Aurukun

History

Kugu Mu'inh (also known as Wik Muinh, Kuku Muinh, Wik Muin, Kuku-Mu'inh) is a traditional language of the area which includes landscape within the local government boundaries of the Cook Shire. The first recorded contact between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians was near Aurukun on the Janszoon voyage of 1605–06. The Aurukun Mission (known then as the Archer River Mission Station) was established on 4 August 1904 for the Presbyterian Church of Australia by the Reverend Arthur and Mrs Mary Richter, two Moravian missionaries and managed under the provisions of the Queensland Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897. Aboriginal people were relocated from a large surrounding area, many against their will, to the mission settlement. Aurukun was "ruled" for 40 years by Reverend William Mackenzie, as the missions Chief Protector for the Aboriginal Protection Board. The town once had a cattle station, sawmill, butcher and bakery. The settlement was expanded in 1922 to include Kendall River Under the missionaries, children were confined to dormitories although they returned to their families during the vacations. Young adults were trained for servile work. MacKenzie's punishments were described as "harsh, unorthodox, and arbitrary - they included the use of banishment, corporal punishment, including flogging and beating, use of his fists, use of the 'electro magnet', binding the mouth to stop verbal abuse and swearing." In 1956, Victor and Isobel Wolmby were exiled from the camp because Victor had fathered a child with another woman. Victor was to become recognised as a leader and Isobel became a source of the group's verbal history. However, many people remained outside the mission up until the 1950s. Wik woman Alison Woolla was the first…

Geography

Aurukun is situated approximately south of Weipa. The town faces west to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and during the wet season, roads are extremely hard to drive on. The area is rich in bauxite.

Most-observed species

• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

  Cacatua galerita (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  29
• Torresian Crow

  Corvus orru Bonaparte, 1850 · Aves
  28
• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  25
• Galah

  Eolophus roseicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  18
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  18
• Whistling Kite

  Haliastur sphenurus (Vieillot, 1818) · Aves
  17
• White-bellied Cuckooshrike

  Coracina papuensis (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  12
• Blue-winged Kookaburra

  Dacelo leachii Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 · Aves
  11