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government be commenced. He presented his case and continued to argue it in the face of heavy opposition, on the
grounds that the evident lack of development in the north had been largely due to the limited financial resources
of the South Australian government. He also argued that South Australia had for the past 20 years borne the
responsibility of maintaining the north for all Australians and that if the entire land mass was to be kept for white
Australians, then all should contribute to the cost of maintenance and development. His unwavering belief in the
great mineral and agricultural potential of the Northern Territory struck a responsive chord in a number of fellow
parliamentarians although, when the motion was passed in September 1902, it was for a mixture of national and
parochial reasons and few were sufficiently optimistic to believe that the road ahead would be smooth.
Solomon left the House of Representatives in 1903 and in 1905 he again stood for the Northern Territory
seat in the South Australian House of Assembly. He made a short visit to Darwin for the election campaign,
where he was warmly welcomed and given supportive press coverage. He was returned, although this time as
junior member, S J Mitchell having gained the largest number of votes. Solomon held this seat until his death on
20 October 1908.
Solomon’s forthright and open manner won him the affection of his colleagues and the respect of his opponents.
He had the reputation of being a tireless worker, although inclined to place himself in unfortunate positions due
to his propensity for making not only hasty decisions, but for making them publicly. Generally very serious in his
approach to life, the story of an escapade during his early days in Palmerston is retold with a certain amount of
incredulity. Solomon and another young man were said to have wagered that they could walk down Smith Street
naked without attracting attention. Having stripped, blackened their skins and made the length of the main street
undetected they were able to collect their winnings.
His wife Alice, nee Cohen, two daughters and a son, survived him. He was also survived by a daughter from
his first marriage to Mary Ann Bridgland, nee Wigzell, and by a stepson.
T Cohen, ‘The Honourable Vabien Louis Solomon’, Australian Jewish Historical Society, vol 8, 1987; Commonwealth of Australia, PD, 1902;
Northern Territory Times and Gazette.
SUZANNE SAUNDERS, Vol 1.
SOMERVILLE, JAMES DUGALD (1869–1960), engineer and historian, was born in Scotland in 1869.
His parents immigrated to Australia in 1873 and settled in South Australia. Somerville joined the Engineer in
Chief’s Department (South Australia) in 1882. He worked on the South Australian south to east drainage plans for
several years and then joined the South Australian Railways as an engineering superintendent. He served as Senior
Assistant Resident Engineer at Peterborough and as Resident Engineer at Port Lincoln, where he supervised the
construction of the first and second sections of the Eyre Peninsula Railway.
Somerville left Port Lincoln on 8 May 1909 to take up a position with the North Australian Railway. He and
his wife, Edith, and daughter, Mabel, travelled from Sydney to Darwin on SS Eastern, arriving in Darwin on
16 June 1909. Somerville was in charge of the railway from Palmerston to Pine Creek, which had been completed
in 1889 to serve the Pine Creek goldfields. He remained in the position until 1911, when the Commonwealth took
over the Northern Territory. Railway employees in the Northern Territory were given the option of returning to the
South Australian Railways, or transferring to the Commonwealth Public Service and remaining in the Territory.
Somerville and his family left Darwin on 4 August 1911 and returned to Port Lincoln.
Somerville retired from the South Australian Railways in 1933. He devoted his retirement to historical writing
and research, becoming well known for his work on Australian and South Australian exploration.
He died in South Australia on 17 March 1960 at the age of 91 and was buried at Centennial Park Cemetery.
His wife and daughter survived him. Somerville’s name is commemorated in Darwin by Somerville Gardens,
Parap, close to where the old railway line passed.
Advertiser, 22 March 1960; J D Somerville file, Northern Territory Place Names Committee.
EVE GIBSON, Vol 2.
SOMERVILLE, MARGARET ANN (1912– ), missionary, was born on 24 September 1912 in Lismore, New
South Wales, the only daughter of Methodist minister James Herbert Somerville and his wife Margaret Jessie,
nee Holbrook. Margaret’s education, due to her father’s movements as a minister, was fragmented. She attended
several schools before completing her education with two years at the Methodist Ladies’ College in Sydney.
The young Margaret Somerville had always been deeply interested in the missionary side of the Methodist
Church but felt that she lacked the educational qualifications to be a missionary. However a notice in the Missionary
Review of August 1941 appealing for donations of sewing machines for use at a newly established children’s
mission on Croker Island in the Northern Territory provided her with the opportunity to broach the subject of
her serving as a missionary in such a way that would not create embarrassment when, as she believed would be
the case, she was rejected. She purchased a second hand sewing machine and took it to the Methodist Overseas
Mission headquarters in Sydney. While there, she asked if she could be of service on Croker Island. To her surprise
and great delight, her offer was promptly accepted. Described as a ‘small, neat woman with a happy, infectious
personality’, Margaret Somerville left for northern Australia a short time later, travelling on the last ship to carry
civilian passengers from Sydney to Darwin prior to the outbreak of hostilities in the region. On Goulburn Island
she joined other missionaries and from there, on 25 November 1941, a group of missionaries and the first group of
44 part Aboriginal children set sail on Larrpan to start a new life on Croker Island.
The establishment of special homes for ‘half caste’ children was the culmination of many years of agitation
by the Christian churches to address the problem of caring for the increasing numbers of part Aboriginal children.