In 1891 a grand banquet was held in Palmerston–the early name of Darwin- for the visiting South Australian governor , Lord Kintore.
The menu included tasty gravy soup, giblet pie, roast goose, ox tongue , Swiss rolls, cheese and olives , with champagne, sherry, port, Spanish reisling , ale and porter. Lord Kintore said he could see a great future for exports of NT horses to India , that just about any tropical product could be grown in the NT with the "right labour" and that he understood why North Queensland wanted to break away from the remote control and decisions of Brisbane. Some days later, the Chinese held another, probably more lavish, banquet for the governor at which he discussed Australia's racial discrimination against Chinese. In his reported speech , he said agitation for enactment of legislation restricting Chinese in Australia had "practically commenced in Palmerston. "
The menu included tasty gravy soup, giblet pie, roast goose, ox tongue , Swiss rolls, cheese and olives , with champagne, sherry, port, Spanish reisling , ale and porter. Lord Kintore said he could see a great future for exports of NT horses to India , that just about any tropical product could be grown in the NT with the "right labour" and that he understood why North Queensland wanted to break away from the remote control and decisions of Brisbane. Some days later, the Chinese held another, probably more lavish, banquet for the governor at which he discussed Australia's racial discrimination against Chinese. In his reported speech , he said agitation for enactment of legislation restricting Chinese in Australia had "practically commenced in Palmerston. "
This must have resulted in unavoidable and considerable hardship for the local Chinese . For this, he offered his sympathy. He revealed that he and his Irish wife had visited China soon after they married 18 years ago, they having read much about the country, recalling with delight their time there .
Chinese , he said, could pride themselves at having made the greatest contribution to the development of the NT - 3000 of them having built the Palmerston to Pine Creek railway . Furthermore, Palmerston would have had few Europeans but for the industrious Chinese who ran shops and cafes . Despite declaring he could not criticise the actions of Australian colonial governments or had any control over local affairs, he did voice some concerns. These were that a Chinese person in one Australian colony was not allowed entry into other colonies and some shipping agents refused to bring back to Australia Chinese after a visit home, though they were able to produce certificates of residence. " Let us hope that these things will soon be of the past," he told his hosts. *** Photo taken in 1971 shows Darwin Chinese temple, ransacked during WW11, which was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974 . Darwin now has a temple and a Chinese Museum.
