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Star, 14 June 1979, 21 August 1980; Northern Territory News, 25 August 1980; A F Hannan, ‘All out! The Effects of Evacuation and Land
Acquisition of the Darwin Chinese, 1941–54’, BA (Hons) Thesis, 1985; R Chin, Oral interviews with A F Hannan, 5 February 1985, tape held
at NTA, Darwin.
AGNES F HANNAN, Vol 1.
LETTS, GODFREY ALAN (GOFF) (1929– ), veterinarian, public servant, politician, consultant, media
correspondent and newspaper proprietor, was born in Donald, Victoria on 18 January 1928, the son of Mr and Mrs G
W Letts. After secondary education at Melbourne Grammar School, he attended the Universities of Melbourne and
Sydney, graduating in 1950 as Bachelor of Veterinary Science. Between 1951 and 1957, he was employed with the
Victorian Department of Agriculture. On 29 October 1952, he married Joyce, daughter of Mr and Mrs RS Crosby;
they were to have three sons and three daughters.
Letts came to the Northern Territory in 1957 to undertake a relief assignment in Alice Springs. Later, he secured
a permanent position within the Northern Territory Administration as District Veterinary Officer for the northern
region, based in Darwin. In 1958, he became the Assistant Director of the Animal Industry Branch, a position he
held until his appointment to the directorship of a newly combined Animal Industry and Agriculture Branch in
- He remained as Director until his retirement from the public service in 1970. By most accounts, Letts was
considered an effective administrator and a strong and adroit advocate for economic development. In his official or
professional capacity, he was Chairman of the Northern Territory Wildlife Council from 1964 to 1970, a member
of the Northern Territory Lands Board for the same period and a member of the Northern Territory Veterinary
Surgeons Board from 1964 to 1973. He was also awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1966.
From the mid-1960s, Letts became increasingly disillusioned with the Commonwealth’s stewardship of the
Territory, particularly with what he saw as the growing and unacceptable level of bureaucratic control from
Canberra, the dominance of the clerical influence over the professional and the reluctance to accept appropriate
political and constitutional advancement. His experience both as a senior administrator and as an official member
(representing lands and primary industry) of the Legislative Council from 1967 to 1970 was a major factor in his
decision to leave the public service in 1970 and take up private veterinary practice. Moreover, it was a powerful
influence behind Letts’ subsequent move into electoral party politics.
When the Country Party (CP) was established in the Territory in 1966, Letts was a prominent founder member
and he was active in its later development. In 1971, he easily won the Victoria River seat in the Legislative Council
as an endorsed CP candidate. Five (of an elected membership of 11) CP members had been returned and Letts
became party head. During the 11th (and last) Council (1971–1974), Letts, in concert with other leaders, pressed
hard for constitutional concessions from the Commonwealth. With the election of a federal Labor government in
December 1972, party rivalry in the Council intensified with Letts a foremost opponent of many Labor policies,
including what he saw as a consistently parsimonious and reluctant approach to the issue of self-government.
He did, however, welcome Labor’s acceptance of a fully elected Legislative Assembly that took place in October - Before that election, Letts played a leading role in the creation of the Country Liberal Party (CLP), which
combined the two conservative interests in the Territory. He led it to a comprehensive victory; the CLP won all but
two of the 19 seats. Letts himself retained his own electorate of Victoria River easily.
Until the first transfer of functions to local executive control in January 1977, the competence of the new
Assembly was substantially the same as the old Council. However, the dominant CLP had to fashion a new
representative role and to continue the campaign for the devolution of authority. To Letts, as Majority Leader of
a party with very limited parliamentary experience and with few facilities, fell the onerous tasks of organisation
and advocacy. Although his style and approach antagonised some, his enthusiasm, hard work and indefatigable
opposition to Labor policies won respect from most of his colleagues.
Despite some serious policy disputes, especially over the imposition of Aboriginal land rights and over uranium
development, Letts found that the return of the Coalition parties to federal office in late 1975 provided a much more
congenial working relationship with Canberra. That was most evident in its acceptance of major constitutional
change for the Territory. Initially, it proposed ‘statehood in five years’ but, partly due to Letts’ view that such a step
was too radical and premature, it was scaled down to substantial ‘self government’. Throughout the remainder of
the Assembly session, negotiation of its terms and implementation was Letts’ major preoccupation. Styled as Chief
Secretary from January 1977, he was the first Territory political leader to undertake executive responsibility, even
if the first instalment of the transfer of functions was meagre.
In the Assembly election in August 1977, the CLP suffered a severe rebuff with a net loss of five seats. Letts and
most of his Executive Councillors were defeated. Victoria River was won by Letts’ Labor opponent, Jack Doolan,
a result which Letts attributed to his own inability, through work commitment, to attend to constituency concerns
adequately and, more importantly, to the CLP’s stance of land rights which alienated the sizeable Aboriginal
vote. Although personally disappointed, he welcomed the CLP’s victory and the prospect of self-government
proceeding unimpeded. Later, he admitted to a sense of relief with his defeat, citing progressive disenchantment
with his political experiences after 1975. If he had been re-elected, he maintained that he intended to leave politics
by 1980 and the leadership even earlier. For his services to Territory politics and public administration, he was
made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1978.
Back in private life, Letts worked as a consultant from his home in Batchelor; one significant activity was his
chairmanship of the Board of Inquiry into Feral Animals in the Northern Territory in 1978–1979. Moreover, in
1979, he was appointed to the Advisory Council of the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation
and the Uranium Advisory Council, serving on both until 1983. He remained an active CLP member and was
pre-selected to contest the Territory House of Representatives’ seat in 1980. When, however, he was offered the