The Dick Johnson Racing driver starred in the single-lap dash for pole running fourth from last.
He was the only driver to dip into the 'fours', his 1m04.954s not only securing pole but breaking his own Hidden Valley lap record by 0.001s.
"I put a lot of pressure on myself today. It's a really special day," he said. "I'm really grateful to be at this team.
"To still put together laps like that at 500 races, it means so, so much to me. We've got a lot to convert now, that's what it's all about."
Anton De Pasquale made it an all-DJR front row, making up four positions on his Q2 effort to qualify second.
Third went to Q2 pacesetter Andre Heimgartner while Shane van Gisbergen was left to rue a small mistake at Turn 10 on his Shootout lap which left him fourth on the grid.
Mark Winterbottom was a big mover in the Shootout going from ninth in Q2 to fifth on the grid ahead of Chaz Mostert and David Reynolds.
Hometown hero Bryce Fullwood dropped three spots in the Shootout to qualify eighth ahead of Scott Pye, both drivers running roaded tyres.
Jake Kostecki, meanwhile, will start 10th after out-braking himself into Turn 1 on his Shootout lap.
Chris Pither was left on the bubble of the Shootout, the PremiAir Racing driver qualifying 11th by three hundredths of a second.
Winton winner Cam Waters had an underwhelming session, qualifying just 12th, while Brodie Kostecki complained of an engine issue as he qualified 13th.
There were some big names bundled out qualifying in the first segment, including an out-of-form Nick Percat. The WAU driver's horror qualifying run continued with just the 21st fastest time.
The same went for Tim Slade, his lean run, which started in Perth two round ago, carrying on with 24th on the grid.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, was Lee Holdsworth who was just 26th after a failed set-up experiment.
"We made a pretty big swing at it today because we didn't quite find the balance for the greens yesterday," he said. "But we were a hell of a lot better yesterday than we are now.
"We've gone wrong, we didn't make the right call. We've learnt form it. We've got a direction for the race."
The first heat of the Darwin Triple Crown kicks off at 3:25pm local time.
