Level 5Hospitality7 Kitchener DriveDarwin NT 0800

GPO Box 1449DARWIN NT 0801

Telephone: 08 8999 5155Fax: 08 8999 5210Email: darwinwaterfront@nt.gov.auWeb: www.waterfront.nt.gov.au

DESIGN AND LAYOUT FIRST CLASS IN GRAPHIC DESIGN. PRINTED FEB 2012.

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Prior to the Stuart Highway upgrade during World War II, visitors to Darwin usually arrived by ship.

From at least as early as the 1880s, passengers disembarked at the Port of Darwin and climbed the escarpment via the walkway to town known colloquially as Chinamans’ or Travellers’ Walk.

The path began at the entrance to the railway yards with steps up to Cavenagh Street and finished at the Terminus Hotel. There, shaded by the great banyan tree, ironically dubbed the Tree of Knowledge, drinkers sat debating the issues of the day. This was the seaward end of Chinatown and the commercial centre of the town, now the site of the Darwin Civic Centre.

The name of the walkway came about, in part, because Chinese stonemasons, skilled at working with porcellanite, constructed the original pathway and steps. The name was also in recognition of the many people who used it. In the nineteenth century many Chinese prospectors came north from goldfields elsewhere in Australia and from southern China. Until 1911, there were more Chinese than Europeans in the Top End of the Territory and they made up a vital part of the economy and character of the town.

Photographic evidence shows that the path zigzagged its way up the hill. The route has changed over more than a century of use and has been, at different times, wider, fenced and eventually concreted.

Following the bombing of the fuel oil storage tanks at Stokes Hill on 19 February 1942 in the first Japanese air raid, engineers began looking at British government designs for oil storage tanks in underground tunnels secure from aerial bombardment.

In 1943 contractors Johns and Waygood began work on a series of tunnels running under the escarpment. The tunnels were, on average, designed to be about 15m underground. The longest tunnel, Tank 10, was nearly 200m long. Pipe headings connected the rear ends of the tunnels to an underground pumping station. The tanks were designed to hold distillate, diesel and furnace oil.

A camp was set up nearby for about 40 workers but estimates of the total manpower required were as high as 400 men. Conditions were tough and contrary to their expectations the men were not paid above award wages or overtime. As a consequence industrial action slowed the construction pace.

The tunnels were lined with concrete and thin steel to prevent cracking under bombardment creating a virtual tank within a tank. By November 1944 the tunnels that still exist today, 1,5,6, 10 and 11 had been lined with welded steel sheeting. Despite these precautions, it became apparent in 1945 that the tunnels leaked. As water seeped between the steel lining and the concrete walls, corrosion set in. Various solutions were attempted but with little success. By the end of the war, estimated costs for the entire project, if completed, would have been well in excess of £1 000 000.

In the 1950s, tunnels 5 and 6 were used to store jet aircraft fuel for the RAF and RAAF. After about three years and a period of heavy rain the whole system became inoperable because of seepage and was not used again.

Within the Pump House is the story of changing technologies and of Australia at war.

In 1923 the Royal Australian Navy moved from coal to fuel oil and the following year construction began on four oil storage tanks in Port Darwin as a part of building a new oil refuelling station. Darwin became an important site within the national program of naval defence.

A critical part of the refuelling station was the Darwin Pump House which was completed in 1928. This building housed two main oil pumps manufactured by Kelly & Lewis in Melbourne and two G&J Weir feed pumps built in Cathcart, Glasgow. These were powered first by steam, and then later by electricity. Oil was pumped out of tankers, stored in the nearby tanks and pumped out again when vessels required refueling. In 1932 five more tanks were built with a further two completed by December 1941.

On 19 February 1942, only days after Singapore surrendered to the invading Japanese army, the storage tanks were bombed in the first aerial bombing raid on Darwin Harbour. Successive bombing raids destroyed more tanks until by June 1943 only the No. 8 tank remained intact.

The Pump House itself suffered only minor damage and the technology survived well into the post-war period. The Pump House, together with the remains of the storage tank set into Stokes Hill, are key elements in an understanding of the history of the Port.

The port area of Darwin had two hills and the two existing wharfs are named after those hills.

Fort Hill was the location for the flagpole above Goyder’s survey camp. Today only Stokes Hill remains as Fort Hill was removed in 1965 to make way for the wharf that bears its name.

