The previous post in this series about Spanish anarchist Salvador
Torrents who, in company with countryman Juan Jordana came to Australia in 1915, included his surprising collection of early Northern Territory
postcards by Edward Ryko, who rode a bicycle from Adelaide to Darwin in 1915 , and mentioned that Salvador's library had included a copy
of the book by Alfred Searcy, adventurous sub collector of Customs , Port Darwin , 1882-1896.
 |
Photograph from collection of author and historian Glenville Pike and below another early Territory photograph from the Torrents collection is of a survey party at Connor's Well, north of Alice Springs .
 |
No apparent clue to why Torrents had been so interested in the NT
could initially be discerned. However, it
seems certain that when
Torrents and Jordana settled at
Mena Creek , near Innisfail, North Queensland ,where they established a
canefarm , they came into contact with Italian and
Spanish workers who had been
involved in or affected by what
was called the Darwin Rebellion , described as the biggest uprising in Australia since the Eureka Stockade, and
soon after the closure of the Vestey meatworks
which saw the steamy town filled with many unemployed , disgruntled and desperate workers .
 |
Excellent book by former Darwin journalist Frank Alcorta , who grew up in the Basque region of Spain, took part in the Battle for Long Tan in Vietnam, and in 2013 received an OAM for services to journalism and war service veterans. In detailing the many industrial disputes in Darwin and clashes with Administrator Dr Gilruth, Alcorta wrote that to the unions the large Vesteys company , like the windmills beckoning to a Don Quixote, the giant firm seemed too good a target to miss.He also pointed out that strong supporters of the Overseas Club established in Darwin in 1917 to foster the interests of the British Empire were activists from Spain, one the owner of the only newsagency in town .
|
Research
in the parliamentary library in Darwin and elsewhere shone light on this interesting period and other matters raised by perusal of the Torrents archive in the Special Collections section at the Eddie Koki Mabo Library , James Cook University, Townsville.
What Torrents heard and read about the long Darwin insurrection , which in December 1918 saw 1000 people march on Government House, knock down the picket fence , jostle the Scottish Administrator , Dr Gilruth , said to have run the Territory like a "viceroy ", may have convinced Torrents that this isolated part of Australia could be Acracia , the anarchists' paradise he was seeking.
No less than two gunboats were sent to Darwin to protect Dr Gilruth and crew members staged what could be regarded as mutiny at the idea of having to possibly shoot locals or participate in a shipboard party for the Administrator. He ignominiously sailed away aboard HMAS Encounter in early 1919. Various accounts of the stormy Darwin troubles of 1914-1919 , likened to the 1808 Rum Rebellion which saw Governor William Bligh deposed by the New South Wales Corps , provided slight mention of Spanish involvement .
However , the 1919-1920 annual report of the Northern Territory Acting Administrator, Honourable Miles Staniforth "Soapy" Smith , handsome, tall, with a moustache , thwarted in his attempt to become the Lieutenant Governor of Papua , was illuminating in more ways than one . A former mayor of Kalgoorlie, WA, he had topped the poll in the first Federation Senate election for that state and strongly campaigned against "coloured immigrants ."
With instructions to try and pacify the unruly Darwin populace after Dr Gilruth's tumultuous reign , during which it was claimed he had encouraged selling the entire Northern Territory to Vesteys, Smith had arrived on November 30 1919 and was given a 17-gun salute by HMAS Brisbane when the flag was raised over Government House.
Closure of the Vestey meatworks , he said , had an extreme impact on Darwin. From various parts of the Territory , prospectors, miners,drovers, carters and station hands had converged on Darwin in anticipation of obtaining well paid jobs at the meatworks. A considerable number had "dribbled" in from interstate.
In 1920, before the opening of the new season, Lord Vestey cabled to close the meatworks , due to claimed shipping problems . During the war years the company had contracts to supply the British government with bullybeef for the war in France on a cost -plus basis , said to be 10 per cent above the cost of production.
With the end of the war,when the demand for meat dropped substantially , it was uneconomic to keep Darwin works open when Vesteys could meet orders from their South American holdings two thirds below the Territory production cost.
The government was faced with a grim situation in a town of some 2300 people, mostly manual workers , without a major source of work ; 500-600 unemployed men, many penniless and owing money to storekeepers, walked the streets . Some free rations were handed out and free steerage passages were given to those wanting to leave the Territory to try and obtain work elsewhere.
Acting Administrator Smith's report shows most of the free passages out of Darwin he granted in 1919-1920 had been to Greeks, Patagonians and Spaniards at a cost of 1699 pounds 17 shillings and sixpence. Patagonians was the tag for Latin Americans who came to Darwin during the war years to build the Pine Creek line to the Katherine railway bridge and to work at Vesteys. A small number of Italians from North Queensland , he wrote , who had worked on the Katherine to Birdum line had stayed on in the Territory and had been living in hovels; Russians were also mentioned .
He continued : "By getting away these coloured and other aliens, whatever (work) was available was conserved for the British and Australians and our little white industrial garrison of British descent was deleted as little as possible. A number of these with government assistance were found employment prospecting."
Although two out of three unemployed were from the meatworks, there had been no rioting or
disturbances of any kind. The Territory had been remarkably free from serious crime over the whole year. The report continued :" I
think the taunts that have been hurled at the workers here , by certain misinformed people that
they are variously Bolsheviks, Industrial Workers of the World and Anarchists can be refuted by the record they hold
that a larger percentage of men voluntarily enlisted for the front
than in any other part of Australia ,that they subscribed more per capita to the Red Cross fund, that they carried the conscription referendum at every occasion and have
erected a magnificent monument in Darwin
to their fallen comrades."
Acting Administrator Smith , who got along well with Darwin unions, resigned in 1921 after his proposal for NT representation in the Federal government was rejected . He was given a post in Papua in charge of Crown lands, mining and agriculture. NEXT-Spanish Civil War : Torrents warns Australia about General Franco and communicates with writers Vance and Nettie Palmer .
