Map of Northern Territory Port Darwin

Map of Port Darwin and surrounds showing land ownership, gold and copper mines, main roads, railways and telegraph lines. On 9 September 1839, Lieutenant John Lort Stokes of the HMS Beagle became the first British person to spot Darwin harbour. The ship&#8217s captain, Commander John Clements Wickham, named the port after Charles Darwin, in honour of the English naturalist who had sailed on the Beagle&#8217s second voyage. A permanent European settlement wasn&#8217t established in the port until 1869 when the then Surveyor-General of South Australia, George Goyder, under directions from the South Australian government, established a small settlement of 135 men and women there. Goyder named the settlement Palmerston, after the former British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. This map shows the path of the recently completed 3,200 kilometre Australian Overland Telegraph Line (1872) which connected Adelaide and Darwin and is widely considered one of the most significant Australian engineering feats of the nineteenth century. During the construction, workers discovered gold near Pine Creek, about 200 kilometres south of Darwin, which created further interest in the fledgling settlement.