Lyons Cottage facts for kids
Lyons Cottage is a very old and important building in Darwin City, Northern Territory, Australia. It's also known as the British Australian Telegraph Company Residence. This cottage is one of the oldest buildings still standing in Darwin's city center.
Connecting the World
Lyons Cottage was built in 1925 by Harold Edward George Snell. It was made for the staff of a company called the "Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company." Most people knew them as British Australia Telegraph, or BAT. This company ran an underwater cable that connected Australia all the way to Britain.
The cottage was built after a big project finished in 1872. This project was the Australian Overland Telegraph Line. It was a telegraph line that stretched from Adelaide to Darwin. From Darwin, an underwater cable went to Java, and then on to London. This line was super important because it linked Australia to the rest of the world. Before it, a letter from London to Sydney could take three months to arrive by ship. With the telegraph line, a message could be sent in less than seven hours! Many managers, engineers, and their families from the cable company lived in Lyons Cottage.
Building Style
Lyons Cottage is located on The Esplanade, with a great view of Darwin Harbour. The cottage is made from a special local stone called porcelanite. It's the only example of its kind of old colonial house style left in Darwin. It has cool features like windows with shutters and very high ceilings. This style is similar to old British colonial homes found in places like India, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Surviving Tough Times
During World War II, the US Army used the house, and later the Royal Australian Navy. The cottage was lucky to survive the Japanese air raids in 1942 and 1943. These attacks destroyed a lot of Darwin, but Lyons Cottage remained standing.
Later, a lawyer named John Lyons and his family rented the cottage, and then bought it. This is how the cottage got its name. John Lyons became the Mayor of Darwin in 1959. He was also elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Council, where he worked until 1968.
In 1974, Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin and blew off the cottage's roof. But the building was repaired starting in 1978. Lyons Cottage is now looked after by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Today, it is a cafe and shop run by Aboriginal Bush Traders.
