WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT
DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY
ONE PLACE, MANY STORIES
Located in the far northwest of Australia’s tropical north, the west Kimberley is one
place with many stories. National Heritage listing of the west Kimberley recognises
the natural, historic and Indigenous stories of the region that are of outstanding
heritage value to the nation. These and other fascinating stories about the west
Kimberley are woven together in the following description of the region and its
history, including a remarkable account of Aboriginal occupation and custodianship
over the course of more than 40,000 years. Over that time Kimberley Aboriginal
people have faced many challenges and changes, and their story is one of resistance,
adaptation and survival, particularly in the past 150 years since European settlement
of the region. The listing also recognizes the important history of non-Indigenous
exploration and settlement of the Kimberley. Many non-Indigenous people have
forged their own close ties to the region and have learned to live in and understand
this extraordinary place. The stories of these newer arrivals and the region's
distinctive pastoral and pearling heritage are integral to both the history and present
character of the Kimberley.
The west Kimberley is a remarkable part of Australia. Along with its people, and
ancient and surviving Indigenous cultural traditions, it has a glorious coastline,
spectacular gorges and waterfalls, pristine rivers and vine thickets, and is home to
varied and unique plants and animals. The listing recognises these outstanding
ecological, geological and aesthetic features as also having significance to the
Australian people.
In bringing together the Indigenous, historic, aesthetic, and natural values in a
complementary manner, the National Heritage listing of the Kimberley represents an
exciting prospect for all Australians to work together and realize the demonstrated
potential of the region to further our understanding of Australia’s cultural history. The
listing enriches and extends our understanding of the diverse histories and heritage
values of the west Kimberley, perhaps in ways we are yet to fully understand and
appreciate, potentially leading to unimagined benefits and new partnerships.
Given the scale of this assessment it is impossible to tell all the stories about the west
Kimberley. The extensive bibliography of the National Heritage listing, including
histories, personal accounts, academic treatise and scientific literature, will provide a
resource for those interested in delving further into their specific areas of interest.
These are living stories, about living places: they tell of the forces that continue to
shape people's lives, and have made the Kimberley what it is today. The National
Heritage listing of the west Kimberley opens the way to the discovery, by the
Australian public, of these and many more stories, that have yet to be told.
A remarkable land- and sea-scape
The Kimberley occupies more than 420,000 square kilometres on the north-western
margin of the Australian continent. Its rocky coastline edges the Indian Ocean, and off
the coast lie thousands of islands, many fringed with coral. In the wet north-west, the
Mitchell Plateau (Ngauwudu) rises to nearly 800 metres above sea level at its centre,
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in places dropping into steep escarpments, and losing altitude as it approaches the sea.
Further south, Yampi Peninsula lies in a transitional area between the high-rainfall of
tropical north Kimberley and the drier conditions characteristic of central Western
Australia. These different environments meet in a complex landscape of plains,
dissected sandstone plateaus, and rugged mountains. The central Kimberley, which
includes the periphery of north Kimberley plateau country and the King Leopold
Ranges, is very rugged; the physical structures here were formed by significant
geological events which folded rocks intensely, many thousands of millions of years
ago. That such evidence of a distant past can today be seen so clearly in the landscape
is due to the region's remarkable geological stability. This stability has also allowed
the much more recent appearance of extensive limestone ranges, built from the
remains of an extraordinary reef complex which, over 300 million years ago, rivalled
the Great Barrier Reef in size. The ranges have since eroded to form complex
networks of caves and tunnels. Dinosaur footprints and tracks are another remarkable
remnant of past life in the Kimberley; they are exposed in many places in the Broome
Sandstone, along the western length of Dampier Peninsula. This coastline is subject to
one of the highest tidal ranges anywhere in the world, and many of the fossil
footprints can only be seen for short periods during very low tides. Inland of Dampier
Peninsula, south of the broad floodplains of the Fitzroy River, the distinctive red of
the pindan country opens onto a vast expanse of desert.
Throughout the Kimberley, where water meets land – in estuaries, mangroves and
mudflats, in moist vine thickets, along the banks of rivers and creeks, around
waterholes or soaks – there is an abundance of plants and animals, some of which live
only in the Kimberley, while others may have travelled from the far side of the world
to nest or breed here. Animals rely on these refuges to congregate, feed, rest and
reproduce. Such places also sustain Aboriginal people: for millennia these places have
had important subsistence and sacred values, and have been the focus of ecological
knowledge and traditional practices over seasons and lifetimes, for millennia (Pannell
2009).
European settlers saw the Kimberley's vast tropical landscape as the last frontier: a
remote place with lush river floodplains ideally suited to pastoralism. To the
European eye, this untapped, undeveloped wilderness was rich with opportunity and
ready for exploitation. But the Kimberley was already occupied by Aboriginal people
who were the country's owners and custodians, and regarded the land and its natural
resources as having been created and maintained by their Dreamtime ancestors who
gave them responsibility to look after country and abide by its rules.
Indigenous foundations of the Kimberley
The Dreaming
Like other Indigenous societies across Australia, Kimberley Aboriginal people believe
that their traditional countries have been formed during an era of creation often
described in English as 'the Dreaming' or 'the Dreamtime'. During the Dreaming both
the natural and human world are formed coterminously by ancestral creator beings
who are manifestations of powerful spiritual forces that permeate the cosmos
(Blundell and Doohan 2009). The Dreaming is not a theory of creation out of nothing:
before the Dreaming, the world was already in existence, but it was unformed or 'soft'
as some Kimberley Aboriginal people explain (Lommel 1997).
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In contrast to ontological views of the West, the Indigenous story of creation is nonlinear
in the sense that aspects of the present are considered both to affirm and to reenact
the events of the Dreaming. The Dreaming exists in a continuous past-presentfuture
continuum, in what Stanner (1987) calls 'the everywhen'.
Each Kimberley Aboriginal society has a rich body of religious narratives that
concern the Dreaming. While such narratives are distinct for each of these societies,
they all contain accounts of creator beings who 'gave' them their laws and customs.
Importantly, across the Kimberley, these narratives describe how ancestral creator
beings have 'made' the Indigenous countries that comprise the west Kimberley region.
During their many travels and other exploits, such beings are said to have carved out
the rivers, lifted up mountains and transformed themselves into rock formations and
other features of the land, the sea and the sky.
Some of the ways in which these Dreaming-derived laws and beliefs are transmitted
from generation to generation are in the form of traditional narratives, art forms, and
enactments through dance and song. Aboriginal children are taught these laws through
'wudu' or observation and practice. These verbal and visual expressions tell the history
or stories of Kimberley Aboriginal people. In the words of one Bardi woman 'they are
living stories; they are the spirit of us'. As integral strands in a broader corpus of
Aboriginal being and knowing, stories are forceful social expressions. Explaining this
relationship between power and knowledge, a senior Wunambal man stated, 'the story
can't be told just anyway, anytime, people can get killed if they have the wrong
information, and do not know how to respect the place, the place is still alive'. As this
Traditional Owner's comments imply, the reproduction of stories has serious
implications and sometimes dangerous consequences. So while some stories are
public, others are more restricted in their use. Kimberley Aboriginal people have
carefully considered the kind and nature of the stories they have contributed towards
this National Heritage listing of the west Kimberley.
'Making' the country
The Wanjina-Wunggurr people of the north-west Kimberley – which includes the
language countries of the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, Unggumi, Umida, Unggarrangu,
Wunambal, and Gaambera – explain that one of the most important activities of the
powerful creator beings, Wanjina (Wandjina) and the Wunggurr Snake, is their role in
'making' the country. Like other aspects of their belief system, the Wanjina-Wunggurr
people and indeed all Aboriginal people's concept of 'country' stands in stark contrast
to Western views.
In Western thought, country is often described with reference to its geology and
topography, its climate, and its characteristic animal and plant forms. Country is
considered an aspect of nature. It is a geographic space, often seen as untapped
wilderness that becomes transformed into a culturally meaningful place through the
actions of its human inhabitants, for example when humans create an agricultural or
urban landscape. Such a Western perspective differs markedly from Indigenous views,
including those of the Wanjina-Wunggurr people. For them, country is far more than
a geographic location with particular topography, flora and fauna. Marcia Langton,
one of Australia’s leading Aboriginal scholars, explains that while White settlers in
Australia 'see an empty wilderness, Aboriginal people see a busy spiritual landscape,
peopled by ancestors and the evidence of their creative feats' (Langton 2000:14).
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The relationship between Aboriginal people and country is one of reciprocity. While
country is the source of their spiritual and physical well being, indeed their very
identity, it is the responsibility of Aboriginal people to ‘look after’ or ‘care for’ it.
Such responsibilities are defined by the traditional laws of each Kimberley Indigenous
society. They include acknowledging and respecting their country’s resident spiritual
beings, and extracting their country’s resources in a non-wasteful way.
'Country' is not limited to dry land. 'Saltwater country' is a term that Kimberley
Aboriginal people, and other Indigenous people around Australia use, in their efforts
to demonstrate to others that their country—no matter what its component parts—is
meaningful. Saltwater country is meaningful through the events of Lalai, the
Wanjina-Wunggurr term for the Dreaming. Country is an undivided and enlivened
space, regardless of its material composition. It includes land, fresh waters, islands,
rivers, reefs, sea, and the heavens. As such, country is both the consequence of, and
consubstantial with, the ‘everywhen’ that is Lalai.
There are many accounts across the west Kimberley of the role of creator beings in
'making' the country. One such narrative from a senior Worrorra/Wunambal woman
describes how the Lalai Wunggurr Snake opened up the space where the Prince
Regent River now flows by travelling from the inland toward the sea. Rock Cod and
the Baler Shell, as Wanjina in their animal forms, then created Malandum (the
Prince Regent River) by swimming upstream through this space. At the place
known today as King Cascade, Rock Cod was forced to stop abruptly by the Lalai
Bowerbird. As Rock Cod 'put on the brakes', she was thrust against the soft mud. In
this way she created the step-like formation where today water cascades into the
Prince Regent River from a stream atop the plateau where Bowerbird now lives.
Travelling back toward the sea, but unable to go any further, Baler Shell became
tired and swam around in a frenzied way. She was 'looking for a home' where she
could 'stop,' and in the process created a huge basin (St. George Basin). Finally
Baler shell 'stopped' and transformed herself into St. Andrews Island, which takes
its Worrorra name of 'Ngarlangkarnanya' from Baler Shell. Meanwhile, Wanjina in
the form of a Flat-Headed Fish lifted up part of the land that adjoins this basin, thus
protecting Mt. Trafalgar from Baler Shell’s frantic activities (Blundell et al. 2009).
Kimberley Aboriginal people share this remarkable Australian land- and sea-scape
with the animals, birds and plants that are found in the region; all these living things
are intrinsically linked to the actions and travels of creator beings, and the ongoing
rituals and ceremonial actions of Traditional Owners. Speaking of this living,
interconnected world, a senior Wunambal man and senior Wunambal/Worrorra
woman explain what it means for those Aboriginal people who identify as members
of the Wanjina-Wunggurr community: 'we call it a gift, it's all been brought to us
from Wanjina. That's the Law, we have always had it. Wanjina gave it in a way for us
to appreciate it. The stories can't be put in and out, this is religion. It's the very highest
point, what we are, what created us. It's religious country' (Wunambal and
Wunambal/Worrorra Traditional Owners pers. comm. May 2010).
Images in rock and other physical manifestations of Creator Beings
In many parts of the Kimberley, ancestral spirits have transformed themselves into
paintings in the numerous caves and rock shelters that dot the region’s landscape.
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These painted images have attracted much interest from the outside world since the
arrival of the first European explorers and are considered to be one of the longest and
most complex rock art sequences anywhere in the world. For the Wanjina-Wunggurr
community these painted images play a crucial role in demarcating social boundaries,
connecting individuals and local groups to local countries, which anthropologists call
clan estates; and connecting Wanjina-Wunggurr people to their conception sites and
language countries. Capricious and harmful spirits whose painted images often occur
at these rock art sites are a constant reminder of the disorder that failure to follow
traditional laws can bring (Layton 1992a; Blundell et al. 2009).
To outsiders the paintings of the Wanjina are most prominent: the large-eyed,
mouthless, anthropomorphic beings depicted with a halo-like ring encircling their
heads that appear alone or in groups, some of them walking the earth, others floating
in the sky. Painted with natural earth pigments often on a white background that is
typically a wash of the mineral huntite, some Wanjina are truly monumental,
extending up to six metres across the walls and ceilings of rock shelters. The humanlike
paintings of Wanjina were first brought to the attention of the outside world by
Lieutenant (later Sir) George Grey during his explorations in the Kimberley in 1837
(Grey 1841, Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005). According to McNiven and Russell a
painted figure reproduced by Grey "was to become the most historically significant
Aboriginal rock painting recorded by Europeans in the nineteenth century"
(2005:133).
Perhaps equally well known are the elegant human-like painted images of the Gwion
Gwion/Girrigirro, commonly referred to as Bradshaw figures, named after Joseph
Bradshaw, another early European explorer who encountered the images whilst
looking for pastoral land in 1891. Bradshaw, like Grey before him, was the first
European to record and publish examples of these images. Like the Wanjina paintings
encountered by Grey five decades earlier, Joseph Bradshaw's 'stylized recordings' of
these figures were interpreted by Europeans as non-Indigenous in origin (McNiven
and Russell 2005), a view that was supported by the late Grahame Walsh, who spent
many years recording the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro painted images (see Walsh's 1994
publication "Bradshaws: Ancient Paintings of North-West Australia"). The claims of
Walsh and others of a non-Indigenous origin for these paintings have been strongly
challenged by members of the Wanjina-Wunggurr community and many specialist
commentators, starting with André Lommel in the 1930s, whose work with
Wunambal Traditonal Owners connected paintings of Gwion Gwion with a Lalai bird
called Kujon [gwion] (Lommel 1997). Other researchers including Shultz (1956),
Crawford (1968), Layton (1990, 1992a), Redmond (1998, 2002), Blundell and
Woolagoodja (2005), McNiven and Russell (2005) and Welsh (2007) have placed the
Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro painted images strongly within Indigenous tradition and with
an Indigenous origin.
For Wanjina-Wunggurr people, the Wanjina and Gwion Gwion paintings are of
significance to them in accordance with their practices, observances, customs,
traditions, beliefs and history. For Balanggarra people, the Girrigirro painted images
are also an important component of their contemporary belief system. However,
unlike the Traditional Owners of the Wanjina-Wunggurr country, Balanggarra do not
associate Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro with Wanjina. Nor do they consider them to be
paintings that were 'put there' by spirit beings during the Dreaming. Instead, they
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elieve that these paintings were produced by their own human ancestors and that
they depict the aspects of their earlier everyday life (Blundell et al. 2009).
Wanjina and associated paintings found in caves and rock shelters across the
Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland are ritually repainted in order to ensure the regeneration
of country as well as the ongoing continuity of Wanjina-Wunggurr society. Ritual
repainting or 'freshening' of painted images has been recorded since the early decades
of the twentieth century. Wanjina-Wunggurr and Balanggarra people continue to pass
on their traditional knowledge to the next generation through the production of
contemporary art in community art centres across the region.
Paintings in rock shelters are not the only physical manifestations of creator beings.
For Wanjina–Wunggurr people, Wanjina have made their mark all across the country;
they have shaped the course of rivers, raised mountain ranges, and changed
themselves into other features of the land, sea and sky, where particular events took
place. One such event was a battle between a Wanjina known as Namarali and local
coastal Wanjina at a place called Langgi. After Namarali arrived on the coast in
Worrorra country he established his dominance and the Wanjina with whom he was
doing battle transformed themselves into the elongated stone boulders that dot this
rocky coastal beach today (Blundell 2009). Sometimes Wanjinas leave their image on
boab trees. Wanjina are also seen as cumulo-nimbus clouds, which are a dramatic
presence in the sky during the build-up to the wet season (Crawford 1968). They also
appear in the night sky, for instance as Wallanganda, the Milky Way Wanjina
(Redmond 2001). Like Wanjina, the Wunggurr Snake also appears in the form of
numerous rock formations and manifests as islands, reefs, and waves in the sea.
Geikie Gorge: more than just a beautiful place...
Many visitors to the region are drawn by the Kimberley's dramatic and beautiful
scenery. One place that is well recognised for its aesthetic values is known as Geikie
Gorge or Danggu by its Bunuba Aboriginal Traditional Owners. Danggu lies in the
south-west Kimberley, at the junction of the Oscar and Geikie ranges, where
limestone that was once a reef is cut by the flow of the Fitzroy River into a 30-metre
deep, sheer-walled gorge. This permanent pool on the Fitzroy is an important wetland
and refuge area for freshwater and marine fish, especially in times of drought (WWF
2007). It is a spectacular place, with colourful cliffs and sculptured rock, its deep
waters lined by lush vegetation. The gorge features in many tourist brochures and
travel itineraries, and because of its easy accessibility receives over 30,000 visitors
each year.
A visitor to Geikie Gorge can gain a sense of the great antiquity of the Kimberley
landscape and the complex history of its formation. The limestone ranges, formed
from the ancient barrier reef system, wind across the country between 50 and 100
metres above the surrounding plains, in much the same way that the reef would have
reared above the ancient Devonian sea floor more than 370 million years ago. From
the air, it is easy to imagine that the sea has just withdrawn, leaving the reefs
uncovered. Fossils of ancient reef fauna can be seen in the rocky outcrops, showing
glimpses of life from the time before reptiles or mammals evolved. In the gorge itself,
the reflective surface of the water hides and reveals an abundance of life – fish,
turtles, yabbies and freshwater crocodiles swim here, and birds nest in forest
alongside the river and take what they need from its pool and banks.
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But Geikie Gorge is much more than a beautiful national park. For the Bunuba
people, Danggu is a cultural refuge within the catchment of the Fitzroy River, a place
of deep spiritual significance created by its resident Rainbow Snake or Wunggurru.
The gorge is located in a section of the river known as Bandaralngarri, which extends
north from the 'Old Crossing' in Fitzroy Crossing to Dimond Gorge. The name is
derived from bandaral, the silver-leafed melaleuca which lines the river in this area
and was used to construct log rafts for travelling short distances.
Danggu is also the name given to the large limestone boulder (another name is
Linyjiya) located in the middle of Geikie Gorge – this is a Dreamtime place
associated with a resident Wunggurru, or Rainbow Snake (KLRC 1998). The boulder
is a malay, an increase place, critical to maintaining the abundance of fish in Geikie
Gorge, and is an important ceremonial and fishing spot for Bunuba people. At sand
patches within Danggu, Bunuba people camped and held ceremonies with other river
people from the surrounding region. Such ceremonies are still held today. Like many
places in the Kimberley, Danggu has darker resonances too. A massacre of Bunuba
people took place here in the late nineteenth century, and stories of this event are still
recalled by the living (Pannell 2009).
Geikie Gorge is described here not for its undeniable uniqueness and aesthetic appeal,
but because it is like so many places in the Kimberley – complex, layered in meaning,
valued by different people for different reasons, and associated with many and varied
stories.
Throughout the west Kimberley, geological activity and geological stability have
spectacularly shaped and preserved the landscape over hundreds of millions of years,
and scientists identify significant biodiversity values. While visitors are struck by its
ancient beauty, the land, sea and sky of the Kimberley, and the diversity of life there,
hold profound spiritual meaning for its Traditional Owners. Aboriginal law and
culture remain strong across the Kimberley, even in the face of a shared history of
violent disruption brought by colonisation.
Cycles of life
In the Kimberley, as in other parts of Aboriginal Australia, traditional life revolved
around variations in the weather and the seasons. Movements of family groups were
based on the availability of food, and on obligations to relocate to particular areas for
ritual business. During the dry, from about April to August, the weather was a little
cooler and there were abundant resources. The most critical time for food supplies
was the build-up, before the onset of rains. Once the wet season broke, more food
became available. The coming of the wet with the north-east monsoons brought
oppressively humid weather, and some Aboriginal groups moved to rock shelters and
more substantial huts on higher ground at this time. Seasonal movements differed
between groups living in the desert, near the coast, and in the wetter north Kimberley,
and were often determined as much by the need for water as for food.
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Many groups managed their food and water resources to maximise availability and
variety throughout the year: people stored foodstuffs in dry places in different
locations, so that they could always have access to a range of food, even when it was
not in season. The ritual business necessary for the maintenance and increase of food
sources and the arrival of the rains was the responsibility of both men and women,
and at times was undertaken cooperatively and at times exclusively, depending on the
ritual (Choo 2001).
Knowledge was the primary tool used by Aboriginal people to occupy and manage
the Australian continent (Rose 1991). Aboriginal knowledge systems, which support
sustainable relationships with the land, have developed through many millennia of
observation, experimentation and teaching (Horstman and Wightman 2001).
Kimberley people lived and prospered in country where having enough to eat and
drink year round depended on intimate, exact knowledge of country.
Each year the Kimberley, subject to the monsoonal patterns of the tropics, is
transformed by the passing seasons. As the wet season breaks, the landscape changes.
Where the ground is sandy and porous, water soaks through to recharge underground
aquifers, and spreads out forming broad seasonal floodplains, renewing plant and
animal life. In the higher, rockier country of the north Kimberley, water masses and
pours into mighty rivers that gush to the sea with tremendous force, carrying huge
volumes of sediment, reshaping beaches and mudflats. It is not just the visible
landscape that changes: during the oppressive build-up to the wet, the volume and
variety of bird calls increases, and the piercing drone of cicadas fills the humid air.
When the rains start, frogs greet them with raucous song (Gueho 2007).
Six seasons in Nyikina country
Nyikina people, whose country encompasses the lower reaches of the Fitzroy River,
follow a calendar which describes six seasons. Like all Kimberley Aboriginal groups,
the Nyikina seasons are defined with reference to their particular country:
Wilakarra (December to February): Wilakarra, around Christmas time, is the wet
season. When it starts to rain, it's spinifex time, moordoon, when all the spinifex turns
green and Nyikina people use it to make wax, called limirri, for fixing spearheads and
other tools. Koongkara (conkerberry) and magabala (bush banana) start flowering.
Around February, when green berries are growing on the koongkara, little orange
beetles climb all over the koongkara bush, making the berries ripe. In March or April,
when the beetles have done their job, the conkerberries are ripe and people can start to
eat them.
Koolawa (March to May): 'Knockem down rain' comes at the end of the wet season,
before it goes into Koolawa time, the start of winter. Yabooloongarra is the name for
grass after it's knocked down. During koolawa, the colour of the morning sky
changes, so that it looks like the colour of the ground, of the sand. After knockem
down rain the smaller birds start nesting: honey birds and little parrots, kinykiny
(budgerigar). The bigger birds start to mate, and they look for hollow trees to nest in.
Going into May the wind changes, the Seven Sisters start to appear again, and some
of the wattle trees begin to flower, going into Jirrbal (Milgin et al. 2009).
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Jirrbal (May to June): At this time the Seven Sisters come out early in the morning.
The bright pinpoint light of these stars warns that cold weather is on the way.
Wilbooroo (June to August): Trees begin to flower. Warimba (bohemia), nganybarl
(bush orange) and koolbarn (a kind of wattle) are all in bloom. Some of the flowers
tell you it's time for crocodile eggs, and that birds are starting to nest. At the end of
July, when koolbarn leaves turn green, the cold weather is coming to an end.
Barrkana (September): Warimba flowers dry up, and kardookardoo (whitewood)
flowers begins. Kardookardoo flower is the main food for cockatoos while they're
nesting. Crocodiles and snakes are laying eggs and soon their young will hatch. The
pods on the warimba tree go red, and when they start to dry that's the start of Lalin.
Lalin (October to December): This is the build up to the rainy season. White gums
and coolibahs, walarriy (white river gum) and majala (freshwater mangrove) are all
in flower.
Dampier Peninsula – resources from the land
Because of its proximity to Broome, Dampier Peninsula is one of the best-researched
areas in the west Kimberley for ethnobiology – traditional knowledge about native
species and natural systems. Over the past 70 years, researchers have collaborated
with elders, particularly Bardi elders who live in and near Broome, to record details
such as plant names, and the methods of preparation and use of important species.
They have also recorded information about the seasons and seasonal cycles of plant
and animal use (Kenneally et al. 1996b; Smith and Kalotas 1985). On Dampier
Peninsula, as throughout the Kimberley, plants have provided Aboriginal people with
food and medicine, and the raw materials used to construct weapons, ornaments and
shelters.
A range of important food species have been recorded from Dampier Peninsula.
Acacia, the most broadly distributed and abundant plant group, is an important and
versatile resource. Acacia seeds can be roasted and eaten, or collected dry and ground
into flour. Acacias are also a source of medicine, and their branches are used by the
Bardi and other groups for making spears, boomerangs and shelters (Lands 1997;
Paddy and Smith 1987; Kenneally et al. 1996b). One species – Acacia wickhami – has
strong-smelling leaves that are tied through a hair belt when swimming, and reputedly
act as a shark repellent, which people wear when recovering turtles (Paddy and Smith
1987).
A number of Terminalia species are highly prized for their fruit and seeds, and some
also have medicinal properties. Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana), known as
Arungal, Mador or Gubinge in Bardi and Gabiny in Nyul–Nyul, is thought to have the
highest vitamin C of any known food: its fruit contains more than 50 times the
vitamin C of oranges. The fruit, seeds and gum are all eaten, and an infusion is made
from the bark to treat rheumatism, sores and itchy bites (O'Dea et al. 1991; Paddy and
Smith 1987). Another tree called Joolal in Bardi and Jilangen or Joolangen in Nyul–
Nyul (Terminalia canescens), produces a highly-prized edible gum. Branches are used
in constructing shelters, and are a good source of hot-burning firewood (Paddy and
Smith 1987). The pindan quondong (Terminalia cunninghami), known as
Jamdalngorr by Bardi people and Gumpja by Karrajarri people at Bidyadanga south
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of Broome, also has an excellent tasting edible seed. This tree has recently been
cultivated, along with Kakadu plum, in an orchard south of Broome (Kenneally
1996b; ABC 2008).
Species of fig, which grow in and around Broome and elsewhere on Dampier
Peninsula, provide many useful resources. Shields are made from mature tree trunks,
and string is woven from the outer bark of aerial roots. Fruit is eaten raw when ripe
(Paddy and Smith 1987). One species (Ficus opposita, the sandpaper fig) shares its
Bardi name with the rough-skinned black swordfish, Ranyja. Ranyja has a sweet
edible fruit and, as its common name suggests, its leaves can be used as sandpaper
(Lands 1997).
Some plant species are highly regarded for their medicinal properties. Eucalypt gum
is used to treat sore teeth and gums (Paddy and Smith 1987; Kenneally 1996b). The
bark and wood of Lysiphyllum cunninghamii (Kimberley bauhinia) known as Jooma
or Jigal in Bardi, are an antispectic, and a remedy for headache and fever (Kenneally
1996b; Paddy and Smith 1987). Owenia reticulata (desert walnut), known as
Lambilamb in Bardi and Limbalim in Nyul–Nyul, is reputed to have powerful
medicinal qualities, and is used to treat rheumatism, cuts and sores (Kenneally et al.
1996a). The Bardi rub their feet with leaves of Wudarr (Gardenia pyriformis) to
protect them against cuts from the reef and stonefish stings (Lands 1997).
Caring for and regenerating country
There are a number of important rituals regularly performed by Kimberley Aboriginal
people that maintain the ‘brightness’ of country, including the 'freshening' (repainting)
of Wanjina rock art, burning off the bush, cleaning certain places (for example, the
graves of deceased relations), and ‘talking to’ resident spirit beings. Kimberley
Aboriginal people also regularly visit places in the country so that country does not
‘get lonely’ or, in the case of shelters and caves along estuarine river systems, ‘hide
themself’ from traditional owners. Caring for country also requires the asking and
giving of permission to access country, as well as rituals that welcome, introduce, or
re-introduce people to country. When traditional owners invite outsiders to visit
country with them, they smoke their guests. This eliminates foreign scents and allows
the country to recognize the visitors. These rituals reflect the sentient nature of
country which will protect people it recognizes as belonging to it, or people who have
been properly introduced and smoked by the country’s traditional owners (Blundell
and Doohan 2009; Blundell et al. 2009).
In the Kimberley, the diversity of the biological environment is paralleled by the
diversity of the cultural and linguistic environment. Linguists have shown that
languages spoken north of the Fitzroy River are different from those classified as the
'Pama–Nyungen' languages, spoken everywhere else on the Australian continent
(McConvell and Thieberger 2005). Kimberley Aboriginal people typically have
multiple affiliations based on their language groups and their numerous connections
to country: ranging from specific sites to large tracts of country. These connections
include knowledge of Dreaming stories across the Kimberley that tell of the creation
of country and its features, plants, animals and people by ancestral creation beings.
10

