South Wellesley Islands

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South Wellesley Islands
Queensland
Australia Queensland location map.svg
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South Wellesley Islands
Coordinates 17°00′13″S139°21′48″E / 17.0037°S 139.3634°E / -17.0037; 139.3634 Coordinates: 17°00′13″S139°21′48″E / 17.0037°S 139.3634°E / -17.0037; 139.3634
Population0 (2016 census) [1]
 • Density0.000/km2 (0.000/sq mi)
Postcode(s) 4871
Area144.2 km2 (55.7 sq mi)
Time zone AEST (UTC+10:00)
LGA(s) Shire of Mornington
State electorate(s) Traeger
Federal division(s) Kennedy
Location map of the South Wellesley Islands South Wellesley Islands locator map.jpg
Location map of the South Wellesley Islands

The South Wellesley Islands is an island group and locality in the Gulf of Carpentaria within the Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. The group is separate from the Wellesley Islands.

Contents

Bentinck Island is the only one known to have been inhabited in the past; in the 2016 census, the South Wellesley Islands were uninhabited

Geography

The islands, which lie in the Shire of Mornington, are (west to east): [2]

In the 2016 census, the South Wellesley Islands had a population of 0 people. [1]

History

Kayardild language (also known as Kaiadilt, the name of the people of Bentinck Island, also spelt Gayadilta) is a language of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The Kayardild language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Mornington Shire Council. [3]

Explorer Matthew Flinders charted the islands in 1802 and assigned European names to Bentinck Island, [4] the island group (Wellesley) and the largest island (Mornington Island) in honour of Lord William Bentinck, who was then Governor of Madras, India, [5] [6] and Richard Wellesley, 2nd Earl of Mornington and Governor-General of Bengal. In 1803, the two men had acted as interceded on Flinders' behalf to persuade the French to release Flinders after he had been imprisoned by them on Mauritius. [7]

Sometime around 1916, a man remembered only as McKenzie came to Bentinck Island and set up a sheep run, basing himself on a site at the mouth of the Kurumnbali estuary. He would ride over the island, accompanied by a pack of dogs, and shoot any Kaiadilt man who came within sight; in local memory, he murdered at least 11 people. He also kidnapped and raped native girls. He then moved to Sweers Island, and set up a lime kiln there. The Kaiadilt managed to return to Sweers only on McKenzie's departure. The massacre was only recorded by researchers in the 1980s. [8]

Sweers Island was declared an Aboriginal reserve in 1934. After a cyclonic tidal surge swept the area in 1948, which followed fast on the severe drought that struck in 1946, the Kaiadilt were transferred by missionaries and the Queensland Government to Mornington Island, the largest island in the group. The uprooting effectively set in place the process of the destruction of both Kaiadilt culture and language since all children were restricted to dormitories, away from their parents and kin, and the transmission of the language and lore was lost. On Mornington Island they lived in a separate zone, in beach humpies facing Bentinck Island. They were looked down on by the Indigenous Lardil people of Mornington Island, who denied them access to the fishing grounds. Conditions were so severe that for several years all children were stillborn, creating a gap in the generations.[ citation needed ]

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Sweers Island

Sweers Island is an island in the South Wellesley Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, Australia. It is within the Shire of Mornington.

The Lardil people, who prefer to be known as Kunhanaamendaa, are an Aboriginal Australian people and the traditional owners of Mornington Island in the Wellesley Islands chain in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland.

The Kaiadilt are an Aboriginal Australian people of the South Wellesley group in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, Australia. They are native to Bentinck Island, but also made nomadic fishing and hunting forays to both Sweers and Allen Islands. Most Kaiadilt people now live on Mornington Island, although one group has returned to Bentinck Island.

The West Wellesley Islands, also referred to as the Forsyth Islands, is an island group and locality in the Gulf of Carpentaria within the Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. The group lies to the south-west of the Wellesley Islands, closer to mainland Australia. The islands were uninhabited as of 2016.

Pains Island is one of the West Wellesley Islands, in Queensland's Gulf of Carpentaria, within the Shire of Mornington. It is located 4.83 km northwest of the mainland, and less than a kilometre north of Bayley Island.

Bayley Island is one of the West Wellesley Islands, on the eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, within the Shire of Mornington. It is located 2.72 kilometres (1.69 mi) northwest of the mainland, and less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) south of Pains Island.

Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori was an Aboriginal Australian artist who at age 81 began painting in an abstract-like style she developed to represent her Country, on the south side of Bentinck Island in Queensland, Australia.

Bentinck Island, Queensland Island in Queensland, Australia

Bentinck Island is one of the South Wellesley Islands, in Queensland's Gulf of Carpentaria. The traditional home of the Kaiadilt people, the island was the site of a brutal massacre in 1918 known as the McKenzie massacre, in which many Indigenous inhabitants died.

References

  1. 1 2 Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "South Wellesley Islands (SSC)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 20 October 2018. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. "South Wellesley Islands – locality in Shire of Mornington (entry 42537)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government . Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  3. CC-BY-icon-80x15.png This Wikipedia article incorporates CC-BY-4.0 licensed text from: "Indigenous languages map of Queensland". State Library of Queensland. State Library of Queensland . Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  4. Milton, Vanessa (19 February 2022). "Bentinck Island's 'last people' fight for their homeland after a lifetime of dispossession". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  5. "Sweers Island". State Library Of Queensland . 29 September 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  6. Cox, J. (2022). Dillon: The drove to Port Darwin: Northern Territory Australia 1872. BookPOD. p. 266. ISBN   978-1-922270-74-0 . Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  7. "Mornington Shire". Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland, University of Queensland . Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  8. Kelly, Roma; Evans, Nicholas (1985). "The McKenzie massacre on Bentinck Island" (PDF). Aboriginal History. 9 (1). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 February 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2020.