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result of his many complaints about police conditions, among which was that the Administrator (in his capacity as
Commissioner of Police), C L A Abbott and his wife, Hilda Abbott, used the younger policemen as chauffeurs.
He was appointed Acting Sergeant Second Class in June 1941 but was then struck down by German measles.
He was travelling between Birdum and Pine Creek, returning from sick leave, on 19 February 1942 when Darwin
was first bombed. He met the Administrator in Pine Creek and returned with him to Darwin on 23 February where
he was appointed officer in charge with the rank of Second Class Sergeant, having relieved William McKinnon.
Orders were given that the civilian police could leave Darwin on 5 April and the following day he travelled
to Alice Springs (by then the Northern Territory administrative base) and was then posted District Sergeant to
Pine Creek, the most northern civilian town at the time. In July 1942 he was sent to Borroloola in charge of
the coast watching station for three months, and then to Newcastle Waters but in November collapsed and was
sent to Adelaide on sick leave. He returned to Alice Springs in January 1943 but was retired medically unfit on
31 August 1943.
Birt had been reared in the Church of England faith but was a non-attender as an adult. He claimed to be a
socialist and a recurring theme in his memoirs was his disgust with the level of racial discrimination that existed
in the Northern Territory during his years of residence. During his formative years in South Australia he had
frequently mixed with part Aboriginal people with whom he said he got on well. He also wrote about the difficulty
he had in adjusting to the differing policies promulgated by South Australia and the Northern Territory on the
policing of Aborigines. His writings are spiced with a commentary on his various ‘affairs’ with girls of all colours,
although he did not marry during his service in the Territory. Although he undoubtedly enjoyed police work,
in common with many of his contemporaries he was not happy with police conditions, particularly in Darwin.
In 1939 he claimed to have arranged for questions to be asked in the Senate concerning the Administrator also
holding the rank of Commissioner of Police.
He was a prolific writer and his stories were frequently published in The Territorian. It was not uncommon
during the 1970s and 1980s to see his name on letters to the Editor in such publications as The Bulletin and the
Australian. He was not apparently a sportsman but in 1931 sailed an 18-foot cutter on Darwin Harbour.
After he left the Territory he was employed in the South Australian Highways Department until his retirement
in 1965.
Northern Standard, 6 May 1932; The Territorian, 1967, April 1968; R Birt, ‘Northern Territory Policeman’, unpublished manuscript, Northern
Territory Archives Service, NTRS 850/P1; Birt Papers, Northern Territory Archives Service, NTRS 270; Northern Territory Police Department
Records.
HELEN J WILSON, Vol 2.
BLAIN, ADAIR MACALISTER (1894–1983), surveyor and Member of the House of Representatives, was born
at Inverell, New South Wales on 21 November 1894, the son of Milton Blain and his wife Katunah Ann. He was
educated at Silverspur and at Perth Modern School from which he matriculated into the University of Adelaide,
before becoming articled to a surveyor. By 1915 he was working as a chainman in Western Australia.
During the First World War, he joined the army and served in the Australian Imperial Force from 1916 to 1919.
He saw action in France, where he became a Corporal and was wounded at Messines and St Quentin.
Upon his return to Australia he completed his surveyor’s training in Queensland and in 1924 he became a
Member of the Queensland Institute of Surveyors. He spent the years 1925 to 1929 in private practice in the
Cloncurry–Burketown region before joining the staff of the North Australia Commission. He served as staff
surveyor in Darwin until 1933. While in this position he conducted official surveys in northern and central Australia.
It was he who surveyed the Granites goldfield. He also led an expedition, which lasted for six months, to western
Arnhem Land in 1933.
Blain’s duties provided an excellent opportunity to meet the people of the Northern Territory, especially the
widely dispersed rural folk. He turned this to good advantage in the election of 15 September 1934 when he stood
as an independent and successfully challenged Harold Nelson for the Northern Territory’s sole seat in the House
of Representatives, arguing that Nelson had achieved too little in 12 years in Parliament and pledging that if he
could not win the right for the Northern Territory’s Member of the House of Representatives to vote in Parliament
within six months, he would resign—an election promise he did not keep.
Blain’s maiden speech lacked fire; indeed it seemed full of trepidation. However, he was a determined man
and in Parliament he campaigned strongly, albeit ineffectively, for greater Territory control of Northern Territory
affairs. He coined the phrase ‘the Territory for Territorians’ and sought not only a greater say in government affairs
but also preference for Territorians in the local public service. It was his ambition to see development on the three
traditional fronts: pastoral, mining and industrial. Although he did not resign when he was unable to win voting
rights in Parliament he kept trying, believing that ‘the only way to get things done in parliament is to stand as close
to the Department of the Interior as possible and to keep on goading them’.
Blain volunteered for the army again in 1940, stating his year of birth as 1897. His appointment was at the rank
of Sergeant. Attached to the 8th Division Engineers, he sailed to Singapore, where the Japanese captured him when
that city fell on 15 February 1942. He thus became the only serving Member of the House of Representatives to be
a prisoner of war. During his imprisonment the member for Barker in South Australia, A G Cameron, represented
Territory interests in Parliament.
Upon his repatriation, Blain received a standing ovation as he re-entered the House, but four years later
Jock Nelson, son of Harold, defeated him.
In 1949 he married Margaret Sylvia Nottle. From 1955, he worked as a surveyor for the Western Lands
Commission in New South Wales.