Peter Gerald Spillett (20 January 1926 – 18 December 2004) was a British-born Australian historian and public servant. Spillett was born in

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the Historic counties of England, historic county of ...

, Surrey (now part of London). He was educated at

London Polytechnic The University of Westminster is a public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in Au ...

and

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, before serving as a radio operator in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. In 1950, he emigrated to Australia, working in Western Australia and Victoria before joining the Australian Public Service and moving to Darwin. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the community in 1978. While working for the Northern Territory government, he suffered a serious heart attack and retired in 1982. He remained active in historical research and the Anglican Church, founding the Historical Society of the Northern Territory and serving as President and Honorary Life Member of the society and the National Trust of Australia (Northern Territory). He had a particular interest in

Makassan contact with Australia Makassar people from the region of Sulawesi in Indonesia began visiting the coast of Northern Australia sometime around the middle of the 18th century, first in the Kimberley region, and some decades later in Arnhem Land. They were men who co ...

, and spent thousands of hours researching the trade and fishing arrangements between the Indonesian trepangers and the

Yolngu people The Yolngu or Yolŋu ( or ) are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. ''Yolngu'' means "person" in the Yolŋu languages. The terms Murngin, Wulamba, Yalnuma ...

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...

in the eighteenth century. Spillett died suddenly in

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

, Indonesia in December 2004. The Pensioners Association named its headquarters Spillett House after him, and before his death in 2004, the

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is the main museum in the Northern Territory. The headquarters of the museum is located in the inner Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin suburb of The Gardens, Northern Territory, The ...

named its library after him. In 2016, a newly created Territory electoral division was named Spillett in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spillett, Peter 1926 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Australian historians Australian public servants Members of the Order of Australia British emigrants to Australia