PAST MASTERS
PastMasters
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Objects & Activities
    • Research Projects
    • Index & Links
    • Contacts
    • Latest News
  • Projects & Activities
    • EARLY MAPS >
      • Pre Flinders Maps
      • Jave Le Grande
      • Vallard Map 1547
      • Unsigned & Undated
      • DUTCH MAPS >
        • 1606 Duyfken
        • 1623 Pera & Arnhem
        • 1636 Pool Expedition
        • 1644 Tasman Map
        • 1705 van Delft 1705 >
          • Pre-Cook 1705
        • 1756 Gonzal Expedition
    • First Contact
    • HMS Beagle >
      • Watch Vessel No. 7
      • Beagle Well Darwin
      • Roman Villa Found in Darwin
    • Cairns & Burnt Mounds
    • D'Stretch Marks
    • Eyam - The Plague Days
    • Fakes & Forgeries >
      • William Westall {Flinders}
    • HMAS Patricia Cam >
      • Pat Cam 75th Anniversary
      • The Men & Their Families
      • Ship's Knee MH7
      • Beattie's Yard
      • Palermo Park Dig
      • The Sandy Sanford Story
      • Pat Cam Memorial Yirrkala
    • MACASSANS >
      • Pobassoo Island
      • Port Bradshaw
    • Matthew Flinders - The Long Way Home >
      • Flinders & HMS Cumberland
    • Miscellany >
      • Capt. Cook - Bad Hair Day
    • Mystery Objects
    • NT Fleet Review
    • NT Image Makers & Takers >
      • Foelsche Centenary 2014
      • Ted Ryko
      • Shepherdson Collection >
        • 4. Wireless & Planes
        • 6. Boats
        • 7. Fijian Staff
      • NT Painters & Sketchers
    • OSL Beach Dating
    • Shell Mounds & Middens
    • Territory Treasures >
      • The Loss of HMAS Armidale
      • Boustead Jar & Shell Dunes
      • Dundee Beach Swivel Gun
    • Top End Timeline
  • ARNHEM LAND & BEYOND
    • ADELAIDE RIVER
    • COBOURG PENINSULA >
      • PM Expedition 2017
      • Fort Wellington at Raffles Bay
      • Macarthur Journal
      • Victoria Settlement >
        • Lambrick Family Archive
        • Port Essington Jack
        • Victoria Cemetery
        • VIPs at P.E.
    • DARWIN >
      • Early Darwin >
        • Esplanade SE
        • Esplanade SW
        • Bennett Street
        • Cavanagh Street
        • Goyder's Camp & Early Darwin
        • Mitchell Street
        • Smith Street >
          • Victoria Hotel
      • The Govt. House Gun >
        • Residency Govt. House
        • Government House
      • Top End Heritage Park >
        • Darwin's Heritage Assets
        • Historic Statues
        • Pre-fabrication of Australian History
      • Bombing of Darwin
      • Channel Is. Centenary - Quarantine to Lazarette
      • Doctor's Gully >
        • ZDG Catalina Base
        • 1st Darwin Hospital
      • East Point Reserve
      • Naval Fuel Depot WW2
      • Wagait Beach
      • Z Special & Catalina Base
    • DOWN THE TRACK >
      • Coomalie Landing Ground
      • Daly Waters
      • NT Expedition 1880-89
      • Overland Telegraph & Undersea Cables >
        • OT Pole No, 1
        • OT Stations
    • ELCHO ISLAND PORTRAIT >
      • DT coin Elcho Is.
      • Elcho Past Muster - Workshops, Finds & Losses
      • Galiwin'ku Community
    • ESCAPE CLIFFS
    • GOVE PENINSULA >
      • Catalina Beach WW2
      • Control Tower Museum
      • Gove Airfield WW2
      • Gunyangara
      • Heritage Rangers
      • Nhulunbuy
      • Wurrwurrwuy Stone Pictures
      • Yirrkala
    • GAPUWIYAK
    • GOULBURN Is. Centenary
    • GROOTE EYLANDT >
      • Alyangula
      • Angurugu >
        • Angurugu Lifeboat
      • Bickerton Island
      • Emerald River
      • Groote Rock Art >
        • Angurugu Shelter
        • Groote Rock Art 2
      • Umbakumba
    • MILINGIMBI >
      • Rangers & WW2 Strip
    • OENPELLI - Gunbalanya >
      • Oenpelli Mission 1953/85
      • Oenpelli Mission -Early Days
      • Oenpelli Buffalo Days
    • RAMINGINING
    • TIMOR & Oecussi
    • TIWI ISLANDS >
      • Bathurst Island >
        • Heritage Precinct
      • Melville Island
      • Carslow Beach & the Dutch
      • Fort Dundas & Garden Point >
        • Fort Dundas Bicentenary 2024 >
          • DATES 1824
          • FIVE FORTS
        • FD & Gdn Pt. Finds
        • Lady Nelson & Stedcombe
      • Macs on Melville
      • Snake Bay - Macc Weir
    • TRUANT Is.
    • WESSEL ISLANDS >
      • Ancient Coins in Arnhem Land Expedition
      • Australians Bay
      • Hopefull Bay
      • Kora Kora 2023
      • Mary Bryant Story
      • Wessels 2018
      • Wessel Islands Radar 312RS
      • Wildcard Expedition 2019
  • PastMasters Publishing
    • Arnhemland's Lost Past
    • Early Contact North Australia
    • Wooden Weir - Milikapiti
    • Claiming Australia
    • Beagle Beach Well
    • PastMasters' Papers
  • Isenberg Hoard Analysis
Picture
Darwin's 1st Hospital above the Chinese Gardens in Doctor's Gully Foelsche SLSA B-5040 c1878

