I would like to highlight a special part of this blog for the stories of Russians, who arrived and lived in the Northern Territory - a place with difficult climatic conditions and culture that were unusual for Europeans. Information was compiled from publicly available sources and documentation provided by the Katherine Historical Society. The data has been clarified and supplemented.
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In 1927, the Northern Territory set out on an ambitious plan to provide land along the Katherine River to men who knew something about fruit and vegetable production and had some capital to grow peanuts. The next few decades brought hardship and disappointment to farmers as the economy and the people themselves seemed to conspire to prevent success.
Among these farmers were Russians. The majority reached Australia between 1925-28, mostly from China and Manchuria. Many tried their luck in Queensland before coming to the NT after 1928 to join the railway gangs.
KATHERINE RIVER BRIDGE
But first, Russians began arriving in the Northern Territory in 1924 to build a railway and bridge. Many worked on the construction of the railroad bridge over the Katherine River.
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| https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-02-01/cossacks-fled-civil-war-to-be-peanut-farmers/13102114 |
The railway had been extended south from Pine Creek in 1917 and stopped on the north bank of the Katherine River, while the approaches and the high level bridge were constructed. As a result of that, between 1917 and 1919, the town of Emungalan came into existence.
Whereas Katherine owed its establishment to the OT Line and the good river crossing, Emungalan developed and survived as a result of the railway. There have been many small settlements which have sprung up all over the Territory, which owed their beginnings to the railway, OT Line, mining or some other venture, which, once ceased, so did the settlement. At the original site of Katherine, a punt was used to cross the river and people then made their way across country to Emungalan, where they connected with the train for Darwin.
In January 1926 the first train crossed the Katherine River bridge and because work associated with the bridge was still being completed, Emungalan continued to operate until 1927. The present township of Katherine was surveyed in 1926 by John Power and in his report of April 1926 he stated in part that, '. . . there are no stones outcropping or lying about the surface. such as are to be seen on the site of Emungalan . . . The surface of the ground has a gentle slope towards the South-East, which should render drainage fairly easy'. A notice appeared in the Northern Territory Times & Gazette on 30 July 1926, stating that land was available for leasing under the provisions of Crown Land Ordinance 1924- 1925. The Auction was held on 20 August 1926, the Auctioneer being Mr T J Morgan, then Chairman of the Land Board and assisting him was Mr Wynne Williams.
Once the railway extended further south, the railway workers left the area and Mataranka a' became established, there seems to have been no reason for Katherine to grow. It was still the crossroads for all travellers but most pastoralists obtained their stores through some other outlet, not through Katherine. The only industry was peanut farming.
PEANUT FARMERS
When the project ended, many returned to Brisbane and Sydney. Several people remained in Darwin and Katherine, settled down, and started a household. Few started families; most devoted themselves to working on peanut farms. That's why people called them - peanut farmers.
PEANUT FARMS (1929, September 19). News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), p. 19 (HOME EDITION). Retrieved March 22, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129072247
The seven Russians who took out agricultural leases in 1929 were Zimin, Tokmakoff, De Julia, Fomin, Gori, Ivanov, Kryloff. The task of clearing, tilling and planting was beyond one man, so partnerships were formed. In 1929 John Fomin / John Ivanetz / Paul Zueff / Nicholas Droojinin sent 150 bags of nuts to Darwin for sale, while Nikolai Kriloff and Foty Semkin harvested 6 tons from 10 acres.
Kriloff and Semkin had trouble hand picking the crop, so they wrote to Harold Mair, Superintendent of Agriculture, asking where they could get a mechanical thresher. In 1930 Semkin sent 140 bags to Darwin, Kriloff -75.
In 1937 the estimated crop of peanuts in the Katherine area was 250 tons2, allowing an average of 20 bags to the acre'. Mair tried every avenue in an effort to obtain markets for the Territory peanut crop. He frequently did trips to the Katherine and Daly River farms, and seemed genuinely interested, both personally and professionally, in the lives of the farmers.
“FOREIGN LEGION" IN NORTH (1938, August 12). The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954; 1956), p. 5. Retrieved May 5, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article278140221
from Katherine Historical Society
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| Group of men two Europeans and three Aborigines with shovels. Clearing for peanut land on Adelaide R. https://territorystories.nt.gov.au/10070/433194 |
In 1938 there were seventeen peanut growers in the Katherine area, including Sergeef /Сергеев, Иванец, Слинько, Каневский, Зуев, Гори, Крылов, Фомин и Де Джулия.
The Government Resident's report for the year ended June 1937 shows 22 children who were enrolled at school, including 1 Russian child.
Erina Tokmakoff-Hill remembers: "And then they’d be singing dancing – because you have to remember, these farmers were mainly Cossacks – and so that they were pretty good horse riders and very much into the singing and the dancing... And I do know too, that another entertainment that they used to provide the townspeople – someone described that they actually added colour to Katherine at that time – was when they would go into town for various reasons, maybe supplies or picking up bags and so on, they would spend some time at the hotels. And then they would ride up and down the main street doing all sorts of tricks on the horses because Cossacks are very skilled horse people. They can stand on a horse’s back. I remember my Dad talking about doing the trick where you climbed under the horse’s belly, as the horse was moving.
And they would always be singing. I recall even parties when I was older, always sort of singing and dancing. And my mother says too, that amongst the Cossacks there were – there’s one in particular, but there were others too, who had come from a religious background, even though they didn’t want to actually explain what their background was, because she said that they seemed to know the format of all the services, the various religious services. And they would be the ones who would lead the religious service, say for over Christmas or over Easter. So that they tried to keep up as many of their old traditions as they could, even though they were living in a different environment..."
When the second World War 2 started many were evacuated and never returned back.
And it so happened that these seven Russian farmers became the founders of farming in the Northern Territory. It’s not for nothing that streets and parks are named after them. By the way, did you know that the state of the Northern Territory has the largest number of streets and places named after Russians.
1.Cossack road
2.Cossack suburb
3.Fomin court
4.Ivanoff road
5.Kriloff road
6.Long John’s road (after Ivan Ivanetz)
7.8. Tokmakoff road and Lya Road
9.Zimin drive named after Jim Zimin
10. Dejulia's creek
11. De Julia court -Andrei Dejulia arrived to Australia in 1924 and worked in Tully and then Katherine from 1927. Was killed in bombing of Darwin in 1942.
12. Gory Road
SOURCES
Source- Northern Territory Archives Service NTRS 226, TS 595 and NTRS 219, TP 731, Erina Tokmakoff-Hill
Memories of pre-war Northern Territory towns by Lim, Alec Fong https://territorystories.nt.gov.au/10070/718187
Katherine's earlier days. by Ogden, Pearl - Northern Territory Library Service, Darwin. https://hdl.handle.net/10070/718200.
(1942) Complete list of evacuees from Darwin. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. Retrieved 2022, March 22, from https://hdl.handle.net/10070/384176.