An outline of the action packed life of a New Zealand born man who in 1895 built the Commercial Hotel in the early days of the Kalgoorlie, WA, goldfield , then ran hotels at Wyndham , Cossack and Roebourne in the boom days of the pearling industry, arriving in Darwin in 1915 to manage the famous Victoria Hotel , deeply involved in union , political and town council affairs ...A letter reacting to criticism of Xavier Herbert's novel about the Territory, Capricornia , which won the 1938 Sesqui-Centenary Award for Australian literature ... A fund which raised money to send an ailing, elderly Chinese man back to his homeland after 50 years in the Territory .
These are just some of the interesting subjects covered in the latest edition of Progenitor , quarterly journal of the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory .
In dealing with the history of the Darwin Town Council , the journal has an extensively researched article about New Zealander Patrick Brennan ( 1869-1940) , the person mentioned in the intro , once described in a WA newspaper as a man who always wore a boiled shirt , no collar and a boater.
In yet another dramatic moment in the history of Darwin , Brennan was in a deputation which called at Government House on October 14, 1919 and demanded that three top people, the Government Director H. E. Carey , Judge Bevan and the Government Secretary R. J. Evans resign and leave on the next ship in the interest of community peace , which they did .
In yet another dramatic moment in the history of Darwin , Brennan was in a deputation which called at Government House on October 14, 1919 and demanded that three top people, the Government Director H. E. Carey , Judge Bevan and the Government Secretary R. J. Evans resign and leave on the next ship in the interest of community peace , which they did .
Earlier that year, in what was described as the Darwin Rebellion , the Administrator , Dr Gilruth , had been forced to leave on the gunboat HMAS Encounter.
The journal coverage of Brennan includes the Capricornia letter , run in the union owned Northern Standard , which seems to have been written by him , signed P. Brennan , although it is suggested it could have been penned by his son . In it , the writer said he got the greatest of pleasure out of reading the book and dismissed the claim it contained the filthiest of language as pure hyperbole . It was a robust book for robust people , the squeamish should not read it ..."It isn't to be seen at a Darwin cocktail party ." In congratulating Xavier Herbert on the publication of this powerful and realistic saga of the Territory , he trusted that his next novel would be even more robust and true to life than his first ...
Brennan subscribed to a fund in 1931 to help send a miner , Mee Wah , back to China.
