City people from Ipswich in Queensland have been going to Darwin in the Northern Territory for 150 years for all sorts of reasons. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

I went there to see the Japanese Zero that was shot down during the bombing of Darwin in World War Two. I also went there because it’s one of only ten places in the world that you can see a Cold War era B52 bomber, and it is huge, almost fifty metres long.

From there I also went to the Timor Sea to watch the Tiwi Islands football grand final and it was fantastic, not a drop of grog to be seen, you didn’t haven’t worry about any trouble, it was just good footy and good fun. (See photo top of page) For the footy fans, Imalu Tigers won the men’s premiership and Tapalinga Super Stars the women’s.

I also went up there to raise money for the charity Drug ARM which has been working to reduce the harms of alcohol and other drugs since 1849, and followers can still donate via the Tiwi Islands Hike for Health link.

But looking back 100 years into history, in 1920 Ipswich’s Albert Welsby went to Darwin in a bid to avoid paying tax. He was an engineer living on Pine Street in North Ipswich and claimed he didn’t have to pay tax on any income from the Northern Territory because it wasn’t a state under the constitution. He was wrong and found guilty of evasion, and the Australian Tax Office got its money of course.

Welsby shortly afterwards ran for state parliament in Ipswich and came stone-motherless-last, and then refused to vote in the federal senate elections, claiming “justifiable nonconformity”. That wasn’t a defence of course and he was found guilty then as well.

Going further back, Ipswich’s Joe Roberts was a native of Ireland and had served in the British Navy. His children were born in Ipswich and then he took them all via Burketown, Normanton, Thursday Island and in 1896 to Darwin to work as a blacksmith. He was also a boatswain and acting mate on local coastal steamers including the well-known wooden steamship SS Wai Hoi, as well as a tool sharpener and miner. In later years he worked as a carpenter and was a leading member of the carpenters’ union.

When Joe died in 1925 the union was in attendance and he had the best made coffin seen in a very long time. The cause of death was a really bad stomach ache, or gastritis, that he suffered for six weeks.

Joe’s son, Joe Roberts Junior was born in Ipswich. In Darwin, Joe Junior worked as a messenger in the Railway Department and progressed to being a billiard marker at the Victoria Hotel. This was when Ross and Keith Smith, and other aviators as part of the great air race, stayed at the hotel in 1919.

At Joe Junior’s funeral in 1928, there was the most amazing array of dignitaries for any billiard marker in the world. There were at least two members of the press, there was also the original “H. G.” Nelson who was the first person to represent the Northern Territory in the federal House of Representatives. Then there was Jim Watts the two-time mayor of Darwin, and a number of other well-known personalities, all of them no doubt huge fans of billiards and of Ipswich’s Joe Roberts and family.

There are loads of reasons to go to Darwin, and Ipswich people have been doing it famously for close-on 150 years at least.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Tiwi Islands, Impala Tigers, 2026 premiers – Harold Peacock 20260719_163928.
Japanese Zero, WW2, Darwin Aviation Museum, 2026 – Harold Peacock 20260720_102334.
SS Wai Hoi, Darwin Jetty, 1916 – Library and Archives Northern Territory.
Victoria Hotel, Darwin, 1916 – Library and Archives Northern Territory.
H.G. Nelson touring on his motorcycle, 1925 – State Library of South Australia.