The abbridged account of an early european settler and local hero of the Northern Territory.
During the early years of exploration by European settlers. The Northern Territory was possibly the wildest, the most dangerous, most remote and most deeply mysterious part of the continent we now know as Australia.
It was during these early years of exploration that a man named John George Knight left his comfortable and well-paying Melbourne city job to serve first as secretary and accountant to the governor general in 1873 and some time later assumed the role as warden of the NT gold fields in1876.
Knight was a qualified architect and engineer who had proven his abilities through the design of several government buildings of some importance in Melbourne. He had secured himself the position of secretary to the commissioners for the London Exhibition at Crystal Palace. A very comfortable and respected position at the time which earned him various accolades and awards.
He was well known and connected with the intellectual community in Melbourne and apparently was under no threat of losing his position.
These factors combined have created some amount of intrigue as to why he might have chosen to leave this lifestyle behind for a greatly reduced salary in one of the most remote and brutal parts of the world where death was an ordinary event and constant threat.
Warden Knight, Knights design of Melbourne Parliament House, Boat landing NT.
There is some speculation that it was due to family matters or perhaps he was escaping some unknown force that is now lost to time. As a betting man and a risk taker it may have been some form of unscrupulous debt.
Whatever Knights reasoning may have been, after a short stint as secretary and accountant to the governor general in Palmerston 1873 (modern day Darwin) he returned to adelaide for a time and was rewarded the post as warden of the goldfields in 1876 only seven years after the settlement of Palmerston had been established.
Knight as warden of the gold fields
By this stage the Northern Territory was well into its first gold rush, even if the hype had somewhat cooled due to the poor planning, implementation, and subsequent failure of several mining companies and their ventures to extract the Territories wealth of gold.
Previous wardens had mismanaged the responsibility of the position either through incompetence, corruption, the extreme difficulties surviving the environment or a combination of these factors.
This left Knight with a shambles of an administration to clean up and this period is marked by Knight returning order to that administration and therefore returning order to all of the mining operations in the area. This one act alone had a profound impact upon the mining community.
To give an idea of the importance of Knights accomplishment is to understand that one responsibility of the warden was to maintain roads to the goldfields. Without the roads, supplies would be constantly delayed or never arrive.
Particularly if the party were to attempt to cart any heavy machinery, heavy loads or attempt the trip during the wet season.
The remoteness and harshness of living at this time meant that any delays to supplies could be a matter of life and death, boom or bust for those living and working the gold fields. Travel between Palmerston and the goldfields during the wet season could take as long as forty days and the journey be the cause of death and serious harm along the way.
To say that Knight was well received by the miners is an understatement and he quickly found friends everywhere he went.
By the end of his first year Knight had been appointed the role of Chief Warden not only because the NT Gold Mining Regulations had been ill prepared, causing catastrophic issues that disabled Knight from performing his ordinary duties.
But possibly also because Knights immediate superior, Government Resident Scott, recognised Knights value. It had been sometime since the governor had a competent warden and the state of Northern Territory mining affairs had been quite embarrassing for him in the recent past.
The making of an NT legend
Among his many responsibilities as warden and chief warden, Knight was responsible for the administration of law on and around the goldfields including the conduction of investigations surrounding a death, If the miners had a dispute, it was Knights responsibility to hold court, if a claim was made it was his role to ratify that claim or nullify old, abandoned claims, conducting surveys and geological investigations, handling all administrative tasks such as keeping records, maintaining the wardens residence, supply logistics.
As well as many other job roles that were expected of a frontier government official.
Despite already having an immense responsibility under difficult circumstances, Knight pursued several possible avenues of increasing the profitability and wellbeing of the Northern Territories mining industry. These included the proposal of several government subsidies to promote growth and lobbying for a transcontinental railroad.
In one telling report to the governor resident in 1886 Knight mentioned that due to the lack of a railway line “during the wet season … an ounce of gold is sometimes paid for a half cwt. of rice”
That is the equivalent of paying $3,400AUD for a 25kg bag of rice!
Yet the South Australian government, who at the time was responsible for the governing of the NT, was intent on spending the least amount possible to improve conditions in the NT while being far more concerned with how much they could extract out.
And so it was many years after Knights efforts that the Northern territory saw a transcontinental railway or even any serious investment into the development of suitable infrastructure. Although Knight was successful in a number of endevours to gain funding for various projects over the course of his tenure.
Further to this, Knight acting in his responsibility as coroner of the gold fields, had become very concerned by the deaths of several miners. He considered that these deaths were entirely avoidable and only occurred due to a lack of medical supplies and professional medical care.
