It was the South Australians who now came to the forefront. They backed McDouall Stuart's journey in the late 1850s, and even more importantly, they decided to try and claim the Territory for themselves. As the British seemed to have no definite plans themselves for the area, they agreed to this annexation in 1863.

This arrangement remained in place for a total of 47 years. During this period things were not exactly rosy and development failed to occur quite as the South Australians had hoped it would. Indeed, by the time that the Federal Government took over the reigns of control in 1911, there was a public debt of 4 million pounds, quite a considerable sum in those days.

It seems that what many people failed to realise at that time was that the Northern Territory was (and is) unique, and that what worked successfully elsewhere in the country in terms of development and economics was not necessarily applicable in the NT.

One problem was that an act dating back to 1863 stated that NT must cover the cost of administering and governing the area themselves. In accordance with this requirement, a considerable amount of land was sold. However, many of those who bought up plots of land never actually arrived to physically take up the land, thereby resulting a prevalence of absenteeism which did nothing for the development of the area

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