GEOLOGICAL HISTORY
Geologists explain the formation of the Kimberley in terms of physical forces which
have shaped present landforms over thousands of millions of years: the movement of
continental plates; shifts in climate and sea level; and the action of wind, water and
ice on rock. Geologists situate change in geological periods, which are defined with
reference to global geological and evolutionary developments. These explanations are
published in written form, are sometimes disputed, and may be revised or refined over
time on the basis of new evidence, or new methods of interpreting existing evidence.
The geological origins of the Kimberley reach back to a period when life was first
evolving in Earth's oceans, before the appearance of multicelled organisms.
Geologists believe that the oldest rocks in the west Kimberley, which now lie in the
Lennard Hills, were formed between 1,920 and 1,790 million years ago (Tyler 2000).
During much of this time, a significant portion of the west Kimberley was part of a
separate, larger continent located to the north of what would become the Australian
continent, but drifting towards it.
About 1,880 million years ago, these two continents collided in an event now known
as the Hooper Orogeny, causing major upheavals in Earth's crust and forming a
mountain range – the King Leopold orogen – not unlike the modern Andes. Today,
rocks which were part of the Hooper Orogeny are spectacularly exposed along the
Kimberley coastline. The collision produced huge volumes of molten rock (magma).
Much of this magma spewed as lava from erupting volcanoes, while some remained
within the crust and over time solidified to form granite and gabbro. The tremendous
forces created by the collision were enough to buckle rocks into folds and break them
along faults. Some rocks were buried deep in the crust, where the intense pressure and
temperature transformed them into minerals such as garnet and mica. Where
conditions were most intense, the rocks melted. Over time, the mountain range
created by this collision was weathered by wind and rain. Huge amounts of sediment
washed or blown into the shallow seas and rivers of the Kimberley Basin hardened
through temperature and pressure into extensive sedimentary rocks (Tyler 2000;
Maher and Copp 2009).
Around 1,000 million years ago, the southern edge of the ancient Kimberley landmass
(represented by the rocks of the greater Kimberley Plateau) moved south against the
Pilbara Craton, heating, folding and faulting rocks. The renewed contact again led to
the formation of a series of mountains. Rocks showing evidence of this event can be
seen on Yampi Peninsula.
From around 850 to 630 million years ago, during the 'Cryogenic' period of the
Neoproterozoic era, a series of intense ice ages gripped much of Earth, interspersed
with episodes of runaway greenhouse conditions. Glacial deposits from approximately
700 million years ago are well preserved in the Kimberley. About 630 million years
ago at the beginning of the Ediacaran period, the glaciers thawed. An array of
complex multicelled organisms is preserved in rocks from this period, known as the
Ediacara biota. The Ediacara biota bore almost no resemblance to modern organisms;
it appears to have been dominated by soft-bodied animals resembling segmented
worms, fronds, disks, and immobile bags. The fossil remains of these organisms have
been found in all parts of the world. As waves of evolutionary change were washing
11

over life in Earth's oceans, the southern supercontinent Gondwana was also under
construction, and was finally assembled by around 520 million years ago (Johnson
2009).
Between 600 and 500 million years ago, the Halls Creek Fault system formed, which
today extends across much of northern Australia, from Darwin to the Great Sandy
Desert. Movement on either side of the fault resulted in the spectacular folding of the
King Leopold Range. As the range rose, the epicontinental sea in the Kimberley and
Pilbara basins to the south deepened.
Around 540 million years ago, the Ediacara biota rapidly disappeared, and was
replaced by a new suite of organisms, which may have arisen very suddenly in what is
known as the 'Cambrian explosion', although there is evidence that a number of
Ediacara fauna were ancestral to Cambrian species. During the Cambrian period, life
in Earth's oceans seems to have undergone an exceptional increase in diversity and
complexity, as seen in the fossilised remains of many different forms of plants and
animals which have been preserved from this time. Most of the increase occurred in
shallow seas, such as that which filled the Kimberley and Pilbara basins (Tyler 2000).
The Canning Basin formed as a result of intracratonic sagging in these basins during
the early Ordovician period. Another series of global extinction events occurred
between 448 and 443 million years ago during the Ordovician and Silurian periods,
with the loss of more than half of the Cambrian marine genera (Geoscience Australia
2008).
The Devonian period, from 416 million years ago to around 359 million years ago,
was characterised by a great increase in diversity of fish. The first fossils of rayfinned
and lobe-finned bony fish are dated to the Devonian. From around 397 million
years ago, there is evidence that some fish evolved limb-like structures and began to
move onto land. Vascular plants diversified and became more widespread on land. In
the late Frasnian to early Famennian stage of the Devonian, around 364 million years
ago, many fish species became extinct. A second, strong extinction pulse closed the
Famennian, and the Devonian period. These extinctions primarily affected organisms
that lived in shallow, warm water marine environments – most significantly, the reefbuilders
of the great Devonian reef systems. The reasons for these extinctions are not
known.
Even more than an 'age of fish', the Devonian was the age of reefs and reef builders.
The Lennard Shelf, a tropical carbonate shelf which formed part of the shallow
continental sea filling the Canning Basin, was the site of one of the most remarkable,
rich and abundant barrier reef systems of the Devonian period. From about 390
million years ago, reefs fringed three sides of the Kimberley Plateau landmass. The
main reef may have been as much as 1,400 kilometres long – comparable to today's
Great Barrier Reef, which extends for just over 2,000 kilometres. Today, the remains
of the Devonian reef are preserved in outcrops up to 50 kilometres wide, which occur
for 350 kilometres along the northern margin of the Canning Basin, in the Oscar,
Napier, Emmanuel and Pillara ranges. These ranges run parallel to the King Leopold
Ranges from near Derby to Fitzroy Crossing, and extend almost as far as Halls Creek
(Long 2006). The King Leopold Ranges represent the ancient continental coast.
Limestone outcrops, which reach heights of up to 300 metres above sea level, give a
sense of the magnitude of the reefs that once occupied this part of the Kimberley
12

(Playford et al. 2009). The features they preserve are diverse, and include shores and
inlets, islands and archipelagos, platforms and atolls (Johnson and Webb 2007). The
Lennard and Fitzroy rivers expose spectacular reef cross sections at Windjana and
Geikie gorges (Long 2006). The Proterozoic rocks of the Oscar Range, an outlier of
the King Leopolds, was an archipelago during the late Devonian, and preserves many
reef features in intricate detail (Johnson and Webb 2007).
As well as providing a sense of the grandeur of the Devonian reef system, fossils also
preserve intimate and exact details of the individual organisms that built and occupied
these reefs and the shallow seas that supported them. In particular the Gogo
Formation, a limestone formation of the Lennard Shelf, contains spectacular and
abundant fossils of fish that lived in deeper water, seaward of the reefs. Nearly 50
species have been described so far, and work is ongoing. The fish fossils mostly occur
below the surface of the formation within 'Gogo nodules' that sometimes become
exposed when the surrounding rock is weathered out (Playford et al. 2009). The
preservation of these fish is exceptional: their fossils are near-complete, with threedimensional
skeletons. Soft tissue features of the fish have been preserved here,
intact, for over 300 million years.
Following sea level retreat around the world, between 310 and 270 million years ago
glaciers of the Permo–Carboniferous ice age, which covered much of Earth in sheets
of ice, buried the remains of the Devonian reef and laid down sedimentary rocks in
the Canning Basin. As sub-glacial ice melted, water reacted with the carbonate
structures of the reef and began to hollow out the maze of caves and tunnels which
now form the extensive karst systems of the Kimberley limestone ranges. The reef
was buried under glacial sediments for millions of years, before uplift eventually
exposed it once more.
The end of the Permian is defined by a mass extinction of an unprecedented scale,
informally known as 'the great dying'. More than 90 per cent of all marine species
disappeared from the fossil record and 70 per cent of terrestrial vertebrate species.
However, it ushered in the Mesozoic era, the 'age of dinosaurs'. By the Triassic
period, beginning around 245 million years ago, the grip of cold, arid glacial
conditions had given way. From around 200 million years ago, in the early Jurassic
period, the Kimberley Plateau once again formed part of a large island landmass,
separated from the Northern Australian and Pilbara cratons by an inland sea. During
the Cretaceous period, many species of dinosaurs occupied the area. As dinosaurs
walked over swampy ground about 130 million years ago, they left tracks, some of
which are preserved as fossils in the Broome Sandstone and exposed along the west
coast of Dampier Peninsula. Fossilised remains of plants and pollens are found along
with the tracks, which allow geologists to estimate their age. Plant remains and
depositional features of the sandstone show the range of environments that these
dinosaurs inhabited, which included rich lagoonal forests, estuaries, swamps and
riverine areas.
The early Cretaceous coastal plain and drainage were roughly parallel to the existing
Dampier Peninsula coastline: 'on the landward (eastern) side of the coastal plain a few
small lakes and swampy areas intervened among groves of ferns, while on higher
ground there was open forest dominated by cycads. In a few places there were
stretches of flood debris (pebbles and boulders) and sheets of sand blown out from the
13

continental interior. On the seaward (westward) side of the coastal plain there was a
series of open lagoons, with very shallow water, intermittently drained free and
exposed to the air' (Thulborn 2010).
Today, the Broome Sandstone is exposed discontinuously for around 200 kilometres
on the western coast of Dampier Peninsula, from the bird observatory at Roebuck Bay
north to Cape Leveque. At most places where this rock formation has been uncovered,
whether by gradual erosion or the pounding of cyclonic seas, dinosaur footprints have
been found. At least 15 different types of footprints are recognised, making this one of
the most diverse collections of trace fossils in the world (Thulborn et al. 1994; Molnar
1996; Long 1998; Tyler 2000; Long 2004). At some sites, short sections of trackways
(sequences of prints recording the movement of one or more animals) can be detected.
Sauropods are the most common source of the prints found in this region. Sauropods
were four-legged herbivorous dinosaurs, best known in the form of Diplodocus or
Brachiosaurus (both found in the western United States). The sauropod prints found at
Dampier Peninsula include some of the largest in the world, at 1.75 metres long, as
well as some of the smallest. They are the only sauropod tracks known in Australia.
The most publicised footprints, however, are the three-toed (tridactyl) prints, which
can be seen at low tide in the intertidal zone of the rocky shore at Gantheaume Point,
near Broome (Thulborn et al. 1994; Thulborn 1997). Vertebrate palaeontologists and
trace fossil experts consider that the range of prints and trackways found along the
Kimberley coast, together with their environmental settings, is internationally
outstanding. The dinosaur traces and other fossil prints in the area are culturally
significant to Aboriginal people. Public statements and scientific access has been
restricted due to fear of theft, after a slab containing footprints was stolen in 1996
(Long 2002; Cook 2004). Study has been limited by the difficulty of reaching the
tracks, which are often located in the intertidal zone, and are intermittently buried and
uncovered by storm surges shifting large quantities of sand (Thulborn pers. comm.
2009).
Around 160 million years ago, as Gondwana began to break apart, rift valleys formed
down the western Australian coast and between Australia and the Indian continent.
Sea levels rose, flooding the Great Artesian Basin. As Gondwana fractured over tens
of millions of years, rifting opened wide areas of ocean between the previously joined
landmasses of India, Antarctica and Australia. The Australian landmass has been a
separate island continent since about 55 million years ago (Maher and Copp 2009).
At the end of the Mesozoic, the non-avian dinosaurs vanished all over the world,
along with the winged reptiles and many marine species. Inland seas once again
retreated and Australia migrated north to its current position following separation
from Antarctica. Despite these changes to Australia and the world, the topography of
the Kimberley has remained essentially the same as when it formed part of
Gondwana. Geologists believe there has been only limited tectonic movement and
deformation in the Kimberley since the Devonian period began, over 400 million
years ago, although there has been some uplift. This means that features such as the
Devonian reef system, the glaciated landscapes of the late Carboniferous period and
the varied environments of the Mesozoic era (including dinosaur trackways recorded
in the Broome Sandstone) have been relatively undisturbed in the landscape (Maher
and Copp 2009).
14

In the absence of any major mountain-building events, water, wind and ice work to
wear down the surfaces of a landscape, eventually producing a nearly-flat topography
only broken by isolated hills. Geologists refer to this process as 'planation'. In the
Kimberley, the oldest planation surface – the Kimberley High Surface – is thought to
have formed around 200 million years ago (Wright 1964 and Hays 1967 in Ollier et
al. 1988; Tyler 2000), though some researchers have argued that this surface predates
the Neoproterozoic glaciation, which would make it as much as 700 million years old
(Ollier et al. 1988). The remains of the High Surface can be seen today on the highest
mesas of the plateaus of the north Kimberley, such as Mount Hann at 776 metres.
Peaks within the King Leopold and Durack ranges, including Mount Ord at 937
metres, were once hills which stood above this surface.
Between 200 and 100 million years ago, uplift and then erosion of the Kimberley
High Surface formed a second, lower planation surface – the Kimberley Low Surface.
From 70 to 50 million years ago Australia moved into tropical latitudes, and the
warmer climate and heavy rain leached the soil of the Kimberley Low Surface and led
to the formation of laterite, a hard capping of minerals. Twenty million years ago, as
Australia continued its journey north towards Asia, the Kimberley Low Surface was
uplifted. Fast-flowing water rushing down these newly created steep slopes cut deep
gorges and other features that are visible today in the northern coastal regions of the
Kimberley, including the spectacular cliff walls and waterfalls of the lower reaches of
the King George and King Edward rivers (Maher and Copp 2009). The uplifted
Kimberley Low Surface has been gradually worn down to form the hills and valleys
found in the lower altitude country around the edge of the North Kimberley plateaus,
while the original Low Surface is preserved in the vicinity of Halls Creek. A new
planation surface has not yet developed.
HUMAN ARRIVALS
It is still unknown when and from where humans first appeared in this country. The
contemporary scientific explanation is that, after leaving Sundaland (the southern
extension of south-east Asia drowned by rising seas of the Holocene, with
Sundaland's remnants comprising the Malay Peninsula and islands of Sumatra, Java,
Borneo, and surrounding smaller islands), the first arrivals made short voyages
between islands, mostly remaining in sight of land, before setting off on the longest
stretch of the journey. They navigated sea channels up to 100 kilometres wide to
reach the Sahul, the conjoined landmass of Australia and New Guinea (Mulvaney and
Kamminga 1999; Gillespie 2002). We do not know what sort of craft they travelled
on, or whether the journey was made by accident or intention, once or many times.
Archaeological evidence suggests that by at least 40,000 years ago humans had
occupied all, or nearly all, parts of the Australian continent. Scientists identify the
Kimberley as one of the most likely entry points for the initial migration of people
from Asia to Australia. Archaeological investigations may show the Kimberley to be
the first area in Australia to be inhabited by modern humans (O'Connor 1999).
Archaeological finds from rock shelters indicate that early Kimberley people had a
varied diet. They ate many different plants, shellfish, fish, tortoises, lizards, rodents,
wallabies, possums, bandicoots and goose eggs (McConnell and O'Connor 1997;
15

