It was The British Australia Telegraph Company that provided the first major elements of development in the region, with its construction of the 2900 kilometre Overland Telegraph Line, which linked Darwin to Port Augusta in 1872. This historic achievement took two years to complete and cost five hundred thousand dollars.

It was during the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line that gold was discovered. This caused considerable interest, and as many as sixty companies set about busying themselves with its extraction in 1874. Most of these companies spent limited time on the project, as it soon became apparent that the gold deposits were fairly fragmented and not so easy to mine.

During the 1890s, camel caravans were introduced to the Territory to drive overland camel trains. Camels provided the most reliable method of transporting goods throughout the region. Today camels and other introduced work animals, such as water buffaloes, run wild in the Territory causing great environmental damage.

Agriculturally, it was proving difficult to cultivate crops in this very harsh climate. Pastoralism was the major agricultural hope. Even this area experienced problems though - poor management and stocking rates, not to mention disease and drought. Despite the conditions, cattle production was the major industry until the 1960s.

Mining went into decline in the 1930s and then experienced a dramatic revitalisation with the discovery of copper, silver and gold at Tennant Creek. Other significant finds include manganese on Groote Eylandt, bauxite on the Gove peninsula, uranium around the Alligator River area and iron-ore at Mount Bundey and Francis Creek.

In 1911, the South Australian government handed the Territory over to the new Federal Government, unable to continue to finance the enormous debt involved in developing the northern lands. The coming of World War II saw most Darwin citizens evacuated, and the city was bombed during this period.

Whereas government policies prior to the war were for the most part poorly thought through and did little to assist in the development of the Territory, after the war improved welfare services, communications, handling of Aboriginal affairs, education and housing all helped considerably. This can clearly be highlighted in the augmenting population figures in Darwin in the period after the war. These had risen from 5000 in the mid 1940s to some 65,000 by 1985.

The Territory attained self government in 1978, but its small population prevents it from reaching Statehood.

0 of a possible 0 points from 0 votes