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grew. The Government Resident managed to win approval for relaxation of the stringent fencing laws, and Holtze
issued 150 000 bulbs, sufficient to plant 350 acres (140 hectares), to local agriculturalists. In 1911 Holtze attended
a conference in Java on fibre production, hoping to find solutions to the problems of finding suitable, and reliable,
machinery for extracting sisal fibre in Territory conditions.
Circumstances intervened to bring to an end Holtze’s vision of tropical agriculture, and the use of machinery
in harvesting. April 1912 saw the arrival of the first Commonwealth Administrator of the Northern Territory,
Dr J A Gilruth, a veterinary scientist whose primary interest lay in the development of the Territory pastoral
industry. Holtze’s untimely death in 1913 at the age of 45, and the lack of a suitable botanist to succeed him at
the Gardens due to the manpower requirements of the First World War, meant that many of his ideas were never
implemented—and the Darwin Botanical Gardens (the name changed when the Commonwealth took over in 1911)
entered a period of comparative neglect.
Early in 1913 Holtze left Darwin for Katherine on a ‘brief botanising expedition’. He was taken ill shortly after
his arrival and was moved to Pine Creek, where he lay for three days unaware of the fact that there was a medical
practitioner in the town. By the time he was brought back to Darwin, where Dr C L Strangman attended him,
his condition was described as ‘very low and feeble’. His ailment was reported to be dyspepsia—or indigestion—
resulting in a rupture of the walls of the stomach, an ailment that could have been treated if diagnosed earlier. It is
more likely that he was suffering from stomach ulcers due to stress. Before his strength could be rebuilt to the
extent that an operation could be performed Holtze died, on 24 May 1913. According to the Northern Territory
Times of 29 May 1913, Holtze’s fatal attack was understood to have been due to ‘certain worries in connection
with operations in the Gardens’ that continued ‘despite the fact that his medical attendant had advised that...
his recovery depended entirely on complete quiet and rest’.
Holtze was buried in the Two and a Half Mile Cemetery (later known as the Pioneer Cemetery) in Darwin,
where an Anglican service was performed. Over 150 mourners attended the funeral. He left behind a wife Annie,
nee Burkett, a son, Maurice, and two daughters, Evlampia and Olga. Much of the beauty of the later Darwin
Botanical Gardens is due to the untiring work of Nicholas Holtze. Holtze Cottage, rebuilt and serving as a restaurant,
stood on the site of the Holtze family home in the Gardens.
J Bauer, ‘Some Other Eden: A History of the Darwin Botanic Gardens’, in North Australian Research Bulletin, December 1980; Northern
Territory Times and Gazette, 29 May 1913; Personal details on Holtze family from documents held by Miss L S Hughes, Woodville, SA,
Mrs W Ruediger, Morgan, SA.
EVE GIBSON, Vol 1.HOPKINS, ELIZABETH: see DARCY, ELIZABETHHOUNG ON YEE, CHARLES (CHARLIE) (1905–1996), tailor, gardener and businessman, was born in
Darwin on 7 July 1905, the third of four sons of Yee Hang Pew and his wife who had arrived from China some
years earlier. His father was a well-known herbalist, who operated herbalist businesses in Darwin, Sydney and
Melbourne. At the age of five he was taken back to China for a Chinese education, returning at the age of 18
in 1923. He became an apprentice tailor to Toy Sing Loong & Company where he was indentured for a period of
three years for the amount of 80 Pounds. During this period he made not only his own clothes but his own shoes
of cloth as well as he could not afford to buy any.
On 12 May 1930 he married Myrtle Fong, the youngest sister of well-known Darwin identities George
Lim, Harry Loong, Charlie On, and Ernest and William Fong. Their wedding was celebrated by 90 guests at the
Kuo Ming Tang building in Cavenagh Street a part of Yuen Yet Hing’s shops. After the wedding they returned to
China to the Toi Shan district to Yee Charlie’s mother where they remained for nearly a year.
On returning to Darwin, Charlie was able to resume his tailoring work for a period before obtaining an agency
selling Malvern Star bicycles. Between them Charlie and Myrtle ran a laundry service mainly for armed services and
bank personnel and government workers. This was extremely hard, hot work, using the copper boilers, scrubbing
on clothes board and ironing with wood heated or petrol irons. The work was constant for little return and barely
enough to put food on the table. In later years they entered into partnership with two of Myrtle’s brothers, Ernest
and William Fong, operating the Darwin Aerated Waters soft drink factory. They were to remain in this business
for many years, only interrupted by the War in 1942. During the war the factory was taken over by the Army and
then returned to them at the end of the war.
Their four sons all born in Darwin are Ron, Raymond, Ken and Maurice, who were evacuated with their mother
Myrtle on the Montoro which was the last passenger ship out Darwin before the bombing of Darwin in 1942.
They travelled in relative comfort, unlike the Chinese who had left on earlier ships and endured discrimination.
They travelled to Brisbane for a short period to stay with relatives and then on to Sydney. Charlie remained in
Darwin with all able-bodied males over the age of 16 who had to remain. He had been riding his bicycle down to
the wharf on 19 February 1942 when Darwin was hit with the first bombs. As was his normal practice as a keen
photographer he had his camera slung over his shoulder and took many pictures of the destruction left by the first
bombs to hit Darwin. He was able to help a woman from the rubble amongst all the chaos and mayhem and then
rode back to his home where he rushed inside to collect more film. On returning he was dismayed to find that both
his bicycle and his camera had been stolen.
He was able to gather a number of household goods and clothing on a truck for his family and travelled down
the road to Adelaide River. On arriving at Adelaide River, all evacuees leaving were forced to hand over their
vehicles together with everything on them to the Army. The Army was confiscating anything movable, and all