Thread: OK short quiz.

Originally Posted by richard4u2

I don't think daly waters is correct as there was a place called either Adelaide or Elizabeth it was right on the coast and was built in the mid 1800's and it only lasted about 2 years , some one can fact check it

That's amazing as the Wright brothers didn't get into the air until 1903. But there was an international airport in the NT before then! Amazing

From Wikapedia (which we all know can never be wrong)

"In 1919, when the England to Australia air race was announced, Darwin airport was established in the suburb of Parap to act as the Australian Terminal. Darwin hence operated two airports, a civilian airport and a military field. In 1945, the Department of Aviation made the existing Darwin military airfield available for civil aviation purposes. As a result, the civilian airport at Parap was closed down and airport operations combined with the military airport"

Parap, Northern Territory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But it also says:

"Daly Waters was Australia's first international airfield. The airfield was a centre for the London to Sydney air race of 1926 and was a refuelling stop for early Qantas flights to Singapore. During the 1930s, the growth of international air travel meant the airport became a busy hub, despite its isolation and rudimentary facilities. During this period, the airfield was served by QANTAS, Australian National Airways and Guinea Airways as well as being an important connection point for MacRobertson Miller Airlines flights to Western Australia.[1]" [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daly_Waters_Airfield"]Daly Waters Airfield - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

What!?! Conflicting information on Wikapedia? well I never

Originally Posted by richard4u2

I don't think daly waters is correct as there was a place called either Adelaide or Elizabeth it was right on the coast and was built in the mid 1800's and it only lasted about 2 years , some one can fact check it

I think you are talking about the original Palmerston which was an unsuccessful settlement at the mouth of the Adelaide River to the north east of Darwin, situated in an inhospitable swampy delta like region, inundated by water in the "wet".
It was plagued by disease and other geographically related problems and only lasted about twelve years before common sense prevailed and the settlement was moved to the point we know as Darwin today. There is a Palmerston in the Greater Darwin district, but not at the original site.
A very similar history in ways to the "Edenglassie" I mentioned earlier.
Regards
Glen

You may be talking about Port Essington. Bob [ edit- The first Palmerston was at escape cliffs, on the west side of Cape Hotham peninsula. The settlement was moved to the present Darwin site & called Darwin in 1911 ]


Northern Port
Although it is remembered to-day mainly in history books, the first port on Australia’s far northern coast, Port Essington, was planned with high ambition. Actually, two efforts were made to establish Port Essington – in 1824 and 1838. Both failed and to-day all that remains of the venture are a few gravestones under the banyan trees, the ruins of a church and a bakehouse, and the curve of an old stone pier.
The inlet of Port Essington, described as one of the world’s finest harbours, is less than 100 miles north-east of Darwin and is on the north coast of Arnhem Land.
The first suggestion for a settlement there was made by Phillip Parker King, who strongly advised the British Government to occupy a port in northern Australia. In December, 1823, a committee of merchants trading with the East Indies, asked for the establishment of a military and commercial settlement at Port Essington, mainly to give British traders a base in the north independent of the Dutch. The committee reported that the Dutch had imposed heavy import and export duties on traders from other nations.
Because of this pressure, on February 17, 1824, Earl Bathurst ordered the dispatch of a warship from Britain to take possession of “that part of the said coast contained between the Western shore of Bathurst Island and the Eastern side of the Cobourg Peninsula, including the whole of Bathurst and Melville Islands and the said Peninsula. ”Sir Tom Stamford Raffles, of the East India Co., felt that such a settlement might lead to the creating of another Singapore.
H.M.S. Tamar (Captain J. J. G. Bremer) was sent to Sydney for troops and stores needed for the settlement. This warship left Sydney on August 23, 1824, for the north, carrying a detachment of marines and accompanied by the transport Countess of Harcourt and the Government schooner Lady Nelson. The occupying party consisted of 30 soldiers and officials and 44 convict volunteers.
The party landed at Port Essington on September 20, but because no fresh water could be found the site was abandoned three days later and the party moved to Melville Island. It gradually became evident that Melville Island was not suitable for the settlement either, and on June 17, 1827, a new site was chosen, this time at Raffles Bay, east of Port Essington.
During 1828, the Melville Island settlers were transferred to Raffles Bay, but here again there was little progress. Favourable reports had been made about a site for settlement on the Swan River (W.A.), and it was not long before the Raffles Bay project was reduced to a trading station. Finally, it was abandoned on August 29, 1830.
It was officially felt, however, that some settlement was needed on the north Australian coast and, in 1837, rumours that a French expedition was planning to occupy some place there led to a revival of the Port Essington plan.
Once more Captain Bremer was put in charge of a British expedition. As skipper of H.M.S. Alligator and accompanied by H.M.S. Britomart and the store ship Orontes, he left Sydney on September 17, 1838, for the north. The vessels arrived at Port Essington on October 26 and a site, which later became the town of Victoria, was chosen about 16 miles from the open sea.
The first year of the new settlement was happy, hand hopeful. Settlers cleared “tracts of meadowland” and planted plantains, rice, maize, sugar-cane and water-melons. Good soil produced speedy growth. “Persons of respectability” had been invited to buy “town allotments” within a mile of the projected pier but expectations that a town would develop rapidly failed to eventuate.
When a shipwreck crew was blown into Port Essington in 1843, the local population gave thanks for the sight of new faces. Hindus, Chinese and Burmese were asked to settle at Port Essington, but it had no appeal to them. The settlement won brief notability when the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt reached there in 1845, after his pioneering journey round the Gulf of Carpentaria, but thereafter its significance faded.
Trade with Malaya failed to develop, it was off the track of passing ships, and the high cost of its maintenance was out of proportion to its value. As a result on June 6, 1849, the British Admiralty ordered its abandonment. In December, 1849, H.M.S. Meander took the settlers away and destroyed the buildings of Victoria by shelling. To-day, jungle has spread over the site and only a few relics of the past remain.
Any prospects of revived interest in Port Essington became negligible when Darwin was selected in 1868 as a site for a town.

Port essington was around the mouth of the Adelaide river ther were several unsuccessful forts\missions around various islands but none seemed to survive long,The original Palmerston was around the goyder road area near parap a suburb of darwin,Hence the location of Palmerston cemetary on Goyder road.Palmerston moved to its present spot at a later date. People get confused with Southport which is on the upper reaches of Darwin Harbour which had a large wharf that was used during the gold rush days of Pine creek.
EDIT:Bob is correct re the location

Originally Posted by lewy

Port essington was around the mouth of the Adelaide river ther were several unsuccessful forts\missions around various islands but none seemed to survive long,The original Palmerston was around the goyder road area near parap a suburb of darwin,Hence the location of Palmerston cemetary on Goyder road.Palmerston moved to its present spot at a later date. People get confused with Southport which is on the upper reaches of Darwin Harbour which had a large wharf that was used during the gold rush days of Pine creek.
EDIT:Bob is correct re the location

Sorry, Lewy, I must correct you. The first Palmerston was at the mouth of Adelaide river , on the western side of Cape Hotham, the second Palmerston at the site of present day Darwin, named Darwin in 1911. Port Essington the town, was on the Coburg Peninsula, if you check a map, you will see why they chose that place, it has a magnificent natural bay, called, port Essington. The early history of the NT is fascinating, Bob

The first ship was built in Australia in Oct. 1789. It was called the Rose Hill Packet. Displacing 10 tons, what was it's unusual nick name? Bob

Originally Posted by V8Ian

What is the major town on the Pioneer River?

Ian, do the honours, Bob

Originally Posted by V8Ian

What is the major town on the Pioneer River?

And what s the correct pronounciation ?