Division of Northern Territory

Northern Territory Australian House of Representatives Division
Created	1922
Abolished	2001
Namesake	Northern Territory

The Division of Northern Territory was an Australian Electoral Division in the Northern Territory for the Parliament of Australia. Throughout its existence, it was the only Division in the Northern Territory. At the redistribution of 21 December 2000, the Division was divided into two new divisions, which were named the Division of Solomon, which covered the area immediately around Darwin, and the Division of Lingiari, which covered the remainder of the territory.

Until 1911, the Northern Territory was a part of South Australia and from 1890 was represented in the South Australian House of Assembly by two members from the Electoral district of Northern Territory. From 1863 to 1911, Territorians had the same voting rights for representatives in both Houses of the South Australian Parliament as people living in South Australia. (see Suffrage in Australia.) This status had also qualified them as South Australian voters to vote in elections for both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament after 1901, which entitled both women and Indigenous Australians there to a vote. In 1911, however, the Northern Territory was transferred to the Commonwealth government, which also had the effect of depriving Territorians of all political representation. The first Commonwealth census held in 1911 disclosed the Territory had a non-Aboriginal population of 3,271, comprising 2,673 males and 598 females.

National governments shied away from a hypothetical impasse where a few hundred Territory voters might some day hold the balance of power in an evenly divided Commonwealth Parliament, but the Commonwealth Constitution did not allow for Federal electorates to cross state borders. The lack of representation became a significant factor in the trades union agitation, called the Darwin Rebellion, that led to the recall of the first Commonwealth-appointed Administrator, John A. Gilruth, in 1918 and the forced exit of his three leading officials eight months later. The Territory's non-indigenous population had increased to only 3572 by 1921. In 1922, the Northern Territory Representation Act 1922 was passed by the Australian Parliament to give the Territory a single non-voting member in the House of Representatives.

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