As he sits across from me at the table of a busy Darwin cafe - wearing his signature wide-brimmed hat - I often find myself having to lean in to catch what he's saying.

Our interview is interrupted more than once as people walking past stop to say hello or goodbye. "Look after yourself," Snowdon calls after them. It's clear that through his 30-odd years as the serving member for Lingiari, and previously as the sole member for the whole of the Northern Territory, he's become a part of the very fabric of this place.

But in just a few weeks, the 72-year-old and the longest current serving member of parliament will be hanging up his hat.

"I'm a bit sad about it really," he says of his impending retirement. "It's been my life."

Born and raised in Canberra, Snowdon says his first attempt at tertiary study "wasn't very successful at all."

"I was too focused on the high life and playing footy," he says.

But after working in the public service for a few years, at age 21 he decided to quit, get his taxi licence and go back to uni - studying during the day and driving taxis at night.

He finished his Arts degree at Australian National University before getting his graduate diploma in education, and wound up working at what was then Nightcliff High School in Darwin.

He ended up in Alice Springs when he decided to take leave without pay and work at the Central Land Council, alongside the now WA Senator Pat Dodson.

Then in 1987, Snowdon was elected as the Member for the Northern Territory under then Prime Minister Bob Hawke. He lost his seat on the defeat of the Keating government in 1996, but was re-elected in 1998.

Then in 2001, the NT split into two electorates - Solomon, which covers the cities pf Darwin and Palmerston, and Lingiari, which covers everywhere else including every single one of the NT's remote communities and the Christmas and Cocos Islands. In other words, 99.99 per cent of the NT.

Snowdon has represented Lingiari ever since.

He says the Territory needs more representation in Parliament, but that it "won't happen" - especially after it almost one of its federal seats in late 2020 when the Australian Electoral Commission determined it was only entitled to one because of population decline.

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"It's bizarre to think people in Darwin and Palmerston get one representative and the rest of the NT and the Christmas and Cocos Islands have one representative...in terms of service and diversity, it's just absurd," he says.

He says representing such an enormous and diverse electorate has been one of the biggest challenges of his career.

"In the years prior to COVID, leaving aside Christmas and January where I usually take a few weeks off, the rest of the time I was at home eight nights a month," he says.

"[My family] have known no other life than me being in parliament. I've never attended birthdays, special events in their lives or in school.

"That's a great sacrifice that I made...[but] anyone who wants to do this job and thinks they can do it sitting in an office is away with the fairies."

Another challenge for Snowdon has been the low enrollment numbers in his electorate, especially among Aboriginal people who make up more than 40 per cent of his constituents.

He says there had been a lack of action by the Australian Electoral Commission since the Howard Government to boost enrolment numbers in the bush.

"There's not automatic enrolment in the bush which there should be - it exists for everyone else in the country, so it's discriminatory," he says.

"It's something that should have changed some time ago which we have called for."

During his time in parliament, Snowdon held portfolios in Aboriginal affairs and defence - including as Minister for Indigenous Health under the Rudd/Gillard leadership.

Although hesitant to list his achievements, saying it would be "arrogant", Snowdon says he is proud to have been a part of the things he has.

"It was a wonderful area to work in [Indigenous health] because there are some really wonderful people...ACCHOS (Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations) remain the best example of comprehensive primary health care in the country and they do a magnificent job," he says.

"But, there's still a great deal that needs to be done, so we haven't achieved what we have to achieve, which is closing the gap."

He's more than willing, however, to talk about his regrets during his time in parliament. Most of them are around not having done enough, especially for residents of regional and rural parts of the country.

He describes the failure to address the state of housing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as "a failure of successive governments."

"COVID put a focus on it, what everyone else involved in that health industry knew - if you address overcrowding in remote housing in the NT you increase life expectancy and you cut back on disease."

He also doesn't hold back about how he feels about the 2011 decision by the Gillard government to ban live cattle exports.

"There was a ban on live cattle exports, which hit them [pastoralists] very hard and which I opposed and I was extraordinarily embarrassed that the then government, of which I was a member, had decided to close down cattle exports for a period," he says."I think that was the wrong decision, did then and did now."

A lot has changed in the last 35 years, especially in politics, and Snowdon has witnessed the changes first-hand.

He says one of the major ones has been the representation of women in parliament.

"It used to be a very boys club, with a very macho atmosphere," he says.

"In 1988 there were eight or nine women Labor MPs, now it's 48.5 per cent and it's a wonderful change. It's changed the whole dynamic.

"And I think we can thank, in large part, Julia Gillard as Prime Minister for driving that change."

After looking after Lingiari for as long as it has existed as an electorate, Snowdon says it is hard to let go. But he has thrown his support behind the new Labor candidate and former Deputy Chief Minister of the NT, Marion Scrymgour, who he has known for decades and has "great respect for."

He says it's a relief to feel that he is passing the baton to someone he feels is up to the job.

"I think that she's very well respected. I've been able to assure people with a great deal of confidence that they shouldn't be worried about her, she's a very good candidate."

He acknowledges, however, that it's not going to be easy for Labor to maintain its hold on the seat, with Country Liberal Party candidate and former Alice Springs Mayor Damien Ryan predicted to be particularly tough competition for Scrymgour.

"This is a marginal seat, so it's not as if she'll be a shoo in because I won all those successive elections, it's still a marginal seat," he says.

"It will be a tight contest."

Being voted in to represent your electorate time and time again for thirty years is a feat very few politicians have achieved.

But, his secret to success is surprisingly simple.

"I think hard work keeps you in the job," he says.

"And taking nothing for granted."

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