| History/Origin |
Named after George Woodroffe Goyder (1826-1898), Surveyor-General, born on the 24 June 1826 in Liverpool, England, son of David George Goyder, physician and Swedenborgian minister, and his wife Sarah, née Etherington. He migrated to Sydney in 1848. In June 1851 he entered the South Australian civil service as a draftsman. Goyder was sent by the government of South Australia, (of which the Territory was then a part) to lay out the street plans for a capital to be named Palmerston. Goyder is remembered for the siting, planning and initial development of Darwin, the Northern Territory capital. He and his team of around 128 men left Port Adelaide on the Moonta late in 1868 and dropped anchor in Darwin Harbour on 5 February 1869. He selected the site on Fort Point (Fort Hill) near Port Darwin. They began work in 1869 and completed all the survey work in 18 months. He died in Adelaide at his home "Warrakilla", at Mylor near Aldgate on 2 November 1898 and buried in the Stirling District Cemetery. Warrakilla estate was the 19th century home of George Woodroffe Goyder, one of the pioneering Surveyors-General of South Australia. |