Stella Maris, heritage site on McMinn Street in Darwin, Australia
Stella Maris is a heritage site on McMinn Street in Darwin made up of three main buildings. The oldest was built by the Commonwealth Railways in the 1930s and appears on a 1936 map of central Darwin as one of two adjacent 'Commonwealth Railways' buildings; the other is thought to have been demolished in the early 1940s. Two buildings at the rear date from the 1990s.
Stella Maris takes its name from a site on McMinn Street whose oldest building was put up by the Commonwealth Railways in the 1930s; a 1936 map marks two adjacent "Commonwealth Railways" buildings, of which one survives. After the North Australia Railway closed in 1976 the site passed to the City of Darwin Council, which leased it in 1979 to the Roman Catholic Stella Maris organisation for a licensed club. It was listed on the Northern Territory Heritage Register on 10 June 2004.
The name Stella Maris, Latin for Star of the Sea, was adopted when the Roman Catholic Stella Maris organisation leased the site in 1979 and ran it as a licensed club. The three buildings sit on McMinn Street, and the two rear structures date from the 1990s.
Stella Maris stands on McMinn Street in central Darwin, not on the waterfront. The site holds three buildings: the 1930s Commonwealth Railways structure at the front and two 1990s buildings at the rear. A ten-year lease for use as a museum and cafe was granted to the National Trust in March 2016, but as of April 2025 the site sits vacant and unused, so there are no tours or facilities.
The building was formally added to the Northern Territory Heritage Register in 2004, officially acknowledging its importance to local history. Since then, it has been protected and preserved to keep Darwin's heritage alive for future generations.
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