ABSTRACT
Long before digital displays, long before the repeated cycles traced by analogue machines replicating apparent cycles of the sun, humans noticed the cycles of the seasons. Aboriginal societies in Australia's far north related weather to the appearance of the sky, and distinct stages in the life cycle and behaviours of plants and animals. Aboriginal people reckon seasons in an entirely different way from Europeans. The Northern Territory did not have its own almanac until 1885. Since the NT was part of South Australia between 1863 and 1911, South Australian almanacs, in which various farmers' and gardeners' calendars featured prominently, circulated in the NT from the founding of Darwin in 1869. Calendars came to have almost ontological force. With the advent of the BC/AD dating system, calendars could not only set out each day of a year or period: they now, it seemed, could map the entire timescape.