O'Connor 1999; Balme 2000). Marine remains, including what appear to be
decorative pieces of baler shell and sections of dentalium or tusk shells (called
barrgayi by Bardi and Nyul Nyul people, who still make necklaces from them), have
been found in rock shelter deposits up to 500 kilometres from their source, providing
evidence that trade routes linked the inland to the coast from perhaps 30,000 years
ago (Balme and Morse 2006). In addition, archaeological excavations in the west
Kimberley have provided the earliest evidence of the intentional application of ochre
onto a rock surface presently known in Australia, and one of the earliest examples
anywhere in the world. Sometime before 39,700 BP, ochre was blown onto the roof of
a rock shelter in a similar method to that used by Aboriginal people in Australia today
(O'Connor and Fankhauser 2001; O'Connor and Marwick 2007).
The most dramatic change to the Kimberley landscape since people arrived began
after the Last Glacial Maximum of the late Pleistocene, around 22,000 years ago
(Tyler 2000). Australia remained largely free of permanent ice during this period of
global glaciation, except in a small area of the Snowy Mountains and parts of
Tasmania, but in the northern hemisphere, glaciers advanced to high latitudes. As the
ice age ended glacial ice melted, sea levels rose and the Kimberley coast was flooded,
with seawater reaching up to 80 kilometres inland. Mountain ranges became islands,
and river valleys were inundated and now lie beneath the sea. The Fitzroy River
floodplain, which was to be an important centre of life for many generations of
Kimberley Aboriginal people, started to form. Sea levels stabilised at around their
current levels by about 9,000 years ago.
These changes occurred over a number of human generations, transforming the
landscape and resources available to people living in many parts of the Kimberley.
Archaeologists have studied rock shelters which were occupied during this time, and
found that people adapted to change in a range of ways, including by altering the
species of plants they consumed. Further study of such sites in the Kimberley could
assist in better reconstructing how people responded to this environmental
transformation, as well as to subsequent cycles of climatic change associated with la
Niña and el Niño events, experienced over the past 10,000 years (McConnell and
O'Connor 1997; O'Connor 1999).
Scientists believe that the Kimberley landscape formed both by gradual processes of
geological and climate change, and by much more rapid events. Evidence along the
north-west coast of Australia suggests that, as recently as the seventeenth century, a
powerful tsunami hit the Kimberley coast, generating waves that travelled up to 35
kilometres inland, with water reaching as far as the Great Sandy Desert (Bryant and
Nott 2001; Nott and Bryant 2003; Bryant et al. 2007). This may have been the result
of a meteorite falling into the Indian Ocean. The whole Kimberley coastline shows the
after effects of being swamped by a catastrophic wave (Nott et al. 1996; Bryant et al.
2007). The tsunami's impact on the many Aboriginal groups who lived along the
coast, and even those well inland, must have been immense, and this impact may be
reflected in stories that still tell of this terrible event (Mowaljarlai and Malnic 1993;
Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005).
16

A NATURAL AND CULTURAL REFUGE
For the people who live here, whether Traditional Owners or more recent arrivals, the
west Kimberley is home; for scientists, it is largely a tantalising unknown. The
Kimberley is vast and remote from southern centres. Travel is difficult during the wet
season, and many parts cannot be reached by ordinary means of transport at any time
of year. Along the coast, there are saltwater crocodiles and massive, powerful tides.
The west Kimberley coast, particularly at King Sound and Roebuck Bay, has the
greatest tidal range of any coastal area in Australia, and one of the greatest in the
world. Spring tides can reach up to 12 metres, and there are two tidal cycles each day.
The west Kimberley is also remarkable for having the most convoluted coastline in
Australia: it is comprised of an enormous number of islands, bays, coves and inlets,
which appear as an impossible tangle of lines on a map.
While most of the region has not yet been studied in detail, what survey work has
taken place indicates that the Kimberley is home to a highly diverse range of plants
and animals, and includes many species that live nowhere else (endemics), as well as
species that are under threat or have now disappeared elsewhere in Australia. Some of
the factors that make the Kimberley most challenging to study also make it a refuge –
providing greater resilience from introduced species and human actions, from
seasonal scarcity, and from longer term changes in climate – allowing unique
communities of species to thrive.
Kimberley country ranges from coastal mangroves and eucalypt woodlands, through
rugged ranges, flat-topped mesas and deep gorges, to rich pockets of rainforest and
savanna grasslands. Rainfall, geology, topography, soil types, and associated plants
and animals all vary significantly between the coast and inland, and from north to
south. For descriptive purposes, the west Kimberley mainland is divided into four
regions, reflecting changes in rainfall and geology: the north Kimberley, including the
Mitchell Plateau and the northern and north-western coastline; Yampi Peninsula;
central Kimberley, which includes the King Leopold, Napier, Oscar, Pillara and
Emmanuel ranges; and the south-west, made up of Dampier Peninsula and the
catchment of the Fitzroy River. The multitude of islands and reefs and other
outstanding marine features which lie off the coast are also described.
North Kimberley
The north Kimberley is an extensive area of rugged tablelands and distinctive flattopped
mesas stretching from Cape Londonderry in the north to Harding Range in the
south, and includes the Carson Escarpment, Mitchell Plateau (Ngauwudu to its
Wanjina–Wunggurr Traditional Owners) and Gardner Plateau. This is the wettest part
of the Kimberley: between 1,100 and 1,500 millimetres of rain falls on average each
year, mostly in the summer months. The area has high biodiversity values, including
the richest mammal populations in the west Kimberley, and is home to many endemic
species. The greatest diversity of plant and animal species in the Kimberley is found
in the coastal strip from the Mitchell Plateau north-east to Drysdale River.
The geology of the north Kimberley is dominated by sandstones, dolerites and other
volcanic rocks. Ancient rocks usually buried deep below Earth's surface are exposed
here. In places, these basement strata have been worn through by rivers, showing both
the long geological stability of the region which has allowed such features to be
17

etained, and the power unleashed by the annual wet season. Unlike the more porous,
sandier country in the southern Kimberley, the rocky landscapes of the north continue
to hold surface water during the dry season: pools are common in creeks, and both
springs and rivers continue to flow year round (McKenzie 1981). These are important
dry season refuges for many animals, particularly birds and fish.
In the north Kimberley, the King George River provides a dramatic corridor of access
from the ocean to the foot of the King George Falls, about 12 kilometres upstream
from Koolama Bay. The river has cut a deep gorge in the surrounding rock, creating
striking orange sandstone cliffs, between 80 and 100 metres tall. Two high waterfalls
spill from a rocky plateau down vertical, rocky cliff faces into deep water in the river;
in the wet season these falls carry spectacular volumes of water, and the sound of their
deluge can be deafening.
The soils of the north Kimberley are sandy and sparse. Where there is enough soil,
grassy woodlands grow: woollybutt (Eucalyptus miniata) and Darwin stringybark
trees (E. tetrodonta) shade high Sorghum and hummock grasses (Plectrachne
schnizii). Many large, open, flat pavements are formed from sandstone and laterite,
and carry little or no soil. These pavements seem sterile, lifeless places during the
long dry season, but the deluge of wet season rains turns the pavements into
temporary pools. After the rains, many annual plants grow quickly from seed:
ephemeral species such as triggerplants, bladderworts, small sedges and insectivorous
sundews appear suddenly and live for only a short time, producing abundant seeds
before once more withering under the harsh dry season sun.
Areas with more reliable dry season moisture, such as the edges of creeks and
drainage lines, support closed forests of paperbark and spiny, spiral-leafed pandans. In
estuaries, sheltered bays and inlets, extensive mangroves occur (referred to as
'mangals' when they grow as a group of mixed species). Significant stands of
mangroves are found at the head of major rivers of the north Kimberley: the Prince
Regent, King Edward and Lawley rivers (Kenneally 1982; Zell 2003). On the edge of
sea cliffs, a tropical laterite flora dominated by cabbage palm (Livistona eastonii)
forms part of a spectacular landscape. While cabbage palm species are found
throughout northern and eastern Australia, this particular community is unique to the
Kimberley (Burbidge et al. 1991; Rodd 1998). Cycad species including Cycas
basaltica and C. lane–poolei are recorded only on the Mitchell Plateau.
Punamii–Unpuu (Mitchell Falls)
Punamii–Unpuu is considered by many visitors to the Kimberley to be a place of
exceptional beauty, featuring a cascading series of water falls and rocky water pools
along a section of the Mitchell River on Ngauwudu (the Mitchell Plateau). Punamii–
Unpuu includes four separate waterfalls which cascade into a stepped series of rocky
pools. Each pool also has a rugged, rocky setting. The rock walls surrounding the
pools increase in height along the line of the water course. The third pool is enclosed
on two opposing sides by high, rocky, cliff walls about 24 metres high. The pools are
oriented in such a way that afternoon and early morning light enhances the
appearance of the pools, and the setting sun brings out the red colour of the rocky cliff
faces to dramatic effect.
18

Punamii–unpuu is a very important place to its Aboriginal Traditional Owners, the
Wanjina-Wunggurr people, who are concerned that tourists, drawn by these well–
recognised aesthetic values, must behave correctly while they are there. They say that
people visiting Punamii–unpuu need to be very careful, and should be accompanied
by a Traditional Owner:
* * * *
'Like many water places in our country, Punamii–unpuu is a powerful story place,
with great cultural and spiritual significance. For whitefellas, it would be like a big
cathedral. Punamii–unpuu is a large sacred site, entire area, not just one place – it
includes all of the creeks (eg. Mertens Creek), rivers (eg. Mitchell River), waterfalls
(eg. Little Mertens Falls, Mitchell Falls), and surrounding outcrops and woodland.
'Wunggurr, or creation snakes, travelled from different points with Wandjina, the
creators, making rivers and creeks, and creating all living things. The snakes meet and
show each other (punmii–unpuu) at Punamii–unpuu, travelling from the sea (leaving
paintings at Arrun on the tidal stretch of the Mitchell River), and from inland, like
Wumbulbrii, the one-eyed snake. Punamii–unpuu is an important part of the
Wunggurr travels, and is now one of the main homes for Wunggurr.
'The powers and creation story of Punamii–unpuu are fundamental to our beliefs, and
to our life. It is a very important place to all Wandjina–Wunggurr people, for the
Worrorra side, the Ngarinyin side, and the Wunambal–Gaambera side.
Punamii–unpuu is an important link for our Wunggurr dreaming tracks. We have a
really strong responsibility in our Law to make sure those links are not broken'
(Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation 2001).
* * * *
Kimberley vine thickets
Scientists have only recently realised that rainforest is an important, if restricted,
element of the vegetation of the Kimberley. Rainforest traditionally provided many
resources for Aboriginal people in the Kimberley. Until the 1960s, however, the
presence of rainforest patches had gone largely unnoticed by non-Indigenous
researchers. Unlike the more extensive forests of North Queensland, which blanket
mountain ranges and cover coastal lowlands, Kimberley rainforests occur as scattered,
isolated vine thickets. While small patches are found as far south as the coastal sand
dunes near Broome, they are most extensive in remote and rugged parts of the
mainland and islands of the North Kimberley region. Many of these vine thickets are
very small – some are less than a hectare in size. The largest, on south-west Osborne
Island, is 100 hectares. While only occupying a small portion of the area of the
Kimberley, vine thickets are critical to the biodiversity of the region: they contain
around a quarter of all recorded Kimberley plant species, many of which do not
survive outside the rainforest environment, and are an important refuge for animals in
the late dry season (Kenneally et al. 1991; Kenneally and McKenzie 1991; Black
2001). The food and shelter they provide is particularly important after surrounding,
drier vegetation has been burned. However, few of the plants found in these vine
thickets are endemic to the Kimberley: most also grow in rainforests in other parts of
northern Australia. Their seeds are transported long distances by birds and bats, and
quickly colonise areas of suitable habitat. This ease of dispersal is crucial for the
continuation of small, isolated patches of vine thickets in a vast and largely
19

inhospitable landscape (McKenzie et al. 1991; Liddle et al. 1994).
Vine thickets in the Kimberley have a precarious existence: they cling to rough scree
slopes; grow at the base of sheer rocky cliffs and in narrow gorges; and follow the
moisture provided by drainage lines or groundwater seepage. Larger patches with
greater structural complexity and species richness are found in high rainfall areas
(Kenneally and McKenzie 1991; Chester et al. 1999; ANRA 2007c). These thickets
are often found alongside mangrove communities. Small patches of vine thicket also
occur along the Dampier Peninsula coast amongst Holocene sand dune systems
(Kenneally and McKenzie 1991). These coastal thickets, while simpler in structure
and possessing fewer plant species, offer important dry season refuge and food
resources for birds such as the rose-crowned fruit dove (Ptilinopus regina) and great
bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis) (Black et al. 2010). Rainforest plants are more
vulnerable to damage from fire than the more abundant savanna woodlands, and as a
result they tend to be restricted to fire-protected niches within the landscape.
Wunambal people traditionally maintained vine thickets by burning the surrounding
grassland early in the dry season, to prevent more damaging, late season fires from
taking hold (Mangglamarra, Burbidge and Fuller in McKenzie et al. 1991).
While the birds and mammals that occupy or use these areas are easier to observe,
vine thickets are also home to many lesser known creatures. The rainforest's moist
soil, varied vegetation and regulated temperature are particularly important for land
snails, earthworms, leeches, ants, spiders and pseudoscorpions (arachnids that
resemble scorpions in body shape). The qualities that make rainforest patches such
important invertebrate habitat also prevent invertebrate populations from moving
through, or occupying, surrounding non-rainforest areas, which tend to be drier and
more open. Because of this, many invertebrate species live only in a single vine
thicket patch, and some have evolved as rainforest specialists (Harvey 1989, 1991).
Throughout the north Kimberley, many more invertebrate species are found in vine
thickets than in any other vegetation type (Main 1991).
North Kimberley: a haven of biodiversity
The north Kimberley is home to many small to medium-sized mammals that weigh
between 50 grams and five kilograms. The weight range is not incidental: mammals
within this range (referred to by ecologists as 'critical weight range') have been
hardest hit by predation or competition from introduced species, and are now absent
or severely reduced from much of the rest of the continent (Burbidge et al. 1991).
Fifty seven mammal species have been recorded on the north Kimberley plateaus,
including endemics such as the golden bandicoot (Isodon auratus), scaly-tailed
possum (Wyulda squamicaudata), monjon (Petrogale burbidgei), nabarlek
(Peradorcas concinna), golden-backed tree rat (Mesembriomys macrurus) and the
Kimberley rock rat (Zyzomyz woodwardi) (Strahan 1983; ANRA 2007c).
Scientists have also found that the rocky, broken terrain of the north is rich in reptiles
and amphibians. Dragon species that are found nowhere else include Diporiphora
superba and D. convergens, which is only known from Crystal Creek. Two cavedwelling
species of geckos (Pseudothecadactylus cavaticus and P. lindneri) are
restricted to the north Kimberley region, and a velvet gecko (Oedura gracilis) has
only been identified from the Mitchell Plateau. The Mitchell Plateau is also the onlyknown
home of the rough-scaled python (Morelia carinata) (Cogger 1992).
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Researchers have found that a number of frogs are endemic to the wettest parts of the
north Kimberley (Tyler and Doughty 2009). Endemic tree frogs include Litoria
splendida and Cyclorana vagita; and L. cavernicola is found only on the Mitchell
Plateau (Cogger 1992). Endemics from the southern frog family include three very
restricted species: Uperoleia minima, U. micra and U. marmorata, only known from
their original collection site near the mouth of the Prince Regent River (Tyler and
Doughty 2009). It is highly likely that further survey work would add significantly to
the record of unique or unusual species that live in this richly diverse region.
While scientists lack detailed knowledge of the birds of the north Kimberley,
preliminary surveys recorded 69 passerine species (that is, perching birds, many of
which are songbirds) and 92 non-passerine species, and ongoing research continues to
add to these numbers, with around 220 bird species now listed for Mitchell River
National Park alone (DEC 2010). Rugged sandstone supports the rare black grass
wren (Amytornis housei), white-quilled rock pigeon (Petrophassa albipennis) and
lavender-flanked wren (Malurus dulcis) (Burbidge et al. 1991). Vine thickets are
important habitat for rainbow pitta (Pitta iris), Torres Strait pigeon (Ducula
spilorrhoa), figbird (Sphecotheres flaviventris), cicada bird (Coracina tenvirostris)
and koel (Eudynamys scolopacea) (Chester et al. 1999; Johnstone and Smith 1981 in
Burbidge et al. 1991). Mangals are also an important bird habitat. North Kimberley
mangals support 12 of the 13 bird species that are entirely confined to mangroves in
Western Australia, including the chestnut rail (Eulabeornis castaneoventris), greatbilled
heron (Ardea sumatrana) and brahminy kite (Milvus indus) (Burbidge et al.
1991).
The rivers of the north Kimberley support a range of freshwater fish and turtles found
nowhere else. There are endemic or near endemic populations of gudgeons and
grunters, as well as of the rare pygmy rainbowfish (Melanotaenia pygmaea). Both the
northern river shark (Glyphus sp. C) and freshwater sawfish (Pristis microdon) are
found in river mouths and creeks. The freshwater sawfish is listed as vulnerable and
has not been seen in Queensland, where it used to also occur, for over 20 years
(Mustoe and Edmunds 2008). The north Kimberley is an important region for
freshwater turtle research: most populations of the recently described bearded
longneck turtle (Macrochelodina walloyarrina) and another turtle species which
shares its range, (M. kuchlingi), are found in the Mitchell, King Edward and Drysdale
river systems (McCord and Joseph-Ouni 2007). The Kimberley is the only region in
Australia where the widely-dispersed freshwater crayfish does not occur, a niche
occupied there by giant freshwater shrimps known as cherrabun (Tappin 2005).
Yampi Peninsula
At Yampi Peninsula, the climate shifts from the high rainfall of the northern
Kimberley into drier conditions characteristic of central parts of Western Australia.
Though Yampi Peninsula is much smaller than the other regions described here, it has
unique characteristics as a transitional zone. Yampi Peninsula has not been
extensively surveyed, but researchers expect further study to confirm that the area
supports very high levels of biological diversity (KPBG 2001).
Yampi Peninsula houses a unique combination of community types, including
ecological communities typical of both northern and southern parts of the Kimberley.
Many forms of vegetation occur here at the limit of their range. This is the north-west
21

outpost for acacia woodland and for many pindan and arid-zone species; and it is the
furthest south-west that rainforest grows over sandstone. Mallee scrub-heath is found
on a rare outcrop of Devonian sandstone, about ten kilometres south of Kimbolton
homestead. This unusual rock formation, which is isolated from the King Leopold
Range, was probably once an island that developed a distinctive flora before a change
in sea level rejoined it to the mainland (KPBG 2001). Because of the diverse range of
ecosystems that are present on Yampi Peninsula, at least a third of the entire
Kimberley flora is represented in this relatively small area.
Yampi Peninsula is bounded by Collier Bay to the north, the King Leopold Ranges to
the north-east, and King Sound to the south. Aside from the pockets of diverse flora,
much of the peninsula is bare rock: surface sediment is largely limited to sandplains,
floodplains and tidal flats. Alluvial plains and sandplains occupy the region's centre
and south-east, and include areas of pindan, red clay soils and black cracking clays.
The north-east is characterised by low, rounded, boulder-strewn hills often referred to
as 'choc chips' because of their distinctive chocolate brown colour. To the west, near
the sea, stands a high, broken, rocky plateau. To the north and south-west of the
peninsula, there are mudflats dissected by winding tidal channels and creeks, fringed
with mangroves. Yampi Peninsula's rocky coastline is both dramatic and intricate: it is
incised by long, narrow inlets, and opens onto broad embayments. Offshore, there are
rich and diverse marine and insular environments, which are discussed in greater
detail below (KPBG 2001; Wyrwoll 2001).
One feature of Yampi Peninsula of particular interest to geologists is the
Lillybooroora Conglomerate. This geological structure, which lies approximately 20
kilometres south-east of Talbot Bay, is formed of weakly-cemented rock fragments
dating from the Devonian era. The fragments are well-rounded and clearly visible,
and range in size from pebbles to boulders. In the area where the Lillybooroora
Conglomerate forms the most extensive outcrops, it completely covers the underlying
rocks. Some geologists suggest that when the conglomerate is eroded away, it reveals
an intact pre-Devonian 'fossil' landscape. In some places, it appears the conglomerate
formed when a valley was gradually filled with rocky debris, and its presence today
suggests an essentially unmodified landscape over some 350 million years. Further
research may show the Lillybooroora Conglomerate to be of considerable scientific
importance (Wyrwoll 2001).
Significantly less biological survey work has been undertaken at Yampi Peninsula
than in the north Kimberley. However, it is likely that Yampi Peninsula's importance
as a biological refuge, a place supporting communities with high levels of diversity
and endemism, has been underestimated. Following surveys in 2001, 802 plant
species were recorded from Yampi Peninsula, and botanists suggest it is likely that the
area contains more than 1000 species, including undescribed, rare, and fire sensitive
plants that are declining elsewhere in the Kimberley (KPBG 2001).
Zoologists have only been able to make opportunistic visits to Yampi Peninsula, and
their work there is hampered by the region's remoteness, rugged terrain, and limited
access for vehicles. Thirty seven species of mammals have been recorded, with a very
high probability that more than 50 species occur, including the restricted scaly-tailed
possum (Wyulda squamicaudata) (ANRA 2007a). Yampi Peninsula is also rich in
reptiles and amphibians, with 77 reptile species known, and at least 17 species of
22

