Barbara James (née Johnson) (9 November 1943 – 31 March 2003) was an author, historian, journalist, political adviser and activist based in Darwin in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. James is best known for documenting the contribution of women to the development of the Northern Territory in books and articles, most significantly, the award-winning ''No Man’s Land: Women in the Northern Territory.'' She was also a press secretary and adviser to Bob Collins, Leader of the Territory Opposition and Senator for the Northern Territory and later

Clare Martin Clare Majella Martin (born 15 June 1952) is a former Australian journalist and politician. She was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995. She was appointed Opposition Leader in 1999, and won ...

, Chief Minister of the Northern Territory.

Early life

James grew up in Holdrege,

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

in the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

. Her parents were Norris and Dorothy Johnson. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English and Education with a minor in Journalism and History.

Life in the Northern Territory

James moved to Australia in 1966. One year later she travelled to the Top End for a two-week holiday. When her car broke down on the way home, she returned to Darwin and never left. James said later that Darwin “seduced me immediately”. She lived in Nightcliff and Fannie Bay marrying Darwin solicitor Geoff James in 1968. She initially worked at the

Northern Territory News The ''Northern Territory News'' (also known and branded as the ''NT News'') is a morning Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper based in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published every week from ...

under editor Jim Bowditch. James followed up with freelance work at the ABC. James was on night duty in the ABC newsroom when

Cyclone Tracy Severe Tropical Cyclone Tracy was a small but destructive tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia, in December 1974. The small but developing easterly storm was or ...

struck Darwin in December 1974. She was evacuated shortly after. She became involved in citizen's groups actively liaising with Darwin residents as a community consultant for the then Department of Urban and Regional Development, the Australian Council of Social Services, the Cities Commission and the Environment Centre in Darwin for which she was the executive officer for four years. She was bed-ridden for nearly a year, after falling from a camel in 1981 in Alice Springs. She then worked as a journalist for the ''Darwin Star'' but left in 1981 to focus on oral history interviews. In 1982, her marriage with Geoff James ended and she sharpened her focus on historical writing. She then worked as a project administrator for the National Trust, a member of CSIRO NT and later a ministerial/press officer for Senator Bob Collins, then Leader of the Territory Opposition and the Parliamentary Labor Party in the NT. James also worked for Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Clare Martin, and is credited for persuading her to enter politics. Her best known work ''No Man's Land: Women of the Northern Territory'' was published in 1989 and quickly became a best-seller. The book was later developed into a play. She won a number of awards including the 2001 NT Heritage Award, the 2000 NT Literary Essay Award and the Chief Minister's Women's Achievement Award in 1999.

Later life

James was a life member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

. She died on 31 March 2003 at the age of 59 from cancer at her East Point Home, Fannie Bay. Her funeral was held at Christ Church Cathedral, followed by a wake at historic Burnett House. Barbara James house, an accommodation facility for cancer patients in Darwin, is named in her honor.

List of publications

Author

* 1989 – ''No Man’s Land: Women in the Northern Territory'' * 1989 – ''The Little Bush Maid'' * 1988 – ''Twenty Years On, a history of the NT Law Society covering their first 20 years'' * 1989 – ''A Territory Knight to Remember – John George Knight'', NT State Reference Library Occasional Paper * 1989 – ''Territory Women of Words'', NT State Reference Library Occasional Paper * 1987–88 – ''People on the Move report of a National Trust project''

Contributor

* 1989 – ''Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography'', DIT Press * 1989 – ''The Australian Women’s Diary'', Doubleday, Sydney * 1988 – ''200 Australian Women a Redress anthology'', Women's Redress Press * 1988 ''Red Dust and Distant Horizons'', NT Education Department

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Barbara 1943 births 2003 deaths Australian women historians People from Darwin, Northern Territory People from Holdrege, Nebraska American emigrants to Australia Writers from Nebraska