The buildings in the header

Outstanding among historic structures in Darwin, the capital city of Australia’s Northern Territory, are the former police station, courthouse, courthouse annexe and cell block. Erected in stages between the late 1870s and the late 1880s, the stone buildings with their wide verandahs were deliberately in contrast to the less substantial built environment of most of the rest of the town, which until the Commonwealth of Australia took over the Northern Territory from South Australia in 1911 was known as Palmerston. Like nearby Government House, the buildings were integral to government attempts to enforce rules of conduct. Police business and legal cases were conducted in them. In 1942, the buildings became the Royal Australian Navy’s Darwin headquarters. Very seriously damaged by Cyclone Tracy, they were derelict until 1981 when the Northern Territory Government rebuilt them as offices for the Administrator and his staff.