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NOTT, ROGER BEDE (1908– ), shearer, farmer, pastoralist, politician and Administrator, was born on
20 October 1908 in Gulgong, New South Wales, the son of H Nott of Dunnedoo, New South Wales. His grandfather
was a pioneer wheat grower of the district in 1856 and Nott was raised with a farming and shearing background.
After education at the Dunnedoo School, Nott worked as a shearer and although he never reached the ringer
stage, he earned enough money to buy a farm in the Dunnedoo area. Having learned the lesson about shearing,
he made sure that all his sons were qualified wool classers. On 13 January 1936, he married Mary Rope, with
whom he had three sons. In 1941, he stood for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as a Labor candidate
for Liverpool Plains, a ‘blue ribbon’ Country Party electorate that he managed to win narrowly and then hold for
20 years. He attained cabinet rank, holding the portfolios of Mines, Agriculture and Lands. He was responsible
for the state government’s soldier settlement scheme, which placed 400 veterans on the land. When Nott resigned
from parliament in 1961, the Country Party promptly won back Liverpool Plains, a testament to his popularity
with the electorate.
The Minister for Territories, Paul Hasluck, appointed Nott Administrator of the Northern Territory in 1961.
This was the Menzies non-Labor government’s second appointment of a Labor man to the position, the first
being Frank Wise in 1951. Nott had visited the Territory in 1958 and 1960 when he served as a cattle judge
at the Darwin Show and had become convinced of the Territory’s potential. He later said of his appointment:
‘The development of the North was a real challenge. The Territory needed someone with vision and I was keen to
get things moving.’
Nott moved quickly in a manner that made him immediately popular with the locals. At his first formal function
he removed his coat jacket and there and then decided that ‘Darwin rig’ was to be official wear in future. Following
a local uproar over what exactly constituted ‘Darwin rig’, he finally defined it as, for males, a white long sleeved
shirt, tie or bow tie, long trousers and dark shoes. As Keith Willey later observed in the Bulletin, ‘socks, presumably,
were optional.’ He confirmed to everyone that the new custom was indeed official when he wore ‘Territory gear’
to meet the King and Queen of Thailand.
In his first year Nott made a distinct effort to get to know the outreaches of the Territory as well as the urban
areas, travelling to the Brunette Downs races, cattle stations on the Western Australian border, Melville and
Bathurst Islands, Arnhem Land and many other remote regions.
The convivial Nott also made a particular effort to invite Aboriginal guests to Government House and had
special empathy for Aborigines who suffered from eye diseases as he himself had a glass eye, leading to the
nickname of Roger One Eye. Following a visit to the Melville Island Aboriginal Mission, he met many residents
who had lost eyes and he later sent them glass new ones.
Nott’s term was also marked with some controversy, most notably in August 1961 when three Malay refugees,
Jaffa Madunne, Dabriss bin Sairis and Zainal bin Hashim, were ordered to depart Australia and more than
1 500 Territory residents signed a petition asking the government to cancel the order. Several hundred people
marched on Government House where Nott as Administrator agreed to see a delegation of six on the verandah.
The President of the North Australian Workers’ Union, Bert Graham, spoke to him on behalf of the people and
Nott promised to tell the Minister of the feelings expressed. Eventually the government allowed the three Malays
to remain. In December of the same year he faced another crisis when three Portuguese seamen asked him to
arrange political asylum, an action the government eventually endorsed.
Nott also developed a strong interest in Territory history, particularly the history of Government House in
Darwin, about which he began collecting photographs and documents. He was responsible for having produced
the first Government House booklet and, along with his wife, initiated quite a lot of renovations to the residence,
particularly in preparation for the visit of the Queen in 1963. The interior was repainted using a white, turquoise
and mauve theme; the grounds were re-landscaped and an oval fishpond and birdbath were built. Dressed in
Darwin rig, the Notts actually lived aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia during the Queen’s stay.
Nott left the Territory in 1964 and until 1966 served as Administrator of Norfolk Island. He later retired to a
property near Gulgong in New South Wales. In 1977 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE).
P F Donovan, At the Other End of Australia, 1984; Who’s Who in Australia, 1964; various newspaper reports held in the National Library of
Australia biographical section.
BARBARA JAMES, Vol 2.
NUGENT, THOMAS BRIAN (TOM) (c1848–1911), stockman, station manager, bush worker, bushranger and
pastoralist, was born at West Maitland, New South Wales, in about 1848. Known as Holmes, he came to the
Northern Territory from north Queensland and the Gulf country with another stockman, Jim Fitzgerald.
Nugent, still known as Holmes, worked at Lake Nash as a stockman and then Manager in the early 1880s
until John Costello bought the station in 1882 and installed John Farrar as his Manager. In late 1885, Nugent
left Eva Downs with Barney O’Neil and Bob Anderson when news came of the Hall’s Creek gold rush. At the
same time, after a race meeting at Alice Springs, Sandy Myrtle MacDonald, Hughie Campbell (a sailor from
Port Augusta), Jack Dalley, Wonoka Jack and his brother George Brown came north along the Overland Telegraph
Line and joined in with the Nugent group.
At Johnston’s Lagoon, north of Newcastle Waters, Nat Buchanan and son Gordon travelled north to Katherine
and Nat had noticed the group of 13—the Devil’s number. A man named Cashman, trying to locate ‘the 13’ with
‘Tommy the Rag’ in it, dubbed it ‘the Ragged 13’. Another version has Steve Lacey as coining the name after one
of the gang who was described as ‘that little ragged fellow’. The group went on to the newly formed Victoria River