frogs – a richer assemblage of frogs than has been found at Prince Regent Nature
Reserve, and the same number as recorded for the Mitchell Plateau. Although the area
has not been well surveyed for birds, it is known to support the rare and threatened
Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae), red goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus),
purple-crowned fairy wren (Malurus coronatus) and partridge pigeon (Geophaps
smithii blaauwi) (ANRA 2007a).
Kimberley coastline: islands and reefs
Sea country
Before the most recent sea level rise in the Holocene, many of the islands off the
Kimberley coast were part of the landmass of mainland mountain ranges, sloping
down to river valleys and floodplains. Aboriginal people lived here, fished in the
rivers and hunted on the land, before rising seas drowned their country, creating what
geologists refer to as a 'ria coastline' (Nix and Kalma 1972). Only the highest altitude
surfaces of the old coast remain, standing above the sea, isolated now from the
landmass of which they were part. Where rivers once swelled with fresh water, there
are now channels in the seafloor – a lost landscape of the Kimberley clearly visible in
the region's underwater topography.
The lives of many Aboriginal people of the west Kimberley were, and continue to be,
intimately connected with the sea. Evidence suggests that people lived along the
coast, using and trading or exchanging marine resources with inland groups almost
30,000 years ago. A well–developed marine economy had developed by 10,550 BP
(O'Connor 1999).
A number of coastal sites in the Kimberley provide evidence of this long history of
Aboriginal occupation or visitation. Archaeological evidence indicates that people
lived on Koolan Island, in the Buccaneer Archipelago, more than 25,000 years ago
during the Pleistocene, with human occupation continuing into the Holocene.
Aboriginal people also visited the High Cliffy islands, near Montgomery Reef, more
than 6,000 years ago, and have continued to use these islands since that time.
Hundreds of stone structures that stand on the largest of the High Cliffy islands,
including circles, pathways, standing stones and cairns provide evidence of the islands
long term use (Hiscock 2008; O'Connor 1987).
Aboriginal people, often in family groups, travelled along the coast between islands
on double log rafts, using the powerful tides and rips to propel them from one place to
another. The craft goes by various Aboriginal names, including [g]kalum (by the
Worrorra), biel biel (by the Jawi) and [g]kalwa (by the Bardi) (Vachon 2009). There
were different sorts of double log rafts: some rafts were specifically designed for
hunting; others were for short trips; while some were made to transport larger groups
of people from island to island. Baler shells were used to carry water on long voyages,
which were planned around the travellers' comprehensive knowledge of the tides, the
currents and the winds. At night people used the stars to navigate. They travelled to
hunt and to maintain important relationships with neighbouring groups (Choo 2001;
Vachon 2009).
The Traditional Owners of the land and sea along the north and west Kimberley coast,
including the Bardi, Jawi and Worrorra continue to utilise fish and marine products for
food, and their linguistic heritage and vocabularies reflect their complex dependence
23

on the sea. Dugongs and turtles were, and still are, important food resources.
Stingrays, crocodiles, crabs, sea birds, shell fish and oysters form part of their diet.
From October to November, people harvested turtles and their eggs and ate shark and
whales which they sang ashore and stranded (Smith 1997). Aboriginal people also
used traps to capture fish and poisons to stun them. Poisons were made from the roots
of three species of pea – Tephrosia crocea, T. aff. flammea and T. aff. rosea – as well
as from sea cucumbers, which contain a potent substance called holothurin. The
Worrorra built fish traps and lit fires to attract fish into them at night (Smith 1997).
Long before the arrival of Europeans, Aboriginal people along the west Kimberley
coast collected pearl shell (Pinctada maxima) for use in rituals and ceremonies, and
for exchange. The large, luminescent shell was collected from coastal reefs exposed
during low equinox tides from Bidyadanga in the south to Cape Londonderry in the
far north (Moore 1994; Doohan 2009). In the north Kimberley, the Kwini believe that
the area off Cape Londonderry is the source of rinji – pearl shell that is especially
brilliant, and is said to have 'fallen down, like a star' to this reef system (Akerman et
al. 2010).
From the 1920s, the pearl shell trade became more widespread as the expansion of the
pearling industry increased access to shell (Ackerman and Stanton 1994).
Recognisable geometric designs developed, and contemporary events and
relationships were incorporated into figurative designs which ranged from symbols to
increase luck in card games, to depictions of planes to assist spirit travel.
Kimberley pearl shell is highly valued by Aboriginal people of the west Kimberley
and beyond; and it continues to be used in rituals and ceremony (Akerman and
Stanton 1994; Bornham 2009). Even in areas such as the Gulf of Carpentaria or East
Arnhem Land, where local pearl shell is available, it is the Kimberley pearl shell,
which arrives through traditional systems of trade and exchange, which is most highly
prized (Akerman et al. 2010). A Mayala elder says that carving pearl shell is 'for my
country, for my tribal people and all the Mayala people… the designs are our history'
(Aubrey Tigan, pers. comm. June 2010). Carved pearl shells are passed on from
generation to generation, from father to son. According to a senior Bardi man 'It's
part of the family'. He explained that today, when pearl shell is used for ceremony, it
is also in remembrance of all the Kimberley Aboriginal people who were forced to
dive by European pearlers, and of the many who died working in the pearling industry
(KLC 2010).
A rich archipelago
Two thousand six hundred and thirty three islands lie off the Kimberley coast,
including those forming the Buccaneer Archipelago in the south, and the Bonaparte
Archipelago in the north. This is a remarkable number: there are about 8,330 islands
within the Australian jurisdiction overall, therefore almost a third of Australia's
islands are found in the Kimberley, a very high proportion relative to the length of
coastline (Burbidge pers. comm. Dec 2009). Biological and archaeological survey
data are available for only a very small fraction of Kimberley islands, and even for
those that have been surveyed, findings are not comprehensive. Further surveys will
add greatly to the known values of Kimberley islands.
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The sheer number of islands along the Kimberley coastline, as well as their
remoteness and the powerful tidal flows around them, mean they are as yet little
known to science. Their scientific and conservation significance is becoming
increasingly clear as survey work continues. The islands of the Kimberley today
support complex communities featuring many mammals, reptiles and invertebrates
that are either endemic or largely restricted to the region, and in some cases to the
islands themselves. These islands are very important refugial habitat, free of many of
the threatening processes which commonly effect mainland communities. In
particular, Augustus Island (17,952 hectares) and Bigge Island (17,190 hectares) are
large, near-coastal and uninhabited, with no known feral animals, and a diverse, intact
terrestrial fauna.
Many seabirds nest on the islands of the Kimberley coast, including the masked
booby (Sula dactylatra), brown booby (Sula leucogaster), red-footed booby (Sula
sula), great frigatebird (Fregata minor), lesser frigatebird (Fregata ariel), lesser
crested tern (Sterna bengalensis) and the common noddy (Anous stolidus). The Adele
Islands are home to important colonies of lesser frigatebird, brown booby, and
masked booby (ANRA 2007a).
A winter retreat for whales
Each year, in one of the longest known vertebrate migrations, a genetically-distinct
population of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) travels from feeding sites
in Antarctica along the west coast of Australia to the warm tropical waters of the
Kimberley to mate and calve. Researchers who study these whales refer to them as
Group IV, and more is being learned about them each year. Humpback whales feed in
summer in Antarctic waters, and spend the winter fasting, living off their fat reserves.
As they follow the coast, they rest at Shark Bay on their way north and at Exmouth
Gulf on their journey south(Jenner et al. 2001). Most cows and calves are seen in
Kimberley calving grounds between mid August and mid September, but the exact
timing of the whales' passage varies by as much as three weeks from year to year
(Jenner and Jenner 1996; Jenner et al. 2001). This variability is thought to reflect
changes in the timing of food availability in the Antarctic (Chittleborough 1965).
Until recently, researchers believed that the Kimberley's Camden Sound was Group
IV's critical calving destination (Jenner and Jenner 1996; Jenner et al. 2001; Costin
and Sandes 2009a). However, surveys suggest that whales also calve in other
locations along the Kimberley coast between Broome and the Lacepede Islands.
Humpback calves have been seen in the waters around Roebuck Bay, and along the
coast of Dampier Peninsula (Costin and Sandes 2009a, 2009b).
In 1963, fewer than 600 whales were recorded on the Kimberley coast
(Chittleborough 1965; Bannister and Hedley 2001). In 2008, the estimated number of
Group IV whales migrating north was 22,000. This represents a significant recovery
since the end of commercial whaling in 1966. In fact, Group IV may currently be the
largest population of humpback whales in the world (Costin and Sandes 2009a,
2009b; DEC 2009). In a six week survey from 1 July 2009, 969 whales were sighted
between Broome and Camden Sound, and almost a hundred of these were calves
(Costin and Sandes 2009b).
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Populations of several other cetacean species also inhabit Camden Sound and the
Buccaneer and Boneparte archipelagos, including the recently described Australian
snubfin dolphin (Orcaella heinsohni) (Beasley et al. 2005). Snubfin dolphins have
been observed to hunt in groups, working together first to chase fish to the surface of
the water, and then to round them up by shooting jets of water from their mouths.
This unusual and complex behaviour was first recorded off the Kimberley coast.
Remarkable reefs
Along the west Kimberley coast, remarkable coral communities thrive in extreme
conditions, posing researchers many puzzles. South of Camden Sound, Montgomery
Reef is a sandstone platform encrusted with coral, which extends for around 300
square kilometres. As the tide drops, water cascades spectacularly from where it is
held in lagoons atop the reef, roaring as it pours over the platform's sheer edge. At
very low tides, Montgomery Reef is exposed above sea level by as much as four
metres. As water is lost from the lagoons, small pools are created, filled with coral
and algae. Dugongs, turtles, fish, clams and starfish can be seen in these pools,
waiting for the rising tide to release them. Montgomery Reef is one of many places in
the Kimberley where coral grows abundantly in an extreme tidal environment,
buffeted by strong currents and high water temperatures. The dynamic tidal currents
at Montgomery Reef have also made it possible for coralliths and rhodoliths to
survive here. These unusual organisms are comprised of coral or corraline algae, and
are rolled around relentlessly by the currents until they form balls of living matter,
detached from their original rock substrate. They float free, alive on all sides. Much
remains to be learned about Montgomery Reef.
Other submerged and fringing reefs and unusual coral communities occur along the
Kimberley coast, including at Cape Bougainville, Cape Londonderry, the Maret
Islands, Murrangingi Island and Napier Broome Bay. High water temperatures, strong
currents and high nutrient availability from wet season runoff contribute to rapid coral
growth. The outer parts of the fringing reefs around the Maret Islands appear to have
grown very actively in the past 6,000 years, following the Holocene sea level rise.
Corals are present on the platform and edges of the reefs. Beyond the reefs, between
12 and 30 metres below sea level, major filter feeding communities, including sponge
gardens, grow (C. Simpson, pers. comm. January 2008).
South-east of Montgomery Reef and north of Derby on Yampi Peninsula, the narrow
Yule Entrance links Walcott Inlet to Secure Bay. The tidal range here can be as much
as 11 metres, and results in turbulence, strong tidal flows and whirlpools (Burbidge et
al. 1991). Beyond Yule Entrance the tide drives straight out into the ocean, carrying
silt laden waters some six kilometres into Collier Bay, and creating a cloudy brown
river in a brilliant aquamarine sea (Chester et al. 1999).
A little south of Yule Entrance, Talbot Bay is virtually enclosed by vertical sandstone
cliffs, with only two narrow gaps allowing sea water to enter. Massive tidal
movements between the bay and the sea result in what are known as the Horizontal
Waterfalls. As the tide rises and as it drops, there can be up to 10 metres difference
between the water levels of the bay and of the ocean. Water held back by these
narrow gaps rushes through and is spectacularly expelled in a churning, roiling mass.
26

Central Kimberley
Stretching east from Yampi Peninsula, the landlocked central Kimberley region
encompasses the King Leopold Ranges, the rugged limestone country of the Napier,
Oscar, Pillara and Emmanuel ranges and the headwaters and upper reaches of the
Fitzroy River (although the Fitzroy River catchment as a whole is described below in
the context of the south-west Kimberley).
The central Kimberley is drier than the country to its north. Most of the 800 or so
millimetres of rain it receives each year falls during the few months of the wet season.
While much of the region is mountainous, with scant soils and sparse vegetation,
plains and low hills support extensive, varied tropical savanna woodland. Curly
spinifex (Plectrachne spp.) grasslands are dotted with low eucalyptus trees;
Eucalyptus brevifolia grows on ridges and in drier areas, and E. tectifica – E.
grandifolia in the valleys, and a range of other eucalypt species also occur. Where
there is moisture, shrubs such as acacia and grevillea, boabs and Kimberley bauhinia
are found. Richer volcanic soils support ribbon grass (Chrysopogon spp.) and
scattered trees. Forests of river red gum (E. camaldulensis) and pandans follow
drainage lines. In the region's south there is semi desert spinifex steppe, and patches
of vine thicket occur in the west, closer to the coast.
The King Leopold Ranges stretch for 300 kilometres along the south-western edge of
the Kimberley Plateau. The geology of these ranges is often exposed, and with
dramatic rock and landform features. The ranges consist mainly of white to pale
brown cross bedded quartz sandstone intruded by dark grey dolerite which provides a
marked visual contrast on steep hillsides. Sides of valleys are generally steep and have
only sparse vegetation; some are nearly vertical with precipitous bare rock cliffs. As a
result, panoramic views of ranges, valleys and plains are obtained from many scarps.
In the wet season, water roars through a series of rocky gorges: Silent Grove and the
Lennard, Bell, Mt Matthew and Yellowman gorges include waterfalls, pools, rock
ledges and palm groves.
The Oscar, Napier and Geikie ranges stretch for 150 kilometres between Napier
Downs Station in the north to the Fitzroy River at Fitzroy Crossing. They are the
remnants of a barrier reef complex which has stood, largely unaltered by tectonic
processes, since it was formed almost 400 million years ago (Jennings and Sweeting
1963 in Sutton 1998). The upper surfaces and slopes of the ranges are predominantly
bare limestone, with scattered grasses and the occasional boab or small tree perched
on a rock or clinging to a ledge. What lies below the surface also makes these ranges
truly remarkable: water has dissolved the limestone into an intricate network of clifffoot
caves and tunnels, deep narrow gullies, intersecting corridors, narrow fissure
caves, and razor-sharp ridges (Sutton 1998). In the Napier Range, Windjana Gorge is
a popular tourist destination. The Gorge is four kilometres long, and its colourful
limestone walls rise vertically to a height of 100 metres in some places. The Lennard
River flows intermittently through the Gorge and during the wet season sometimes
rises metres above its winter levels. In winter, water is confined to deep, clear pools in
the main channel.
The limestone karst systems of the central Kimberley are home to a diverse variety of
terrestrial and subterranean fauna. The Tunnel Creek cave system, for example, is
important for bat colonies, most notably for the ghost bat (Macroderma gigas),
27

Australia's only carnivorous bat, which is listed as vulnerable under Commonwealth
legislation. Other subterranean environments support a range of invertebrates which
have evolved in isolation over millions of years, and are sometimes unique and
restricted to very small areas. While subterranean fauna are amongst the most poorly
studied faunal groups worldwide, such organisms can help researchers to understand
how evolutionary processes unfold in relation to changes in climate and geology, over
geologically significant time scales (W. Humphreys pers. comm. quoted in Sutton
1998).
However it is not only the subterranean fauna that is little known: the terrestrial flora
and fauna of the central Kimberley region has not yet been systematically surveyed,
and data on species is limited. Records indicate that the region supports more than
200 bird species, including small populations of Kimberley endemics, and that it
provides moderately important habitat for at least two threatened species – the
Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae), one of Australia's rarest birds, and the painted
snipe (Rostratula benghalensis australis). At least 37 mammal species are recorded as
occurring in the central Kimberley (ANRA 2007a; AWC 2010).
The Kimberley's largest permanent natural wetland, Lake Gladstone, also lies in this
region, and is listed as a wetland of national significance in the Directory of Important
Wetlands in Australia. Lake Gladstone provides critical habitat for many species of
plants and animals, including threatened species like the red goshawk
(Erythrotriorchis radiatus) and Gouldian finch, as well as for listed migratory bird
species.
South-west Kimberley
In the south-west, the rugged plateaus and undulating hill country of the north and
central Kimberley meet the arid sand ridges and iron-rich soils of the Great Sandy
Desert. This area, which includes Dampier Peninsula, is considered by geologists to
be part of the Canning Sedimentary Basin. The south-west is the driest region of the
west Kimberley, and receives between 300 and 800 millimetres of rain each year,
mostly during the two to four months of the wet season (McKenzie 1981). In contrast
to the north-west, much of the landscape here is comprised of sandstones and
mudstones, which are porous and seldom hold surface water. Combined with the
south-west's drier climate and higher evaporation rate, this reduces even major river
courses such as the Fitzroy to an intermittent string of pools in the dry season.
Permanent water sources throughout this region, including mound spring and
freshwater seepages, have great cultural significance for Aboriginal people, and are
important refugia, helping birds and animals survive through the dry. There are
significant groundwater aquifers and groundwater dependent ecosystems in the southwest
Kimberley, and many of these are associated with the floodplains of the Fitzroy
River (WWF–Australia 2007).
The south-west Kimberley is characterised by distinctive vegetation and landscapes.
A key visual feature is the boab (Adansonia gregorii) – an iconic, long-lived tree for
which the Kimberley is renowned, though it also occurs in the east Kimberley and
western reaches of the Victoria and Daly rivers in the Northern Territory. Related to
the baobabs (Adansonia species) of Madagascar and the African mainland, boabs are
particularly common in low-lying areas, and often occur on alluvial flats in
association with bauhinia (Lysiphyllum cunninghamii) and beefwood (Grevillia
28

striata), above a layer of ribbon grass (Chrysopogon) (Sutton 1998). The boab has
significant cultural value and utility for many Kimberley Aboriginal people. Some
trees are also historic memorials to confronting events in early contact history and
record the visits of explorers like King (the 'Mermaid Tree'), Hann and Brockman
(Jebb 2009). Like other animals and plants, the boab tree is inextricably linked to
Kimberley Aboriginal people's social and spiritual world. Kimberley Aboriginal
people carry the boab 'totem'; some are born into the boab tree or boab flower 'section'
(Von Brandenstein 1982 cited in Jebb 2009).
Boabs have uses ranging from the mundane to the sacred. They are important as a
source of water, and also as a material manifestation of the powerful forces of the
cosmological world across the whole Kimberley region (von Brandenstein 1982 cited
in Jebb 2009). Boab trees provide twine, food, medicines and shelter, and may be
increase sites for particular resources. Boabs are 'a valuable resource for traditional
Aboriginal healthcare practices, both in terms of the provision of medicines and as a
resource for health-related rituals' (Heaver 2007). Boab nuts are carved in traditional
and contemporary designs by Aboriginal people.
Some trees are believed to harbour extremely severe and potent powers, like Jilapur, a
boab on the outskirts of Derby, more commonly known as the Derby Prison Tree.
This tree is believed to be about 1,500 years old, and it has an opening into its hollow
trunk large enough for a man to enter. There is speculation that prisoners were locked
inside, and other accounts recall prisoners being chained around the outside of the
tree. This tree is also a camping place for the Nyikina Creation Being Woonynoomboo
(Akerman 2008).
Another distinguishing feature of the south-west Kimberley is the bright red soil of
the pindan country. 'Pindan' describes both the vivid red sandy soils that are common
here, and the seemingly-homogenous low woodlands and shrublands which grow on
them. South of Beagle Bay, the pindan is dominated by Acacia tumida, A. holosericea
and A. eriopoda. North of Beagle Bay there is an abrupt change: Acacia eriopoda is
almost absent and A. holosericea is reduced in frequency. Taller eucalypt woodlands
dominate in the north, particularly Darwin box (Eucalyptus tectifica) and ochre
bloodwood (Corymbia dampieri). Carnivorous plants are found on the pindan in
damper areas of black soil; white-flowered sundews such as Drosera broomensis are
found growing near Broome, and D. derbyensis, a similar species, occurs further east.
While pindan may appear homogenous, the coastal and near coastal environments of
the south-west are visibly rich and varied. Mangroves, samphire flats, grasslands,
coastal dunes, freshwater swamps, monsoon forests, Melaleuca thickets and creekside
vegetation are all found in close proximity to one another, clustered near the coast.
Outcrops of limestone and sandstone dot the landscape. Vine thickets occur on
limestone on the far southern perimeter of Yampi Peninsula, adjoining the south-west
region, as well as at the northern tip and western edge of Dampier Peninsula. They do
not extend as far inland here as in the wetter areas further north. On the white coastal
sands of Dampier Peninsula, the striking green birdflower (Crotolaria cunninghamii),
which can grow up to three or four metres tall, is very common; it also occurs far
inland on the red sand dunes of the desert.
29

