Darwin: Growth of a City. The 1880s.:Derek Pugh's history of Darwin's second decade, the 1880s, follows 'Darwin: Origin of a City'. Then known as Palmerston, it was a frontier town in a boom: gold rush, port and railway construction, sugar plantations, pastoralism, pearls and exploration. The population was overwhelmingly Chinese. It is an absorbing history, darkened by massacres, murders and mayhem.