Fannie Bay is a suburb of Darwin. Palmerston, as the city was known in its formative years, had a problem in the last century with its inhabitants, as many of them did not have secure tenure, indeed many were squatters.

Quite a sizeable proportion of the town's allotments had been bought up by people who had no intention of ever taking up residence in them. To help remedy the situation, it was decided to survey land at Fannie Bay, so that new allotments could be created. However, this was never to be as the gold boom disappeared and with its end, many of the towns residents chose to leave.

Earlier this century, a spot at the top of the Fannie Bay cliffs was chosen as Darwin's first airstrip. It was here in the year of 1919, on December 10th, that Ross and Keith Smith landed their plane, having completed the first flight from England to Australia. As the world of aviation expanded over the following years, a regular service came into being between Adelaide and Darwin.

The Fannie Bay Gaol is also located here, being Darwin's early prison.

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