Biodiversity of the south-west Kimberley
While the south-west region as a whole is not as rich in amphibians, reptiles or
mammals as other parts of the west Kimberley, it nonetheless contains places which
support important biological diversity: in particular, Roebuck Bay and the Camballin
floodplains provide habitat for significant populations of birds; and the Fitzroy River
contains a diverse array of fish.
Across the south-west Kimberley, 69 species of reptiles and amphibians have been
recorded, of which at least three are endemics: the skinks Lerista apoda and L.
separanda, and the venomous Dampier burrowing snake (Simoselaps minimus)
(Burbidge et al. 1991; Storr et al. 1983). While Dampier Peninsula's pindan country
possesses few resident birds, it is often used by nomads: birds come to nest and breed,
and others follow the path of seasonal flowerings (Johnstone 1983). Permanent
residents of the pindan woodland include rufous whistlers (Pachycephala rufiventris),
grey shrike thrushes (Colluricincla harmonica) and singing honeyeaters
(Lichenostomus virescens). Dampier Peninsula vine thicket patches contain many
fewer species of plants than vine thickets further north, and also fewer bird species
(Johnstone and Burbidge 1991). However, the red-crowned pigeon (Ptilinopus
regina), which is confined to vine thickets, is more common here than in other parts
of the Kimberley. The mangals which grow on the peninsula's shores are home to 20
species of birds, many of which do not occur outside of mangroves, and some of
which, such as the mangrove kingfisher (Halcyon senegaloides), do not live any
further south in Western Australia (Johnstone 1983).
Roebuck Bay
The greatest attraction for birds in the south-west Kimberley is the extensive coastal
mudflat system to the south of Broome at Roebuck Bay. The Roebuck Bay mudflats
lie within a large, irregularly curved embayment. The northern shores of the bay are
lined with crumbling red pindan cliffs above narrow sandy beaches; to the east and
south there are mangroves surrounded by deep, soft mud. Tidal creeks flow into the
bay from the east, and divide into the intricate network of smaller streams that wind
through the mudflats. A dramatic tidal range (including spring tides reaching between
eight and 10.5 metres) alternately exposes and inundates the low gradient mudflats to
an extent only recorded elsewhere in Australia at King Sound near Derby. At low tide
a flat expanse of mud and sand stretching for kilometres separates the sea from the
shore; at high tide seawater covers the mudflats, floods the mangroves which fringe
the bay, and rushes into the salt marshes and claypans beyond (Rogers et al. 2003;
Ramsar 2008).
Roebuck Bay is a rare example of a significant intertidal mudflat system which occurs
in the tropics – most mudflats are found in temperate regions. The Roebuck Bay
mudflats are also unusual because they are not obviously associated with any large
river system. They were formed by the early Fitzroy River system, in the time before
the river's flow diverted north to its present position at King Sound (Brunnschweiler
1957; Graham 2001a).
In recent years, surveys have revealed a rich invertebrate fauna living in the mudflats
(de Goeij et al. 2003; Piersma et al. 2006). Every year, as survey work continues,
researchers continue to find new species at Roebuck Bay (Rogers et al. 2003). These
invertebrates are an important source of food for the many migratory shorebirds that
30

visit the bay each year.
The Roebuck Bay mudflat system is best known because it is one of the most
significant sites for international migratory waders on the Australian continent, and its
protection under the Ramsar Convention confirms that status. While each migratory
species' population follows its own particular annual migration path, there are
nonetheless generalised global migration routes that connect breeding areas in the
north, via stopovers in temperate and subtropical zones, to non-breeding areas in the
south. These routes are called flyways. The East Asia–Australasian Flyway, of which
Roebuck Bay is part, is one of eight major migratory waterbird flyways around the
world. From August each year, at the end of the northern summer, shorebirds make a
journey across oceans and continents to reach Roebuck Bay, sometimes flying for
stretches of up to 8,000 kilometres without landing.
Roebuck Bay has been known to hold as many as 170,000 birds at one time (Rogers
et al. 2003). Sixty four waterbird species have been recorded here, and 34 of these are
listed under international conservation treaties. The site supports more than one
percent of the national population for 21 species of wader, including pied
oystercatchers (Haematopus longirostris), Mongolian plovers (Charadrius mongolus)
and ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres). Australian shorebirds also make Roebuck
Bay home for part of the year, and for many it is their main breeding ground. Redcapped
plovers (Charadrius ruficapillus) and black-winged stilts (Himantopus
himantopus) occur in large numbers; more than one per cent of their flyway
populations may spend time at Roebuck Bay each year. Twenty-two of the 24
Australian raptor species also live around the shores of Roebuck Bay (Rogers et al.
2003).
While the mudflats are spectacular at the height of the wet season, the best time for
birds is at the end of the wet, when the ground starts to dry out. As surface water is
absorbed and evaporated, mud is exposed and a rich feast begins. Birds feed on the
multitude of invertebrate fauna, which have reproduced rapidly during the wet
(Rogers et al. 2003). Because little rain falls during the dry season, for much of the
year surface water at the mudflats is restricted to a few permanent or semi-permanent
waterholes and streams. Most of these are not supplied directly by rainfall, but are
maintained by water seeping from underground aquifers – these in turn are
replenished each wet season, when the whole area is once more immersed.
The rivers of the Kimberley: a haven for fish
Researchers have found that a number of fish species in the northern and western
rivers and in the Fitzroy system are endemic and have distributions restricted to the
Kimberley. This is thought to be the result of a number of factors: the varied habitats
throughout the river systems, including areas of extremely rugged topography in the
upper catchment; the periodic very high flows which occur, and the large area covered
by the Fitzroy catchment (Morgan et al. 2002). Recent surveys recorded 37 species of
fish in the northern and western rivers, including 23 freshwater species and 14
estuarine or marine species. Three of the freshwater species did not have scientific
names at the time of the survey, but researchers recorded names of fish, where
available, in Bunuba, Gooniyandi, Ngarinyin, Nyikina and Walmajarri. The
researchers found that the range of fish species varied significantly between the lower,
middle, and upper reaches of each river, and was different again in billabongs, smaller
31

permanent tributaries, and the upper gorges (Morgan et al. 2002).
Many remarkable fish species are found in the rivers of the Kimberley. An eel
(Anguilla bicolor), known in Bunuba as Lanyi, is believed to migrate from the
freshwaters of the upper reaches of the Fitzroy, along with other rivers of the
Kimberley, to Indonesia to breed and die, with juveniles returning to the Kimberley to
continue their lifecycle (Allen et al. 2002 cited in Morgan et al. 2002). This eel was
found by researchers hundreds of kilometres inland, above the Margaret River.
Another fish has the evocative common name 'mouth almighty' (Glossamia aprion)
because of its unusual breeding habits: the male fish carries fertilised eggs in his
mouth. The mouth almighty's name in Bunuba and Gooniyandi, Thamali/Thamarli,
means 'little brother of the Barramundi', and the fish is commonly used as bait when
Aboriginal people fish for barramundi. The Kimberley archerfish (Toxotes sp.), which
is widespread throughout the Fitzroy River catchment, gains its name from its habit of
spitting water at insects to knock them into the river, where they make easy prey. The
freshwater whipray (Himantura chaophraya) is a rare and elusive ray that reaches up
to one metre in width, and has been collected from only a few sites in the Fitzroy
catchment, though it is reported to occur in the Fitzroy River above Geikie Gorge.
Marine species also use the river – the aggressive bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas)
occurs in the lower reaches of the river and is anecdotally reported to have been
sighted near Fitzroy Crossing, and the ox eye herring (Megalops cyprinoides) has
been found up to 400 kilometres upstream. The Fitzroy River and its estuary also
support freshwater sawfish (Pristis microdon), and the dwarf sawfish (Pristis clavata)
occurs in the river's lower reaches (Morgan et al. 2002). The Fitzroy River estuary is
the only known Western Australian habitat for the critically endangered northern river
shark (Glyphis sp. C) (Morgan et al. 2002).
The Fitzroy River: living waters
In Aboriginal Australia, ‘living water’ is the term generally used to describe
permanent water sources. As Rose (2004) notes, the term conveys both the sense of
water having a life of its own and also its contribution to the life of others — humans,
animals and plants. Water sources are often at the centre, or the heart, of a person or
group’s country and are frequently conception sites. An association with a particular
water source provides one of the prime markers of individual identity; and the
collective identities of Indigenous groups, and the relationships and links between
them (McFarlane 2004).
The Fitzroy River is a centre of life and diversity in the Kimberley. It is a mighty river
system with a catchment of over 90,000 square kilometres that collects water and
channels it into the longest river in the Kimberley. The Fitzroy stretches 733
kilometres from its headwaters in the central Kimberley to Moorrool Moorrool (the
Nyikina name for King Sound), where it reaches the ocean. Along the way, it is fed
by 20 tributaries and numerous smaller, ephemeral creeks and waterways.
Water brings with it particular rights and responsibilities under Indigenous law. Most
importantly, as noted by McFarlane (2004) water and waterscapes are inseparable
from the land on which people live. The cultural systems and languages of ten
Aboriginal groups whose traditional country principally falls within the Fitzroy
catchment area include the Kija, Wurla, Andajin, Ngarinyin, Gooniyandi, Bunuba,
Unggumi, Walmajarri, Nyikina and Warrwa people. The Bunuba people, whose
32

traditional country is located above Fitzroy Crossing on the upper Fitzroy, know the
river as Bandrarl Ngadu. The Nyikina people call the river Mardoowarra and
themselves Yimardoowarra: 'belonging to the river'. As one Nyikina Traditional
Owner explains, 'The river is a central place in Nyikina cultural belief and spirituality.
It is also a place for fishing and hunting, where we gather medicine and bush tucker
and take our children to learn cultural stories, language and law' (A. Poelina pers.
comm. 27 April 2010). While the permanent pools on the river are very important
culturally; they also provide refuges for animals, birds and fish during the dry season.
The river also provides a rare living window into the diversity of the traditions
associated with the Rainbow Serpent, a narrative across Aboriginal Australia that was
once more pervasive and is recurrent in art, myth, ritual, and social and economic life.
Four distinct expressions of the Rainbow Serpent are found within the Fitzroy River's
catchment. Each tradition is intrinsically tied to Indigenous interpretations of the
different way in which water flows within the one hydrological system, and all four
expressions converge into one regional ritual complex, called Warloongarriy Law or
'River Law' that serves to unite Aboriginal people and their Rainbow Serpent
traditions.
In the jila-kalpurtu domain (the term jila refers to permanent sub-surface water
sources and kalpurtu are said said to be the rain-giving snakes occupying these sites)
of the Fitzroy catchment on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert, water flows
are principally underground and the Rainbow Serpent is said to exist in the
underground structure of the channels, linking excavated waterholes and other water
sources of significance (Vachon 2006; Pannell 2009). Places like Kurrpurrngu
(Cajibut Springs), Mangunampi and Paliyarra are exemplars of this expression of the
Rainbow Serpent. The phenomenon of Galaroo (Galeru, Kalaru), on the other hand is
linked to flowing surface water, in the form of major rivers, and to long and deep
permanent waterholes in broad river channels, like Geikie Gorge (Danggu). In the
upper reaches of the catchment, the Rainbow Serpent of the Wanjina-Wunggurr belief
system known as Wunggurr or Ungud is linked to discrete pools of water and the
movement of the sea, and is often associated with the painted image of Wanjina.
While the Woonyoomboo-Yoongoorroonkoo narrative of the lower Fitzroy primarily
tells the story of the creation of the lower Fitzroy River and its floodplains and also
has links to the sea.
The Fitzroy River is one of the largest unregulated rivers in Australia, and its flow
varies significantly over the course of a year, and between years. Both the river
channels and the floodplains, which lie below Fitzroy Crossing, are highly dynamic,
shaped by the floods which pour through the system after heavy cyclonic rains. As
water flows, the river branches; splitting and rejoining around large alluvial islands.
Floods flush the deep permanent pools of the main channel, and water spreads across
the plains, creating billabongs and anabranching channels, and renewing groundwater
aquifers (Sutton 1998). The link between the river and the floodplains is vital to the
health of floodplain wetlands, which are important habitat for many water birds.
The main channel of the river is fringed by forest, including river red gums,
freshwater mangroves, native figs and pandanus. The purple-crowned fairy wren
(Malurus coronatus), which is listed as threatened under the WA Wildlife
Conservation Act, is restricted to the forest's understorey (WWF–Australia 2007).
33

Fish, eels, turtles, mussels and cherrabun, or freshwater shrimp (Macrobrachium
rosenbergii) live in the river. Freshwater crocodiles bask on the riverbanks and swim
in pools. At the river's mouth, brackish water is used by many species of fish, prawns
and crabs to spawn. Nearby, areas of healthy vine thicket provide shelter for birds and
bats, and waterbirds feed in the mudflats along the river and at the river mouth.
The Fitzroy River is a rich source of food for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
people who live in the region. Barramundi (Lates calcarifer), a highly valued eating
fish, is found up to 500 kilometres upstream of the river mouth. Another fish which is
commonly eaten is the lesser salmon catfish (Arius graeffei), which occurs in both the
freshwater reaches and estuarine areas of the river. Black bream (Hephaestus jenkinsi)
live throughout the main channel of the Fitzroy and major tributaries, where they like
to dwell in deep holes in the riverbed, and congregate around submerged roots, logs
and rocks. Spangled perch (Leiopotherapon unicolor) are a small, hardy and
aggressive species that are sought-after for eating, and are also often used as bait for
catching barramundi and lesser salmon catfish. Turtles, mussels and freshwater
shrimp are also eaten (Morgan et al. 2002).
Cherrabun, or freshwater shrimp, use different parts of the Fitzroy River at different
stages of their life cycle. Adults live upstream, hundreds of kilometres from the river's
mouth. But while the cherrabun's eggs can last between 3 and 5 days in freshwater,
the newly-hatched larvae only survive in the brackish estuary. Some female cherrabun
release their eggs into fast-flowing water to try and ensure they will be carried down
to the estuary before the larvae hatch; after which the young must make the long
return migration upstream. Other adults take the journey themselves, travelling
downstream to spawn, and then returning up the river with their young (Robertson
1983 in Sutton 1998). For cherrabun, as for many other species of fish, birds and
invertebrates, the whole of the river and its tributaries form a chain of living
connection: the variable patterns of the river's flow are crucially tied to the cycles of
these species' lives.
About 100 kilometres south-east of Derby, in Nyikina country, adjoining the Fitzroy
River and extending to its north, is Kunjaninguru, the Camballin wetlands. The
Camballin wetlands are extensive blacksoil floodplains consisting of two large
claypan swamps – Le Lievre and Moulamen – as well as many smaller swamps,
creeks and deep billabongs that are important refuges for birds and animals, as they
hold water long into the dry season. The area is of great cultural and historical
significance to Nyikina people, who continue to visit and utilise Kunjaninguru today.
Over 38,000 waterbirds have been recorded there, including EPBC listed seabirds: the
Australian pratincole (Stiltia isabella), the wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola) and
marsh sandpiper (T. stagnatilis). Of 67 bird species which are known to occur at the
Camballin wetlands, 19 are listed migratory species that travel between Australia and
Asia. The wetlands are also an important breeding refuge for plumed whistling-duck
(Dendrocygna eytoni), wandering whistling-duck (D. arcuata), Pacific heron (Ardea
pacifica), great egret (Egretta alba), glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) and magpie
goose (Anseranas semipalmatus). Two threatened species have been found at
Camballin: the yellow chat (Ephthianura crocea) and freckled duck (Stictonetta
naevosa). It is also an important breeding area for long neck turtle (Chelodina sp.) and
freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnstonii). The wetlands are listed on the Directory
34

of Important Wetlands of Australia (Sutton 1998; A. Poelina pers. comm. 2010).
North of the Fitzroy River, alluvial plains are bounded by the ranges of the Devonian
reef. These black soil plains support grasslands, with scattered trees and shrubs. To
the south, the floodplain abuts the Great Sandy Desert. The dune vegetation of the
Great Sandy Desert is simple in species and structure. The sides of dunes sometimes
support thick growth of hummock grass (Plectrachne schinzii) and scattered shrubs,
but the crests are kept bare by the harsh climate and the action of the wind.
Traditional Owners relied on their detailed and intimate knowledge of the availability
of permanent and seasonal water sources to survive here; these water sources have
been used for generations. Freshwater soaks and springs hold intense spiritual
significance for desert people, and these water sources also have high biodiversity
values. Each place where water can be found is individually named and known, and
has many stories associated with it, although some of these stories may be secret or
culturally restricted. Permanent water sources are called 'jila' and are all connected
through the underlying groundwater system, which is known as kurtany, or mother.
Through performing their obligations, Traditional Owners maintain the water levels
(WWF–Australia 2007; Yu 2000).
CONTACT HISTORY
Although permanent European settlement occurred later in the Kimberley than in
most other parts of Australia, the coastline was the site of sporadic contact between
Aboriginal people and outsiders since at least the sixteenth century. The region's
recent history has been shaped by the ambitions and fears, curiosity, hope and needs
of these diverse newcomers; as well as by the broader political and economic
circumstances which led them to the region, and the institutional structures they
imported or created. Central to the post-contact history of the Kimberley has been the
capacity of Kimberley Aboriginal people to resist, adapt to and survive the changes
outsiders have brought.
From the 1870s, Aboriginal people have been coerced or forced into the pastoral and
pearling industries, and institutionalized in missions, prisons, hospitals, ration depots
and reserves. Colonisation has had a severe impact on the lives of Kimberley
Aboriginal people and forced dramatic changes to traditional ways of life - many lost
their lives or were dispossessed of their country and homelands. But throughout the
intense disruption wrought by colonisation, over time Aboriginal people have devised
strategies that have enabled an accommodation with the new regime and which has
ensured their long-term survival as a distinct and proud people. The effectiveness of
these strategies is demonstrated by the success in the Federal Court of Australia of
fourteen applications for the determination of native title throughout the Kimberley
since the passage of the Native Title Act in 1993 (Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
The southernmost shore
Before European settlement, Australia's north coast was the southernmost shore of a
network of trade and travel which connected south-east Asia with the marketplaces of
China. The Kimberley lies within 400 kilometres of the south-eastern limit of the
Indonesian Archipelago. For perhaps hundreds of years, Indonesians came to Kayu
35

Jawa, their name for the west Kimberley coast, to harvest its rich marine resources;
including pearl and trochus shell, turtle shell, clam meat, shark fin and the valuable
beche-de-mer, a delicacy highly sought after by the Chinese (Crawford 2001;
Morwood 2002;).
Beche-de-mer, also known as trepang, sea cucumber, or sea slug, is a large marine
invertebrate commonly described by observers as unattractive. Almost 200 species are
found in Australia, but the nine or ten which are edible live only in the tropics, along
the north and north-western coast. The earliest reference to what the Chinese called
hai–sen, or 'sea ginseng', is reputedly found in a medicinal treatise from the sixteenth
century (MacKnight 1976). By the seventeenth century, beche-de-mer developed a
reputation for its culinary use and aphrodisiac properties. It is not clear when it began
to be collected from the Kimberley region. Trade through the Indonesian port of
Makassar appears to have evolved in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth
centuries. However Chinese junks certainly sailed annually to nearby Timor by 1600,
and it is possible that beche-de-mer from north Australian waters was traded to the
Chinese by this date, or perhaps even earlier (Crawford 2009).
The relative calmness of the seas, the regularity of the monsoonal winds, and the short
distances between landmasses made travel by sea a natural mode of transport in
southeast Asia. The rhythms of trade were the rhythms of the monsoon. The
monsoons are winds made for travellers: they blow consistently along the same route,
swinging around for the return journey at half-yearly intervals (Ammarell 1999).
Fleets left Makassar in late January, arriving at the Australian mainland some weeks
later. Along the way, they collected beche-de-mer and other marine resources from
offshore reefs. A senior Wunambal man reported that, each season, a fleet of perahus
would arrive at Cape Bougainville, before separating into two. Some would sail east
along the northern coast, and others would sail south to the west Kimberley coast
(Crawford 2009). Between the rich fishing areas of Arnhem Land and Kayu Jawa,
there was a comparatively barren stretch of water. The zone of contact associated with
the industry in the Kimberley appears to have ranged from near Cape Londonderry in
the far north to the Lacepede Islands, off Dampier Peninsula (Crawford 2009).
Evidence of Indonesian presence in the west Kimberley is found in documentary
sources, Aboriginal oral traditions and material remains. The earliest documentation
was by the French voyager Baudin who noted that, in April 1803, members of his
crew encountered a fleet of fishermen at Cassini Island (Baudin 1974; Crawford
2001). Aboriginal oral traditions describe these fleets' visits and provide narratives of
events associated with their stay. Accounts of journeys to the Kimberley coast, and of
contact with Aboriginal people, may have similarly been passed down in parts of
Indonesia; but to date insufficient resources have been dedicated to locate or record
any such accounts (Crawford 2009).
Today, the most conspicuous remains of the places where Indonesians camped and
worked during their months ashore are their stone hearths, still found at a number of
locations along the Kimberley coast. The hearths are arranged in roughly parallel lines
to support the iron dishes in which beche-de-mer was boiled. Small sites usually have
three or four lines of hearths, and the larger sites have twelve to fifteen (Crawford
2001). Other material remains found with the hearth sites include fragments of
pottery. At some places, tamarind trees grow as a living record of past contact.
36