In 1865, a surveyor, W.P. Auld, exploring Port Darwin named Stokes Hill after the Commander of the Beagle, who had visited and named the site in 1839. There have been three wharfs constructed that have backed on to Stokes Hill.

The first, Port Darwin Jetty or Railway Jetty, was built in 1885-6. With an 8m tidal range in Darwin harbour, the jetty stood high on timber piles. The little Sandfly steam railway engine shunted trucks carrying cargo along the length of the jetty. Cyclone damage in 1897 and worm infestation weakened the structure and a temporary wharf was hastily constructed at the end of Stokes Hill point.

The second, Town Wharf, was completed in 1903, and stood on cast iron and concrete piers with wooden decking and a distinctive L shape. Cargo handling was by rail. The stone embankment, extending along the edge of the road leading to the wharf, was probably built at this time and was constructed of locally quarried porcellanite stone.

The Town Wharf was severely damaged in the first Japanese bombing raid. The remains of the ships destroyed in that first raid remained visible at low tide until 1959, when the salvage rights were sold – ironically to the Japanese Fujita Salvage Company – and the wrecks were cut up and removed.

The third, Stokes Hill Wharf that you can see today, was not officially completed until the end of 1956. It was built of steel and concrete with timber decking and served as the main port of Darwin until facilities were transferred to the new Darwin Port at East Arm in 2000. East Arm became the terminus of the north-south transcontinental rail freight link.

Larrakia history and naming of places within the landscape goes back to the beginning of time.

Stokes Hill was named after Captain John Lort Stokes, one of the officers who in 1839 arrived in the harbour on the HMS Beagle. Stokes named the harbour in honour of Charles Darwin and it is now named Darwin Harbour.

Larrakia were the first people to live in this area and know “Stokes Hill” to have within it a Larrakia spiritual ancestor. This ancestor is known as “Chinute Chinute” and manifests itself from time to time as a Tawny Frog Mouthed Owl.

The hill is a registered sacred site and no work is to take place on it. Please respect this area.

Text by Koolpinyah Barnes 11/05/2009

Hughes Avenue is the oldest road in Darwin. The Avenue follows the contours of the escarpment from the Smith Street end of the Esplanade back down towards the sea finishing at the site where Europeans first camped.

In January 1869, George Goyder, with a party of 150 men, arrived from Adelaide to begin a land survey.

At Darwin Harbour, Goyder met the Traditional Owners of the land, the Larrakia people. Goyder said, “We were in what to them appeared unauthorized and unwarrantable occupation of their country.” Nonetheless, relationships between the newcomers and the Larrakia were cordial. Biliamuk, a young Larrakia man, assisted the survey party, and acted as an interpreter and cultural ambassador. Soon after, the Larrakia began trading bush tucker for tea, flour, tobacco and tools.

Hughes Avenue follows the path Goyder and his survey teams travelled up the hill. It is possible when travelling along Hughes Avenue today to see the remains of ironwood posts and sections of a dry stone porcellanite wall marking the old access route to Darwin.

Hughes Avenue was named after Captain Geoffrey Wesley Hughes, Harbour Master of the Port of Darwin from 1962 until his death in 1966.

The wharf area was the stage on which many crucial scenes of World War II were played out.

Even before Japan joined the War the small sleepy town of Darwin, that in 1938 had about 3 000 residents, took on a new character as the military buildup of infrastructure and personnel began. On 12 December 1941, a week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Cabinet issued the order for the civilian evacuation of Darwin. Over the next few weeks about 750 women and children were evacuated south on the Zealandia, Koolama, Koolinda, Montoro and the American ship, General Grant.

The decision to evacuate civilians was timely. At two minutes to ten on the morning of 19 February 1942, Japanese aircraft from the same attack group that had bombed Pearl Harbor, struck at Darwin sinking eight of the 47 ships anchored there.

