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Curteis, along with certain other departmental and Branch heads, was an official member of the Legislative
Council for the Northern Territory from 1962 to 1964. A later Administrator, Roger Nott, who had previously
been Minister for Agriculture in the New South Wales government, once told me that he regarded Bill Curteis
as the best practical agriculturalist in Australia. He was one of a succession of enthusiasts, beginning with the
Holtzes, who tried to establish agriculture in the Territory and in 1962 with his colleague J J Saxby he published
a short history of the early days of agriculture, The Holtzes in Early Northern Territory Agriculture. Unlike some
of his predecessors he left behind a substantial legacy of progress. Probably his greatest and most significant
contributions to the Territory were the widespread introduction of pasture crops and the establishment of vegetable
growing.
In 1966 he left the Territory and spent two years with the Department of National Development in Canberra
and from 1969 to 1976 was a Project Officer with the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations.
The period included missions to Afghanistan, West Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Somalia and
Sudan. He retired to Sydney and died there on 27 August 1986.
Personal information.
TIMOTHY G JONES, Vol 3.