The city was founded in 1981 after settlement land in the urban area of Darwin became scarce. The name Palmerston was the original name of Darwin before it was renamed in 1911. The city has almost 33,000 inhabitants and has overtaken Alice Springs as the second largest city in the Northern Territory.
City structure
Urban Division of Palmerston
Palmerston is divided into a total of 18 suburbs (city districts), which are determined by the government of the Northern Territory.
The original four boroughs, laid out in the early 1980s, are Gray, Driver, Moulden, and Woodroffe. These are also the most populous boroughs, followed by Bakewell and Durack. These six plus Bellamack, Farrar, Gunn, Palmerston City, Rosebery and Yarrawonga make up the downtown area. Yarrawonga in the northeast is primarily an industrial area.
There are also the outskirts of Archer, Johnston, Marlow Lagoon, Mitchell, Pinelands and Zuccoli. Most recently, in 2007, the boroughs of Johnston and Zuccoli were defined, which so far have hardly been populated. The Archer borough has no resident population.
