1955.     

The first motor car in the Northern Territory was HP Talbot driven by HH Dutton and Murray Aunger who attempted to travel from Adelaide to Darwin in 1907. Their first attempt ended in mechanical failure near Tennant Creek. Undaunted they returned with a more powerful Talbot in 1908, recovered their other vehicle and finally made it to Darwin.Later in the 1920s motor cycle clubs developed in Darwin but these were more recreational than sporting. Clubs like the Hungry Hearts Motor Cycle Club organised rides to places like Rapid Cree for picnics. It was not until after World War II that motor sports as we know it began to develop. In 1947 the Darwin Motor Cycle Club (DMCC) was formed. Their early races were held on World War II air strips. Later they began ‘scrambles’ in Nightcliff. The DMCC was instrumental in establishing the Bagot Speedway and Hidden Valley race way for ‘scrambles’ in the 1960s. From these humble beginnings Northern Territory Motor Sport has grown in to the multimillion dollar industry it is today with premier events like the V8 Supercars.  

Wally McArthur, born in 1933 at Borroloola, was a member of the Stolen Generation who was sent to South Australia as a teenager to further his education. He excelled at sport and became a professional athlete and also played Rugby League. Although Rugby League is a minor sport in South Australia he was recruited to English professional club Rochdale Hornets in 1953.Rugby League was a relatively late comer to Northern Territory sport.  In 1935 an NT Rugby Association met to decide whether they would play Rugby Union or Rugby League. It was decided to play Rugby League but the interest was short lived. One of the earliest Ruby League competitions was held in Tennant Creek in the late 1930s during the height of the gold rush. The first incarnation of the NT Rugby League (NTRL) was during World War II when a ‘town’ team vied with various armed service teams like the RAAF, Navy and Army. The NTRL did not reform after the Bombing of Darwin in 1942 but the game continued throughout the NT including Alice Springs and military locations up and down the Stuart Highway. After the war Rugby League recommenced in Darwin, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs in 1949. As the NTRL consolidated in the 1950s teams included QANTAS, Wallabies, RAAF, Army, Navy and Hornets. The first NT representative Rugby League team played in the national championships in Perth in 1956.    

The world game, football (soccer) was first played in Darwin in 1911 when a Darwin XI played a HMS Prometheus XI. Amongst the Darwin XI was a Larrakia man Willie Allen, the Northern Territories first indigenous sports champion. The Darwin Chinese Recreation Club became the catalyst for much of Darwin’s early football after it established in 1923. The Darwin Soccer Association was formed in 1927. In the years leading up to World War II the military build up saw interest grow in British Association Football. During World War II Football was very popular amongst the troops. After World War II football was re-established by the Darwin Football Association in 1949. The game has ebbed and flowed since that time.

The Northern Territory has had some great women sportspeople. Helen Fejo-Frith, Nova Peris, Christine Trefry, Shelly Nitscke, Ivy Hampton, Maisie Austin, Crystal Attenborough, Judith Green and Kerry Dienelt are just some of the greats. It was not easy in the early years of the Northern Territory during the 19th century for women to plays sport. Often sport was seen as ‘unsuitable’ for women. Archery, tennis, and swimming were amongst the first sports open to women. It was not until the 1920s and 1930s that women began to play competitive sports like tennis, netball and golf. After World War II women’s sport really took off with the introduction of netball, basketball, hockey and softball. 

Football is much more than a game in the Northern Territory. It is very much part of Northern Territory identity and culture. One of the reasons for the games place in our collective imagination is that football is also a battle ground for civil rights. Who controls the game and who is allowed to play says a lot about our society. The ‘Colour Bar, 1926/27 to 1929/30 is undoubtedly the most controversial and important episode in the Northern Territory’s sporting history.When the North Australia Football League expelled all non-European players and introduced a clause into its constitution to only admit ‘White’ players it started a battle for rights that continues to this day.31 May 2014, Colour Bar, Indigenous Rights