Doctor's Gully - Darwin NT


Goyder's Party 1869/70

Picture
NTL PH08370005 - digging for water in Doctor's Gully (1869-1870)
Picture
​Stereoscopic images were produced in pairs to give the illusion of three-dimensional depth. The official photographer was Joseph Brooks - assisted by Capt. Samuel Sweet and Paul Foelsche was also busy. The absence of the Gulnare or an anchor suggest that this is a Brooks image.

Picture
A Brooks image of Dr. Peel 1869/70
Picture
Dr Peel SLSA PRG 280-1-43-650
​Dr Peel in Doctor's Gully {for whom it was named} - the fence is behind him - he has a shotgun & is perhaps waiting for the evening flight of birds such as the Torres Strait pigeon & the delicious bush chook.
Picture
SLSA B-925 Dr Peel c1870

Picture
Historic Maps series - Port Darwin www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/imfPublic/sites/historic_map_index
Picture
Historic Maps series - Port Darwin 1905 www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/imfPublic/sites/historic_map_index
Picture
Historic Maps series - Port Darwin 1870 www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/imfPublic/sites/historic_map_index
This is the earliest map to show Doctors Gully where Dr Peel found water in 1869 "in a gully between Fort Point and Point Emery".

Port Darwin's First Brewer

The brewery was established at Peel's Well in Doctors Gully in 1873 by EJF Crawford and son Lindsay who were descended from the famous Irish dynasty which, as Beamish & Crawford of the Cork Porter Brewery, reined as Ireland's greatest brewers until surpassed by the Guinness family 1938. Crawford had established the Hindmarsh Brewery in Adelaide in 1859 which was continued until 1973 - the red brick building still stands at 12 Richard Street, Hindmarsh SA. Regrettably, both Crawford senior and the brewery were short lived as the premises at Peel's Well - described as 'a well and substantially built premises on advantageous terms' - were sold by auction without reserve on Monday 12th January 1874. Lindsay Crawford did not return south with his ailing father but remained to become an explorer, telegraph operator, storekeeper & pastoralist - being the first manger of the Victoria River Downs Station which at >12,000 sq kms was once the largest in the world.
Picture
SLSA B-5053 Two horse drays with stores for Victoria River Downs Station - the Government vessel at the Depot on the Victoria River in September 1893 - Paul Foelsche

