BERRIMAH LINE
“…What’s that all about?…”
Dear Boss!
G’day! How are ya, mate? Orright?
When we were travelling through your Northern Terrritory last year, in August, we heard people talking about “the Berrimah line.” What’s that all about?
-Gordon McAllister, Worcestershire, U.K.
Reply: Yes, I’m orright. I hope you’re orright, too.
The infamous Berrimah Line is an imaginary line drawn by residents of the Northern Territory and all towns south of Darwin , including, of course, Alice Springs.
Darwin has endowed itself as the capital city of the Northern Territory; it is the hypothetical nucleus of the universe, the centre of all life in the northern-most regions of outback Australia – indeed, it is, according to the blinkered vision of many (under-worked and over-paid) public servants, the Australasian Empire and God’s gift to the planet.
They see it this way: Darwin is in control of all things pertaining to the Northern Territory. Everywhere else is secondary and subservient to the Darwin hierarchy. On the other hand, towns like Alice Springs, who have a long and colourful history, refuse to tip their collective hats to the inflated northern bureaucrats. Indeed, our Alice Springs folk are fiercely independent of government employees who enthrone themselves as a sort of surrogate royalty and tend to salute them with a jabbing, up-turned thumb, or other get-stuffed-with-the-rough-end-of-a-pineapple expressions of contempt.
Parliament is based in Darwin. The main administrative offices of all government departments are based in Darwin. Armies of senior public servants are rooted in Darwin. Hordes of lesser public servants infest Darwin. Most political and social decisions are formulated and issued from Darwin – thus, the rivalry epitomised by The Berrimah Line, (Berrimah being the most southern boundary of the largely unsupported Capital City of the Northern Territory – roughly, 15 km south of Darwin central.
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