Katherine, Northern Territory: History
The first inhabitants of the area were Indigenous Australians, specifically the Dagoman people.
It was an important meeting place for these tribes and remains a place of convergence.
Today the Warlpiri people from the Victoria River District and Tanami Desert areas now have a dedicated community based at Katherine East, originating in their forced relocation to Lajamanu from 1949 onwards.
Explorer John McDouall Stuart passed through the area in 1862 on his successful third journey across the continent from north to south. On 4 July 1862, Stuart crossed the Katherine River 90 km upstream from the present town, and recorded in his diary: "Came upon another large creek, having a running stream to the south of west and coming from the north of east. This I have named 'Katherine', in honour of the second daughter of pastoralist James Chambers Esq." There is some conjecture over Stuart's accuracy. Chambers's wife's name was Katherine but, according to most sources, his daughter's name was Catherine.
Katherine Telegraph Station was established on 22 August 1872 and the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line later in 1872, and the town began with a small permanent population on the west side of the Katherine River. Katherine benefited from the proximity to nearby gold fields including Pine Creek 90 kilometres to the north.
Gold was discovered 50 kilometres to the north in 1889 at Mount Todd.
The North Australia Railway was extended to Katherine with construction beginning in 1923 of the Katherine railway bridge. During construction of the railway, the town's centre was relocated to the eastern side of the river. The bridge was completed in 1926 and the first train crossed on 21 January 1926. On 15 July 1926, the town's present site was gazetted. The original post office and the Overland Telegraph station were set just above Knott's Crossing and next to the Sportsman's Arms Hotel that had quarters for the station master at the Overland Telegraph station and a single room police station.
A significant development in Katherine's past was the arrival of a number of Russian migrants between 1929 and 1960. These migrants came to the area after the NT administration offered tracts of land for peanut farming along the Katherine River. Earlier, in 1880, government botanist Maurice Holtze had investigated the feasibility of peanuts as a crop and found peanut farming to be commercially viable. This encouraged some of the men who had just completed work on the North Australia Railway to take up the land. Other settlers were Cossacks who had fought against the newly formed Communist government in the Russian Civil War under Alexander Kolchak. The majority of the group had reached Australia between 1925 and 1928, and in 1929 they were able to commence clearing their land. The industry had mostly collapsed by the beginning of World War II because of erratic rainfall and a problematic supply chain. Among these migrants were Jim Zimin, Ivan Ivanetz and Nadia Pascoe.
During World War II, the Australian Army set up two hospitals around Katherine, the 101st Australian General Hospital and 121st Australian General Hospital. The army also set up a Katherine Area Headquarters. On 22 March 1942, Katherine sustained its only air raid during World War II. …