>> Go Back - page 0 - >> List of Entriess
On what had been his land, areas were set aside for the war cemetery, the civil cemetery, a park with an avenue
leading to it, and for the hotel. In 1948, Verburg was advised that the government no longer required the remainder
of the land and it could be reconveyed to him. There were only 30 hectares available to him and most of that was
covered in roads, concrete slabs and other debris. Among the buildings on the northern-most farm had been the
119 Australian General Hospital. The only improvements left were a few mango trees. He told the authorities he
was not interested and issued a writ seeking compensation as he was only offered 2 980 Pounds and 15 Shillings.
His claim was eventually settled for 10 312 Pounds and 10 Shillings in September 1955 when Verburg was about
85 and too old to start again. He moved into Darwin and lived with his daughter, Ada.
On 9 August 1930, he had married Magdalene McGregor, an Aboriginal woman. Verburg was 61 and divorced,
his new wife just 16 years old. The marriage was dissolved on 3 July 1936. There were two daughters of the
marriage, Ada (Calma) and Magdalene (McIntosh). It is the family’s understanding that this was a divorce of
convenience as the practice then was to take part-Aboriginal children away from their mothers and rear them in
institutions. Verburg sent his daughters to school in Queensland at a very young age. There seem to have been two
sons from his earlier marriage as in May 1924 in correspondence to the Lands Branch Verburg mentions a son,
Cornelis, then aged 25. He was a farmer who intended to come to the Territory if he could get land. In 1928 his son
James P Verburg obtained a lease on the Adelaide River, Cornelis apparently having settled in Queensland.
Edwin Verburg was a very blonde man, not particularly tall, and he walked with a pronounced limp. At the
time of his death on 13 March 1965 at the age of 96, he was the Territory’s oldest pioneer. He was survived by
his two daughters and their families and is buried in the McMillans Road Cemetery. In honour of his pioneering
agricultural work the Edwin Verburg Bridge across the Adelaide River was opened on 27 March 1980; the remains
of his original dam, which had been breached by 1945, can still be seen under the bridge.
Administrator’s annual reports, year ended 30 June 1920, year ended 30 June 1922; Australian Archives, Australian Capital Territory, CRS
A1/1 37/4946 A432/86 30/743, A452/1 54/211; CRS F649 S215; information to the author by J Haritos, L Liveris; Northern Territory Archives
Service, E113/1; F5 V27; F28 GL42, F666; Land Titles Office records, LG 1/78, 1/79; Northern Territory Government Gazette, No 54 of
11 March 1943, No 142 of 30 September 1948; Northern Territory News 15 March 1965, 28 March 1980; Northern Territory Times and
Gazette, 27 August 1914, 31 December 1914, l November 1917, 5 April 1917, 22 June 1918, 14 September 1918, 6 August 1921.
HELEN J WILSON, Vol 3.