Darwin Rebellion

The Darwin Rebellion of 17 December 1918 was the culmination of unrest in the Australian Workers' Union which had existed between 1911 and 1919. Led by Harold Nelson, up to 1000 demonstrators marched on Government House at Liberty Square in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia where they burnt an effigy of the Administrator of the Northern Territory, John Gilruth, and demanded his resignation.

Their grievances were against the two main Northern Territory employers, Vestey’s Meatworks and the Commonwealth of Australia, and concerned political representation, unemployment and taxation. Gilruth and his family left Darwin soon afterwards under the protection of HMAS Encounter, while the Vestey company permanently closed its Darwin operations in 1920.

From 1863 until 1911 Northern Territory residents were entitled to vote in both South Australian and from 1901, Commonwealth elections. This status had also enabled Territorians to qualify as South Australian voters in elections for both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament after Federation in 1901.

On 1 January 1911 the transfer of the Northern Territory to the Commonwealth government deprived Territorians of all political representation and voting rights. The Commonwealth Constitution did not allow for Federal electorates to cross state borders. This enabled national governments to avoid a hypothetical impasse where a thousand Territory voters might some day hold the balance of power in an evenly divided Commonwealth Parliament. Of the 4.5 million white Australians living on the continent, only 1,729 lived in the Northern Territory, along with about 1,300 Chinese and an unknown number of Aborigines.

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