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Giese’s political enemies apparently expected him to quietly pack up and leave the Northern Territory.
He doggedly declined to do so, and between 1973 and his retirement in 1978, managed to survive in the fast-flowing
political currents of the day. An offer of appointment as ministerial adviser to the then Aboriginal Affairs Minister
Gordon Bryant, made in August 1974, came to nothing when Bryant was himself replaced in the portfolio a few
weeks later. Later in the same year, Giese—who was still formally an officer of the Department of Aboriginal
Affairs—was directed to move to Canberra for three months, at the end of which he was given an advisory brief
to visit and report back on settlements and missions—other than those in the Northern Territory itself, from which
he remained officially banned!
Even before his retirement, and especially following his eclipse as a senior public servant, Giese had been
involved in numerous community activities. These included a central role in setting up a spastic centre in Darwin
(since named after him), a Marriage Guidance Council in the NT, a telephone counselling service—Crisis Line—
a local branch of the Institute of Public Administration, the Aboriginal Cultural Foundation, the Historical Society
of the NT, and the NT Council for the Ageing. In the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy, which struck Darwin on Christmas
Eve 1974, he was elected chairman of the Darwin Disaster Welfare Council, a body set up to co-ordinate the activities
of local community groups, and to provide a local voice in decision-making vis à vis the various Canberra-centred
Commonwealth authorities involved in the reconstruction of Darwin. From 1976 to 1977 he served as an adviser
to the Majority Leader in the NT Legislative Council, Goff Letts.
Early in 1978, six months before reaching the statutory retirement age of 65, he was appointed by newly
elected NT Chief Minister Paul Everingham as the NT’s first Ombudsman. In those six months he established the
Ombudsman’s office.
After retiring, he remained in Darwin and, like his wife Nan, continued to be involved in a wide range of
activities. From 1979 until 1985 he was Chairman of the NT Committee of the Sir Robert Menzies Foundation and
a member of the Foundation’s National Executive. In this position he was able to play a pivotal role in helping to
establish the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin to conduct research into tropical and Aboriginal health.
He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Menzies School from its commencement in 1985 until 1995,
and Deputy Chairman of the Board from 1987 to 1995. He was long involved in historical activities, and from 1980
to 1982 was Chairman of the Northern Territory Oral History Unit.
Some sense of the diversity of his energies and interests could be gleaned from the list of clubs and societies
of which he was a member—often a life or honorary member. These include the NT Rugby Union (Foundation
President), NT Spastics Association (Life Member), Royal Life Saving Society (Life Member), Royal Australian
Institute of Public Administration (Life Member), Marriage Guidance Council (Life Member), Darwin Probus
Club and Darwin Show Society. In 1991 he was made a ‘Time Honoured Pioneer (Physical Education)’ of the
University of Melbourne, and in the following year, an Honorary Fellow of the University of Sydney.
In 1996 Harry and Nan Giese lived in a National Trust house in Myilly Point in Darwin. Their son Richard was
a general practitioner in Darwin; their daughter Diana a freelance writer based in Sydney.
Northern Territory Archives, Oral History Unit, Interview transcript NTRS 226, TS755.
PETER D’ABBS, Vol 3.GILES, ALFRED (1846–1931), pastoralist, was born near London, and came to South Australia with his family
in 1849. He was educated at a private academy in Adelaide but as soon as he left school he went straight to
the colony’s furthest edge of pastoral settlement to gain the experience that was to equip him for a lifetime of
leadership and responsibility in the outback.
In 1870 Giles was engaged as second-in-command of John Ross’s expedition to fix the course of the overland
telegraph line. Giles reached the Roper River in May 1871, and then for several months he carried out minor
survey and exploration work for the parties constructing the northern sections of the line. In the course of this work
Giles traced the Katherine River down from its Arnhem Land headwaters, and almost certainly became the first
white man to see Katherine Gorge.
In 1872 Giles overlanded ration animals north into the Territory to supply various telegraph stations. Giles made
four more transcontinental trips before December 1877, when he agreed to join an overlanding expedition that was
being sent north to establish several pastoral stations in the Territory for Dr W J Browne. Giles took charge of
droving 12 000 sheep to the Katherine River, as part of a venture under the overall control of Alfred Woods. Fifteen
months later, after many vicissitudes, which included a 160 kilometre dry stage for the sheep, the party reached the
place which Woods and Giles called Springvale. There a station was to be established.
Giles agreed to stay at Springvale as its first manager and from there to supervise the development of
Dr Browne’s intended pastoral empire. The homestead, which today survives as a tourist attraction, was built on
the banks of the Katherine River in the second half of 1879. When it was approaching completion Giles returned
south to marry Mary Augusta Sprigg. The couple returned to Springvale in June 1880 and over the next few years
the visitor’s book at Springvale became a roll of northern pioneers. Overlanders, miners, government officials,
travellers of all kinds found a welcome at Springvale and from its garden gained some fortification against the
scurvy which was then commonplace.
Dr Browne’s intention was to use Springvale as a head station and base for a vast northern pastoral empire.
At first all went well and the ever-sanguine Giles was able to report that the wilderness was swiftly succumbing
to white enterprise and that the livestock were thriving. Sheep and cattle were sent from Springvale to establish
Delamere in 1881 and in 1883 Giles engaged Darcy Uhr to bring cattle from Queensland to stock Newcastle
Waters.