National Library of Australia - Home page
NLA News - home May 2002 Volume XII Number 8
Northern Focus
David Sturrock, Richard Lawrence & Waldron at the last peg of the Transcontinental survey at Katherine c.1913

David Sturrock, Richard Lawrence & Waldron at the last peg of the Transcontinental survey at Katherine c.1913
Northern Territory Archives Service,
NTRS 826/PI, item I, Sturrock Collection, photo album

Northern Territory Archives Service logo

Diana Giese visits the

Northern Territory

Archives Service in Darwin

In 1913, an expedition began to gather stores and equipment in Port Augusta, South Australia. Its members were from the Sydney engineering firm of Lawrence and Chalmers, who had been commissioned to carry out a Flying Survey for a railway from Port Augusta to Pine Creek. This little mining town marked the terminus of the existing railway, which ran from Darwin.

The nephew of one of the firm’s partners was a keen young man called David Sturrock. He helped pick up the expedition’s pack animals, camels from Oodnadatta. He then accompanied them all the way to Pine Creek and back. ‘His second pair of boots was in good order on his return,’ reports his sister in a document now held by the Northern Territory Archives Service (NTAS) in Darwin. Other interesting records of the Survey are also held. They include a photograph album, the expedition’s contract, a map, newspaper cuttings, David Sturrock’s exercise book diary and his letters to his mother.

In 1929, the railway was extended as far as Alice Springs. In 2002, work is underway for a full rail link between Darwin and Alice Springs—something heralded many times in other materials held in the Archives, such as newspaper accounts and government reports. The short, sad story of David Sturrock is also completed. He was killed in action at Gallipoli in 1915.

The NTAS was established in 1983 by the Northern Territory Government, five years after self-government. It manages both public and private records. It provides administrative services to government, and cultural services to the community. ‘Only the Tasmanian and Northern Territory Government Archives preserve both government and non-government records together’ says Cathy Flint, Archivist, Information Services. As well as collection and preservation of documents, the NTAS assists in government record-keeping, with the establishment and maintenance of policy and standards, storage and disposal services, and training.

The $50 000 Northern Territory History Awards each year support projects researching aspects of Territory history, of which ‘there’s still so much to be written’, as Cathy Flint says. An impressive display of books already produced by recipients takes up the whole of one wall in the reception area.

Envelope sent by David Sturrock in Egypt to his mother in Sydney, 1915. Contents not included

Left: Envelope sent by David Sturrock in Egypt to his mother in Sydney, 1915. Contents not included (it is likely that David was in Egypt en route to Gallipoli)
Northern Territory Archives Service
NTRS 826/P3, no. 2(b), Sturrock Collection

Below: Pages 1 and 6 from a letter sent by David Sturrock to his mother in Sydney (written during the course of the Transcontinental Survey)
5th May 1913
Northern Territory Archives Service
NTRS 826/P3, no. 2(b), Sturrock Collection

Francis Good, who runs the Archives’ highly-acclaimed Oral History program, has recorded, facilitated and maintained a unique collection of oral history, much of which has been used in these books. Recent recording includes journalist Jane Munday’s work towards a book and an exhibition on the history of railways in the Territory, Dr Brian Reid’s interviews for a history of the Menzies School of Health Research, and Dr Bill Wilson’s projects on health and insurance. Good provides support to selected projects, including the compilation of transcripts which are audio proofread. Original recordings of interviews are stored in the Archives. Copies are also preserved on CDs, and made available to researchers: institutions, individuals and communities

Pages 1 from a letter sent by David Sturrock to his mother in sydney Pages 6 from a letter sent by David Sturrock to his mother in sydney

Since 1985, when he first visited Roper River Aboriginal communities, Good has been working with people at outstations. Often, he finds himself elected as the technician and the archivist, while one of the local people interviews others, to record in their own words, from their own perspectives, how the community and the outstation have developed. The Archives now holds dozens of such tapes from his three or four trips a year, but ‘we’ve only scratched the surface,’ says Good. A recent project in Ti Tree in Central Australia, to interview people retired from work on cattle stations, was made possible by money from the Rona Tranby Foundation. When Good first began visiting communities, he ‘listened to sounds in another language and smelled someone burning incense, I felt as if I was in someone else’s home. Now I’m invited in.’

In Kakadu, Good arranged a workshop at the Park Rangers’ headquarters, for Assistant Rangers, ‘all women, all young, all with Aboriginal family connections in the region’. They were interested in recording these links. In another initiative, media students from Batchelor College, all of whom will become teachers in Aboriginal communities, spent a day at the Archives exploring the Search Room, experimenting with recording equipment, and being introduced to the collections.

