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'''Darwin''' is a city and port in northern [[Australia]]. It is the capital of the [[Northern Territory]], and by far the largest city in that territory. The harbour was discovered and named in 1839 by Lt John Lort Stokes of ''H. M.S. Beagle'' who named it after [[Charles Darwin|the biologist]] who had been on that ship on its circumnavigation of the world between 1831 and 1836. In 1869 the site for a new town and surrounding pastoral leases was surveyed - to be called Palmerston. It was renamed to agree with its harbour when control of the Northern Territory was transferred from [[South Australia]] to the Federal Government in 1911. (Palmerston is now the name of a rapidly growing satellite town, begun in the 1980s, some miles to the east of Darwin.)
Darwin's fortunes were given a boost in the early 1870s when the [[Overland Telegraph Line]] was completed and workers on the line discovered gold at Pine Creek, about 250km 250 km south. Suddenly Darwin was Australia's telegraphic gateway to the world while a goldrush was getting under way in its hinterland. The goldrush was to bring the Chinese - the "ABCs (Australian Born Chinese) are still a force in the political and social life of the city.
Darwin is the most cyclone-ravaged city in Australia. The city of Darwin was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy during the night of December 24-2524–25, 1974, killing at least 66 people, and destroying 80% of the buildings in the city of 46,000 population. Darwin's utilities were knocked out and 35,000 people were evacuated.
==World War II==
