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Minister and O’Brien’s academic mentor at the Australian National University, that opposition was overcome.
He remained as Secretary, primarily located in Darwin, until June 1975 when, with the subsuming of the DNT into
a broader Department of Northern Australia, he was based in Canberra, again as its inaugural Secretary. During the
latter part of 1973, O’Brien also acted as Administrator while Canberra was debating the future of that position;
his conjunction of the two roles proved politically controversial. His relationship with his successive ministers—
Enderby, Rex Patterson and Paul Keating—was generally cordial.
Organising the DNT, defining its precise role and interfaces with other instrumentalities and defending its
position, occupied a lot of O’Brien’s time as Secretary. In such matters, he demonstrated skilful bureaucratic
politics and resourcefulness; a particularly good example was his success at preventing the dismantling of the
DNT after Cyclone Tracy had devastated Darwin at Christmas 1974. Another time-consuming task for O’Brien
was his involvement in planning for political and administrative change in the Territory; he played pivotal roles in
advising the Joint Parliamentary Committee which examined constitutional development of the Territory between
1973 and 1975 and in the Interdepartmental Committee, set up in mid-1975, to study implementation. Indeed,
his broad recommendations formed the basis of the conclusions of the Joint Committee. It has been conceded,
even by Goff Letts, the Majority Leader of the Legislative Assembly, that O’Brien was a supporter of a limited
form of self-government and that, considering his sensitivity to Labor’s position and his own misgivings about
the Territory’s readiness, he made a reasonable and realistic contribution to Territory aspirations. The form which
self-government ultimately took, however, bore little resemblance to that which O’Brien had charted.
In December 1975, O’Brien was dismissed from his position; it was generally held that he had rather too openly
associated himself with Labor personalities and policies to be acceptable to the new Coalition government. He was
later assigned to other and less prestigious duties, notably the Presidency of the Murray River Commission.
Constitutional Development in the Northern Territory: Reports from the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory, 1974 & 1975 and transcripts
of evidence, 1973 to 1975; A Heatley, Almost Australians, 1990; Who’s Who in Australia, 1988.
ALISTAIR HEATLEY, Vol 3.O’KEEFFE, OLIVE (KEEFFIE) nee HARVEY (1907–1988), nurse, was born on 14 May 1907 at Montville,
Queensland. She had always wanted to be a nurse and as a young woman spent four years at Brisbane General
Hospital undergoing general training. She was then a Staff Nurse before doing midwifery.
Her move to the Northern Territory occurred in 1936. A close friend, Sister Morrison, had been in the Territory
for several years and wrote frequently to Olive Harvey asking her to come as well. Harvey finally took up a
vacancy on the staff of Darwin Hospital and arrived on Marella on 19 November 1936.
Harvey did not stay long in Darwin for by 1937 she had been appointed to the Pine Creek Hospital. There was
no doctor stationed at Pine Creek but Dr Clyde Fenton would fly from Katherine every Sunday and would also
come if there were emergencies the Sister could not handle.
A short time later, another move was made to the hospital at Tennant Creek. Sister Morrison was also stationed
at Tennant Creek at the time. However, by the beginning of 1938 Harvey had been moved to the Katherine Hospital.
It was here that the now famous Dr Fenton was stationed.
He had arrived in 1934 and immediately saw the need for an aerial ambulance. He bought a De Havilland Gypsy
Moth and formed the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service. Harvey recalled: ‘At that time Dr Clyde Fenton
was Resident and myself and one other nursing Sister worked twenty-four hour shifts and were on call in an
emergency. A young girl was employed to attend to the washing up and kitchen duties. Dr Fenton’s aerial ambulance
covered a lot of territory. Often when he had a call-out he would take off about 3 am. One of us would give him a
cup of coffee or thermos to take with him and perhaps a bit of toast. I would then drive him to the airstrip, although
I had no licence then. I wasn’t game to tell him I hadn’t. Dr Fenton had no radio or radar and would get out on a
flight usually by himself; however if he needed help one of us, usually the other Sister, would go with him. If he
was returning late we would light the beacon, which was behind the house, to guide him in. He was a clever doctor
and a marvellous pilot and took enormous risks to help the sick and injured.’
Not long after her arrival in Katherine Harvey met her husband, John O’Keeffe. He had been born in Ireland
but migrated to Boston in the United States in the 1920s. He was a pastry cook by trade and worked on the ships
sailing from San Francisco to Sydney. He came to Katherine to visit Tim O’Shea, who was a cousin, and decided
to stay on and work on the railway in 1929. In 1937, he won the government contract to supply the town with meat
and had a butcher’s shop on the south side of the town. He later worked at the Sportsman’s Arms Hotel and Store.
John and Olive were married in September 1938. The reception was held in Clyde Fenton’s house.
O’Keeffe, as she now was, resigned from nursing and left Katherine with Johnno, as he was always called,
very soon afterwards. They went south to Birdum, which was, then at the end of the railway line, to run the pub,
which was owned by Tim O’Shea.
After the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, all civilians located north of Larrimah were to be evacuated
south. Although Birdum was only a few kilometres south of Larrimah, virtually everything closed up as far as
civilians were concerned. O’Keeffe did not work for the Northern Territory Medical Service at the time, but there
was a request for her to travel on an Army convoy from Larrimah to Alice Springs with three pregnant part
Aboriginal women. One of the women was delivered 20 minutes after their arrival into Alice Springs.
The O’Keeffes were to remain in Alice Springs for about 20 years. This was broken by six months in the
small town of Balaclava about 80 kilometres north of Adelaide in South Australia. Johnno and Olive were the
Superintendent and Matron of a home for part Aboriginal children. These young people were moved from various
places in the Territory, including from missions on Bathurst and Melville Islands.