Katherine History

The Katherine River was named by John McDouall Stuart when he passed through the area in 1862 on his sixth and successful journey across the continent. The town of Katherine and the nearby Katherine Gorge subsequently took their names from the Katherine River.

Stuart crossed the Katherine River on 4 July 1862 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 James Chambers Esq.' As was the case with many other the settlements in the Northern Territory, the next stage in the development of Katherine was the arrival of the Overland Telegraph Line and the establishment of the Katherine Telegraph Station on 22 August 1872.

The Katherine Telegraph Station consisted of six rooms and was built out of wooden slabs with a tin roof. It overlooked the Katherine River about 1 km east of the current town. The location of the Katherine Telegraph Station was chosen by Walter Rutt, Robert Patterson and James Stapleton. Stapleton became the first stationmaster in Katherine but he transferred to Barrow Creek in 1873 where he was killed by the local Aborigines.

The Overland Telegraph helped open up the Katherine area to activities such as pastoralism. In 1877 Alfred Giles and Alfred Woods, accompanied by 2,500 cattle and 12,000 sheep, headed north from South Australia to establish a pastoral empire in the Northern Territory. They arrived near the site of modern Katherine in June 1879 and built a homestead which they called 'Spring Vale' near the Katherine River. The land was owned by Dr Browne, a South Australia pastoralist, who was gambling on reports of good land around Katherine by Stuart and other explorers.

Alfred Giles was second-in-command of the team which surveyed the Overland Telegraph Line route and explored the Top End of the Northern Territory. It is likely that he was the first white man to see the Katherine Gorge.

The railway was extended from Pine Creek to Katherine in 1917, but it was halted by the difficulty of building a bridge over the Katherine River. A bridge was finally built over the Katherine River in 1924-26. On 21 January 1926 the first train crossed the bridge and continued on to Katherine Railway Station.