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significant on the road to constitutional development. When Dean first arrived, the Administrator was President
of the Legislative Council and Commissioner of Police. But after much lobbying by elected members of the
Legislative Council, provisions were made for an elected President and when the ninth Council assembled in
late 1965, Harry Chan replaced Dean as the first person other than the Administrator to hold this position.
Other legislative changes meant that Dean ceased being Commissioner of Police.
Despite the fact that some of his responsibilities were removed, Dean was publicly positive about the
changes, although some saw him as attempting to retain administrative control of Legislative Council operations.
An example was when he arranged for the Post Master General’s Department to connect a direct line from the
Hansard recording unit to his office without seeking Council permission. Dean’s position was made more difficult
by the apparent reluctance of his Minister, Barnes, to communicate directly with the Council. Instead, he normally
relayed messages to the Council through the Administrator.
After five years in office, Dean told a reporter from the Canberra Times that the problems of the Administrator’s
job were those of progress and not stagnation. He mentioned first the program to help Aboriginal people enjoy and
exercise the same rights and privileges as all other Australians. He pointed to the recent legislative amendments
which would allow the rents from Aboriginal reserve leases and timber and mining royalties to be used in loans
and grants to establish Aborigines in productive industries such as logging and milling timber, prawn fishing and
market gardening.
When Dean left the Administrator’s position in 1970 to accept a posting as Australian Consul General in
San Francisco, he was given high praise by the outspoken Editor of the Northern Territory News, Jim Bowditch,
who wrote that Dean was a ‘plain man, kindly, and endowed with an extraordinarily successful talent for
communicating with people.’ Bowditch argued that he was more successful than any other Administrator over
the previous 20 years in achieving direct communication with people in centres outside Darwin. ‘The role of the
Administrator has become increasingly difficult over the years’, Bowditch wrote. He pointed to the growth of
deep-seated political unrest, the enormous expansion of the public service and with it the powers of individuals
and the development of outlying areas. ‘Mr Dean’s most significant contribution’, Bowditch stated, ‘has been his
ability to break down the feeling in other places that no real consideration is given to anything outside Darwin
city limits. He will always have a special place in the memories of hundreds, perhaps thousands of Aboriginals...
His frankness and unpretentious manner won friends wherever he went.’
Dean served in San Francisco until 1974. He returned to New South Wales, where he held office in several
community organisations. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1968. He was
also a Knight of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.
P F Donovan, At the Other End of Australia, 1984; F Walker, A Short History of the Legislative Council of the Northern Territory, 1986; Who’s
Who in Australia, various editions; newspaper articles in biographical index, National Library of Australia.
BARBARA JAMES, Vol 2.DEEN, FAZAL (1898–1963), hawker, battery operator and restaurateur, was born on 19 June 1898 in Village
Mehron, Town of Moga, Ferszpur District, Punjab, India. His parents, father Forth Deen and mother Umri Bebe,
were Moslems of the Rajput clan. Fazal was educated at the Mathra Das College in Moga.
At 17 years of age Fazal married Burkitt Bebe and fathered two daughters and four sons. Gotth left for Australia,
and Fazal at 24 years left his family in 1922 to join his father in Blackall, Queensland. They operated a hawking
business throughout central Queensland. They sold drapery, fancy goods, hosiery, confectionery and jewellery
from a specially fitted Bedford truck. The merchandise was stored on shelves and in drawers on either side of the
truck body. Fazal had brought gems from India and traded these to the diggers in the Charleville area. Fazal arrived
in Tennant Creek in 1933 as a hawker. The Darcy family of Mallapunyah Springs possess a large wooden clock
given to the late George Darcy by Fazal after George helped Fazal’s truck out of a bog near Borroloola.
Fazal was persuaded to set up a general store on a site near the present Tennant Creek airport. He ‘grub
staked’ many miners and in 1934 made arrangements to erect the first gold ore crushing battery on a site south
of Mount Samuel and adjacent to the Stuart Highway. The Mount Samuel Battery was a two-stamper, purchased
from Todd Williams in Sydney and powered by a Y-type McDonald semi-diesel engine. This was later enlarged to
a four-stamper battery with crusher. L W Stutterd, Mines Warden in 1939, describes the plant as a ‘four stamps of
1250 pounds of the Nissen type’. Crushing reports for the year 1934–1935 show a total of in excess of 1426 ounces
of gold were smelted and/or retorted from an ore tonnage of 1577 tons.
Stutterd later comments upon Deen’s practice of encouraging young apprentices to learn engineering skills at
the battery. Apparently some of them became discouraged by accepting a great part of their wages in goods from
the store and the resignation rate was high. Battery staff over the years included bookkeeper Hugh Beale, engineers
Arthur (a German), Jerry Maloney and Jack Zaran and Sultan Mohammed (an Afghan).
Mrs Eunice Deen’s mother was also a bookkeeper. Eunice became a housekeeper and later married into the
family. Fazal erected a large house with ant bed floors, mulga beams, and tin roof and walls. The large inner room
was surrounded by verandahs. The house was supplied with running water and electricity. Carbide lights were used
when the battery engine was not operating. Drinking water was purchased from the telegraph station. On washing
days the bore water was boiled and caustic soda added. The resultant scum was scraped off before use.
Fazal established himself as a fluent conversationalist, an excellent cook and host, with an interest in and the
ability to converse with, people from all walks of life. Invitations to his home were eagerly sought.
Fazal kept wines and spirits in his home for friends and guests, though he was a devout Moslem, neither
smoking tobacco nor drinking alcohol; the family commented upon his dignified bearing and good grooming.
During dinner parties, the engineer Arthur often found excuse to find trouble with the engine supplying power to