Shou Lao Statue 1879

Picture
From the Power House Museum Sydney NSW. Figure 'Shou Lao', carved pinite, maker unknown, China, [early 19th century], excavated in Doctor's Gully, Palmerston, Port Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, 1879

"The Chinese archaeologists passed no comment on the figure regarding it as a curio. Other experts passing through and to whom I have shown it, place it at the earliest in the second half of the C18th, & most likely in the early C19th. It is a minor work and no doubt there are few accurately dated examples of this kind, but I see no reason to claim great antiquity for it". Owing to the inadequacy of the record of excavation in 1879 it would appear that stylistic analysis is the only option for dating. The Powerhouse Museum continues to gather information and opinions about the date of the object." (John Wade was a Curator at the Powerhouse Museum)

Historical Notes
The Shou Lao figurine was discovered in 1879 at Doctor's Gully, Palmerston, Port Darwin, Northern Territory, when a gang of workmen, making a road, cleared a banyan tree and found the statue wedged amongst its roots. The gang was supervised by a government official, Mr Strawbridge, who pocketed the find.  Late in 1888, the Curator of the Technological Museum in Sydney (later Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences) wrote to various bodies exhibiting at the Centennial International Exhibition, seeking donations of material for the Museum. In response, the South Australian Commissioner sent a plaster cast of the statuette.

Thomas Worsnop, Town Clerk of Adelaide, purchased the figure from Strawbridge for five guineas. After his death there was an unsuccessful attempt to sell the figure to the South Australian Museum. Later the figure was placed, by Worsnop's daughters, on loan to the Art Gallery of South Australia, (apparently in the 1930s) but was withdrawn during WWII for fear of Japanese bombing raids. The figure passed by descent to Mrs May Krogman, who offered it to the Australian Museum early in 1950. The curator at the Australian Museum suggested it belonged in the Technological Museum & was purchased by that museum for 10 pounds.

PictureTaoist figure Shou Lao riding a deer - often holding a peach - an ancient Chinese God of longevity. Patron of doctors & medicine - one of gods of the happiness, bringing health, healing from otherwise fatal illness.
John Wade (a former Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences curator) speculates that the most likely explanation for its presence in Australia was that it came with Macassan fishermen engaged in the trepang trade with China.

Later comments on file by Claire Roberts (Powerhouse Museum Curator) following discussion with Margaret Clinch (13/2/1996) of the Northern Territory Historical Society suggest that the figurine was more likely to have been deposited in the tree some years before discovery.

The Macassan connection is unlikely because trepangers did not usually come to Doctor's Gully / Darwin, preferring instead another area of the Northern Territory. Margaret Clinch feels the figurine was more likely left by local Chinese people already in Australia.

Read more:
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=180376#ixzz3F8kk6x4l  
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial


Picture
Paul Foelsche image 1883 - Chinese Gardens above Doctor's Gully - first hospital atop cliff on other (western) side of gully.

Moo Tai Mue Chinese Fishermen's Temple

According to Alister M. Bowen 'Archaeology of the Chinese Fishing Industry in Colonial Victoria' this is the only known image of a Chinese Fishermen's Temple in Australia - it was taken "before 1900" at Fishermen's Beach Palmerston. Bowen continues - "Lack of water during the Northern Territory dry season slowed Chinese mining operations. At these times, the Palmerston Government often provided Chinese miners with relief work, which paid a small wage and food rations (Jones 1990:23) Part of the weekly rations included 3 1/4 lb of salt fish. It is highly likely that this product was Chinese cured fish, revealing a situation possibly unique to Australia where the government purchased produce from Chinese fish curers."

The main temple was bombed by the Japanese in 1942 after which Australian soldiers looted the furniture and temple artefacts. It is reported that soldiers bombed and destroyed the Fishermen's Temple - this could be a confusion of the events & temples - there was anti-Chinese sentiment - the area was cleared for the Catalina Base  - all of the above.