Indonesian fisherman brought tamarind seeds with them, and planted them at the
places they returned to each season; as the tree grew they could use its fruit in their
cooking. The tamarind would have provided not only nutritional value, but also a
welcome taste of home during their months away.
In contrast to the situation in Arnhem Land, all known oral and written accounts
indicate that the relationship between Indonesians and Aboriginal people in the west
Kimberley was hostile. There is no evidence that west Kimberley people provided
Indonesian fishermen with any assistance. Oral traditions recalled by old people today
describe fights between Aboriginal people and Indonesians, and ascribe hostilities to
the Aboriginal theft of canoes. Stories also tell of creation beings fighting Indonesians
and sinking their perahus, and being shot in revenge (Crawford 2009).
Despite the hostilities, there were some exchanges. Aboriginal people adopted the
dugout canoe from Indonesian prototypes, and it allowed them to voyage to more
remote islands and reefs including Cassini Island and Long Reef, far offshore. The
history of this contact is also recorded in language: for example, the word for canoe in
the Wunambal language, namandi, is derived from Indonesian.
European voyagers
In the west Kimberley, as elsewhere in Australia, first contact between Aboriginal
people and Europeans occurred along the coast. The outcomes of these meetings were
mixed; fear often led to misunderstandings on both sides, and sometimes to violent
retribution. Early travel accounts included narratives of such encounters between
Europeans and Aboriginal people, and some accounts circulated widely after the
voyagers returned to Europe. In the case of men such as William Dampier, his
accounts of his voyages around the world, including at Karrakatta Bay on the western
coast of Australia, gave him a degree of personal celebrity, and influenced European
perceptions of, and fascination with, the non-European world. Such accounts were
one reason why the settlement of Australia was long regarded as unattractive by
Europeans: the west coast was described as barren and few resources were seen which
had potential value for trade or commerce.
European travellers involved in imperial expansion were motivated by desire for
wealth, adventure and renown, and for knowledge and experience of what lay beyond
the borders of Europe. For centuries, Europeans believed in the existence of a great
unknown southern land: Terra Australis Incognita. The mapping of the coastline of
Australia played an essential part in the unfolding European understanding of the
southern hemisphere, and the delineation of the coastline by successive generations of
Dutch, French, and British navigators caused a quantum shift in European
worldviews. The observations and collections made by such voyagers formed a key
element of a grand Enlightenment endeavour, which aimed to develop comprehensive
scientific knowledge of the entire world. Voyages were also inspired by competition
between European nations to establish trading and territorial dominance. These
multiple factors propelled fleets of ships, with their vulnerable human cargoes, from
the far ports of Europe onto vast and dangerous oceans spanning the globe.
China and south-east Asia have been connected through trade, cultural exchange and
migration for more than 2000 years. From the sixteenth century, European voyagers
also began to take a keen interest in south-east Asia as a valuable source of spices and
37

other tropical commodities. The Portuguese, seeking to expand their empire, began to
explore the region from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and in 1511 captured
Malacca, which had been a key trading port for both China and India. In the
seventeenth century, the Dutch also entered the region; in 1669 Makassar, previously
an important commercial centre for the Portuguese, was taken by the Dutch.
The first discoveries and rough charts of the Australian coastline were made as a
result of the Dutch crossing the Indian Ocean to engage in lucrative trade in the 'Spice
Islands' of Indonesia. In 1616, Dirk Hartog made accidental landfall on the Australian
continent and mapped part of the western Australian coastline. Such sightings by
Dutch navigators enabled them to establish the form of the west coast of 'New
Holland', but as these early encounters were haphazard and the coastline was not
accurately charted, Dutch ships continued to be wrecked there (Pearson 2005). The
first concerted attempt to gain a more detailed understanding of the region came in
1644, when Abel Tasman sailed with a fleet of three Dutch East India Company
(Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC) ships to map Australia's northern
coastline. This was Tasman's second voyage to Australia: on his first, in 1642, he had
charted Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land), New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji. Tasman
landed on the west Kimberley coast just north of Broome, where he and his crew
reportedly came under attack from local Aboriginal people (McGonigal 1990).
Although Tasman charted large portions of the coast on this second voyage, he
discovered no new trading routes. No material remains associated with Tasman are
known in the region, but maps of the coast still carry the names he and his crew gave
to places and features as they travelled.
The next European vessel to reach the Kimberley coast was the Cygnet, a British
privateer on a voyage made famous by William Dampier. A privateer was a private
vessel which carried 'letters of marque': formal documentation that it was authorised
by its government to attack and raid foreign shipping during times of war. Following
the marooning of its Captain, Captain Reed, in 1688 the Cygnet, en route to raid the
East Indies, was careened at Karrakatta Bay on the Kimberley coast for over two
months, while the crew undertook maintenance and repairs on the ship. Dampier
recorded his observations of plants and animals, including dugongs and dingoes, and
of Aboriginal people. Dampier and his companions satisfied some of their curiosity
about the local people by capturing Aboriginal people and taking them on board the
Cygnet. Referring to four men who were seized whilst swimming amongst the islands,
Dampier wrote:
* * * *
To these we gave boiled Rice, and with it Turtle and Manatee boiled. They did
greedily devour what we gave them, but took no notice of the Ship, or any thing in it,
and when they were set on Land again, they ran away as fast as they could (Dampier
1998 [1697]).
* * * *
Nyikina man Butcher Joe Nangan recalled a story told by the old people about a
sailing ship coming across the Roebuck Plains, south of Broome, while the plains
were under the sea. It was just one ship and it appeared long before the white man
came to the country. The ship landed at Biyarrugun, a place located 20 kilometres
38

inland from the coast today. According to the old people the ship had three masts and
the sailors had shot at the Aboriginal people. Could Dampier have sailed his ship over
the Roebuck Plains on his second visit to the region, in 1699? Geological evidence
suggests that the area has been subject to periodic tidal inundations in the recent
geological past. Shell middens found close to Biyarrugun also suggest that the sea
level may have been slightly higher 300 years ago (Benterrak et al. 1984).
Dampier published an account of his voyage in a very popular book, A New Voyage
around the World, which established him as an authority on the South Seas, and
contained the first detailed account of the Australian continent to be widely circulated
(Dampier 1699). Dampier's observations of nature were regarded as extraordinary for
their scientific focus and accuracy. His botanical collections, the first to be taken to
Europe from Australia, remain in England at the Oxford Herbarium, with some also
held at the British Museum (ABC 2002). His account of the winds and currents of the
Pacific earned the respect of navigators and meteorologists to the present day. He set
an entire fashion in travel literature, and influenced writers such as Defoe and Swift.
Though he travelled widely, Dampier was a man of his time and of his culture. His
descriptions of the people he met were overwhelmingly negative, and had a strong
influence on later explorers such as Sir Joseph Banks and James Cook. Sir Joseph
Banks would write, almost a hundred years later, on seeing people ashore as the
Endeavour sailed up the south coast of New South Wales that 'so far did the
prejudices which we had built on Dampier's account influence us that we fancied we
could see the colour when we could scarcely distinguish whether or not they were
men' (quoted in Pearson 2004).
After Dampier, the only European visitors to the north-western coast of Australia for
more than half a century were crew of two Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde
Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC) ships en route from the Netherlands to Batavia
(now Jakarta, Indonesia), both wrecked well south of the Kimberley: Zuytdorp (1712)
and Zeewijk (1727) (Pearson 2004). By the turn of the seventeenth century the Dutch
had explored the Australian coastline from the top of Cape York across the northern,
western, and southern coasts to the eastern end of the Great Australian Bight, as well
as the south-east coast of Tasmania. Although Dutch navigators had brought the first
information about this 'new land' back to Europe, the VOC kept the information
confidential in order to protect any trading advantage that might come from their
discovery. However in reality, the results of these voyages were disappointing to the
VOC; the land appeared bleak and barren, and nothing profitable was found. The
Dutch established no settlements or trading posts, and the VOC lost interest in
continued exploration (Schilder 1988). The north-western coast of Australia, although
closest to the Dutch sphere of influence in Indonesia in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, would remain isolated and largely unsettled by Europeans until late in the
nineteenth century.
Dampier was the first to suggest that New Holland should be explored by the British,
and the initial mapping and settlement of eastern Australia may be viewed as the
indirect conclusion of his voyages and published work (ADB 1966c). British and
French expeditions would continue the process of delineating the extent of the new
continent; expeditions were driven by the desire of each nation to gain a strategic
advantage over the other, and to increase their knowledge of unknown and unclaimed
regions. By the late eighteenth century, Cook and his British and French
39

contemporaries had made several voyages through the South Pacific and Southern
Ocean.
The French remained keen to find new colonies, and they mounted expeditions with
expressly scientific intentions but underlying territorial goals. The British responded
in kind, in an attempt to preserve their strategic and commercial dominance. Anglo-
French political rivalry centred on Australia's northern and western coastlines, an area
still unclaimed, unsettled, and unknown to Europeans. From 1801 to 1803, Baudin
and Freycinet made detailed surveys of the Western Australian coast. They
concentrated their efforts around Shark Bay, well south of the Kimberley. Freycinet
undertook surveys as a cartographer and surveyor in Baudin's expedition. Peron, the
expedition's naturalist, collected an extraordinary 100,000 animal specimens over
three voyages. Among the locations named during this voyage were Cape Cuvier, the
Lacepede Islands and the Bonaparte Archipelago. Many of the places named by the
French along the west Kimberley coast commemorate Napoleon's generals (Edwards
1991). There is no evidence in the literature of the specific locations of any landings
that may have been made.
The colonies look north
Following British settlement of southern Australia, the British Admiralty sent a
number of hydrographical expeditions to chart the northern coastline in greater detail.
These expeditions sought to identify locations for future settlements, and to find
suitable sites for northern ports which would help to build stronger trading links
between the Australian colonies and the rich markets of Asia (Bolton 1963). Phillip
Parker King took part in four hydrographical expeditions: three in the ship Mermaid
and one in the Bathurst. King's instructions included that he should make a detailed
investigation of rivers, and obtain information on climate, landforms, fauna, flora,
wood products, minerals and the 'character of coastal tribes' (Frawley 1982). His
instructions had been hurriedly compiled by the Admiralty in response to renewed
interest by the French in returning to the north-west coast to complete the
investigations begun by Baudin. King was directed to stake out England's claim on
the continent, particularly in harbours and river mouths (Hordern 1997).
On his third voyage in July 1820, King sailed north from Sydney, and passed through
the Torres Strait, before making for where his previous survey had ended: Montague
Sound, just west of Admiralty Gulf on the Kimberley coast. The Mermaid had
suffered damage earlier in the trip so, after charting Prince Frederick Harbour in
September 1820, King decided to careen the ship at nearby Port Nelson for repairs.
The damage was more extensive than he originally thought, and the men spent the
next 19 days at a place King named Careening Bay. While they were there, the crew
carved the words 'HMC Mermaid 1820' in large lettering into the bark of two stems of
a boab tree, a carving that remains clearly visible today. A copper plate, similarly
inscribed, was attached to a tree.
When repairs were complete, the Mermaid sailed out of Careening Bay and survey
work continued: King charted Brunswick Bay and its inlets, travelling from St George
Basin into the Prince Regent River, which he followed upstream in a boat for more
than 40 kilometres. At Hanover Bay, Aboriginal people confronted King's party,
spearing his surgeon. An Aboriginal man was shot, and the crew took what weapons
and boats they could in the melee. From here, King began the long return journey to
40

Sydney; the Mermaid was barely sound, and on return was condemned for further
northern work.
King is recognised as one of Britain's leading hydrographers, and in 1824 he was
made a fellow of the Royal Society. He took great pride in undertaking very detailed
coastal surveys: while previous French navigators had stayed so far offshore that they
had taken Gantheaume Point for an island, King had not only hugged the dangerous
coast, he had taken a whale boat up the Prince Regent River (Edwards 1991).
King's work contributed significantly to British knowledge of the Australian coastline.
He is regarded as the greatest of the early Australian marine surveyors and near the
end of his life, he was promoted to the rank of Admiral. He undertook detailed and
methodical charting, and named many locations along the Kimberley coast (Baytte
1915). Among the names he gave, some were clearly messages for the French: he
dubbed the two most conspicuous mountain peaks 'Mt Trafalgar' and 'Mt Waterloo', a
pointed reminder of two British victories, one on sea, the other on land (Edwards
1991). King was the first person born in the Australian colonies to achieve such
renown in Britain, and it would be years before another 'native born' would rise to
similar public stature (ADB 1967).
The first British investigations of the interior of the west Kimberley were made by
Lieutenant George Grey in 1837, as part of a survey sponsored by the Royal
Geographical Society. Grey and his twelve men set up camp at Hanover Bay, the site
where Aboriginal people had confronted Phillip Parker King and his crew 17 years
earlier. Grey's party came with seed to plant crops and stock for food. However
despite their best efforts to prepare themselves, they were illequipped for the
conditions they would encounter, which were like nothing they had ever experienced
before. Grey wrote in his journal:
* * * *
'I soon found that we had landed under very unfavourable circumstances… The
country … was of a more rocky and precipitous character than any I had ever seen
before. Indeed I could not more accurately describe the hills, than by saying that they
appeared to be ruins of hills, composed as they were of huge blocks of red sandstone,
confusedly piled together in loose disorder, so overgrown with spinifex and scrub that
the interstices were completely hidden. Into these one or other of the party was
continually slipping or falling' (Grey quoted in Edwards 1991).
* * * *
Grey and his men had landed in December, during the build-up to the wet season,
when the heat was unbearable and there was little permanent water to be found. On
their very first foray inland, three of their dogs died and the men, succumbing to
dehydration, made themselves ill drinking brackish water: 'A feeling of thirst and
lassitude, such as I had never experienced, began to overcome all of us' (Grey quoted
in Edwards 1991). Their attempts to travel inland were hampered first by not enough
water and then by too much. Once the rains started, Grey's party had to cross
dangerously swollen rivers, and they suffered from sleeping each night in wet clothes
on damp ground. Many of the stores which they had so carefully transported from the
other side of the world had to be abandoned after being ruined by floodwaters. Their
sheep and goats ate poisonous plants and died. Not only did the men confront life-
41

threatening dangers; they were also worn down by the niggling discomforts and
difficulties of the strange environment. Grey recalled:
* * * *
'Whenever a tree was shaken, numbers of a large green sort of ant fell from the
boughs on the unhappy trespasser, and making the best of their way to the back of his
neck gave warning by a series of the most painful bites that he was encroaching on
their domain. Yet it was sometimes ludicrous to see one of the party momentarily
stamping and roaring with pain, as he cried out to a companion to hasten and assist
him in getting rid of an enemy at once so diminutive and so troublesome' (Grey
quoted in Edwards 1991).
* * * *
What incursions the men were able to make were resisted by the local Aboriginal
people, who on a number of occasions engaged the explorers in battle. In one of these
conflicts Grey was wounded, and he did not fully recover before they left. He shot
and killed an Aboriginal man in the same attack, and later recorded his regret and
sorrow at the necessity of his actions in his journal. In April, Grey and the rest of the
crew were picked up from Hanover Bay, and taken to Mauritius to recuperate (ADB
1966d). Grey wrote:
* * * *
'Our whole residence in this country had been marked by toil and suffering. Under
these circumstances it might be imagined that we left these shores without a single
regret. But such was far from being the case. I was very loathe to leave the spot' (Grey
quoted in Edwards 1991).
* * * *
As he travelled up the Glenelg River, in Worrorra country, Grey had come across
painted images of Wanjina. He was the first European to record these images, which
he described as being 'far superior to what a savage race could be supposed capable
of' (Ryan and Akerman citing Grey 1841). Grey's reproduction 'was to become the
most historically significant Aboriginal rock painting recorded by Europeans in the
nineteenth century' (McNiven and Russell 2005). These Wanjina images fascinated
Europeans; they were recorded and circulated at a time when the cave art of Europe
had not yet been discovered in France, 'Bushman' art in South Africa was still
unknown, and the most spectacular tombs of the Egyptian Pharoahs had not been
excavated (Edwards 1991). Early European observers interpreted the Wanjina figures
as representations of foreign visitors to the Kimberley coast. Theories about who
these visitors may have been pointed to the Japanese, eleventh-century Moors, and
south-east Asian fishermen. As well as recording Wanjina images – and despite the
difficult environment and his experience of being speared – Grey also identified some
areas he had explored as promising pastoral land. He gave a widely-read account of
this journey in Journal of two expeditions of discovery in north-west and western
Australia during the years 1837, 38, and 39 which, on its publication in 1841, made
his name as an explorer.
42

EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT OF THE KIMBERLEY
Broome: a pearling place
Pearl shell is of great cultural significance to Aboriginal people from the Kimberley.
For thousands of years, Aboriginal people have harvested the shell from accessible
reefs along the coast for food, decoration, cultural activities and trade. Long before
Europeans arrived, pearl shell was exchanged through social and economic networks
stretching from the Kimberley across the continent to Queensland and South
Australia. Kimberley pearl shell is the most widely distributed item of trade in
Aboriginal Australia. During the advent of European settlement, Kimberley
Aboriginal people traded pearl shell with settlers and pearlers for rations and goods
(Akerman et al. 2010).
In the Kimberley, European pearling preceded and supplemented the pastoral
activities of European settlers. Early pastoralists had to bring herds over long
distances to unknown lands, and struggled to grow and maintain them, often in
difficult conditions. They faced the challenge of transporting meat to distant markets
with little supporting infrastructure. In contrast, pearl shells could be readily shipped
and sold: they provided a very good return for their weight and bulk; they had a ready
international market; and they did not have to be introduced to the region the way
sheep and cattle did. Although pearling was dangerous and sometimes deadly work,
pearl shells were an abundant resource found along a significant portion of the west
Kimberley coast. Pearl shell generated much of the wealth that led, in 1880, to the
establishment of Broome, and the spread of services in Australia's north-west,
including communications, public services and small business (Sickert 2003).
The first European report of pearl shell on the west coast of Australia was by William
Dampier in 1699, who noted its occurrence at Shark Bay, south of the Kimberley.
From 1850, European pearlers began to collect small Pinctata sugillata shells in that
area. When the world's largest pearl oyster shell was discovered in Roebuck Bay in
1861, it caused an international sensation. People flocked from many nations, hoping
to make their fortune. The larger Pinctata maxima shells were soon found to be
widespread, and pearling began at Nickol Bay (near Karratha) in 1867, spreading
north from there (Moore 1994). By 1870, European pearling was becoming well
established on the Kimberley coast.
Pearlers initially came to the Kimberley coast from Cossack, about 750 kilometres to
the south, and later began to arrive from Thursday Island in Queensland, with some
luggers from as far afield as Singapore. In the early years of pearling, before the
establishment of Broome, Cossack was used as a base for the provision of
communications and stores, pearling licenses and other necessities, and much of the
fleet regularly made the journey from there to the Kimberley (Edwards 1991).
As the pearling industry expanded, conflict arose over the pearlers' demands for fresh
water and Aboriginal women (Sickert 2003). Young Aboriginal men from the coast
were lured aboard schooners and taken to islands that were used as illegal depots,
where they were locked into serving a season contract in return for rations. The
kidnapping of Aboriginal people who were forced to work for pearlers occurred along
the coast and also targeted Aboriginal people inland, including in the Fitzroy Valley
and the Pilbara (Sickert 2003).
43

