Lyons Cottage

Last updated

Lyons Cottage, on the corner of The Esplanade and Knuckey Street, Darwin City, Northern Territory, Australia. LYONS COTTAGE - DARWIN - NORTHERN TERRITORY.jpg
Lyons Cottage, on the corner of The Esplanade and Knuckey Street, Darwin City, Northern Territory, Australia.

Lyons Cottage, as so known as British Australian Telegraph Company Residence, is one of the oldest remaining heritage buildings in the central business district in Darwin City in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Darwin City, Northern Territory Suburb of Darwin, the Northern Territory, Australia

Darwin City (referred to as Darwin city centre or The CBD is a suburb in metropolitan Darwin which comprises the original settlement, the central business district, parkland and other built-up areas. It is the oldest part of Darwin and includes many of the city's important institutions and landmarks, such as Parliament, Government House, the Northern Territory Supreme Court, Bicentennial Park and the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens. The city centre is located in the local government areas of the City of Darwin and the Darwin Waterfront Precinct.

Northern Territory Federal territory of Australia

The Northern Territory is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. It shares borders with Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, and Queensland to the east. To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other Indonesian islands. The NT covers 1,349,129 square kilometres (520,902 sq mi), making it the third-largest Australian federal division, and the 11th-largest country subdivision in the world. It is sparsely populated, with a population of only 245,800, fewer than half as many people as Tasmania.

Australia Country in Oceania

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. The population of 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.

Contents

Early history

Also known as BAT House, Lyons Cottage was built by Harold Edward George Snell in 1925 [1] as accommodation for staff of the “Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company,” better known as British Australia Telegraph, who operated the underwater cable connecting Australia to Britain. Its construction followed the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line in 1872 which linked Adelaide to Darwin and then onto London via an underwater cable to Java. This ended Australia’s isolation from the outside world, and a letter that once physically took three months to travel from London to Sydney via ship, could be telegraphed in less than seven hours using the Overland Telegraph Line. A number of cable company managers, engineers and their families occupied the cottage. [2]

United Kingdom Country in Europe

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north­western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north­eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea separates Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom's 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi) were home to an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

Java island of Indonesia

Java is an island of the Greater Sunda Islands chain, bordered by the Indian Ocean on the south and the Java Sea on the north. It is administered by Indonesia. With a population of over 141 million or 145 million, Java has 56.7 percent of the Indonesian population and is the world's most populous island. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is located on its northwestern coast. Much of Indonesian history took place on Java. It was the centre of powerful Hindu-Buddhist empires, the Islamic sultanates, and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies. Java was also the center of the Indonesian struggle for independence during the 1930s and 1940s. Java dominates Indonesia politically, economically and culturally. Four of Indonesia's eight UNESCO world heritage sites are located in Java: Ujung Kulon National Park, Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple, and Sangiran Early Man Site.

Sydney City in New South Wales, Australia

Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Port Jackson and extends about 70 km (43.5 mi) on its periphery towards the Blue Mountains to the west, Hawkesbury to the north, the Royal National Park to the south and Macarthur to the south-west. Sydney is made up of 658 suburbs, 40 local government areas and 15 contiguous regions. Residents of the city are known as "Sydneysiders". As of June 2017, Sydney's estimated metropolitan population was 5,230,330 and is home to approximately 65% of the state's population.

Architecture

Located on The Esplanade overlooking Darwin Harbour, the stone cottage is constructed of locally quarried porcelanite stone. It is the only remaining example of colonial bungalow architecture left in Darwin. It features shuttered windows and high ceilings, similar to the distinctive architectural style of British colonial dwellings in India, Malaysia and Singapore.

Darwin Harbour Body of water near Australia

Darwin Harbour is the body of water close to Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. It opens to the north at a line from Charles Point in the west to Lee Point in the east into the Beagle Gulf and connects via the Clarence Strait with the Van Diemen Gulf. It contains Port Darwin, which is flanked by Frances Bay to the east and Cullen Bay to the west.

