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He was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in June 1953 and was awarded a Coronation
Medal in the same year. In 1961, he was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his public
service.
As a young man in Darwin he played football for the Wanderers and was described at the time as a ‘smiling
young man of great personal charm which disguised an inflexible determination.’ Leydin was the quintessential
public servant; the apolitical bureaucrat who gave advice without fear or favour and who in his career in the
Northern Territory between 1928 and 1954 served his masters well and earned the respect of them all.
He married Millicent Magdalen Bergin on 14 November 1928. There were no children of the marriage.
A Heatley, A City Grows, 1986; D Lockwood, The Front Door, 1969; F Walker, A Short History of the Legislative Council of the Northern
Territory, 1986; Who’s Who in Australia, 1971; Northern Territory News, June 1953, 22 April 1954, 27 April 1954, 29 April 1954; Australian
Archives, Northern Territory, F1 51/458: H J Wilson, ‘The Quality of Life’, MA(Qualifying) Thesis, University of Queensland, 1986; personal
correspondence.
HELEN J WILSON, Vol 2.LINDSAY, DAVID (1856–1922), explorer, surveyor and Northern Territory apologist, was born at Goolwa in
South Australia on 20 June 1856, the youngest son of John and Catherine Lindsay, nee Reid. His father was a
mariner who had migrated to South Australia from Dundee in Scotland. He left school when fifteen years of age
and worked for a short time as an assistant in a chemist shop in the town. Soon thereafter, he obtained work in
Adelaide in the office of a mining agent. He later became an agent in his own right, and while his explorations
brought him a certain amount of fame, it was his work as a mining agent that sustained him for most of his life.
In 1873, after 12 months of clerical work, Lindsay entered the South Australian survey department as a cadet
surveyor. Two years later, he was appointed junior surveyor and on 23 January 1878, after five years on the field
staff of the survey department, he was appointed Surveyor Third Class in the Northern Territory. Lindsay left
Adelaide on 30 January 1878 for Port Darwin and thereby began his long association with the Northern Territory.
In April 1882, after four years of service as a government surveyor in the Northern Territory, Lindsay resigned to
go into private practice—at a time when there was a weak boom in pastoral speculation in the Territory. The boom
did not persist and in 1884, South Australia plunged into an economic recession. Lindsay could find little work in
the Territory or in South Australia. To make matters worse, he lost his savings with the collapse of the Commercial
Bank of South Australia in 1884. In 1885, he was forced to seek employment in the eastern colonies and was
ultimately successful in being engaged to undertake pastoral surveying in New South Wales and the Northern
Territory.
Except for exploring Arnhem Land in mid-1883, which he did for the South Australian government, it was
during the latter years of the 1880s that Lindsay did most of the exploration for which he was renowned. In 1885–
86 he undertook what he called the Great Central Exploration Expedition from Adelaide to Port Darwin and
discovered the apparent ruby—actually garnet—fields in Central Australia. In October 1885, he surveyed the first
104 allotments for the township of Stuart six and a half kilometres from the Alice Springs. Two years later, he made
a second overland trip, this time in the opposite direction. These explorations were ultimately recognised by the
Royal Geographical Society, when in 1887 he was elected a fellow. However, this recognition, welcome though it
was, did nothing to secure his future.
Lindsay had a passion for exploring. Thus, he lobbied hard and long for the position of leader of the exploring
expedition that in 1890 Sir Thomas Elder had agreed to finance. His efforts were successful, and his joy was
great. The expedition was well equipped, comprising 15 men, including two surveyors and two natural scientists,
with 44 camels; it carried supplies for six months, and was intended to be one of the great Australian exploring
expeditions. It left Adelaide on 22 April 1891, charged with the task of exploring Central Australia to the west of
the Overland Telegraph.
Unfortunately for Lindsay, the expedition was almost a total failure. A severe drought in the region to be
explored made for great hardships. These difficulties strained relations between Lindsay and his men, three of
whom he dismissed for insubordination, while three others resigned rather than continue with the expedition.
Early in 1892, the remnant of the expedition reached Geraldton in Western Australia. Lindsay was eager to
continue the work and salvage something from the expedition, but Elder abandoned it in March 1892. A subsequent
inquiry by the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society into the fortunes of the expedition
ensured that relations between former members of the expedition remained acrimonious for a considerable time.
The Society exonerated Lindsay, but this was a far cry from the acclaim that he had hoped would be his due after
the expedition.
For nearly 20 years after the Elder Exploring Expedition, Lindsay returned to his profession as a surveyor and
mining agent, though his efforts met with only moderate financial success.
In April 1893, he acquired 50 camels and commenced a carrying service in Western Australia to serve the
recently discovered goldfields, though he abandoned this business late in 1894.
Coolgardie remained the centre of Lindsay’s interests for the following five years. In 1895 and again in 1896
he visited the United Kingdom to attract interest and capital to the Scottish Westralia Limited, of which he was the
colonial manager.
In the years from 1899 to 1907 Lindsay and companies in which he had interests took up tin mines in north
Queensland. These interests required his constant attention, and he was frequently away from Adelaide, which
was once again his base. Again, none of these ventures brought the success or wealth which Lindsay would have
wished.