Coen

History

The Coen area is the traditional homeland of the Kaanju people. In 1623, Jan Carstensz, the navigator of the ship Pera of the Dutch East India Company, named a river on Cape York Peninsula after Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Today that river is known as the Archer River and the name Coen River is given to one of its tributaries. Coen Provisional School opened on 6 May 1895. On 1 January 1909, it became Coen State School. It closed in 1929 but reopened circa 1948. In January 2010, it became a campus of the Western Cape College. In January 2012, it became a campus of the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy. In 1897, the Queensland Parliament passed the Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897, which granted the Home Secretar the power "to cause every aboriginal within any District, not being an aboriginal exempted from the provisions of this section, to be removed to, and kept within the limits of, any reserve situated within such District, in such manner, and subject to such conditions, as may be prescribed". Over 300 Aboriginal people were removed from the Coen district to Aboriginal reserves. Almost half of those removed were sent to Palm Island. Included in this number were the Lama Lama people of the Stewart River area who had been dispossessed of their lands by European pastoral expansion into their country in the late 19th century. They formed a community at the Stewart River on what is now Silver Plains Station, near the site of the Moojeeba township. In the 1930s, they were removed to Lockhart River Mission but later returned to Port Stewart. In May 1944, 14 acres were gazetted near Coen as an Aboriginal reserve. The reserve was located south of the town on the Coen River between Oscar…

Geography

The locality of Coen is on the eastern side of the Cape York Peninsula with the Coral Sea forming its eastern boundary. Part of the northern boundary follows the Archer River, while the Coen River forms part of its western boundary. The Peninsula Developmental Road runs roughly north to south through the locality. Port Stewart is a town also on the northern bank of the Stewart River but closer to the river mouth into the Coral Sea ().

Most-observed species

• Torresian Crow

  Corvus orru Bonaparte, 1850 · Aves
  98
• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  53
• Pied Currawong

  Strepera graculina (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  52
• Green Oriole

  Oriolus flavocinctus (King, 1826) · Aves
  49
• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

  Cacatua galerita (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  46
• Galah

  Eolophus roseicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  42
• Blue-faced Honeyeater

  Entomyzon cyanotis (Latham, 1801) · Aves
  38
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  35