sim & em in nhulunbuy, east arnhem land NT: News bites from Nhulunbuy

Thursday, 16 July 2009

News bites from Nhulunbuy

We have been very lax over the past few weeks, so here are a few headlines from Nhulunbuy since we last posted....

Sim goes to Brisvegas to pick up our new car – a 1994 Toyota Landcruiser
Sim and Dad travel from Brisvegas to Nhulunbuy

Em takes a trip to Groote Eylandt and Bickerton Island for three days

Sim starts a new job – with Marngarr CDEP (Community Development Employment Projects)
Em and Sim moved out of the little unit into a tiny room in the hospital quarters
Plus... on the weekend we headed out to Bawaka, a beautiful homeland right next to the beach, about 100kms from town. The trip itself was a second option really, after the boat trip we planned fell through due to mechanical issues... The car handled the sand really well, once we had the tyres down to 15psi of course! We spent the afternoon swimming in the shallows (big croc area so can't go deeper), and looking for mud crabs to spear. We ran into some local indigenous guys - who were more than happy to pose for a shot (around 15 in the troopie!).

Check out the posts below for a little more detail and more photos on any of the above...

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Nhulunbuy/Gove - an intro

Gove Peninsula (including Nhulunbuy and Yirrkala)
An important mining town on the edge of Arnhem Land. At the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land lies the Gove Peninsula and the mining town of Nhulunbuy. It is accessible, on a regular basis, by air from Darwin (650 km) and Cairns (1190 km). During the dry season, and with the appropriate documentation from the Northern Land Council, it can be reached by 4WD from Katherine. The journey which passes through the Arnhem Land Aboriginal reserve is 700 km over rough dirt roads and takes approximately 14 hours. There are no fuel stops on the way. The current attitude of the Northern Land Council to such journeys is that there must be some reason beyond sightseeing or simply wanting to travel around the edges of the continent. Consequently applications to travel through Arnhem Land are not easy to obtain.

The Gove Peninsula was originally occupied by the Yolngu Aborigines and its proximity to the Arafura Sea means that for centuries the locals traded with the Macassan trepangus which visited the coast. In 1931 the area was included as part of Arnhem Land but during World War II, with the imminent danger of a Japanese invasion of Australia's northern coastline, the area became a major air force base with a population of over 5 000 servicemen. The peninsula was named after a young Australian airman, Pilot Officer William Gove, who was killed in action in 1943.

In the 1950s the Commonwealth Government carried out mineral exploration and in 1952 bauxite was discovered. The bauxite deposit covered 65 sq. km and contained an estimated 250 million tonnes. Initially the government resisted demands to mine the deposit but in 1964 Nabalco was set up and with a commitment to spend $100 million and build a port, township and mine, the company was granted a lease.

The town of Nhulunbuy (the word is the term used by local Aborigines to refer to the hill named Mount Saunders by Matthew Flinders) was started in 1969. Today it has a population of over 4 000. With no easy land links to the outside world all supplies are either shipped or flown in.
The establishment of the town did not occur without resistance from the local Aborigines. A land rights court challenge was mounted in 1968 and currently the participants in the Gove Joint Venture (Swiss Aluminium & Gove Aluminium Ltd) pay $9.5 million royalties each year.

Part of the royalties go to the local Aboriginal community. The rest benefits Aborigines throughout the Northern Territory.
To the south of Nhulunbuy is the Aboriginal community of Yirrkala. The settlement, which was probably inhabited for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, was set up as a mission station in 1935 and was run by the United Church of North Australia until 1976.

In 1976, after four years of preparation, the Church handed ownership of the mission site back to the traditional owners who had set up the Yirrkala Dhanbul Community Association Inc. This subsequently came to incorporate the Yirrkala Town Council. The arrival of a large number of Europeans at Nhulunbuy and the mining of the area saw many of the traditional owners leaving the area and moving back into the hinterland regions of Arnhem Land.

sim & em in nhulunbuy, east arnhem land NT

nhulunbuy beach

Thursday, 16 July 2009

News bites from Nhulunbuy

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