Stapleton is a rural locality in the

Coomalie Shire The Coomalie Community Government Council is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Australia's Northern Territory, situated south of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The counc ...

of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is located approximately northwest of

Adelaide River The Adelaide River is a river in the Northern Territory of Australia. Course and features The river rises in the Litchfield National Park and flows generally northwards to Clarence Strait, joined by eight tributaries including the west branc ...

and is situated on Stapleton Creek.

Nomenclature

Stapleton Creek was named by surveyor Gilbert Rotherdale McMinn in 1870 to honour James L. Stapleton, a field operator working on the Overland Telegraph who would later be killed in an incident that led to the 1874 Barrow Creek Massacre. The locality takes its name from the creek.NT Place Names Registe
Stapleton Creek
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History

The Awarai Aboriginal people are the

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

and original inhabitants of the Stapleton area. The first European exploration of the area occurred with the survey party of 1869 led by

George Goyder George Woodroffe Goyder (24 June 1826 – 2 November 1898) was a surveyor in the Colony of South Australia during the latter half of the nineteenth century. He rose rapidly in the civil service, becoming Assistant Surveyor-General by 1856 ...

. In 1873, Mr W Barlow, director of the Virginia Prospecting Company discovered a quartz reef and established a mining claim in the area. A hotel known as the "Our House Hotel" was opened by Edward D Matthews next to Stapleton Creek in 1874. The end of the same year, applications had been received for a growing number of mining leases in the area, lodged by both the Virginia company and a number of private prospectors. A siding and station was constructed and opened with the North Australia Railway to Pine Creek in 1889 to support the mining industry and growing population. Prior to the line, the settlement had been served by the Haimes Royal Mail coach between

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

on its way to the goldfields near Pine Creek. A cemetery was in use between 1874 and 1902 and is today commemorated by a plaque erected by the NT government with the names of those interred according to the records of the NT genealogical society. In 1895 the Stapleton Siding massacre took place here where approximately 80 Kungarakany and Warray peoples were killed with poisoned damper which likely contained weed-killer; one of the survivors of that massacre was Alngindabu. By the 1920s, mining activity had declined and agriculture was becoming the dominant industry in the area. To support the operation of Vestey's Meatworks in Darwin the railway station was expanded with additional sidings as well as stock yards and cattle loading facilities between 1914 and 1917, a sign of the changing local economy and stronger emphasis on pastoralism. Small scale cotton crops were grown with some success during this period. During World War II, the railway sidings were further expanded and the station became an unloading point for meat and fresh food supplies for troops camped in the area. In 1966, a site where Stapleton Creek crosses the

Stuart Highway Stuart Highway is a major Australian highway. It runs from Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, in the Northern Territory, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta in South Australia; it has a distance of . Its northern and souther ...

, east of the settlement (by this stage little more than a railway siding) was considered for the construction of a flood mitigation and irrigation dam. Despite a geological survey and investigation being conducted by the Commonwealth Government, the dam was not constructed.

Present Day

Little trace remains of the former hotel and railway station today. The area is mostly a rural locality with a number of agricultural properties and a few dwellings close to the creek. A plaque marks the site of the one time cemetery. The unsealed roads through the area are used by locals as an alternative route between Batchelor and Adelaide River.

References

{{Coomalie Shire Localities and Settlements Abandoned settlements in the Northern Territory