The Australian city of

Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...

was home to a Chinatown when "... 186 Chinese workers arrived in 1874 by ship from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

." In Darwin, the Chinese faced racial discrimination much more compared to the rest of Australia. Darwin's Chinatown was described as "... an unsightly slum, where cramped unhygenic living conditions endangered public health." These reports were further used "... to order the demolition of several dwellings in Chinatown in 1913." Darwin's Chinatown was razed to the ground during World War II, through a combination of Japanese bombing, looting and bulldozing. The territory's civilian population had mostly been evacuated during the war and returned to find their homes and businesses reduced to rubble. In 1943, the territory's administrator

Aubrey Abbott Charles Lydiard Aubrey Abbott (4 May 1886 – 30 April 1975) was an Australian politician and administrator of the Northern Territory. He was born at St Leonards, Sydney, to Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, a magistrate, and Marion, née Lydiard. He ca ...

wrote to

Joseph Carrodus Joseph Aloysius Carrodus (3 September 1885 – 8 April 1961) was a senior Australian public servant. Early life and career Joseph Carrodus was born on 3 September 1885 in Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He studied at St. Patrick's Co ...

, secretary of the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the m ...

, proposing that the federal government use the absence of the Chinese population to compulsorily acquire Darwin's Chinatown and thereby effect "the elimination of undesirable elements which Darwin has suffered from far too much in the past". He further stated that the acquisition would "entirely prevent the Chinese quarter forming again" and that "if land is acquired from the former Chinese residents there is really no need for them to return as they have no other assets". Under the ''Darwin Lands Acquisition Act 1945'', the federal government compulsorily acquired of land in Darwin's town centre, of which was owned by Chinese residents. There is presently no Chinatown in Darwin. However, there is an office building named "Chinatown" and a car park called the Chinatown Car Park, both on Smith St in the city centre.

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Further reading