Picture
PH0412-0233 Chinese fishing boats
Picture
PH0190-0027 - one of the Chinese fishermen who lived at Doctors Gully - dried fish & sold them to the Government who dispersed them as rations.
Picture
Picture
NAA B4498, 68F4

WWII Boat Maintenance & Catalina Base ZDG

Picture
Doctor's Gully Catalina Base. An M. Owen stitch of images from the Stuart Gore Collection SLWA
Picture
The SE Jetty at Doctor's Gully - SLWA 022814PD - standard not reconnaissance film.

Carl Atkinson

Carl Atkinson (1913-1985), water skiing instructor and salvage diver, took up a 'lease in perpetuity' of Doctors Gully in 1945 and the workshop lease was subsequently held by a local engineer, Stan Kennon, who subsequently relinquished it to Atkinson who expanded his operations as he held the salvage rights to the Peary and many other wartime wrecks/war graves. He was not in a financial position to realise the scrap value of these assets as he lacked the resources and motivation of Fujita, a Japanese Christian who viewed the clean-up as a personal act of national contrition.
Picture
Carl Atkinson Salvage PH0366-0028
Picture
Richard Crookes image of Carl Atkinson - Old Darwin
NTL image PH0366-0028 from the Tom Lewis Collection shows Atkinson at the salvaged helm of the Peary which is now in the US.
1st man to water-ski in Sydney Harbour in 1932 & Carl Atkinson was an instructor in Darwin – a marine salvage expert and adventurer.
Acquired a lease in perpetuity over Doctor’s Gully in 1945.
Won Government contracts to clear the wrecks in the harbour.
Carl Atkinson held the salvage rights to many wartime harbour wrecks including USAT Meigs, USAT Mauna Loa, SS Zealandia and USS Peary.
​At low tide you can see the rusted bottoms of former dumb-barge at Doctor's Gully.
​
  • Credited with saving 16 lives through building the Top End’s first decompression chamber now at MAGNT.
  • Started feeding the fish in 1958 as a casual interest.
  • He had the area declared a Fish Reserve in 1964.
  • Had a stroke in 1972
  • Constructed groyne to protect fish feeding area.
  • In 1979 Atkinson sold out to Marshall & Cherry Perron & moved to Murwillumbah NSW where he died in February 1985.

Fujita Salvage

Picture
Picture
​Fujita Salvage 1959 - (NTL image Frank Cleget Collection) Atkinson was unable to accomplish the task of clearing the harbour and so he brought in Fujita Salvage from Japan. This potentially controversial move saw Senichiro Fujita engage with the Darwin community as a personal act of war-reparations and in doing so managed to endear himself to his nation’s former enemies. In 1959, 120 Fujita salvage workers started clearing wrecks from the harbour. The company’s photographs & video footage provide an extensive record of how the wrecks were either raised or broken up in situ for shipment to Japan as scrap metal.
Picture
Picture
images G4VMHOLA
​The Japanese  company, Fujita Salvage came to Darwin  towing  a large floating  crane  and began to  remove  the  wartime  wrecks. One  hulk, the  tanker British Motorist, was raised, righted and  used as a  mother  ship  for the salvage operations.  The Japanese  would raise  large portions of vessels, transport them to the shallows  and then  an army of workers, all squatting, would chip the rust away. The Japanese  cook,  Tsutomu  Watanabe, bought a  pedigree Collie dog,  named it Fuji, and  won a prize in  the  North Australian Canine Association’s Championships. The Japanese liked the animal so much they  had  documents prepared to enable them to  take it back to Japan with them when they  finished  salvage work.
 
A dispute  arose  over  the ownership of the USS Peary and the  government  put the ship up for sale.  This infuriated  Atkinson who issued a  writ to stop the salvage operations. The head of the company, Mr Fujita , and his young interpreter went to court.  Lawyer John “Tiger” Lyons, appeared for the company and during  a  recess  in  the  hearing  draped Fujita in his gown and wig. The  beaming salvage  chief had his photograph taken by the interpreter. 
 
