Darwin 1869: The First Year in Photographs

This is the story of the birth of the city of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory.

At first called Palmertston, Darwin is the only pre-Federation capital city in Australia which is young enough to have been photographed since its earliest days. When George Goyder and his survey teams arrived in Port Darwin in February 5, 1869, one of the draftsmen, Joseph Brooks, doubled as the expedition's official photographer. He was later joined by Captain Samuel Sweet of the Gulnare, who helped Brooks and took his own collection of photographs.

These precious images show the very first camp on the Darwin peninsula and the men of the Second Northern Territory Expedition working in the Northern Territory of South Australia in 1869.