As the South Australian government were certainly not going to invest any money into the wellbeing of the miners. Knight took it upon himself to organise and gain the funding from the local populace to establish a sick ward at the Shackle contributing his own time towards both the organisation and building of the ward.
He then went further and taught himself medicine from various medical books he had received from the doctor in Palmerston so that he could properly manage the sick ward and personally attend to the sick.
Knight took in all patients regardless of race or wealth and administered to their health with the best of his abilities. Knight saved many lives over the course of years while still attending to his regular duties.
The role of field medic alone would have been horrendously difficult, traumatic, and at times utterly stomach churning.
Can you imagine fulfilling several government roles, lobbying government, and running a bush hospital with next to no funding in one of the most dangerous, remote, and difficult places to live in the world?
What a legend!
It was in this way and many others that Knight showed his value to the mining community being a constant force of improvement in the lives of those who inhabited the Territory gold fields.
In turn the community respected Knight and held him in very high regard almost like a saint.
Miners Hospital at Yam Creek
Knight wasn't done yet
Life on the goldfields was particularly difficult and eventually during a period of leave to adelaide and melbourne in 1880. Knight managed to meet with minister king, an important SA government official of the time, and after a series of interactions with the minister was able to finagle a number of new official appointments as well as having his position moved to Palmerston.
Knight retained his previous positions but was now also the deputy-sheriff, government statistician, clerk of the licensing bench and clerk of the local court while retiring from the goldfields to be replaced by an assistant warden.
He continued on in this position while obtaining more along the way, at one point holding as many as eight psoitions simultaneously, until 1889 when he was appointed the highest possible position of government resident first as acting resident and then later as permanent government resident until his death in 1892.
"Knights folly" Governor resident's home, engineered and overseen by Knight, 1887.
Knight's legacy
At several times Knight was celebrated by the Palmerston community and the mining community who offered him small fortunes in money and gold in recognition for his many years of service in the Northern Territory. At one point receiving 23 ounces of gold.
Many government buildings of the time were engineered and the construction overseen by Knight as well as other key developments to improve the lives of the population such as a public bathing area for Palmerston protected from crocodiles, sharks and stingers.
Probably in no small part due to Knights efforts a railway line was constructed in 1889 from Palmerston out to Pine Creek as the first stretch of what would eventually become a transcontinental railway line.
Through adminstration of the law on the gold fields and Palmerston to the best of his abilities (sometimes bending it to fit the shape of the NT) Knight had ensured order and peace was kept amongst the population.
Today, if you live anywhere in the Darwin area, you are very likely somewhere that Knight himself walked or rode. From the docks to the other side of Darwin out to Yam Creek. John George Knight had a deep and lasting impact upon the Northern Territory and his work to improve the lives of people during that time has no doubt helped to lay the groundwork for what is modern day NT.
Interestingly as a bit of bonus trivia, Knight was the first person in the world to have collected aboriginal art and have it displayed publicly in 1888.
In memoriam of Knight a plaque was erected at his grave with the following inscription.
JOHN GEORGE KNIGHT
John George Knight was one of the best known inhabitants of the Northern Territory during the last three decades of the twentieth century.
At the time of his death in Palmerston (now Darwin) on the 10th January 1892, he was the most senior official in the Territory, the Government Resident. Knight arrived in the Territory in 1873 and during his distinguished career he occupied a great variety of other posts. Secretary and Accountant to the Government Resident, Architect, Supervisor of Works, Goldfields Warden, Clerk of the Court, Deputy Sheriff. Special Magistrate, Crown Prosecutor, Official Receiver, Public Trustee and Assistant Returning Officer.
As an architect he was responsible for the design of Palmerston`s most substantial buildings including extensions to Government House, part of the Police Station and Courthouse, sections of Fannie Bay Gaol, Brown`s Mart and the Town Hall.
The Northern Territory Times reported that
"we cannot recall anything that created so universal a feeling of sadness as the decease of this honoured and honourable servant of the Crown and friend of the people whose death marks a blotting out of a noble life and perhaps the grandest `landmark` the Territory could point to.
The next day flags in Palmerston were everywhere at half-mast and public offices and business were closed as Knight`s funeral cortege moved through the town. European, Chinese and Malays were all mingled together in vehicles, on horseback or walking and even the Aboriginals, realising no doubt, the full extent of the many kindnesses shown to them by the deceased took this opportunity of testifying their gratitude".
Knights grave site in Darwin Pioneer Cemetary
This has been an abbridged version of the story of John George Knight drawing on information from and in reference to
Mastin, J. (Author). 2018
Jones, TG (Author), 1987
monumentaustralia.org.au
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