Bowditch was present in the Hotel Darwin when Atkinson discussed payment for the wrecks with Fujita and his increasingly nervous interpreter. While admitting he  was a “ little racist”  when it came to  Japanese  because of his war experiences, Bowditch said  he liked  Fujita.  Fujita  foolishly said  he would not pay Carl for the  Peary as he would get it for nothing from the government.  Suspecting he was being  “diddled ”, Atkinson  jumped up in a rage  and roared.  Fujita  took  to his  heels, ran down the corridor and out into the street, with Atkinson in pursuit.  Later on, Atkinson came back , laughing. 
 
Fujita  also  cautiously  re-entered the hotel  and negotiations  resumed.  Bowditch  borrowed a typewriter from the  hotel reception office  and in a cubicle designed for  taking telephone calls  typed  up an agreement for an amount said to have been 12,000 pound ($24,000).  The carriage on the typewriter  kept  hitting  the  partition and  the end result did not look like a slick legal document.   Nevertheless , Atkinson gave  Bowditch a “sling” for his  services. Bowditch felt not all the wrecks should have been  removed. One  at least  should have been  left as a reminder, a memorial like at Pearl Harbour , to remind Australia what had happened  during the  war. 
 
Some of the salvage workers came ashore on leave, sampled Australian beer for the first time and got into trouble. A number just collapsed in various places about town, including a milk bar and outside the police station; another did a dance outside the Victoria Hotel.  A diver was killed during the salvage operations and as his body lay in the morgue a guard of Japanese slept around the corpse at night. The body was taken to Channel Island where it was cremated before the entire salvage team. http://littledarwin.blogspot.com.au/2013_11_01_archive.html
Picture
Meigs NTL hdl10070-1307
Picture
Meigs NTL PH0092-0019
Picture
Meigs - NTL Norman C Pearse Collection

The Sea Fox 

Picture
The Sea Fox at Elcho Island
Picture
Calvert & Crew
Picture
Tarzan & Chimp
Picture
John Calvert
​​In 1959, en route from South East Asia to Sydney, and after a refuelling stopover in Darwin, distress calls were heard from the 120ft luxury yacht Sea Fox. There followed an air & sea search, but the yacht was beached at Mission Bay on Elcho Island - as predicted, at low tide she fell breaking several ribs.
 
On board its exotic crew were the owner, the world famous magician & actor, John Calvert; his girlfriend a young Filipino singer, Pilita Corrales, a bevy of beautiful assistants and Jimmy the chimpanzee, better known as Cheetah of the Tarzan movies. It was rumoured that Jimmy escaped the stranded vessel to terrorise the residents of Elcho Island who had never seen a chimpanzee before - let alone one that smoked cigarettes.  (Image NTL PH0803-0051_tif_Sea Fox at Doctors Gully) 
 
John Calvert led a flamboyant lifestyle and was as well-known for his magic as his impecunity & philandering. The Darwin media had a field day reporting many conflicting stories surrounding the sequence of the events and the damage suffered by the yacht, which was lapped up by the international media.
​​The owner of Doctors Gully, Carl Atkinson, sailed the badly damaged Sea Fox back to Darwin where she was blown on shore from her moorings at Doctors Gully and deemed beyond repair. A bitter salvage battle followed over ownership rights, which ended when Atkinson sold the once luxurious yacht. The new owners promptly burnt it… all they wanted was the lead ballast from her keel.

​Interviewed in later years Calvert was asked about taking his show on tour - "Well I first carried my show in a car, in the back of the car. Then I got a trailer put behind the car. And then I thought that if I had a truck, I could have a bigger show. And finally I have a huge semi-trailer truck. And then it came to me that 'If I had an airplane' and I thought maybe in ten years…well it wasn't that long at all that I had an airplane, then a DC-3, a Douglas airliner, and well I had about a dozen airplanes in my time. And then Henry Ford built a big yacht for his son Edsel. Edsel died, and I bought this hundred foot sailing vessel. And sailed it to Hawaii with the show on board.
Interviewed in later years Calvert was asked about taking his show on tour - "Well I first carried my show in a car, in the back of the car. Then I got a trailer put behind the car. And then I thought that if I had a truck, I could have a bigger show. And finally I have a huge semi-trailer truck.

