The Northern Territory Government established Limmen National Park (declared in 1912) in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The park will eventually have an area of approximately 10,000 square kilometres and is comprised of portions of the old Nathan River, Billengarrah and St Vidgeons pastoral leases and will include three previously poorly represented bioregions in terms of conservation management. The declaration was a long drawn-out process due to a considerable number of reasons including mining interests, political considerations, and resolution of land claims. I had a twenty-year plus association with the area , working towards declaration.
Eroded sandstone escarpment Limmen National Park.
During this time, I had numerous discussions about previous owners and one of these was Jerimah Fitzgerald also known as Paddy Fitz.
Paddy arrived in the Northern Territory in 1938 travelling around the country looking for places where he could acquire land.
In 1957 he was successful in securing a grazing licence over Block No 817 Nathan River Station in partnership with Harry Baker. Harry withdrew from the partnership at the outset of the partnership. Paddy felt that Harry did not have sufficient finance to develop the property along the lines Paddy considered it should be developed.
It should be remembered that at this time Lorella Springs was part of the Nathan River block, being subdivided in 1971 at the instigation of Reg Fickling.
During this time the present Nathan River homestead site was established as an outstation for the combined Nathan-Lorella Station. The site chosen has a spring fed permanent water supply with evidence of this being the site of the Costello’s Valley of The Springs 1883 to 1890. The existing station homestead being some 15 kilometres east through a gap in the ranges over extremely rough country.
Paddy in his application to the Agriculture Branch of the Northern Territory Administration , to change the status of the property from a grazing licence to lease hold stated.
“In consideration with the management of the property, I already have a manager there, but I would intend , should I be successful in obtaining the lease to work it personally with the present manager”.
On anecdotal evidence it would appear that Don Lee was the manager with Sid Coates being the yard builder.
He also states.
I am only 44years old, very active and can do practically all the work associated with mustering, cattle management, building fences and yards etc.”.
Paddy was granted pastoral lease hold over the Nathan Block P.L 692 in October 1963.
In January 1965 the Administrator of the Northern Territory granted consent for Paddy( due to illness) to transfer the lease to, Pat Delaney & Others, trading as Nathan River Pastoral Company. The others being Ted Stiles of Outback Transport fame and Father-in-law to Delaney.
Jerimiah Fitzgerald known as Paddy Fitz was born in County Kerry Ireland on the 1st of November 1914 at the commencement of the First World War. Like a lot of smaller farming communities, life was hard with little money available except for the basic necessities. Farming was hard especially during the harsh cold of the Irish winters. Paddy as a small child suffered chilblains leaving him in later years with no feeling in his toes. He left Ireland in 1931 as a tall dark haired and handsome man with a thick Kerry County accent and travelled to Australia, disembarking at Fremantle the same year. He gained employment on a farm south of Perth for a short while; however, the deprivations of the Great Depression had started to take its toll on the farmers and their land. Paddy headed back to Perth where he decided to join the police force. His association with the Police Force did not last long and by 1934 he was working on a mixed livestock property near Geraldton in the Katanning District.
In 1938 he decided to travel to Darwin in a truck, the journey taking six weeks. For a young man in his early 20’s life was good and full of adventure, The north was in development mode working towards the military base buildup preceding the second world war. Paddy joined a work gang laying the water pipe from Manton Dam to Darwin.
At the completion of the job, he joined the waterside workers (wharfies) and in 1942 decided to return home to Ireland. The Japanese bombed Darwin with a number of fatalities amongst the wharfies, and Paddy had a change of heart joining the Civil Construction Crew working on the construction of the North South Road later to be renamed the Stuart Highway.
Gangs under Matthew Luke were put to work repairing street damage. Luke employed by the Public Works Department had watched the air raid with his repair gang from a secluded spot on the Esplanade. Next day Luke and his men began cleaning up the streets. Several of the additional men he employed were wharf labourers who no longer had a wharf and seamen who no longer had ships. Several of the men stayed with Luke for the next three years(Douglas Lockwood Australia’s Harbour Darwin 1942)
After the war Paddy resumed working back on the wharf and took a part time job at the Victoria Hotel as a barman and bouncer. In 1951 he met his future wife, Rita Nolan.
After a disagreement Rita returned to Adelaide and Paddy soon followed, proposed and they were married. Returning to Darwin he resumed his job back at the Vic while Rita worked as a housemaid at the Vic also working at the Rendezvous Café. In 1953 their first child Kerry was born, and they moved into a house Phillip Street Fannie Bay. Paddy by this time had joined the Department of Transport and Works and as a profitable sideline ran an SP bookmaker’s operation.
Their second child Tracey was born in 1958. Paddy along with bookie mates Mick Mellifont and Mick Stinson were part of a group helping to raise funds for the construction of the Catholic Cathedral in Darwin and organised some friendly games nights to help with fund raising.
One night at Paddy’s house in Fannie Bay, Police staged a raid with Mick Mellinonf and the priest at the time scarpered through the window. The rest of the large group of Catholics had their names taken. There were a number of prominent Darwin Citizens and officials present . Nothing much came of this as there was a strong Catholic presence in the police force in Darwin at the time. Paddy was scared that Bishop O’Loughlin would find out how they were raising the money for the Cathedral. Apparently, the Bishop found out later but never let on. Sadness struck the family in 1961 while Paddy was walking his daughter to school. A passing car struck the girl and she died. This was understandably devastating for Rita and Paddy who left Darwin to try and recover from Kerry’s death, taking out a lease on Nathan River Station in 1963. They stayed at Nathan for two years then moved to Katherine where Paddy set up a betting shop in the main street later buying Cox’s Store. Paddy was a man of great integrity and worked tirelessly for the family. He also invested in real estate and was known around town as to be helping the battlers.
He ran a men’s boarding house for those doing it hard providing them with a clean bed, shower, and a good wholesome Irish stew all for the exchange of doing a little work for him. Rita passed away around this battling with cancer. He was a valued community member and in 1989 sold Cox’s Store to Woolworths and moved back to live in Darwin with Tracey ,husband Tom and three grandchildren. Every morning Paddy would make his pilgrimage out to the cemetery to visit Rita and Kerry.
The family moved to Brisbane and Paddy went with to live with them. Unfortunately, Paddy suffered a heart attack not long after moving there. Paddy was one of the early shop keepers that helped develop Katherine’s commercial enterprises. Paddy shared his wealth with many under privileged people in both Katherine and Darwin and thought everyone deserved a chance. Hardship was something that he had experienced all of his life and this was something close to his heart.
Sandstone formations Limmen National Park.
Eddie Weber
