How Tennant Creek Was Named
Tennant Creek takes its name from the nearby watercourse named in 1860 by John McDouall Stuart in acknowledgement of the financial help he received from John Tennant, a pastoralist from Port Lincoln, South Australia.
Stuart became the first explorer to cross the country from south to north and return alive. This paved the way for the Overland Telegraph line approximately a decade later, which linked Australia with the rest of the world and helped open the country for development.
In 1872 a temporary telegraph repeater station was erected near the Tennant Creek watercourse. Then in 1874 solid stone buildings were completed at the same site. These structures present a lasting tribute to the guts and determination of the brave and far-sighted men who pioneered this region. These well preserved buildings and associated structures give the visitor a unique opportunity to experience first hand the conditions which faced the prospectors and pioneers who travelled to the Territory along 'The Track' which followed the telegraph line.
The Telegraph Station remained a relatively isolated outpost until gold was discovered. Australia's last Great Goldrush in the 1930s sparked the development of a rough and tumble settlement seven miles south of the Telegraph Station. The settlement over time became the town of Tennant Creek.
The township of Tennant Creek had a typical Territory start. Popular local legend has it that in 1934 Joe Kilgariff built his stores where his beer wagon became bogged, and the town simply grew around it. While the story is not true, it is indicative of the type of people who established the town. Today the Tennant Creek Hotel still operates on the same spot as a monument to those early days.
Initially the town was established under the Mining Ordinance and it was not meant to be permanent. However Tennant Creek was officially declared a town under the Crown Lands Ordinance on May 21 1954 by the Govenor General Sir William Slim.
The proclamation was published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (No 35) on the 3rd June 1954 with the proclamation being repeated in the Northern Territory Government Gazette (No 24) on the 16th of June 1954. The original size of the town was 528 acres.
In June 1954 the then Acting Director of Mines, Mr C R Stall, said that "Tennant Creek was now an established settlement and had a degree of permanence". He also said that "It was therefore desirable to bring the land in the town under the Crown Lands Ordinance instead of the Mining Ordinance".
Under the Mining Ordinance people could only hold land if they had a miner's right and this applied to land used for residential as well as business purposes. There was no restriction on anyone holding a miners right.
Those holding residential land did not have to pay rent provided they conformed with the improvements clauses. Business people had to pay four pounds a year rental on their blocks in addition to conforming with the improvement clauses.
The town has undergone a number of changes in size since the original town of 528 acres was proclaimed in 1954. The current municipal boundary encompasses and area of 42 hectares and was declared as such in the Northern Territory Government Gazette (No G10) dated 15th March 2000.