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of the Australia Remembers: 1945–1995 commemorative activities. The awards, donated by his family, are on
permanent display there.
B Alford, research files; P Davis & D Smith, Kookaburra, 1980; personal communication, C Eaton, Jnr, C Fisher; D Gillison, Royal Australian
Air Force, 1964; J Haslett & B Alford, ‘Charles Eaton’, nd; D Lee, Speech by representative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
at dedication of memorial, 16 August 1995; G Odgers, Air War Against Japan 1943–1945, 1967; N Parnell & T Boughton, Flypast, 1988;
A Powell, The Shadow’s Edge, 1988.
BOB ALFORD, Vol 3.
[See also previous entry: EATON, Charles.]
EDMUNDS, KEITH STACEY (1911– ), lawyer, Air Force serviceman, public servant and judge, was born
in Adelaide on 30 June 1911, the eldest child of Arthur Melita Strickland Edmunds, and his wife Ada Mabel,
nee Stacey. His father was an engineer. Edmunds was educated at the Adelaide High School and the University
of Adelaide. He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1936 and
practised as such until enlistment in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1940. After service overseas as a navigator
and bomb aimer, during which he rose to the rank of Squadron Leader, he was discharged in 1945. He then joined
the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor’s Office in Adelaide. In 1947 he married Shirley, daughter of J H Kay,
in Adelaide. They later had three sons.
Soon after his marriage, while Principal Legal Officer in Adelaide, he went to Darwin to act for five months as
Crown Law Officer. The office had just returned to Darwin, after having been transferred in 1942 to Alice Springs.
As well as normal Crown Law Office work such as advising departments and doing court work, staff were occupied
in settlement of claims arising from the Darwin Acquisition Act under which the Commonwealth acquired
all privately owned land in Darwin and the surrounding area. Many and varied were the problems of proving
ownership because of the lack of detail. For example, a grant of land in the 1870s had been made to ‘John Smith
of London, Merchant’.
Edmunds returned to Adelaide in 1948 when the Commonwealth decided to reorganise the Darwin Crown Law
Office and created a position of Crown Prosecutor and Crown Solicitor’s representative in the Northern Territory.
He was invited to accept the position and did so, returning to Darwin later that year. He was allocated a home on
Myilly Point, opposite the hospital.
He had enjoyed the work in the five months he had spent in Darwin but he had also been raised on stories about
the Northern Territory. His father had been engaged as an engineer on the construction of the first steel jetty built
in the Territory early in the century. This jetty functioned until bombed by the Japanese in 1942 and was patched
up to operate for many years after that. Keith Edmunds’ grandfather, Robert Henry Edmunds, had been in charge
of the first survey party of 166 men in 1866 to go to the Territory. The capital was then at Escape Cliffs. Later that
year he was second in command and surveyor of John McKinlay’s expedition which reached the East Alligator
River after six months of travel and then built a raft and sailed and rowed down that river to the sea and eventually
Escape Cliffs. His second expedition was as a surveyor on the journey by sea to explore the Daly River. Edmunds
Street in Darwin is named after him. He later returned to Adelaide.
When Keith Edmunds returned to Darwin, Justice Wells was the Supreme Court Justice. He was appointed
before the Second World War and had been a Sydney barrister. He was strict in his demands for Court dress and
behaviour. The Court Room was in an iron building, the old stone building having been transferred to the Royal
Australian Navy.
All sorts of ‘odd bods’ had drifted up to the Territory after the war and the Criminal Court lists were lengthy.
The Commonwealth seemed to be a party to a lot of the civil trials, which meant appearances by Edmunds in
Court.
In addition to normal court work, he also acted as Judge Advocate in Royal Australian Air Force and Army
courts martial. A reward for this work was membership of the Royal Australian Air Force and Army Officers’
messes and the social occasions in both, sometimes including wives, and also dining in nights. Recreation leave
was three months plus travelling time every two years.
Edmunds was on leave early in 1951 when recalled to the office as the Crown Law Officer, Bob Flynn, had
become ill and had to leave the Territory. He was appointed to act in the position of Crown Law Officer and also
became a member of the Legislative Council. Another appointment was that of Chairman of the State Children’s
Council. Like so many Northern Territory laws at that time, the old South Australian Acts still applied. The other
members of the Council were the Roman Catholic Bishop and the local heads of other denominations. A Salvation
Army man who had been a wartime pilot and covered the Territory by aeroplane was also a member. He was a very
welcome church representative at every mission and Native Affairs settlement and also a gatherer of information
for the State Children’s Council.
The majority of neglected children were half-caste and not welcome at many Aboriginal settlements where
in many cases the elders described them as ‘yella fellas’. There were two homes where children could be placed,
at Croker Island, with a Methodist clergyman who had been a classmate with Edmunds in Adelaide, and at Alice
Springs, under the care of an Anglican Sister. In later years the practice of taking some part Aboriginal girls from
their mothers would be condemned, but the members of the Council all served in an honorary capacity and the case
of every child was thoroughly investigated.
Frank Wise was the Administrator of the Northern Territory at that time and was President of the Legislative
Council. He was a long time parliamentarian and Premier of Western Australia and under his guidance the Council