{"id":78637,"date":"2026-08-23T23:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T23:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/78637\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T23:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T23:29:12","slug":"mates-of-ghost-town-newcastle-waters-once-north-australias-capital-want-it-back-on-the-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/78637\/","title":{"rendered":"Mates of ghost town Newcastle Waters, once North Australia’s capital, want it back on the map"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an abandoned hotel in the Northern Territory ghost town of Newcastle Waters, Wayne Kraft says he can hear the walls talk.<\/p>\n

Walking through the building, he imagines the patrons and staff once occupying what was the only pub for hundreds of kilometres in every direction.<\/p>\n

“It’s the pub with no beer,” he says from the front bar, a stubby from home in hand.<\/p>\n

“It just reeks of that history.”<\/p>\n

Today, Newcastle Waters is a humble collection of deserted buildings and tin sheds, but imagine an alternate reality where the town is not only alive, but thriving as the capital of North Australia.<\/p>\n

A century ago, a plan was hatched to bring this idea to life.<\/p>\n

How did this community rise to have the status of a capital city, before entering terminal decline?<\/p>\n

\"People\"Newcastle Newcastle Waters in 1978 after the town was abandoned. (Supplied: Library and Archives NT) \/ People gather in Newcastle Waters in 2026. (ABC News)Stockmen and drovers<\/p>\n

In 1926, the NT was still governed by the federal government in Canberra, which felt the best way to run its most far-flung jurisdiction was to split it in two.<\/p>\n

Alice Springs would be the capital of Central Australia, and Newcastle Waters would take the crown off Darwin and become the new capital of the north.<\/p>\n

This made sense for two reasons, according to Mr Kraft, an amateur historian from Alice Springs.<\/p>\n

There was no road access to Darwin, and the city was generally accessed by sea.<\/p>\n

And Newcastle Waters was already a hive of activity, due to the famous Overland Telegraph Line<\/a> located nearby and the stock routes that converged on the settlement.<\/p>\n

“I’ve walked in here on my own, and I can hear the walls talk; go into the kitchen and just visualise people, the ladies cooking with their long gowns,” says Mr Kraft, known as Krafty.<\/p>\n

“There’s big mobs of cattle moving through here. I can only visualise what it would have been like.”<\/p>\n

\"Men<\/p>\n

Stockmen at Newcastle Waters Station on Christmas Day 1931. (Supplied: Library and Archives NT)<\/p>\n

The town was built on the edge of a cattle station of the same name, which still operates today. At its peak Newcastle Waters was a vital stop for drovers taking thousands of cattle from as far as Western Australia’s Kimberley on a 1,500-kilometre journey to Queensland.<\/p>\n

A small school remains for Aboriginal communities in the region, but there are no residents.<\/p>\n

One of the most notorious routes was the Murranji Track, a treacherously remote 234-kilometre trip from Top Springs to Newcastle Waters. Some drovers called it the “death track”, but it was the only way to move cattle before modern roads and trucks.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jock Jones in his store at Newcastle Waters. It was a crucial supply point for drovers. (Supplied: Library and Archives NT)<\/p>\n

Former drover Roger Steele was only a teenager when he first travelled the Murranji in 1956.<\/p>\n

“We collected 1,350 wild bullocks. There was only six people in the camp, and we started moving them towards Queensland,” he says.<\/p>\n

“It took 16 weeks, and we had to get through the Murranji, so that’s scary, all that scrub out there. And if the cattle rush [stampede], what are you going to do, for God’s sake?”<\/p>\n

Mr Steele later left the industry and was elected to the first NT parliament in 1974.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been droving a heck of a lot, more than I really wanted to. I ‘enjoyed’ it so much, I got into parliament to get away from the cattle.”\"Two<\/p>\n

Historian Eddie Webber (left) and Roger Steele (right) with a plaque listing the names of drovers known to have travelled the Murranji. (ABC Rural: Sam Parry)<\/p>\n

Aboriginal stockmen were also essential to the industry’s success. However, many were treated unfairly, and strikes were common across the region.<\/p>\n

This included Newcastle Waters Station, where in 1966 dozens of Indigenous workers went on strike to demand equal pay, months before the now legendary Wave Hill walk-off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The movement was also a call to recognise the injustices perpetrated by colonists, and the Wave Hill walk-off is widely considered to have inspired the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Horses inside a post and rail yard at Newcastle Waters in 1930. (Supplied: Library and Archives NT)<\/p>\n

Mates of the Murranji<\/p>\n

Preserving the history of Newcastle Waters is a passion for people like Mr Kraft. He has pulled a group of friends together to form Mates of the Murranji, a club dedicated to bringing new life, and hopefully tourists, to the ghost town.<\/p>\n

“People can slowly [walk] around the township, absorb the history,” he says.<\/p>\n

“I just think it’s a fantastic story, if you’re at a quiz night and it came up, we could win the competition.”<\/p>\n

Their cause has attracted interest in Darwin’s corridors of power; the late Ted Egan, a renowned musician and statesman, was a mate of the Murranji. Recently a convoy of nearly 70 people travelled to Newcastle Waters to celebrate the centenary of its selection as capital.<\/p>\n

Among them were long-time Territorians, such as Mr Steele, NT Administrator David Connolly and ministers in the NT government.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mates of the Murranji out the front of Jock Jones’s old store in Newcastle Waters. (ABC Rural: Sam Parry)<\/p>\n

As for why the decision to make Newcastle Waters a capital city did not stick, Krafty has a simple explanation.<\/p>\n

“Probably no money; decisions made in Canberra often don’t resonate here in the Territory even to this day,” he says.<\/p>\n

“That actual act of parliament was rescinded five years later.<\/p>\n

“Darwin always retained its position as the capital of the NT.”<\/p>\n

By the end of the 60s, the NT’s road network had improved drastically, and road trains became the preferred mode of transport for cattle.<\/p>\n

The stock routes were no longer needed, and the town’s fate was sealed.<\/p>\n

But if Krafty has his way, Canberra’s big dreams for Newcastle Waters could finally be realised, just a century later than planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an abandoned hotel in the Northern Territory ghost town of Newcastle Waters, Wayne Kraft says he can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,32663,120156,12396,8964,14793,1938,29174,4697,120157,120158],"class_list":["post-78637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-cattle","tag-drovers","tag-ghost-town","tag-history","tag-newcastle-waters","tag-northern-territory","tag-nothern-territory","tag-outback","tag-stock-routes","tag-stockmen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}