Porcellanite

Porcellanite or porcelanite, is a hard, dense rock somewhat similar in appearance to unglazed porcelain. It is often an impure variety of chert containing clay and calcareous matter. Porcellanite has been found, for example, in Northern Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic.

India Country in South Asia

India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

World War II and after

Lyons Cottage Circa 1978. Lyons Cottage was damaged in Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Reconstruction work commenced in 1978. Lyons Cottage Circa 1978.jpg
Lyons Cottage Circa 1978. Lyons Cottage was damaged in Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Reconstruction work commenced in 1978.

During World War II the house was occupied by the US Army and later the Royal Australian Navy and survived the Japanese raids of 1942 and 1943 which destroyed much of Darwin. The cottage was then leased and later purchased by a lawyer named John Lyons and his family from which the cottage takes its name. Lyons became the Mayor of Darwin in 1959 and was subsequently elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Council where he remained until 1968. [3]

World War II 1939–1945, between Axis and Allies

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

United States Army Land warfare branch of the United States Armed Forces

The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution. As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775.

Royal Australian Navy Naval warfare branch of the Australian Defence Force

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force, called the Commonwealth Naval Forces. Originally intended for local defence, the navy was granted the title of 'Royal Australian Navy' in 1911, and became increasingly responsible for defence of the region.

The cottage lost its roof during Cyclone Tracy in 1974. The building was listed on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate on 26 March 1985 and on the Northern Territory Heritage Register on 4 August 1993. [2] [4] Lyons Cottage is now under management of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and operates as a cafe and shop run by Aboriginal Bush Traders. [5]

Cyclone Tracy Category 4 Australian region cyclone in 1974

Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia from 24 to 26 December 1974. The storm was the second-smallest tropical cyclone on record, behind only Tropical Storm Marco in 2008.

The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. It has been replaced by the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritage List and various state and territory heritage registers.

The Northern Territory Heritage Register is a heritage register, being a statutory list of places in the Northern Territory of Australia that are protected by the Northern Territory statute, the Heritage Act 2016. The register is maintained by the Northern Territory Heritage Council.

Related Research Articles

Darwin, Northern Territory City in the Northern Territory, Australia

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory of Australia, situated on the Timor Sea. It is the largest city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, with a population of 148,564. It is the smallest, wettest and most northerly of the Australian capital cities, and acts as the Top End's regional centre.

Flag of the Northern Territory territory flag of the Northern Territory, Australia

The current state flag of the Northern Territory was officially adopted by the Northern Territory, Australia, in 1978. The Northern Territory has been in existence since 1911, but did not hoist its first flag until self-government in 1978.

Stuart Highway highway in the Northern Territory and South Australia

Stuart Highway is one of Australia's major highways. It runs from Darwin, Northern Territory, in the north, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta, South Australia, in the south – a distance of 2,834 km (1,761 mi). Its northern and southern extremities are segments of Australia's Highway 1. The principal north-south route through the central interior of mainland Australia, the highway is often referred to simply as "The Track".

The All Red Line was an informal name for the system of electrical telegraphs that linked much of the British Empire. It was inaugurated on 31 October 1902. The name derives from the common practice of colouring the territory of the British Empire red or pink on political maps.

Pine Creek, Northern Territory Town in the Northern Territory, Australia

Pine Creek is a small town in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory, Australia. As at the 2016 Census there were 328 residents of Pine Creek, which is the fourth largest town between Darwin and Alice Springs.

Fannie Bay Gaol

Fannie Bay Gaol is a historic gaol in Fannie Bay, Northern Territory, Australia. The gaol operated as Her Majesty's Gaol and Labour Prison, from 20 September 1883 until 1 September 1979.

Australian Overland Telegraph Line Australian telecommunication circuit

The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a 3200 km telegraph line that connected Darwin with Port Augusta in South Australia. Completed in 1872, the Overland Telegraph Line allowed fast communication between Australia and the rest of the world. An additional section was added in 1877 with the completion of the Western Australian section of the line. It was one of the great engineering feats of 19th-century Australia and probably the most significant milestone in Australia's telegraphic history.

