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ZICHY-WOINARSKI, BERYL VICTORIA: see ASCHE, BERYL VICTORIA
ZIMIN, INNOKENTIY TEMOFEVICH (JIM) (1902–1974), farmer, was born in Stretinsk, Siberia, in 1902.
After the 1917 Revolution, he crossed into China, living there for several years and gaining a Chauffer-Mechanics
certificate from Harbin Young Men’s Christian Association in 1925. He arrived in Australia in 1927, landing in
Brisbane. He worked in Queensland before setting out for the Northern Territory.
Zimin first took up land at Adelaide River around 1929, farming with Evseqney Belokriloff, then taking up
block 109 with five others by 1930; a letter of that year states that I Zimin and Company worked the block.
Times being tough, Zimin also took out a miner’s right for 1931–32.
He settled permanently at Katherine in 1931, and took up block 210. He grew peanuts, but in 1939 experimented
with millet and cotton. He apparently acquired a second-hand cotton gin in 1950.
In 1938, he helped prepare a petition for the Minister of the Interior complaining about the lack of quality
seed and the depredations of the peanut selling agents. The complaints brought some results, as fresh seed was
made available. During the Second World War, he became a market gardener, supplying the army with tomatoes,
cabbages, watermelons and pumpkins. In 1939 he had acquired a second–hand tractor, in fairly poor condition, and
used it along with Aboriginal help during the war years.
In 1942 the 121/101 Australian General Hospital (AGH) was built on a portion of his land—the site was
later that of the meatworks on the Victoria Highway. Bores were sunk, pipes laid and a cemetery started. A road
was also built through his property to link up the bridge/weir that had been built as part of the upgrading of the
Stuart Highway (today’s Low Level Bridge). Zimin grew vegetables for the 12 1/101 AGH and used army water,
obtained in lieu of compensation for the use of his land.
In 1943, he was employing three Aborigines in his vegetable garden; by 1944, he was employing four helpers
and receiving good prices for his produce. Army needs ceased after 1946; peanuts proved an unsatisfactory crop
as, by 1951, Crown Rot disease was affecting crops around Katherine. He seems to have ceased growing them
after 1956.
After the 1957 flood, Zimin took a job with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation;
it appears that the big flood of that year finally ruined any hope of a productive farm. In 1962, he sold eighty
hectares (200 acres) of his land to the newly established meatworks. In 1971, he gave up most of block 210 and
lived on lot 458 (the remainder) until his death from a heart attack in 1974.
In 1934, Zimin became an Australian citizen. He was described as being 170 centimetres (five feet eight inches)
tall, with blue eyes and fair hair and a ‘white spot of hair centre of brow’. He revisited Manchuria during 1935–36
with John Ivanetz and Alex Tokmakoff, and visited New Zealand in 1947. He became a member of Royal Ancient
Order of Buffaloes in 1948. In 1949, he patented a machine for cleaning peanuts and peanut plants; this was the
first agricultural patent given to a Northern Territory resident. During the 1950s, he experimented with tobacco, to
no real effect. In the 1960s, he appears to have experimented with lucerne.
In the war years, he became friendly with an American serviceman, Lieutenant Clyde Townsend, 43 Engineering
Regiment, a friendship maintained until Zimin’s death. He also had cousin living in New York.
In 1982, a stretch of the old Stuart Highway was renamed Zimin Drive in his honour.
Family information.
MICHAEL CANAVAN, Vol 1.
ZIMMERMANN, ADELA VIOLET: see PURVIS, ADELA VIOLET