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with the following citation: ‘For outstanding leadership, exemplary conduct and steadfast performance of his duties
while exposed to the dangers of Cyclone Tracy and for his dedication and tireless efforts towards the restoration of
Darwin’s defence and town services’.
From 1976 to 1978, he was Commanding Officer of HMAS Perth and was then appointed to the military staff
of the Strategic and International Policy Division of Defence Central. During the tenure of this appointment, he was
the Australian delegate to the United Nations Law of the Sea Conferences in New York and Geneva in 1978 and
- On promotion to Commodore in July 1979, he took up his final appointment as Director of Public Information
for the Department of Defence, from which position he retired from the Navy on 31 December 1980.
He married Joan Hall (nee Holland) on 4 December 1971 and had two stepsons. In June 1980, he was invited
by the Chief Minister, Paul Everingham, to resign his naval commission to become Administrator of the Northern
Territory. As he later observed, ‘Joan and I had our minds made up in seconds. Indeed, I think Paul was rather
stunned at the speed of our response’. Commodore Johnston was appointed Administrator of the Northern Territory
from 1 January 1981, and they arrived in Darwin on 19 January. He was re-appointed for a second term in March - Upon his arrival, he made it clear that he saw that his role was to bring to the attention of Government and
Opposition what he found to be the aspirations of the Territory people, and in fulfilling this role, Commodore and
Mrs Johnston travelled extensively throughout the Territory to listen to the views of Territorians.
At first, Commodore Johnston occupied an office in the Stuart Building (no longer standing) but, at the end of
1981, he and his wife and their respective staffs moved into the former Naval Headquarters which had been rebuilt
by W R Bradley & Co Ltd, under the supervision of architect Alan Hammond.
The Johnstons were responsible for overseeing a considerable refurbishment of historic Government House.
In 1981, a modern and fully-equipped kitchen was installed within the framework of the original kitchen, the terrace
was completed and the verandah roofing was replaced and upgraded to comply with the Cyclone Code during
1981–1982 while, in 1982, various ongoing renovations to the House were completed to prepare the House for the
visit by Her Majesty The Queen: the gardens on the eastern aspects of the property were extensively landscaped
and it is from this work that the thick and colourful bougainvillea stand near the main driveway originated. These
works undertaken in the gardens were rewarded in 1982 by a Darwin City Council Civic Commendation awarded
by the Lord Mayor, Cec Black. During their tenure in office, the Johnstons hosted visits by many other dignitaries
including His Holiness the Pope and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
From the raising of the regiment on 1 July 1981, Commodore Johnston was the first Honorary Colonel of
the North West Mobile Force (NORFORCE), while he was also appointed Chief Scout in the Northern Territory
and was Patron of some 87 organisations throughout the Territory. Joan Johnston was Patron of some 21 other
organisations. Commodore Johnston was invited to become Patron of the St John Council for the Northern Territory
(Inc), and was appointed a Commander Brother in the Order of St John (CStJ); he was later promoted in the Order
to Knight of Grace (KStJ) in September 1984 and, following constitutional changes in 1987, the Administrator was
appointed Deputy Prior of the Order of St John in the Northern Territory.
In 1988, he was granted an Honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Queensland. He was listed as one
of ‘200 Remarkable Territorians’ by the Australian Bicentennial Authority Northern Territory Council, and on
13 June 1988 was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his service as Administrator of the Northern
Territory. As this was an appointment in the General Division, he had the relatively rare distinction of being
entitled to wear the insignia of both his AO and his military AM.
Upon his retirement in 1989 after the longest post-war period in office, Commodore Johnston maintained a firm
Territory involvement as a resident of Nightcliff and Chairman of such bodies as the Northern Territory Grants
Commission, the Electoral Redistribution Committee and of Batchelor College.
E E Johnston, ‘At the Governor-General’s Pleasure’, Menzies School of Health Research Oration, 1988; Northern Territory Digest, various
editions; Northern Territory Parliamentary Record, 27 November 1980, 20, 21 & 24 January 1981; personal interview 15 July 1985, and
correspondence in 1993; St John Council for the Northern Territory (Inc), Chairman’s report, 1 July 1985; P A Rosenzweig, ‘The Role of the
RAN and Captain Eric Johnston’, Sabretache, 1986.
PAUL ROSENZWEIG, Vol 3.
JOLLIFFE, (PATRICIA) SHIRLEY ANNE nee MALONEY (1923– ), teacher and homemaker and
JOLLIFFE, HAROLD (c1913–1988), roadmaster. Shirley Maloney was born in Wyndham, Western Australia,
on 25 March 1923, youngest child of James Lawrence Maloney and his wife Charlotte, nee Martin. She attended
school at Wyndham and after the family moved to Tennant Creek in 1934 she and her sister, Betty boarded at
Tintern Church of England Girls School, Melbourne. She recalls travelling to Melbourne by train with her pet
bird—a rainbow lorikeet. The bird was in a covered cage and the girls managed to keep it hidden on the train and
in the hotel in Adelaide.
Shirley completed six years at boarding school and gained her Intermediate Certificate there. She returned to
Tennant Creek and became a junior teacher at the local school for several years. She married Harold James Jolliffe
on 23 December 1947. They lived at Alice Springs and then returned to Tennant Creek where their only child,
Noel, was born in 1950. Soon after this, the family returned to Alice Springs where they built their own home.
Harold Jolliffe, son of William James Jolliffe, was born in Tarrawanna, New South Wales. He came from
Wollongong to Tennant Creek in 1942 to work with the New South Wales Department of Main Roads, which was
then forming, and bitumenising part of the north-south road. He stayed on after the War and worked as a supervisor
on road projects all over the Northern Territory. He came for six months but spent the rest of his working life in