Nightcliff, Northern Territory

Nightcliff Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin, Nightcliff
Nightcliff
Coordinates	12°22′59″S 130°50′56″E / 12.383°S 130.849°E / -12.383; 130.849Coordinates: 12°22′59″S 130°50′56″E / 12.383°S 130.849°E / -12.383; 130.849
Population	3,675 (2006 census)
• Density	2,450/km2 (6,350/sq mi)
Postcode(s)	0810
Area	1.5 km2 (0.6 sq mi)
Location	10 km (6 mi) from Darwin
LGA(s)	City of Darwin
Territory electorate(s)	Nightcliff
Federal Division(s)	Solomon
Suburbs around Nightcliff: Timor Sea Timor Sea Rapid Creek Timor Sea Nightcliff Rapid Creek Timor Sea Coconut Grove Millner

Nightcliff is a northern suburb of the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Although the origin of the name Nightcliff has always been surrounded by conjecture and controversy, the naming can be tracked back to 8 September 1839. Early that day, the HMS Beagle, which was engaged on an excursion of the Australian coast, sailed into the area and anchored in Shoal Bay near Hope Inlet. John Lort Stokes, William Forsyth and several other crew members left the Beagle on a longboat for an excursion and passed around Lee Point, in the vicinity of which, there appeared to be a major opening. Stokes was later to record.

"The sea breeze setting in early, we did not reach it till after dark, when we landed for observations at a cliffy projection near the eastern entrance point: this we found to be composed of a kind of clay, mixed with calcareous matter. We had some difficulty in landing, and then in scrambling up the cliffs by the light of a lantern. If any of the watchful natives happened at the time to be on the look out, they must have stood in astonishment at beholding such strange persons, who at such a time of night, with no ostensible object were visiting their shores".

The term 'Night Cliff' was thus applied to the locality, and it subsequently appeared in this form on Surveyor-General George W. Goyder's original plan of 1869. Goyder also mentioned the locality a couple of times in the diary he kept as leader of the Northern Territory Survey Expedition. Despite these well established facts, many people have insisted that the name was derived from a misspelling of the name of John George Knight, one of the best known government officials in Darwin for nearly two decades prior to his death in 1892. It was known that Knight enjoyed visiting the Nightcliff environs and it is believed that he spent long periods of contemplation on the cliff tops. As late as 1952, a former resident who had lived in Darwin between 1876 and 1926 wrote to the Northern Territory News insisting that the area was known during that period as "Knightscliff". It is evident that many Territorians have preferred this variant form of name in deference to one of the most highly distinguished local public figures of the late nineteenth century. However, records show that Knight did not arrive in Darwin until 1873, several years after the publication of Goyder's map.