The history of Darwin details the city's growth from a fledgling settlement into a thriving colonial capital and finally a modern city.

Government House, Darwin building

Government House is the office and official residence of the Administrator of the Northern Territory. Built between 1870 and 1871, with later renovations between 1878 and 1879, the building is set on 13,000 square metres of hillside gardens in the centre of the Darwin business district, on The Esplanade.

Birdum, Northern Territory Suburb of Roper Gulf Region, the Northern Territory, Australia


Birdum is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about 493 kilometres (306 mi) south of the territory capital of Darwin.

History of telegraphy in Australia aspect of history relating to telegraphy in Australia

Australia was a relatively early adopter of telegraph technology in the middle nineteenth century, despite its low population densities and the difficult conditions sometimes encountered in laying lines. From 1858 onwards, the major capitals were progressively linked, culminating in the addition of Perth in 1877. Australia was linked to the rest of the world for the first time in 1872, through the Overland Telegraph which ran some 3200 km from Adelaide through to Darwin. The network continued to expand in size and sophistication until 1959 and in heavy usage until 1945, after which time telephone usage began to erode public patronage of telegraphy services. The final publicly provided telegraphy service was closed in 1993.

Southport, Northern Territory Suburb of Darwin, the Northern Territory, Australia

Southport is an outer rural locality in Darwin. It is based on the site of the abandoned Town of Southport, a thriving river port during the Pine Creek gold rush of the 1870s. It is located at the junction of the Blackmore and Darwin Rivers.

SS Ellengowan was a schooner rigged, single screw steamer built by Akers Mekaniske Verksted in Christiania (Oslo) Norway, under her original name, Nøkken. The vessel was powered by sail and a vertical direct acting steam engine. Ellengowan sank at its moorings, unmanned, during the night of 27 April 1888 in Port Darwin and was abandoned. 103 years later, in 1991, she was discovered by divers making it the oldest known shipwreck in Darwin Harbour.

Annas Reservoir Conservation Reserve Protected area in the Northern Territory, Australia

Anna's Reservoir Conservation Reserve is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Alice Springs Telegraph Station heritage-listed telegraph station in the Alice Springs, Australia

The Alice Springs Telegraph Station is located within the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, four kilometres north of the Alice Springs town centre in the Northern Territory of Australia. Established in 1872 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide, it is the original site of the first European settlement in central Australia. It was one of twelve stations along the Overland Telegraph Line.

Tennant Creek Telegraph Station

The Tennant Creek Telegraph Station is an historical site about 16 kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Browns Mart theatre in Darwin, Australia

Brown's Mart is an historic theatre located in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia, on the corner of Smith Street and Harry Chan Avenue.

Douglas-Daly, Northern Territory Suburb of Victoria Daly Region, the Northern Territory, Australia

Douglas-Daly is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about 154 kilometres (96 mi) south of the territory capital of Darwin.

Ryan Well Historical Reserve Protected area in the Northern Territory, Australia

Ryan Well Historical Reserve, formerly Reserve No. 1343, is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia located in the locality of Anmatjere about 129 kilometres (80 mi) north of Alice Springs.

References

  1. ↑ "TOWN TALK". Northern Territory Times And Gazette . Northern Territory, Australia. 27 October 1925. p. 2. Retrieved 19 May 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  2. 1 2 "Lyon's Cottage". Heritage Branch, Northern Territory Government. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  3. ↑ "MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL IN ORDER OF ELECTION OR APPOINTMENT". Northern Territory Government. Northern Territory Government. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2016.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  4. ↑ "British Australian Telegraph Company Residence, 74 The Esplanade, Darwin (sic), NT, Australia - listing on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate (Place ID 12 )". Australian Heritage Database . Department of the Environment. 26 March 1985. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  5. ↑ "Media Release: Lyons Cottage Gets a New Occupant" (PDF). Northern Territory Government. Northern Territory Government. 14 April 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2016.

Coordinates: 12°27′52″S130°50′23″E / 12.46455°S 130.83975°E / -12.46455; 130.83975

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.