Guano
Another profitable, though short-lived, venture in the Kimberley region was the
mining and export of guano from the Lacepede Islands off the Kimberley coast. The
Lacepedes, a group of four low sandy islands approximately 50 kilometres west of
Beagle Bay, have long been a nesting ground for seabirds; the phosphate-rich deposits
of guano found on them were formed from the accumulation of the birds' droppings.
Guano was used as an agricultural fertilizer and was sold internationally: some went
to Mauritius; most went to Hamburg, Germany (Willing 2006). Settlers struggling to
grow crops and pastures on nutrient-deficient soils in the south of Western Australia,
however, for the most part couldn't afford to purchase guano (Bolton 2008).
In May 1876, a Melbourne company began to export guano from the Lacepedes, with
authorisation from the Western Australian Government. A few months later, an
American named Gilbert Roberts landed on one of the islands, and refused to pay the
mining levy to collect guano. He sparked an international dispute by planting an
American flag on the shore and claiming the island group as a territory of the United
States of America. His claims, described by the Perth press as 'another piece of
Yankee audacity', were supported by the American Vice Consul General in
Melbourne, Samuel Perkins Lord, who argued that Britain had failed to formally stake
their claim on the islands. As the controversy escalated, the US President Ulysses
Grant had to step in and rescind his countrymen's claims (Willing 2006).
By April 1878 there were reported to be 165 people stationed on Middle Island for the
purpose of mining guano, though far from this being a scene of productive industry
they were apparently mostly drunk and on strike. In 1878 the Surveyor General
recorded that 57 vessels had received guano licenses, and 24,715 tons (around 25,112
metric tones) had been exported, with a royalty of £12,357 paid to the Crown.
By the end of 1879, the supply of guano had been exhausted (Willing 2006). The
islands were not abandoned by Europeans, however. By this time, pearlers were
moving north, and increasing their operations along the Kimberley coast. The
Lacepedes were used illegally as depots, where Aboriginal people who had been
kidnapped were held captive by 'blackbirders' until they were forcibly signed on to
work on a pearling boat. In 1878 Captain Pemberton Walcott visited the Lacepedes
and described what he saw of the treatment of Aboriginal divers there, who worked
around 10 hours a day. He wrote that they:
* * * *
'were only allowed to get out of the water into the boat during diving hours, once or
twice a day… There is no limit whatever with regard to depth of water… it is a
common thing for natives to be dived in water from 8 to 9 fathoms or 40 to 50 feet –
and from personal observation I can testify to the exhaustive and injurious effects of
this deep diving' (quoted in Akerman et al. 2010).
* * * *
Race, labour and pearling
Throughout much of Australia's history, race and labour have been connected issues.
Following the end of transportation of convicts (1840 in New South Wales, 1853 in
Tasmania and 1868 in Western Australia), labour shortages led some Australian
44

colonies to import indentured labour from Asia and the south Pacific, to work in
specific industries such as the sugar industry or pearling for which there were not
enough European labourers (Bach 1955). By the second half of the nineteenth
century, indentured labourers were predominantly sent to northern Australia – there
was a strong medical belief in the nineteenth century that white men were ill-suited
for work in the tropics. Nonetheless, concerns were raised by people outside these
industries that the conditions in which indentured labourers were 'recruited' and kept
were akin to slavery, which had been illegal in England since 1772 and had been
banned by law throughout the British Empire in 1833 (Willard 1923). Concerns
focused particularly on allegations of kidnapping and abuse of Pacific Islanders
(referred to as Kanakas). There were also fears that indentured labourers, for instance
from China or India, would drive down white labourers' wages, discouraging British
migration, and that they would introduce an alien culture and dilute Australia's 'racial
purity' (Willard 1923; Curthoys 2003).
Aboriginal and other non-European labour played a pivotal role in the pearling
industry. Aboriginal men and women worked as divers from the early days of pearling
in the Kimberley, before diving apparatus was introduced. Without any protective
equipment or oxygen, they descended to depths of up to ten metres to collect pearl
shell. Aboriginal divers were credited with outstanding underwater sight, diving
ability and local knowledge:
* * * *
'The powers of natives in diving, especially the females, are spoken of as something
wonderful. They go down to depths of seven fathoms and remain below a time that
astonishes their white employers' (McCarthy 1994 citing Perth Gazette and WA
Times 1868).
* * * *
In 1883, the Native Commission Report stated that Aboriginal labour was a key factor
in the pearling industry (Ryan 1993).
Historian John Bailey argues that the era of skin diving was 'to prove one of the most
brutal and bloody businesses in Australia's history' (Bailey 2001). Report of abuses in
the early days of pearling led to legislation in 1871 and 1875 regulating native labour
and prohibiting the use of women as divers (Bach 1955; Edwards 1983; Burton 2000).
This encouraged the increasing employment of indentured Malays (Indonesians or
Malaysians), who in 1876 made up around 800 of 1,200 divers. The legislation was
inadequately policed, however, and provided little real protection for Aboriginal
people (Bach 1955; Edwards 1983; Akerman and Stanton 1994). Blackbirding still
occurred in the Kimberley into the 1890s. Aboriginal women continued to work in
pearling, collecting significant amounts of pearl shell as 'beachcombers'. Pearlers also
used Aboriginal women and girls for sexual relations, with or without their consent
(Sickert 2003; Kwaymullina 2001). Children as young as ten were 'employed' by
European pearlers, with girls working in pearlers' homes and boys on the luggers.
Like many industries employing Aboriginal people, payment was made in the
provision of rations including clothing, foodstuffs and tobacco, not wages (Sickert
2003).
45

Technological changes were perhaps more significant than legislation in shaping the
early pearling industry, and these changes affected not only the viability of the
industry, but the lives of all those who worked in it. Helmeted diving (also known as
'dress' diving or 'suited' diving) was introduced into Western Australia by the
Thursday Island fleet in the 1880s, and this enabled the collection of shells from
deeper waters off the coast (Bach 1955; Edwards 1983). With the introduction of
diving apparatus, Aboriginal divers were largely displaced by Asian divers who were
experienced at this style of pearling. However Aboriginal people continued to be
integral to the industry, working as boat crews, boat builders, shell openers, shell
packers, onshore store hands, cooks and servants.
The rise of Broome as the centre of the Western Australian pearling industry roughly
coincided with the introduction of helmeted diving in 1885, and the recruitment of
indentured Japanese divers and tenders (Bach 1955). Koepangers (Timorese) or
Manilamen (Filipinos) generally worked as pump hands and deck boys; cooks were
Chinese; Malays (Indonesians or Malaysians) worked as carpenters and sail makers;
while Aboriginal people worked in the most lowly paid shore jobs (Edwards 1983).
By 1901, the total pearling workforce in Western Australia comprised 98 Europeans,
51 Aboriginal people, 271 Japanese people, 705 Malays and 382 Filipinos. By 1901
most pearl luggers were owned and run by white Australians, and employed a white
shell opener who was responsible for the security of pearls among a mixed Asian
crew (Bach 1955).
In the Kimberley, Asian lugger crews regularly came ashore to stock up on supplies
and to rest in 'lay-up camps', and Broome was unique in Australia, from the late
nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries, for being a predominantly Asian town.
Aboriginal people, especially those living in coastal areas, worked, traded and
socialised with Asian pearling crews, and found that they could get much better terms
of reimbursement for goods and services from them than they ever had from the white
pearling masters. Trade with Asian crews, which occurred outside the control of the
authorities, enabled some groups of Aboriginal people to stay on their own country
for longer than would have otherwise been possible, and to avoid working for harsh
station managers or dealing with police at ration depots. The government was
concerned that the independence this trade allowed Aboriginal people would reduce
pastoralists' and pearlers' access to cheap Aboriginal labour (Ganter 2006) .
In 1901, the desire of the colonies to preserve their British–Australian identity was a
significant motive in forming the Commonwealth (Willard 1967). The Immigration
Restriction Act 1901, informed by the White Australia policy, contained the first
dictation test that was applied selectively to Asians and other individuals identified as
undesirable. The Australia Act 1901 aimed to maintain racial purity and to uphold
national characteristics based on British ideals of the Queen, God and country. It was
also intended to protect wages and resources, which white Australians believed were
rightfully theirs, from foreigners. Together, these pieces of legislation were
foundation documents in the new Commonwealth Parliament (Sickert 2003;
Stephenson 2007).
Pearling, however, was an industry underpinned by access to cheap non-European
labour. Pearling masters raised concerns about the potential economic impacts of the
White Australia policy on their businesses. The Western Australian Government
46

feared that the policy might lead pearlers to relocate their bases from Australia to
Dutch Timor or Indonesia (since most pearling took place in international waters). In
1902, the Commonwealth appointed two investigators to consider the implications of
the policy for the pearling industry. They reported that the level of pay necessary to
attract white labour to pearling would make the industry uneconomic. In response, the
Commonwealth Parliament agreed to exempt pearl divers from the Immigration
Restriction Act, provided that they were later repatriated. In 1905, the exemption was
reconsidered but upheld, with the addition of a permit system for divers (Bach 1955).
In 1908, the Mackay Commission recommended the establishment of a training
school for white divers, and approaches were made to Scottish fishermen to work in
the Torres Strait pearl fields. The use of fishermen from Norway and Sweden, and of
Greek sponge divers, was also unsuccessfully mooted.
Although Broome was granted an exemption from the White Australia policy,
indentured workers in the pearling industry could still readily be deported if they did
not work as directed or were rebellious (Sickert 2003). Divers who had been born in
Australia, or had arrived in Australia before the implementation of the White
Australia policy, were nonetheless in a vulnerable position. Despite the fact that they
were legally naturalised Australians and not subject to deportation, by law they could
be committed to a lunatic asylum for refusing to work, or for other behaviour deemed
'antisocial'. Chinese people and other Asians who arrived prior to the White Australia
policy were further restricted by legislation which prevented them from owning land,
pearling licenses or pearling fleets (Yu and Tang Wei 1999). The many headstones in
the Japanese and Chinese cemeteries in Broome bear witness to the danger and high
mortality rate of the pearling industry (Akerman et al. 2010).
The Aborigines Act 1905
The Western Australian Aborigines Act 1905, like the South Australian Aborigines
Act 1911, was based on the Queensland Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the
Sale of Opium Act 1897, and controlled all aspects of Aboriginal people's lives. The
main features of the Act related to employment, the powers of the Chief Protector and
police, cohabitation and the establishment of Aboriginal reserves. The Chief
Protector's powers over Aboriginal people became extensive. He was now legal
guardian of every Aboriginal or 'half-caste' child under the age of sixteen, had the
right to intervene for the general care and protection of any person who came under
the Act, including the management of property, controlled the marriage of Aboriginal
women to non-Aboriginal men, and could initiate proceedings to force the father of an
illegitimate child to pay maintenance costs if the child was in care. A range of
offences relating to marriage, cohabitation and the supply of alcohol were created and
the police were empowered to arrest without warrant any Aboriginal person suspected
of offending.
Employment provisions were a major feature of the Act, including the prohibition of
employment of Aboriginal children under the age of sixteen, reiteration of the
contract system of employment and the introduction of compulsory employment
permits to be renewed annually. Employers were compelled under the Act to provide
adequate rations, medical care, clothing and blankets. Finally, the Governor was given
the power to reserve areas of Crown land up to a limit of 2,000 acres in any
magisterial district, and to order the removal of any unemployed Aboriginal person to
such a reserve (Biskup 1973; Haebich 2000).
47

The connections between Aboriginal and Asian people that grew out of their
involvement in the pearling industry were far from being purely economic.
Authorities were concerned that an increase in the 'coloured' population in Australia
would undermine the new nation's 'racial purity'. Under the 1905 Aborigines Act and
successive amendments, an Aboriginal woman was required to get the permission of
the Chief Protector of Aborigines to marry a non-Aboriginal man, and it was an
offence for mixed race couples to live together. The terms of the Aborigines Act,
which operated in Western Australia until 1963, reflected a longstanding and
profound fear among officials about racial mixing. Ordinary Asian-Aboriginal
families were obsessively regarded as a threat by the authorities, and the community
they formed in Broome occupied the attention of government administrators and
police for decades (Skyring 2003 quoted in Akerman et al. 2010). Many Asian men
were prosecuted for living and raising a family with Aboriginal women. The
legislation was enforced to the extent that police surveyed Broome and surrounding
areas and even carried out home raids to prevent Asians and Aboriginal people
interacting. To get around being prosecuted, people had to negotiate with police.
Lay-up camps were regularly inspected for breaches of the Aborigines Act, even
though this involved police wading across mudflats and trudging through crocodileinfested
mangroves along the La Grange, Roebuck Bay and Dampier coastlines.
Aboriginal and Asian people were arrested for camping together (Stephenson 2007;
Akerman et al. May 2010). Broome, and other towns throughout Western Australia,
were declared 'prohibited' to Aboriginal people, unless they applied for 'citizenship' –
a demeaning process that involved individuals publicly renouncing their cultural ties
and families in exchange for the rights enjoyed automatically by other Australians.
Many people refused to participate, including Cissy Djiagween, who declared: 'No
way! I'm not gonna get a license for my own country. I want to be a free person!'
(quoted in Akerman et al. 2010). If an unemployed Aboriginal person was found in
Broome after the curfew at sundown, they would be driven out. Even employed
Aboriginal people had to supply a note from their employer if they were found in
town after dark. A fence line around Broome originally to keep out cattle was the
physical boundary for the prohibited area, and this became known as the Common
Gate (Sickert 2003; Skyring 2007).
Cosmopolitan Broome
A rich Asian-Australian society built up in Broome around the pearling industry: there
were Asian storekeepers and noodle shop owners, doctors and market gardeners. The
Asian population settled in the part of town now called Chinatown, which was
originally called Japtown and was reminiscent of villages in China and Japan.
Chinatown was where many Asians established retail stores, boarding houses, import
agencies, laundries, market gardens, brothels and hotels. During the wet season, when
luggers returned to shore, the indentured workers moved into Chinatown and Broome
became a bustling town, full of activity, festivals and excitement. This part of Broome
looked, smelled and sounded like Asia. Some say that during the pearling days,
visitors to Broome had to check whether they were still in Australia (Sickert 2003).
Over time, representative community organizations emerged such as the Broome
Chinese Association, Japanese Club, and Malayasian Association (Akerman et al.
2010).
48

The Broome community reflected the hierarchy of the pearling industry, which was
based on occupation and ethnicity: Europeans held positions of power as master
pearlers, businessmen and administrators. Asians and mixed-race people
(predominately Asian-Aboriginal people) were in the middle, and 'full blood'
Aboriginal people were at the bottom (Dalton 1964). These hierarchies were reflected
for many years in the different locations occupied by various groups in and around
Broome (Akerman et. al May 2010). Class distinctions also existed within ethnic
groups, usually based on occupational status. Among the Asian population for
instance, the Japanese divers and Asian business owners had higher status, while the
Timorese were at the bottom (Sickert 2003). For Aboriginal people, social position
was largely determined by their ability to adapt to the dominant European way of life
and by the nationality of an Aboriginal person's marriage partner (Dalton 1964;
Sickert 2003).
Charles Flinders, who visited Broome in the 1890s and 1900s, described what he saw:
* * * *
'Broome is one of the most cosmopolitan towns in the whole of Australia. There one
can see coloured people from all parts of the globe, their colour ranging from olive
skinned South Sea Islanders to the jet black Australian Aborigines' (Flinders 1933
quoted in Akerman et al. 2010).
* * * *
Racial segregation was a part of everyday life in Broome. Many places within
Broome were segregated until well into the 1970s, including residential areas and
streets, the cinema, hotels and sporting clubs. The Sun Picture Theatre, for example,
had designated areas for Europeans where no Asian or Aboriginal person was
allowed, an area for 'coloureds' including Asians and mixedrace people, and a
designated area for Aboriginal people that was separated from the others by a wire or
fence (Dalton 1964). Within these areas there was further segregation according to
economic status (Sickert 2003). A 'colour line' also existed which did not permit
interaction between Europeans and others. Anyone who breached this would find
themselves ostracised (Sickert 2003).
Despite the legislative prohibitions, there were many long term relationships between
Asians and Aboriginal people, and in Broome in particular, there are many prominent
Asian-Aboriginal families today. Some families can trace their heritage through up to
four or five different nationalities; people shared common experiences and accepted
Asian divers into their families and community (Hamaguchi 2006). It is a testament to
the resilience of the Broome community that the unique fusion of families and
cultures had not only survived, but thrived, making Broome a dynamic and
exceptional society (Akerman et al. 2010).
Pearling in the twentieth century
Until the 1950s, the Kimberley pearling industry was based on the collection of
mother-of-pearl shells for export to Europe, mainly for button manufacture, although
the harvesting of valuable natural pearls was also significant. From 1900 to 1914,
Australia supplied between half and three quarters of the international market, and the
Western Australian pearl fields dominated Australian production. Broome produced
80 per cent of the world's mother-of-pearl shell (Bach 1955). Pearling was the fifth
49

largest export industry in Western Australia with 950 tons shipped annually (Burton
2000).
As with all primary production, the pearling industry was volatile. The establishment
of the submarine cable from Broome to Java in 1889 (which Cable Beach was named
after) enabled quick international communications on fluctuating pearl and shell
prices (Western Australia Heritage Commission 1988). In 1905 the industry
experienced a depression because of an over-supply of pearl shell, followed by a
boom by 1910, by which time floating stations operating in international waters had
largely replaced land-based pearlers in Western Australia (Bach 1955). Pearling in
Australia halted during the First World War and never fully recovered. Of the 225
Broome men (mainly white shell openers) who enlisted, 54 were killed (Sickert
2003).
From the 1920s buttons began to be made of plastic rather than mother-of-pearl, and
by 1928 an increasing number of foreign boats (especially Japanese owned) working
outside Australian territorial waters had flooded the already-diminished world
markets with cheaper shells and pearls. The Great Depression, following the 1929
Wall Street crash, caused the market to collapse.
Broome was severely impacted by a cyclone in 1935, which destroyed the pearling
fleet at the Lacepede Islands, killing around 140 men. From 1937 to 1938, Japanese
and Australian production again flooded the pearl markets (Bach 1955; Burton 2000).
In recognition of its dependence on pearling, in 1938 government assistance was
provided to the struggling town of Broome (Bach 1955). However this assistance was
to be short-lived: the Second World War would be the the most significant disruption
northern Australia had faced since the arrival of Europeans in the region around a
century earlier. It would affect not only the pearling industry, but all aspects of
people's lives.
Pearling has always been a dangerous industry, and both boats and lives have been
lost throughout the history of its operation: of the 350 known shipwrecks in the
Kimberley region, the majority of vessels were engaged in pearling at the time they
were wrecked (Souter 2009). Shipwreck sites physically document the many
technological and social changes that occurred on pearling luggers, and so represent a
unique opportunity to study the physical proofs of the past. Only 15 wrecks have so
far been discovered; as with other endeavours in the Kimberley, difficulties in access
and remoteness have hampered the pursuit of this rich heritage resource, which is still
to be further investigated (Souter 2009).
Images of the pastoral industry
From its early days, pearling drew a mixture of races to northern Australia. The
industry was very mobile, and was based at sea rather than on land. Pastoralism, on
the other hand, was regarded as a way to extend the reach of more permanent
European occupation. During the nineteenth century it was widely believed that, if the
Australian colonies were to survive, Europeans had to fully occupy the Australian
landmass. In the mid-nineteenth century, Western Australia's population was less than
10,000 – significantly lower than the eastern colonies, which had been boosted by the
discovery of gold. From 1863, the Western Australian Government provided
incentives for Europeans to settle areas north of the Murchison River. To bring people
50

and wealth to the west, the government offered twelve month's free pasture in the
north of the colony for settlers who wished to select a 'run'. After the first year, those
who stayed were able to take up as much as 100,000 acres of land (more than 40,000
hectares), and were eligible for three years rent free (Edwards 1991). Despite this
assistance, early attempts to set up pastoral stations and settlements in the Kimberley
failed. Settlements at Roebuck Bay in 1863 and Camden Harbour in 1864
encountered sustained Aboriginal resistance.
Camden Harbour and Roebuck Bay
The settlement of Camden Harbour by shareholders of the 'Camden Harbour
Association' was short-lived: settlers sailed from Melbourne and began to arrive in the
district in December 1864 and they left, defeated, less than a year later. The Camden
Harbour Association's choice of location for the founding of a pastoral settlement had
been based on their reading of Grey's enthusiastic assessment. However, they failed to
take account of his record of the many and severe difficulties he and his men had
faced: the discomfort, sickness and danger. The settlers arrived on the Kimberley
coast at the worst time of year, just as Grey had done, during the build-up to the wet
season. Stock began dying as soon as they were disembarked, and so did people.
Captain Brown described the Calliance's arrival in Camden Harbour on Sunday 25
December 1864:
* * * *
'Air close, sun very hot. Thermometer 89 deg. About 5pm Mr Hart, passenger, found
insensible, having had a sun-stroke; at 7pm buried him on Sheep Island, the Rev. Mr
Tanner reading the burial service at 7am. Found from the report of the passengers
previously arrived on the Stag and Helvitia, there was apparently very little food, and
no water within a few miles of the ship for the sheep' (quoted in Edwards 1991).
* * * *
To add to the difficulties, the ship Calliance was wrecked only a few days later while
being careened, when it was caught in sudden strong winds and blown onto rocks on
the shore. More ships arrived, bringing with them thousands of pure merino ewes.
Shortly after they were landed, the sheep began dying in droves.
People also suffered from the difficult conditions. A graveyard was established on
Sheep Island, and by the time the settlers withdrew, nine people had been buried
there. Some settlers died of fever or heatstroke, others drowned, or were speared and
died of their wounds. One grave belongs to Mary Jane Pascoe, who died on June 4 th
1865 of an infection after giving birth, aged 30 years; her headstone still stands on the
island today, a grim reminder of the difficulties faced by women and children in such
early settlements. Her baby only survived her by a short time.
Resident Magistrate R. J. Sholl, who was sent by the Western Australian Government
to administer the new settlement, left at the end of October 1865, by which time
Camden Harbour had all but been abandoned: all the stock had perished and most of
the supplies had run out. He described the place as 'an ungodly hole' (Edwards 1991).
In 1866 Cape Villaret, near Lagrange Bay, a small inlet located in the southern part of
Roebuck Bay, was the scene of the region's first recorded massacre of Aboriginal
people, in retribution for the killing of three European explorers (Battye 1986; Skates
51

