Wellesley Islands

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Wellesley Islands
Queensland
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Wellesley Islands
Coordinates 16°31′58″S139°23′17″E / 16.5329°S 139.3881°E / -16.5329; 139.3881 (Wellesley Islands (centre of locality))
Population1,136 (2016 census) [1]
 • Density1.1279/km2 (2.9212/sq mi)
Postcode(s) 4892
Area1,007.2 km2 (388.9 sq mi)
Time zone AEST (UTC+10:00)
LGA(s) Shire of Mornington
State electorate(s) Traeger
Federal division(s) Kennedy
Suburbs around Wellesley Islands:
Gulf of Carpentaria Gulf of Carpentaria Gulf of Carpentaria
Gulf of Carpentaria Wellesley Islands Gulf of Carpentaria
West Wellesley Islands South Wellesley Islands Gulf of Carpentaria

The Wellesley Islands, also known as the North Wellesley Islands, is a group of islands off the coast of Far North Queensland, Australia, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is a locality within the Shire of Mornington local government area. [2] [3] The traditional owners of the islands are the Lardil people. In the 2016 census, the Wellesley Islands had a population of 1,136 people, all living on the largest island, Mornington Island. [1]

Contents

Geography

The Wellesley Islands, also known as the North Wellesley Islands, [4] is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria, on the eastern (Queensland) side of the gulf. [5] The largest island in the group is Mornington Island, with most people living in the town of Gununa. Two small islands in the group, north of Mornington Island, are designated as the Manowar and Rocky Islands Important Bird Area, because of their importance for breeding seabirds, in particular the brown booby and lesser frigatebird. [6] Other islands in the group include (from north to south): [7]

Immediately to the south is a group known as the West Wellesley Islands or Forsyth Islands, and to the south-east of them are the South Wellesley Islands, while the Bountiful Islands lie to the east of Mornington Island. Politically, all 26 islands in these groups are within the local government area of the Shire of Mornington. [7]

Ecologically, they constitute subregion GUP10 of the IBRA-defined Gulf Plains bioregion of Australia. [8] [9]

History

According to Indigenous lore, possibly mixed with fact, the islands were once part of mainland Australia: [10]

In the beginning, as far back as we remember, our home islands were not islands at all as they are today. They were part of a peninsula that jutted out from the mainland and we roamed freely throughout the land without having to get in a boat like we do today. Then Garnguur, the seagull woman, took her raft and dragged it back and forth across the neck of the peninsula letting the sea pour in and making our homes into islands.

The Lardil people, who prefer to be known as Kunhanaamendaa (meaning people of Kunhanhaa, their name for Mornington Island), are an Aboriginal Australian people and the traditional owners of Mornington Island. [11] The Lardil language (also known as Gununa, Ladil), is spoken on Mornington Island and on the northern Wellesley Islands. [3]

The islands were charted by Matthew Flinders on 6 December 1802, and named by him some years later. He probably did not name them until sometime between 1803 and 1810, when he was in French captivity on Mauritius Island; he devoted that time to working on his charts and journals. Flinders probably named the island group in honour of Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, Governor of Madras and Governor-General of Bengal from 1797 to 1805. [5] Wellesley, along with Lord William Bentinck, Governor of Madras, [12] [13] tried to secure Flinders' release. [5] [14] He definitely named the largest island in the group, Mornington Island, after Wellesley, who was also the second Earl of Mornington. [15]

The main town on Mornington Island, Gununa (a Lardil word) was founded in 1914 [4] as Mornington Island Community, and renamed by the Queensland Place Names Board on 16 January 1982. [16]

Mornington Island State School opened on 28 January 1975. [17]

In the 2016 census, Wellesley Islands had a population of 1,136 people. [1]

Education

Mornington Island State School is a government-run primary and secondary school at Lardil Street for boys and girls from early childhood through Year 10. ( 16°39′59″S139°10′57″E / 16.6663°S 139.1825°E / -16.6663; 139.1825 (Mornington Island State School) ). [18] [19] In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 263 students, with 25 teachers and 14 full- and part-time non-teaching staff (the equivalent of 11 full-time m positions). [20] It includes a special education program. [18]

There are no schools on the island or any nearby areas that offer education to Year 12 on the island. [21] The only options for those years are enrolling in online distance education courses or going away to boarding school.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mornington Island</span> Island off the coast of Australia

Mornington Island, also known as Kunhanhaa, is an island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. It is the northernmost and largest of 22 islands that form the Wellesley Islands group. The largest town, Gununa, is in the south-western part of the island.

