Angurugu

History

Reverend Hubert Ernest de Mey Warren of the Church Mission Society (CMS), the Superintendent of the Roper River Mission, was keen to expand his operations northwards to Groote Eylandt. From 1916, he led several expeditions to the island with the purpose of establishing a new settlement to relocate the Indigenous children of mixed-race descent. The Roper Mission on the mainland had become unviable and overcrowded. Granting the CMS request, the Secretary of the Department of Home and Territories declared the whole of Groote Eylandt an Aboriginal Reserve in 1921 and gave the CMS a 21-year lease on a large portion of the island. The government granted them 200 square miles (51,800 hectares) of land on the western side of the island for the construction of a Mission. The Groote Eylandt Mission was established in 1921 along Emerald River, 13km south of Angurugu; this is sometimes known as the Emerald River Mission. However, it soon became apparent that the location was unsuitable for its inhabitants. The settlement had to be rebuilt numerous times due to flooding and cyclones. In 1924, the Roper River Mission transferred 35 children to the Groote Eylandt. That number had dropped substantially by 1933. There were complaints from the Indigenous residents about the gruelling work, the state of the dormitories, the punishments meted out for infractions and the poor quality of clothing and bedding. Complaints were raised regarding the alarming cases of leprosy. A report by the Chief Medical Officer in 1934 stated that half of the adult population on the Mission had or previously had leprosy. In 1940, a cyclone destroyed many of the older buildings at the Mission, including the boys' dormitory and severely damaged the new girls' quarters. CMS decided to move the Mission to the…

Most-observed species

• agile wallaby

  Macropus agilis (Gould, 1841) · Mammalia
  1,344
• northern brown bandicoot

  Isoodon macrourus (Gould, 1842) · Mammalia
  679
• Torresian Crow

  Corvus orru Bonaparte, 1850 · Aves
  429
• Northern quoll

  Dasyurus hallucatus Gould, 1842 · Mammalia
  258
• Red-collared Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus rubritorquis Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 · Aves
  165
• Masked Lapwing

  Vanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  165
• Grassland Melomys

  Melomys burtoni (Ramsay, 1887) · Mammalia
  130
• Silver-crowned Friarbird

  Philemon argenticeps (Gould, 1840) · Aves
  127