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with the state of the cattle industry. Holmes ensured it also took up the cause of the battlers, the small farmers,
miners and the Aboriginal people. Being a widely travelled man with compassion and democratic principles who
had lived in London and New York, he was appalled at the situation on Aboriginal reserves where he considered the
indigenous people lived in a sort of time warp while white administration staff and missionaries did their thinking
for them. He saw that big changes would eventually overtake Darwin and the isolated reserves, and thought the
Aborigines were in no way being prepared for this.
Holmes wrote constantly on the plight of the Aborigines though he was often at odds with the Director of
Welfare when seeking permits to visit reserves. His well-researched articles on the ponderous local bureaucracy
were sometimes witty and sardonic which earned him the eternal enmity of the Northern Territory government
establishment, though at one point Rupert Murdoch wrote to congratulate him. Holmes increasingly claimed that
his copy was being interfered with at the Northern Territory News and after a final argument he tendered his
resignation late in 1968. By then Holmes and his wife Sandra had become members of the Aboriginal Rights
Council then fighting for citizenship and equal pay. He supported the Wattie Creek Aborigines when they struck
and helped provide to them food, medicine and funds.
In 1969 Holmes worked for the Australian Broadcasting Commission program This Day Tonight as an
investigative journalist. He interviewed the tribal elders who were objecting to the establishment of the Gove
bauxite mine and he also interviewed the mining people. Holmes travelled widely through the Top End Aboriginal
communities where he was widely respected for his kindness and unrelenting fight for their rights. He was taken
into the family groups of Douglas Daniels of Ngukurr and of Yirawala, a Gunwinggu elder, and of Alie Miller
Mungatopi, a leading elder of Milikapiti, Melville Island. Holmes was also active in teaching young Aborigines
the basics of film making techniques. Two of his most apt pupils were the son and daughter of Philip Roberts
and his wife Hannah. These young people eventually made a small film about their land and people with funding
provided by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Holmes was a long-time friend of Dick Ward, Doug Lockwood, Tiger Brennan and Bill Harney and would
sometimes join them as they gathered at Holmes’ residence in Melville Street, Gardens Hill. There they would
drink a stubby or two, have a good yarn, some witty discourse and intelligent conversation in the ‘Poets Corner’,
a special place under big trees at the back of the block where the seats were tree stumps.
Cecil Holmes died at St Vincent’s Hospice, Sydney on 24 August 1994 after a long illness. His wife, Sandra, son
Clinton and daughter Amanda survived him. His ‘family’ on Melville Island held a ceremony as a mark of respect
during which time the beer club was closed for several hours. A representative from the island’s communities
attended his funeral and a specially painted cloth to drape over the coffin was sent along with ironwood leaves
used for ceremonial purposes.
Holmes was a true humanist who kept nothing for himself and gave only to others and he left a considerable
legacy of fine writing and films to teach and encourage present and future generations, among which were articles
in newspapers and magazines and an autobiography One Man’s Way published by Penguin. His film legacy includes
The Coaster, New Zealand Film Unit (NZFU), 1947; Fighting Back, NZFU, 1947; Power from the River, NZFU,
1952; The Food Machine, NZFU, 1952; Safari, 1952; Captain Thunderbolt, (which he wrote), 1953; Three In
One, 1956; Djalambu: (Hollow Log), Milingimbi, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS), 1960; Words
for Freedom, 1962; Lotu, (which he wrote), Methodist Overseas Mission (MOM), 1962; An Airman Remembers,
ABC, 1963; I, the Aboriginal, ABC, 1964; The Uwar, Goulburn Island, AIAS, 1964; Faces in the Sun, MOM, 1965;
Lorrgan, Croker Island, AIAS, 1965; How Shall They Hear, MOM, 1965; The Nagarren Yubidarawa, Roper River
Mission, ASIS, 1965; The Islanders, Film Australia, 1968; Return to the Dreaming, (which he wrote), Channel 7,
1971; Ronan’s Country, (which he wrote) Channel 9, 1972; White Men in Black Skins, (which he wrote), Channel
7, 1972; Gentle Strangers, (which he wrote), Film Australia, 1972; Cyclone Approaching, (which he wrote), Film
Australia, 1975. A number other planned projects never came to fruition.
Family information.
SANDRA LE BRUN HOLMES and AMANDA HOLMES, Vol 3.
HOLMES, (FELIX) ERNEST (1868–1929), businessman, was born on 7 February 1868 at Clarencetown,
New South Wales, the son of Charles Felix Holmes and his wife Margaret (Maggie). Although he was registered
as Felix Ernest, he appears to have called himself Ernest and many thought his name was Ernest Felix. He was
educated in Maitland and in 1890 came to the Territory to join his uncle, William Lawrie, who was developing the
Humpty Doo Station and a butchering business in partnership with M D Armstrong. Armstrong died as a result of
the 1897 cyclone and young Holmes was taken into the partnership.
He took up residence in Palmerston and on his own account became interested in pearling, which he actively
pursued during the first decade of this century. In January 1900 it was reported that a sale of his pearls in Thursday
Island had been very successful. By 1906 when he had acquired a fleet of luggers he decided that prospects might
be better elsewhere. He took his fleet to the Philippines and was away from Darwin for about three years.
Pearling having given him a good stake, in 1913 he bought from his uncle the controlling interest in the
butchery and bakery business, which stood on the corner of Knuckey and Smith Streets, together with the freehold
of the land. He installed an ice making plant, operated as Darwin Cold Stores, and ice was delivered to houses in
the town early each morning. He also imported frozen goods, and for a time aerated and mineral waters. In 1914
he became the proprietor of the Darwin Aerated Water Factory.