​And then it came to me that 'If I had an airplane' and I thought maybe in ten years…well it wasn't that long at all that I had an airplane, then a DC-3, a Douglas airliner, and well I had about a dozen airplanes in my time. And then Henry Ford built a big yacht for his son Edsel.

​Edsel died, and I bought this hundred foot sailing vessel. And sailed it to Hawaii with the show on board. From Hawaii and up to Japan and down to Singapore, the Philippines, and Australia.

Since then I have had a number of motor yachts. Motor sailors, and now I have a pure triple screw world cruising yacht with a cruising range of three thousand miles. And I've travelled all over the world. We crossed the Atlantic in eleven days with it. I would like to point out that this came from magic."
Calvert died in September 2013 at the age of 102 – "Asia's Queen of Song" Pilar "Pilita" Garrido Corrales is in her mid-seventies a renowned pop singer-songwriter, actress, comedian, and television presenter in X Factor Philippines. The cigarette smoking chimp was in fact a fake purchased in Hong Kong by Calvert.​
Picture
Picture
The Sea Fox & Chimp
Picture
The Sea Fox at Doctor's Gully 1960s
Picture
The Sea Fox burned for her ballast

Aquascene Fish Feeding

Picture
Early morning high tide at Aquascene Doctor's Gully Darwin
Picture
Aquascene Fish, Burdekin Duck & Magpie Goose feeding - Mushroom anchor for submarines e.g. Wellfreighter
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Catalina Prop element - retrieved from harbour
Picture
Aquascene - a tranquil spot in the centre of Darwin

Fuel Tanks Doctor's Gully

Picture
Doctors Gully from near of hospital site. Top of navy fuel tank at left looking SW to the city & to right over Aquascene Fish Feeding Centre roofs to Port Darwin
Picture
WW2 Naval Fuel Tank Doctor's Gully
Picture
WW2 Naval Fuel Tank Doctor's Gully
Picture
Catalina Mooring
Picture
Catalina Mooring
Picture
Picture
DG Phyllis Moyle 1930 LANT PH0112-0017
Picture
Picture
Picture
This mushroom anchor now at Aquascene was for submarines.
Picture
Welfreighter midget submarine MTL 10070-151904
The Welfreighter was a British midget submarine. Whilst there are images of her at sea and suggestions that she took part in clandestine operations in Timor with Z Special forces - there is no evidence to support these claims. She survived the war and was scuttled off Rottnest Island in WA.
Picture
Old Hospital site at top left 11 o'clock - marine section ramp 8'oclock - RAAF jetty 7 o'clock now within the Fish Feeding tourism facility.
Picture
Doctor's Gully Port Darwin - Fish Feeding on right below old hospital site at 2 o'clock - remains of RAAF jetty at centre & Marine Section railed ramp at right.
Picture
Doctors Gully Base ZDG jetty at left - ramp at right is now part of the popular Aquascene fish feeding tourism facility.

Picture
DG LANT PH0135-0022 Ron Lister Collection
Picture
DG LANT PH0002-0159 Roger Nott Collection
Picture
View from the Esplanade looking West
Aquascene at 3 o'clock - at 10 o'clock the boat ramp arm & behind that the patrol boat harbour - the point has been remodelled.
Picture
Doctors Gully from Larrakeyah - Mary Woodrow LANT PH0168-0131
Looks like Cable Beach from Fort Hill the road cannot be below the Esplanade at Doctor's Gully & the revetted beach front is as seen Sweet's landing of the cable.
Picture
DG LANT PH 1061-0017 Nov 1948 - this image
Picture
DG Ray Foskey 1940 LANT PH0133-0050 - where are the luggers - the fishing camp was seasonal when too dry to mine.
Picture
DG Phyllis Moyle 1930 LANT PH0112-0017 - fuel oil pylons, Catalina ramp, dumb barge and landing craft suggest post war date.
Picture
DG Roger Nott Col. LANT PH0002-0149

Doctors Gully: A Heritage Review - Peter Dermody 1995​ - Dewey Number 994.295 - Libraries Australia ID 11944126

Proudly powered by Weebly