“The same pilot, Mitsuo Fuchida, led both attacks, flying from the same aircraft carriers and supported by the same air crews… more aircraft attacked Darwin in the first wave than attacked Pearl Harbor in its first wave. More bombs fell on Darwin than on

Pearl Harbor. More ships were sunk in Darwin than in Pearl Harbor” (Peter Grose, An Awkward Truth, 2008)

At the wharf, the Neptuna was in the process of unloading her cargo: 200 depth charges with a very large quantity of anti aircraft shells for the Navy and Army. A bomb struck the angle corner of the wharf, blowing a locomotive and trucks into the sea. The Neptuna exploded and more than 50 of the ship’s company were killed along with 22 civilian wharfies, many from longstanding Darwin families such as Cubillo, Dominic and Spain. A survivor remembered:

“I jumped over the side of the wharf into the water … made my way towards the elbow of the wharf. That had already been hit and the shed where men were gathered for smoko, and it had all gone… just disappeared” (Douglas Lockwood, Australia’s Pearl Harbor, 1966)

In the chaos and confusion, men like Jack Barclay and Johnnie Wilkshire, among others, showed enormous courage and presence of mind. They rowed small boats out through the burning oil to rescue injured sailors.

Bombing of Darwin: the wharf

Arrival: Travellers’ WalkSteam and the defence of Darwin: the Pump House

Larrakia sacred site: Stokes Hill

The first road: Hughes Avenue

WWII oil storage tunnels

Railway & stone embankment: the Stokes Hill Wharf

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Oil storage tunnels © Northern Territory Library, Volter and Langdon Collection

Stokes Hill Wharf, 1930s © Northern Territory Library, Christa Roderick Collection

Stokes Hill Wharf after bombing © Northern Territory Library, R. Black Collection

Image (above): Aerial of Darwin 1962 – the Pump House and remains of tank No. 6 can be seen in the foreground © Northern Territory Library, V. Honecker Collection

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THE MALL

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Fort Hill W

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KNUCKEY ST

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Mavie StreetLitchfield Street

Woods Street

Austin Lane

McMinn Street

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West Lane

Shadforth Lane

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MITCHELL ST

THE ESPLANADE

ParliamentHouse

Deckchair Cinema

DarwinConvention

Centre

Cruise Ship Terminal

WaterfrontStage 2

Wharf OneApartments

RecreationLagoon

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Travellers’

Lameroo Beach

Frances Bay D

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Stokes Hill Road

Harry Chan Ave

Darwin Oval &Cenotaph

VibeHotel

MedinaHotel Wave

LagoonKioskCivic

Square

Library

LyonsCottage

Damoe-RaPark

TamarindPark Wave

Lagoon

Skywalk

Bicentennial Park

Jervois

Road

Walk

DARWIN HARBOUR

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Heritage SitesLegend: Facilities Travellers’ Walk

Stokes Hill Wharf

WWII Oil Storage Tunnels

Bombing of Darwin: the wharf (viewing point)

Visitor Information

Taxis

Public Parking

Public Toilets

Walking Trail

Heritage Trail

Larrakia Sacred Site: Stokes Hill

Hughes Avenue

The Pump House

The Darwin Waterfront has a significant and varied history for the many different cultures who have helped to shape it.

The area was:

• home of the Larrakia people, who for centuries traded with the Macassans

• the site of early Malay/Chinese settlements

• the site of the original landing of European settlers who waded ashore and camped in the ‘gully’ by Fort Hill.

The area has historical significance as the site of the first bomb to land on Australia during World War II.

It was also the site of the first public gardens, the railway from Frances Creek to the jetty with a station near Stokes Hill, and where Travellers’ Walk marks an old path used to walk from the early camp to the escarpment.

This rich cultural heritage has been incorporated into many of the public infrastructure components of the Darwin Waterfront Precinct.

Public art has been integrated amongst the buildings, amenities and public space, celebrating the diverse cultural influences of the area.

A dedicated walkway has been developed linking the Darwin Waterfront Precinct to the Darwin CBD via a pedestrian bridge from the end of Smith Street over Kitchener Drive and joining with a glass-sided lift.

Parks, gardens and picnic areas are available for the enjoyment of the public and feature extensive tropical landscaping to complement the climate.

A waterfront promenade weaves along the edge of the harbour, providing views to the water, and quiet spaces in a parkland setting.

Pedestrians can walk, cycle or jog along the sea wall, between the contained water and the open harbour providing a greater level of connectivity between the water and the land.

A selection of heritage sites are featured in this brochure, with their locations indicated on the map opposite. We encourage visitors to follow the designated paths and trails while learning about our heritage.

For further information visit:

www.waterfront.nt.gov.au

DarWinWATeRfROnT Heritage and Cultural Trail