Doomadgee is a town and a locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Doomadgee, Queensland, Australia. It is a mostly Indigenous community, situated about 140 kilometres (87 mi) from the Northern Territory border, and 93 kilometres (58 mi) west of Burketown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shire of Mornington (Queensland)</span> Local government area in Queensland, Australia

The Shire of Mornington is a local government area in northwestern Queensland, Australia. The shire covers the Wellesley Islands, which includes Mornington Island; the South Wellesley Islands; Bountiful Islands; and West Wellesley / Forsyth Islands groups in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lardil language</span> Australian Aboriginal language

Lardil, also spelled Leerdil or Leertil, is a moribund language spoken by the Lardil people on Mornington Island (Kunhanha), in the Wellesley Islands of Queensland in northern Australia. Lardil is unusual among Aboriginal Australian languages in that it features a ceremonial register, called Damin. Damin is regarded by Lardil-speakers as a separate language and has the only phonological system outside Africa to use click consonants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aboriginal Shire of Doomadgee</span> Local government area in Queensland, Australia

The Aboriginal Shire of Doomadgee is a special local government area in North West Queensland, Queensland, Australia. It is managed under a Deed of Grant in Trust under the Local Government Act 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gulf Country</span> Queensland region

The Gulf Country or North West Queensland is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also called the Gulf Savannah. It contains large reserves of zinc, lead and silver. The Gulf Country is crossed by the Savannah Way highway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Wellesley Islands</span> Suburb of Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia

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.

Dick Roughsey was an Australian Aboriginal artist from the Lardil language group on Mornington Island in the south-eastern Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland. His tribal name was Goobalathaldin, meaning “the ocean, dancing”, describing a “rough sea”. He was an active and prominent figure involved in reviving and preserving the cultural life of the Lardil people. His best known works are a series of children's picture books that retell traditional Aboriginal stories including “The Rainbow Serpent”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manowar and Rocky Islands Important Bird Area</span> Conservation area in Queensland, Australia

The Manowar and Rocky Islands Important Bird Area comprise two small islands in the Wellesley Islands group. It lies in the southeastern region of the Gulf of Carpentaria and is part of the state of Queensland, Australia. The two islands are important habitats for breeding seabirds.

Gununa, sometimes spelt Gunana, is a rural town on Mornington Island within the locality of Wellesley Islands in the Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Gununa had a population of 1,136 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweers Island</span>

The Lardil people, who prefer to be known as Kunhanaamendaa, are an Aboriginal Australian people and the traditional custodians 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape York Peninsula tropical savanna</span> Region in Queensland, Australia

The Cape York Peninsula tropical savanna is a tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in northern Australia. It occupies the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, mainland Australia's northernmost point. It is coterminous with the Cape York Peninsula, an interim Australian bioregion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gulf Plains</span> Region in Australia

The Gulf Plains, an interim Australian bioregion (IBRA), is located in the Northern Territory and Queensland, comprising 22,041,825 hectares. It is one of 89 such bioregions defined in Australia, with 419 subregions as of IBRA version 7, compared with the 85 bioregions and 403 subregions described in IBRA6.1.

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, Australia. it is 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, Australia. It is within the Shire of Mornington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bentinck Island, Queensland</span> 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 3 Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Wellesley Islands (SSC)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 20 October 2018. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. ↑ "Wellesley Islands – locality in Shire of Mornington (entry 42536)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government . Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  3. 1 2 CC BY icon-80x15.png This Wikipedia article incorporates CC-BY-4.0 licensed text from: "Indigenous Languages of Queensland". State Library of Queensland. State Library of Queensland . Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Useful Information". Mornington Shire Council. 30 April 2021. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 "Wellesley Islands – island group in the Shire of Mornington (entry 36965)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government . Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  6. ↑ "Manowar and Rocky Islands". Data Zone. BirdLife International. Archived from the original on 5 November 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  7. 1 2 "Mornington Shire Planning Scheme" (Map + text). Mornington Shire Council. April 2014. pp. 2–3, 8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  8. ↑ "Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA7) regions and codes". Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Commonwealth of Australia. 2012. Archived from the original on 31 January 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  9. ↑ "Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA), Version 7 (Subregions) - States and Territories". Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (Australia). 18 April 2012. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  10. ↑ Reid, Nick. "Ancient Aboriginal stories preserve history of a rise in sea level". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  11. ↑ Bond, Hilary (March 2004). 'We're the mob you should be listening to': Aboriginal Elders talk about community-school relationships on Mornington Island (PDF) (PhD thesis). James Cook University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 August 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  12. ↑ "Sweers Island". State Library Of Queensland . 29 September 2014. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  13. ↑ Cox, J. (2022). Dillon: The drove to Port Darwin: Northern Territory Australia 1872. BookPOD. p. 266. ISBN   978-1-922270-74-0. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  14. ↑ "Three Letters from Matthew Flinders - No 13 March 1974". State Library of Victoria . Archived from the original on 10 September 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  15. ↑ "Mornington Island – island in the Shire of Mornington (entry 22847)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government . Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  16. ↑ "Gununa – town in Shire of Mornington (entry 15097)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government . Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  17. ↑ Queensland Family History Society (2010), Queensland schools past and present (Version 1.01 ed.), Queensland Family History Society, ISBN   978-1-921171-26-0
  18. 1 2 "State and non-state school details". Queensland Government. 9 July 2018. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  19. ↑ "Mornington Island State School". Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  20. ↑ "ACARA School Profile 2018". Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. Archived from the original on 27 August 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  21. ↑ "Queensland Globe". State of Queensland . Retrieved 9 November 2020.
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