Economic motivations for the formulation of Australia’s ‘White Australia’ policies were expressed by contemporaries and have been discussed by scholars. What is worthy of further attention is the significance of the Northern Territory (‘the Territory’) in the formulation of these policies. Attitudes of European elites in the Territory towards the Chinese coincided with and contributed to national debates. European elites in the Territory who initially supported Chinese migration to the Territory then stressed the Territory’s vulnerability to Chinese economic domination to campaign for national legislation. The same faction later protested the government’s unjust application of this legislation to Chinese.