Goyder Park commemorates Goyder’s Camp, which is of historical significance as the first settlement within Port Darwin from which would grow the modern city of Darwin.
Woodroffe Goyder, Surveyor General of South Australia, landed at an area between Fort Hill and the Darwin escarpment on 5 February 1869. From this location Goyder’s survey party surveyed the city that would become Darwin and eight other townships along Northern Territory waterways between February and September 1869. The camp continued to be occupied following the departure of Goyder for many years during the early years of settlement and expansion within Darwin.
The camp area is also of historical significance as the landing point for the submarine telegraph cable between Java and Darwin that linked Australia to rest of the world in 1871 through telegraphic communications and was the site of the original Overland Telegraph Camp.