| Pirlangimpi (Garden Point) Northern Territory | |
|---|---|
 Tiwi Islands | |
  Pirlangimpi (Garden Point) | |
| Coordinates | 11°23′21.30″S130°25′28.63″E / 11.3892500°S 130.4246194°E Coordinates: 11°23′21.30″S130°25′28.63″E / 11.3892500°S 130.4246194°E |
| Population | 317 (SAL 2021) [1] |
| Elevation | 22 m (72 ft) |
| Time zone | ACST (UTC+9.5) |
| Location | 3,257 km (2,024 mi) from Canberra [2] |
Pirlangimpi, formerly Garden Point, is a populated place on Melville Island in the Northern Territory, Australia. [3]
Pirlangimpi lies 2 km (1.2 mi) from the site of the first British settlement in northern Australia, the short-lived Fort Dundas. The present settlement, then called Garden Point, was established in 1937 as a police post, because of concerns about the activities of Japanese luggers. [4] From 1937, "incorrigible natives" (Aboriginal people) had been sent to Garden Point from Darwin to be supervised by a "Control Officer". [5]
In 1939 the newly established Native Affairs Branch started negotiations with various missions to assume responsibility for those children considered to be "half-caste" (part-Aboriginal) currently in the government reserves at Kahlin Compound in Darwin and The Bungalow in Alice Springs. It was decided that a Catholic mission would be established at Garden Point for these children. [5]
Garden Point Mission (aka Melville Island Mission, Our Lady of Victories Mission, Pirlangimpi and Catholic Mission Melville Island [5] ) was founded by the Roman Catholic Missionaries of the Sacred Heart as a home for mixed-blood children, both local part-Japanese and those removed (stolen) from their families in other parts of the Northern Territory. [6] The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart looked after the boys and the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart took care of the girls. Dormitories for boys and girls were completed by 1941, with the boys brought in first to help with the building work. There were 15 girls brought from the mainland, and another 14 transferred from the Bathurst Island Mission, all between 18 months and 14 years old. A school for children between 5 and 17 was established. [5]
In 1942, after Darwin had been bombed, 41 children (mostly girls) were evacuated to Carrieton, South Australia, being returned in 1945–6. [5]
Children of Aboriginal people suffering from leprosy at East Arm and Channel Island Leprosariums were brought to the mission from the 1930s to the 1960s, and other children were despatched there by the Welfare Branch. [5]
The mission lease was not renewed in 1967, leading to the closure of the mission school in 1968, with the last of the children taken back to the mainland in 1969. [5]
Australian Rules football was introduced by Brother John Pye of the Catholic mission. [7] Three Norm Smith Medalists – Maurice Rioli, Michael Long and Cyril Rioli – were raised at the mission at Pirlangimpi. [8]
Marjorie Liddy, who grew up on the mission, provided an image that was widely used in Pope Benedict XVI's visit to World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney. [9]
Garden Point Mission was mentioned in the Bringing Them Home Report (1997), the result of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. [5] Stories of sexual abuse of boys, and trauma suffered by the children as a result of being removed from their families, emerged later, and in November 2021 the Commonwealth Government and the two churches involved issued a formal apology to the people affected. A class action was settled privately. [10]
As of 2016 [update] the community includes the Pularumpi primary school, [11] a police station, small supermarket, club, health facility and airstrip. [12] Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church is the base of the Melville Island parish. [13]
The population was 371 in 2016. [14]
Pirlangimpi has a tropical monsoon climate (Am) with hot temperatures present year round. There are three seasons. The dry season, the buildup, and the wet season. The wet reason typically runs from the end of October through April, though rainy days can be experienced during the dry season and the buildup.
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| Climate data for Pirlangimpi Airport | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 36.4 (97.5) | 36.5 (97.7) | 36.7 (98.1) | 37.1 (98.8) | 35.8 (96.4) | 35.0 (95.0) | 35.1 (95.2) | 36.1 (97.0) | 38.3 (100.9) | 38.1 (100.6) | 38.6 (101.5) | 37.2 (99.0) | 38.6 (101.5) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 32.1 (89.8) | 32.0 (89.6) | 32.4 (90.3) | 33.0 (91.4) | 32.8 (91.0) | 31.6 (88.9) | 31.6 (88.9) | 32.5 (90.5) | 33.7 (92.7) | 34.1 (93.4) | 34.0 (93.2) | 33.2 (91.8) | 32.8 (91.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 28.4 (83.1) | 28.3 (82.9) | 28.2 (82.8) | 28.1 (82.6) | 27.1 (80.8) | 25.3 (77.5) | 25.0 (77.0) | 25.8 (78.4) | 27.5 (81.5) | 28.6 (83.5) | 29.1 (84.4) | 29.0 (84.2) | 27.5 (81.6) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 24.8 (76.6) | 24.6 (76.3) | 24.1 (75.4) | 23.2 (73.8) | 21.5 (70.7) | 19.0 (66.2) | 18.5 (65.3) | 19.1 (66.4) | 21.4 (70.5) | 23.1 (73.6) | 24.2 (75.6) | 24.9 (76.8) | 22.4 (72.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 15.4 (59.7) | 20.0 (68.0) | 18.0 (64.4) | 15.7 (60.3) | 14.0 (57.2) | 10.5 (50.9) | 11.6 (52.9) | 12.8 (55.0) | 15.9 (60.6) | 18.9 (66.0) | 17.6 (63.7) | 21.0 (69.8) | 10.5 (50.9) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 414.2 (16.31) | 374.8 (14.76) | 331.9 (13.07) | 192.0 (7.56) | 22.7 (0.89) | 0.9 (0.04) | 1.8 (0.07) | 3.2 (0.13) | 22.2 (0.87) | 79.0 (3.11) | 182.2 (7.17) | 361.2 (14.22) | 1,986.1 (78.2) |
| Average rainy days | 20.9 | 20.0 | 21.3 | 13.4 | 3.9 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 3.1 | 8.1 | 14.8 | 19.0 | 126.9 |
| Source: [16] | |||||||||||||
Melville Island is an island in the eastern Timor Sea, off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia. Along with Bathurst Island and nine smaller uninhabited islands, it forms part of the group known as the Tiwi Islands, which are under the jurisdiction of the Northern Territory in association with the Tiwi Land Council as the regional authority.
