The resettlements and land seizures nearly annihilated the indigenous population and also provided one major factor in the development of the creole: drastic social change accompanied by severe communication difficulties. The settlers became more determined to take full control of the land from the native people and carried out a campaign to do so. However, the control of lands was eventually seized by the settlers, when a cattle company acquired much of the area. Aboriginal people fiercely defended their lands. It creolised first in the Roper River Mission (Ngukurr), where cattle stations were established and a township developed.ĭuring this period, the relations between the native and European people were strained.

By 1900, Northern Territory Pidgin English (NTPE) was widespread and well understood.

In order to communicate between these two groups and the local Aboriginal people, pidgins developed throughout the territory based on Port Jackson Pidgin English. Settlement finally succeeded in 1870, and an influx of both English and Chinese speakers followed. It is distinct from Torres Strait Creole.Įuropean settlement in the Northern Territory was attempted over a period of about forty years. Despite its similarities to English in vocabulary, it has a distinct syntactic structure and grammar and is a language in its own right. The pidgin died out in most parts of the country, except in the Northern Territory, where the contact between European settlers, Chinese and other Asians and the Aboriginal Australians in the northern regions has maintained a vibrant use of the language, spoken by about 30,000 people. Later, it was spoken by groups further west and north. Australian Kriol is an English-based creole language that developed from a pidgin used initially in the region of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, in the early days of European colonisation.

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