Front cover of Contract between Richard Lawrende and Nathatiel Chalmers taken out with the Hon. the Minister for External Affairs to undertake the Transcontinental Survey, 1913

Front cover of Contract between Richard Lawrence and Nathaniel Chalmers taken out with the Hon. the Minister for External Affairs to undertake the Transcontinental Survey, 1913
Northern Territory Archives Service,
NTRS 891/PI, Lawrence Collection

There have been several collaborations with other researchers. Grace and Harold Koch had been visiting the Barrow Creek area for 15 years when they asked the Archives to help them collect material for a book and an exhibition. They set up interviews with long-time friends and contacts. The result is Kaytetye Country, a bilingual history of the area (Alice Springs: IAD Publications, 1993).

A more recent joint initiative has been with Peg Havnen, Leonie Norrington and the Northern Territory Writers’ Centre. The NTAS provided recording equipment, transcribed the interviews, and negotiated with interviewees regarding access. Under the Mango Tree records the voices of Indigenous people from the Top End. It is a vivid record of their daily lives, from dances at the Sunshine Club to buying satays outside the Star Theatre, a record of strength in diversity, and ‘a tribute to the Indigenous families who contributed greatly to the life of the Northern Territory and continue to do so’. Those recorded include Vicky Bonson, whose grandfather was a Filipino pearl diver, and who has relatives in Perth, Broome, Darwin, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Torres Strait and down the Queensland coast. Nanna Peckham, ‘born on the bank of the Katherine River about the turn of the century’, is remembered by her grandson, Norman Fry. Her mother was ‘a traditional Aboriginal woman of Djargamin, Wardaman and Jawoyn background’, while her father was Cantonese-speaking Chinese.

In 1997, the NTAS formed an Aboriginal Advisory Group to facilitate links with family and country, and establish consistent policies and procedures for Aboriginal family research in the Territory. Members meet three times a year in Darwin and Alice Springs, and open workshops are also held.

Archival records are strong on one of the Territory’s most important money-earners, the pastoral industry. Government and non-government collections, plus personal material, together paint a picture of what life was like for pastoralists and Aboriginal people on the frontier. The many oral history interviews, covering most of the area’s enormous stations, are ‘informed by one another’ says Francis Good. ‘They have similar focus points: the history of a station; physical changes, such as fencing and getting water; stock policies; disease eradication; and marketing.’

Covers of Kaytetye Country;  Under the Mango Tree and Portrait of Daisy Ruddock

Front covers reproduced from Kaytetye Country: An Aboriginal History of the Barrow Creek Area, compiled and edited by Grace Koch, translations by Harold Koch (Alice Springs, NT: Institute for Aboriginal Development Publications, c.1993) and Under the Mango Tree: Oral Histories with Indigenous People from the Top End, collected by Peg Havnen, condensed by Leonie Norrington (Darwin: NT Writers' Centre, 2001). Portrait of Daisy Ruddock was photographed by Martin Selwood

Barry Garside was Acting Director of the NTAS before taking up a position in Canberra with the National Archives of Australia. He stood in for Greg Coleman, on secondment to the Northern Territory Library and Information Service. ‘Increasingly, we’re involved with policy, standards, systems maintenance and dispersal issues,’ says Garside. A discussion draft of an Information Bill focuses on such issues. It deals with all the hot topics of information and archival management. Under the proposals, there will be both right of access to government and personal information, and also protection of privacy. ‘We have a unique opportunity with the new Northern Territory Government to position the Archives as the leading authority for documentary heritage in the Territory,’ Garside continues. ‘After 1 July 2003, when it is anticipated that the Bill will become law, government agencies will have to resource reference areas a lot better.’ Government support is also crucial to offer free access for communities to their own cultural and documentary heritage.

‘Proper government record-keeping underpins the whole of the new legislation,’ says Cathy Flint. ‘And the challenge is to find out exactly what we hold through provision of automated access to the collections.’ At the moment, access to NTAS material is initiated through hard-copy series lists, with information such as pastoral leases stretching over as many as 20 pages.

‘There has been community pressure over the past 15 years to open an office and a Central Australian archive in Alice Springs,’ says Barry Garside. There are 1500 metres of records, including pastoral and police records, currently stored in Darwin. Naturally enough, donors in Central Australia would prefer to lodge their precious collections closer to home, and have access to their own archives.

With increased resources, the NTAS can continue to serve its government clients, its communities, and the research community. Garside puts it simply: ‘We want to be of use.’

DIANA GIESE’s book, Beyond Chinatown (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1995) was researched in the Northern Territory Archives.

Back to NLA News Index Back to May Issue Back to NLA Home Page
NLA News - home

To order a particular issue of the NLA News e-mail nlasales@nla.gov.au
or join the Friends of the National Library of Australia and receive a copy each month by mail.