Bathurst Island is one of the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory off the northern coast of Australia along with Melville Island.
The Tiwi Islands are part of the Northern Territory, Australia, 80 km (50 mi) to the north of Darwin adjoining the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island, Bathurst Island, and nine smaller uninhabited islands, with a combined area of 8,320 square kilometres (3,212 sq mi).
Severe Tropical Cyclone Thelma was a tropical cyclone that affected northern Australia from 6 December 1998 until 12 December 1998. Cyclone Thelma was one of the most intense tropical cyclones to be observed off the coast of Australia. Thelma formed in the Arafura Sea north of the Northern Territory while intensifying rapidly into a Category 5 cyclone, passing very near the Tiwi Islands and posing a severe threat to Darwin, but passed by at a distance of 200 km (120 mi). It then moved across the Timor Sea before hitting the north Kimberley coast. Thelma was the first known Category 5 cyclone to be observed in the Timor Sea, and was also the most intense cyclone to threaten Darwin since Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve in 1974. Ten months after the storm's passage, the skull of an 81-year-old man, who was believed to have been swept away by flood waters, was discovered.
The Tiwi Islands Football League is an Australian rules football competition in the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia. Australian Rules football is the most popular sport on the Tiwi Islands. The Grand Final of the TIFL was broadcast on ABC Northern Territory until 2012.
Australian Football in the Northern Territory is the most popular sport, particularly with indigenous Australian communities in Darwin, Alice Springs and the Tiwi Islands. It is governed by AFL Northern Territory.
Maurice Joseph Rioli Sr. was an Australian rules footballer who represented St Mary's Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL), South Fremantle in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and Richmond in the Victorian Football League.
Milikapiti is a village on the northern coast of Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia. At the 2011 census, Milikapiti had a population of 447.
The Tiwi people are one of the many Aboriginal groups of Australia. Nearly 2,000 Tiwi people live on Bathurst and Melville Islands, which make up the Tiwi Islands, lying about 48 kilometres (30 mi) from Darwin. The Tiwi language is a language isolate, with no apparent link to the languages of Arnhem Land on the Australian mainland. Their society is based on matrilineal descent, and marriage plays a very important part in many aspects of their lives. Art and music form an intrinsic part of their societal and spiritual rituals. The Stolen Generations saw many Indigenous people brought to the Tiwi Islands who were not of direct Tiwi descent.
Cyril Rioli is a former Australian rules football player who played with the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League. Rioli was a member of four premiership teams and the Norm Smith Medallist from the 2015 AFL Grand Final.
Francis Xavier Gsell, OBE was a German-born Australian Roman Catholic bishop and missionary, known as the "Bishop with 150 wives". He was born at Benfeld, Alsace in 1872. He was ordained as a priest in the order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1896, after study in Rome.
The Rioli family are a notable Australian rules football family from the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory.
Fly Tiwi is an Australian airline based in Darwin, Northern Territory, offering scheduled passenger services between the Northern Territory capital and communities located on the Tiwi, South Goulburn and Croker islands, as well as a number of remote Arnhem Land communities. The company is wholly owned by the Hardy Aviation group, Australia's largest general aviation company and was founded in 2008 in association with the Tiwi Land Council and now operates over 60 flights per week between 10 destinations.
Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu, also known as Maralampuwi Kurrupuwu, is an Australian politician. He was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2012 to 2016. He was originally elected for the Country Liberal Party (CLP), but quit the party in April 2014 to sit as an independent. He briefly joined the Palmer United Party (PUP) before returning to the CLP in September 2014.
Olive May Pearce, also known as Sister Eucharia was an Australian nun best known for her work with Aboriginal children and leprosy patients. She was made a member the Order of the British Empire in 1981.
Vernon Islands is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located over land and water in the Clarence Strait including the Vernon Islands and which is located about 55 kilometres (34 mi) north-east of the territory capital of Darwin.
Jean Baptiste Apuatimi (1940–2013) was a significant Tiwi Island artist whose work is held at most major and several minor Australian galleries and the British Museum. Her works were first exhibited in 1991 in group shows. From 1997 until her death, Apuatimi worked full-time with the Tiwi Design Aboriginal Cooperative.
Maria Josette Orsto was an aboriginal artist born at Pirlangimpi, on Melville Island. Her father, Declan Apuatimi, and her mother, Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, were also noted aboriginal artists from the Tiwi Islands. Orsto was one of the first female members of Tiwi Designs. Prior to her death she worked and lived at Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island.
Maurice Rioli, Jr. is a professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL)
Marjorie Liddy was an Indigenous Australian elder and artist from the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory. She designed the image approved by the Vatican that became the international symbol of World Youth Day 2008.
