Alexandra Land
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Alexandra Land is the name given to the Northern Territory of Australia between the 16th and 26th parallel southern latitudes in 1865. The 26th parallel also represents the border between the northern territory and South Australia . The area covers an area of almost exactly 1,000,000 square kilometers.
The first exploration of the area goes back to John McDouall Stuart , who in 1862 succeeded in the first crossing of Australia from Adelaide in the south to Adam Bay on the Van Diemen Gulf . As a result, the interest of the colony of South Australia in getting the northern territory of New South Wales transferred, which then happened in 1863, although the monarch reserved the right of revocation at any time.
John McDouall Stuart declared in the Royal Geographic Society of London in 1864 that he wished to exercise his right as an explorer to designate Central Australia and gave it in homage to the rare graceful Princess of Wales and later Queen of England and Empress of India Alexandra of Denmark called Alexandra Land . Accordingly, the South Australian Government Gazette announced on April 27, 1865 that the Governor-in-Chief, the Governor of South Australia Sir Dominick Daly , had proclaimed that the area between the 16th and 26th parallel south was now called Alexandra Land . The north remained known as the Northern Territory or Arnhem Land (sic).
As early as 1863, a small parrot, the Polytelis alexandrae , in German Alexandras parakeet, was named after the princess by the Zoological Society of London . This was first described in 1862 by Stuart's expedition member Frederick G. Waterhouse .
South Australia had high hopes for the economic development of the area to grow sugar cane, tobacco, cotton and coffee. Barren soils, little water and inexorable sunshine let none of this come of anything. By 1879, only a thousand Europeans had settled in Alexandra Land, and they did not contribute to the tax revenue of South Australia.
Overall, the Northern Territory remained a grant deal for South Australia. Shortly after the Australian colonies had united in 1901 to form the Commonwealth of Australia , the government of what was now the state of South Australia asked to hand over the entire North Terrotorrium to the Australian Confederation. In 1911, the federal government finally took over administration of the territory.
The name Alexandra Land , which was also often used for the entire northern territory, has since been more and more forgotten. Today it no longer has official significance.
John McDouall Stuart
Alexandras Parakeet
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- Government Gazette (South Australia) April 27, 1865
- The Journals of John McDouall Stuart (Edited from Mr. Stuart's Manuscript by William Hardman, MA, FRGS, & c.), Second edition, 1865.