Liberty Square, Darwin

Liberty Square was named by the Darwin Town Council in June 1919 to commemorate the ‘Darwin Rebellion’ of 17 December 1918. That rebellion, which culminated in a protest directed at Government House by hundreds of workers on this site, and the unrest leading to it resulted in a 1919 Royal Commission into the Administration of the Northern Territory. On the western side of Liberty Square is a memorial cairn at the place where the sub-sea cable from Banjoewangi (Banyuwangi, Indonesia) was joined with the Overland Telegraph Line to revolutionise communications in Australia on 20 November 1871. Towards the eastern side is a plinth and plaque commemorating the scientific achievement of Pietro ‘Commendatore’ Baracchi who, with others, established true longitude of Port Darwin and Australian and New Zealand capital cities in 1883 in the grounds of the Port Darwin Post Office (Parliament House). Near the Supreme Court is a Banyan tree, which is valued by the community as a remnant of the original Darwin foreshore vegetation. It is over 200 years old and was the congregation point for Larrakia youths prior to ceremonies. Liberty Square was the site for the original Darwin Cenotaph, now located on the Esplanade.