1989). Oral traditions of the Karajarri people, whose traditional country extends from
just south of Broome to the Anna Plains station at the northern end of Eighty Mile
Beach, preserve stories of the massacre. It took place to avenge the killing by
Karajarri people of three explorers: Fredrick Panter, James Harding and William
Goldwyer who were in the area looking for good pastoral country on behalf of the
Roebuck Bay Pastoral Company. These traditions speak of the explorers meeting their
deaths because they desecrated a sacred place and ignored warnings to leave the area
(Battye and Fox 1985; Skates 1989). The subsequent punitive expedition led by
Maitland Brown exacted a fearsome revenge on the traditional owners of the area, and
an unknown number of people were killed.
The Forrest expedition
In the 1870s grazing runs were tenuously established in the Fitzroy Valley, Meda and
May River areas. In 1879, the Western Australian surveyor Alexander Forrest was
sent on an official expedition to look for fertile land and gold in the northern part of
the colony. Unlike Grey, Forrest was a bushman of much experience. He had been
born and grown up in Bunbury, Western Australia, and had done long trips before
through difficult terrain, including surveying the route for the Overland Telegraph
Line with his brother John. He was methodical, and well prepared for the conditions
he would encounter. His party included his brother Matthew Forrest; a cadet from the
survey department; a government geologist from Victoria; and two Aboriginal men,
Tommy Pierre and Tommy Dower, who were outsiders from Nyungah country in the
south, and who accompanied the expedition as trackers and horse men. Forrest also
hoped that they would help his party to negotiate passage through country with
Kimberley traditional owners .While Pierre had accompanied both Alex and John
Forrest on previous expeditions, as far as can be known this was Dower's only such
venture. Tommy Dower is also notable as an important spokesman for his Ngyungah
people around Perth and is the subject of a number of photographs. Alex Forrest paid
for an elaborate gravestone to mark Dower's grave after he died in 1895.
The expedition lasted for six months, and resulted in the mapping and naming of
much of the Kimberley district. They found fertile land surrounding the Fitzroy River,
and followed the river north for almost 400 kilometres before reaching a place where
they could cross with their horses – today's Fitzroy Crossing. Forrest was very
impressed by the promise of the Fitzroy to support future settlement. Hicks, a member
of his party, wrote:
* * * *
'Our arrival at the Fitzroy was heralded with great rejoicing. Its bank being covered
with eucalyptus, banksia, and acacias Mr Forrest described it as a magnificent river…
Ducks, turkeys, and cockatoos were there in countless numbers. We were able to
economise in our provisions with the help of our guns. When game was plentiful and
on the menu, our flour and bacon remained intact' (quoted in Edwards 1991).
* * * *
After turning north, the men found themselves in very different country. Hicks wrote
that the mountainous region of the Central Kimberley seemed to 'completely shut us
in with bold, high, ranges.' Forrest named the Oscar and Napier ranges and the King
Leopold Range. Supplies ran down and his men began to fall sick, and they could not
find a pass through the mountains: no European would until Frank Hann in 1898.
52

Hicks wrote: 'We found ourselves near the coast again in some of the most rugged
country one can conceive… Nothing but disaster and disappointment attended our
efforts' (quoted in Edwards 1991).
Forrest named the whole region he explored 'the Kimberley' after the Secretary of
State for the Colonies, the Earl of Kimberley. On his return to Perth, via the Overland
Telegraph Line and Port Palmerston, Forrest claimed that the Kimberley had great
potential for tropical agriculture, and his report of the journey foreshadowed the
possibility that gold would be discovered there (ADB 1981b). He also noted that
Aboriginal people who lived in the region might provide a source of labour to
support the development of colonial industries (Bolton 1958). His descriptions,
particularly as used subsequently in promotions by the Western Australian
Government, led to a wave of interest in the Kimberley from southern squatters and
investors. According to Forrest's account, his party had surprisingly little contact with
Aboriginal people, despite the length of time they spent in the Kimberley. His records
note that encounters between his party and Aboriginal people near Beagle Bay were
friendly (Clements 1990). Oral history accounts by Kimberley Aboriginal people
report that assistance was given to European explorers like Forrest as a way to
manage their incursions. Aboriginal people would guide explorers through their
country so as to lessen the strangers' impact upon traditional ways of life, and to
ensure their time on country would be as brief as possible (Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
But the strangers would not be leaving. Throughout the 1880s, pastoralism became
more widespread in the Kimberley, buoyed by significant levels of political
promotion and support. The Victorian gold rush had resulted in a period of economic
prosperity and rapid development in the southern colonies. Despite the early failures
in the region, the Western Australian Government used the Melbourne Exhibition of
1880 as a forum to advertise for settlers for the northern parts of the colony, with the
aim of capturing some of the available capital and enthusiasm for expansion.
Alexander Forrest's expedition reports were used as evidence of the area's potential. In
1881 the Western Australian Government followed up on the interest it had created by
offering land in the Kimberley by ballot. By 1882, 77 people held leases to eighteen
million hectares of Aboriginal lands (Bolton 1958). From the early 1880s, based on
both increasing movement of pastoralists into the region, and the growth of the
pearling industry, the number of permanent European camps and settlements in the
Kimberley began to increase dramatically. In 1880 pearlers made their base at Minyirr
(Roebuck Bay) on the land of the Yawuru people, and in 1883 they renamed the site
Broome. A little north, on the mudflats of King Sound, the township of Derby was
gazetted that same year.
Most of the early settlement of the western areas of the Kimberley took place by sea,
with new arrivals landing with their flocks or herds at makeshift ports such as Derby
and Point Torment before traveling inland. In 1881, the first pastoral station on the
lower Fitzroy River in the west Kimberley, Yeeda Station, was established by a group
who formed the Murray Squatting Company. By 1883, there were eight stations
running a total of 22,000 sheep along the lower valleys of the Meda, Fitzroy and
Lennard Rivers. Stocking the stations with sheep was seen as a quicker way of
complying with the pastoral lease conditions: land leased from the Crown had to be
stocked within two years at a rate of either twenty sheep or two cattle for every 1000
acres (around 400 hectares) (Schubert 1992). Initially, a relatively small number of
53

large pastoral station leases were developed, primarily by family dynasties. Land
speculation was rife. Many leases were purchased and managed by absentee
landholders or profiteers who had no intention of occupying or working on the land.
The promotion of the Kimberley by the colonial government as a promising pastoral
district, and the ballot for pastoral leases, also sparked a series of epic 'overlanding'
expeditions: long distance droves to the Kimberley by colonial squatters from
Queensland and New South Wales. These included some of the longest such journeys
recorded in Australia. Overlanders seeking pasture pushed the boundaries of white
settlement out into unknown country, and in doing so they established routes that
would later be used by other settlers travelling in their wake. The most famous
outback stock routes were the Murranji Track, originally established between western
Queensland and the Kimberley by Nathaniel Buchanan; the Birdsville Track; the
Strzelecki Track; and the Canning Stock Route, between Halls Creek in the
Kimberley and Wiluna.
Nat Buchanan was the first overlander to arrive with cattle in the Kimberley, taking a
route that would be followed by prospectors travelling to the Halls Creek gold fields
only a few years later, and arriving at what was to be known as the Ord River Station
in June 1884. He is noted for this venture, and for his role in establishing many
properties in the Northern Territory and central and western Queensland (Pearson and
Lennon 2008).
During 1886 and 1887, a new coastal stock route came into use, and cattle were
shipped north from Roeburne, in the Pilbara, to the Fitzroy. In 1886 Noonkanbah was
established as a sheep station at the edge of the Fitzroy Basin: the property totaled
216,311 acres (around 87,538 hectares). Cattle were brought to Roebuck Plains in
1888. By 1889 over 100,000 sheep were grazed in the south-western Kimberley;
almost five times as many as had been there six years earlier (Pearson and Lennon
2008). Stations remained vulnerable, however, to the difficulties and unpredictability
of the environment and climate: in 1894, flooding resulted in the entire Fitzroy plains
being inundated as far inland as the edge of the ranges, and around 30,000 sheep were
drowned along the Lennard and Fitzroy rivers. For some pastoralists the loss was
more than they could take, and they abandoned their holdings altogether (Edwards
1991).
The drove to Fossil Downs
In 1886, the MacDonald and McKenzie families, who were close friends and related
by marriage, took up the lease of Fossil Downs station at the junction of the Fitzroy
and Margaret rivers in Gooniyandi country, in the central Kimberley. Donald
MacDonald had written to Alexander Forrest just after he returned from his
expedition in 1879, enquiring about the pastoral prospects of the region. On the basis
of Forrest's favourable reply, Donald sent his son Dan to lead a small party to
investigate the area. The party travelled to Derby by ship and then rode up the Fitzroy
Valley to look at possible selections (MacKenzie 1985). On his return, Dan
MacDonald's description prompted his father to contact the MacKenzies, and together
they developed plans to secure a pastoral lease and take stock overland from inland
New South Wales to the Kimberley. Donald MacDonald would not live to see his
sons reach their destination: he died just before they set out, after falling from a horse
while mustering cattle.
54

The drove began near Goulburn in 1883, with 500 cattle, two teams of bullocks and
50 horses. It would be the longest droving trip across the continent, covering a
distance of around 5,600 kilometres. The journey was beset by difficulties. Before
they left New South Wales the party had to cross the Barwon River while it was in
full flood. When they reached southern Queensland, they found it in the grip of severe
drought, one of the worst in that region's history. Their progress was delayed and the
condition of the cattle deteriorated; many of the original party withdrew (MacKenzie
1985). Those who continued waited out the drought near Winton, and after three
months watching their cattle die, when the rains broke, they resumed their journey. At
Bourketown the leading mobs came down with pleural pneumonia, caused by feeding
on the plentiful young spring grass brought by the rains. Sickness also struck the
human members of the party: two people were so ill from malarial fever they had to
leave the drove. The Chinese cook was killed when Aboriginal people attacked their
camp one night. Two years into the trip, Charles MacDonald, the expedition leader,
became so sick with malaria that he had to leave. His brother Dan travelled out from
New South Wales and took over until Charles was well enough to return.
On 3 June 1886, having travelled more than 5,600 kilometres, what was left of the
party finally arrived, with around half the original head of cattle, and 13 of the
original 60 horses, at the junction of the Victoria and Margaret rivers. They stopped
near a tree which Alexander Forrest had marked F136 (MacKenzie 1985). The trip
had taken them three years. They renamed the land Fossil Downs Station after the
many fossilised shells they found there (remnants of earlier higher sea levels). In the
years to come it would become the largest privately-owned cattle station in Australia,
at over a million acres (404,685 hectares) (ADB 1974).
While these initial droving ventures are prominent in recorded history, for many
years, long droves were made as a matter of course to get cattle from stations to
market. Major Kimberley stock routes follow defined tracks along water sources and
associated Aboriginal sites from pastoral stations to ports. Kimberley pastoral owners
relied on small numbers of highly skilled Aboriginal stockmen who worked extremely
long hours but took pride in mustering and safely delivering all their stock to port
(Munro 1996). Droving sometimes provided Aboriginal stockmen with opportunities
to fulfil custodial duties on their own country and interact with others outside the
annual wet season holidays. Long droves to ports have now been replaced by
motorised transport, but stock work is still associated with the custodial
responsibilities of looking after and keeping country healthy (Harry Lennard, pers.
comm. 25-26 May 2010).
Gold
It was not just the chance of good pasture that drew Europeans inland in the
Kimberley. In 1882 the Western Australian Government had offered a reward of
£5000 for the discovery of gold in the colony. In 1883 and 1884, the government
temporarily employed a geologist to participate in two survey expeditions to the
north-west of the colony (unlike the eastern states, the colony couldn't afford its own
permanent geologist). During the course of these expeditions, Edward Townley
Hardman, who came directly from working with the Geological Survey of Ireland,
found the fossilised remains of a diprotodon in a cave at Windjana gorge, and named
'Geikie Canyon' after famous British geologist Sir Archibald Geikie. After his second
55

traverse of the region he declared 'auriferous country' in the East Kimberley, though it
was not until the following year that a group of prospectors following the lead found
payable quantities of gold. The rush brought thousands of men from across Australia
to the Kimberley region, most travelling through the ports of Derby or Wyndham.
Fred Cammilleri was in Derby at the time, and recalled what it was like there when
the Fitzroy was in flood and men couldn't get through to the diggings:
* * * *
'Things were fast and furious and the pubs did a roaring trade… The flies and
mosquitoes were damnable. The breaking-in of horses that had never had a collar on,
and others that had never had a saddle on, or packsaddle, was a daily amusement for
the crowd; also scratch races, and buck-jumping contests were well patronised'
(quoted in Edwards 1991).
* * * *
At its peak, there were reported to have been up to 3,000 men on the incredibly
remote diggings at Halls Creek, but the finds there had largely petered out by the mid
1890s. Although the gold stopped flowing, the infrastructure it had required and
helped to create remained: police stations and post offices, an extension to the
telegraph line, and much improved port facilities at Derby and Wyndham. A number
of people claimed the government reward for the discovery of gold, including
Hardman, but because of the conflict that arose the Western Australian Government
decided not to pay it to any of the claimants (ADB 1972b; Edwards 1991).
A final frontier
Pastoral expansion into the area north of the Napier and King Leopold ranges took
much longer than it had in the south-west of the Kimberley, and it was not until the
late 1890s that stations were established at Leopold Downs and Mount House (Jebb
2002; Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995). Stations came still later in the very north of
the Kimberley, and it was only at the end of the 1920s that most of the region was
subject to pastoral lease (Jebb 2002; DIA 2004). By 1929, Kimberley pastoral stations
were on average between 50 and 250 per cent larger than other Western Australian
stations.
This final expansion was largely made possible by Queensland cattleman and
bushman, Frank Hann, who in the winter of 1898 found a long sought after passage
through the King Leopold Ranges. Hann's station in the Gulf Country had become
worthless in 1894, after a series of poor seasons and low prices for cattle. He had set
out for the north of Western Australia in search of new opportunities. What made his
exploration of the region particularly remarkable was that, at the time he undertook
this difficult feat, he was over 50 years of age and was suffering from the painful after
effects of a broken thigh bone. The King Leopold Ranges had previously formed a
formidable barrier to European expansion, their rugged and difficult terrain halting the
northward spread of pastoralism and, like the limestone cliff terrain of the Oscar and
Napier Ranges, offered a tactical advantage to Aboriginal people who were able to
use the ranges as a base to maintain their resistance against European settlement. In
the course of his expedition, Hann named the Charnley and Isdell rivers and identified
some areas he considered to be promising pastoral country. Hann himself took up a
lease of over 2,590 square kilometres, but because of his poor finances he was not
able to stock it. The area he had identified and made accessible was ultimately
56

pioneered by already-established Kimberley pastoral families (ADB 1972a).
On 9 May 1901 Frederick Drake-Brockman and a party of 11 men departed from
Wyndham, followed the Pentecost River south, and then pushed north-west through
the King Leopold Ranges to Walcott Inlet and returned along the Drysdale River,
reaching their depot on 26 November 1901. Along the way, Drake-Brockman
attempted to validate reports of many topographical features of the region made by
previous explorers, including Grey and Hann, and in the process he named the
Princess May Ranges and the Calder and King Edward rivers. Drake-Brockman's
party collected specimens of plants, animals and rocks, and also Aboriginal artefacts,
for the Western Australian museum. His collection included the previously unknown
black grass wren (Amytis (Amytornis) housei). Drake-Brockman's report of the
expedition was published in 1902 in the Western Australian Parliamentary Papers
(ADB 1981a).
As pastoralism slowly spread across the rugged terrain of the north-west, so did the
dispossession of Aboriginal people from their traditional lands. Competition for water
and food, encroachment or violation of sacred places, mistreatment and brutality were
all catalysts that contributed to the onset of hostilities between Aboriginal people and
European settlers. The conflict resulted in loss of life on both sides, though numerous
contemporary reports indicate that Aboriginal people suffered far greater losses
through the violence than did European settlers.
Attacks by Aboriginal people on livestock were common. Large numbers of stock
were speared, bludgeoned, crippled or driven off runs (Jebb 2002). Stock supplied
much-needed food for Europeans, but it also fed Aboriginal people, who were denied
access to their traditional land and resources. From 1892, police and settler recruits
were granted greater discretionary powers to disperse Aboriginal people, and life
outside the stations became increasingly difficult and dangerous. Spearing of cattle
was made a criminal offence, and jail terms were increased for cattle theft. Aboriginal
people could be whipped for certain offences (Broome 2010).
Despite these measures Aboriginal people continued to successfully resist expansion
of pastoral interests, particularly in the rugged limestone country of the Oscar and
Napier ranges. The threat posed by the Bunuba resistance in this region brought a
severe response from the authorities, who threw enormous resources into efforts to
capture the perpetrators, particularly after Jandamarra joined the resistance in 1894.
Jandamarra and the Aboriginal resistance
Born in 1873, Jandamarra moved to the Lennard River Station to work at the age of
ten, and was soon regarded as the fastest shearer and best horseman in the district
(Nicholson 1997; Newbury 1999). He learned English and became popular with the
Europeans (Lowe 1994; Grassby and Hill 1988). Jandamarra grew up in two worlds;
he was Bunuba by birth but spent a significant part of his short life living and working
with the new settlers. In 1889 he was arrested on a charge of stock killing and was
imprisoned in Derby where he was put into service looking after horses and working
as a police assistant and tracker. Jandamarra learned how to use firearms and was
involved in a number of operations against his own people until the arrest of his uncle
and brother-in-law in 1894. To release the Bunuba prisoners, Jandamarra was forced
to shoot his police boss, William Richardson: his fate was sealed.
57

Jandamarra's ability to understand and pre-empt European police strategies, including
the use of weaponry, was a fundamental element of the Bunuba resistance. He shared
his skill in using European weapons and knowledge of tactics with others. After a
fierce and long-running police campaign, resulting in Bunuba, Warrawa, Worrorra,
Nyikina, Mangala and Gooniyandi deaths, Jandamarra was killed at Tunnel Creek in
1897.
Contemporary accounts say Jandamarra's legendary status was gained from his
Jalnggangurru power, the power of his culture and knowledge. He could '[f]ly like a
bird and disappear like a ghost…he was two separate beings. His body was a physical
manifestation of a hidden spirit living secretly in a small water-soak near his Tunnel
Creek sanctuary' (Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995). These references to
Jandamarra's ability to appear and disappear relate to his intimate knowledge of the
Napier Range, a rugged limestone landscape riddled with narrow passages, chimneys
and caves that allowed Jandamarra and others to avoid capture. This twisted,
convoluted terrain also prevented the police and pastoralists on horseback from
physically entering the place. The unusual nature of the landscape, coupled with the
accounts of Jandamarra's 'power' must have created a psychological barrier for the
European settlers and a sense of foreboding about what lay beyond the limestone
bastions.
Contested histories
Throughout Australia, the history of pastoralism displays some common patterns,
though the various participants have different memories and interpreations of this
history. One legacy of pastoral history is a sense of identity valued by many
Australians today. In a land where rain falls unpredictably and few rivers run, anyone
who lived or worked in the bush, particularly in those early years, developed skills to
cope with the vagaries of drought, fire and flood. Drovers and overlanders had to
survive in tough and unpredictable conditions, and they were second to none in selfsufficiency.
Drovers in particular became a symbol of adaptation to a harsh
environment, and of the adventure of the unknown in distant and isolated places. They
became the stuff of legend, reflected in Australian folklore and balladry. Ion Idriess
and Mary Durack are two writers whose work contributed a great deal to the popular
imagery of life and work in the Kimberley region. More generally, the image of the
drover is described in poems like Henry Lawson's 'The Ballad of the Drover' and
'Andy's Gone with the Cattle', and in Banjo Patterson's 'Clancy of the Overflow' and
'The Travelling Post Office'. Aspects of droving life are described in Judith Wright's
poem 'South of my Days' and in Adam Lindsay Gordon's 'The Sick Stock Rider'. In
song, the drover is celebrated in Rolf Harris' 'Tie me Kangaroo down, Sport!' and
'Diamantina Drover', the song of Hugh McDonald of the band Redgum. In film, the
image of the drover has been depicted in the 1946 historical film 'The Overlanders'
starring Chips Rafferty, and more recently Hugh Jackman portrayed the drover in Baz
Luhrmann's 2008 film 'Australia'.
Many Aboriginal people have a different view of this history. In the Kimberley, as
throughout Australia, the expansion of pastoralism was founded on the violent
dispossession of Aboriginal people from their lands. Within the Kimberley, the northwest
was in a sense the last frontier: it was extremely inaccessible, and its remoteness
and initial lack of police presence meant there were few restraints on settler's
58

esponses to Aboriginal resistance. New gun technologies were available at the time
the north-west Kimberley was settled. Settlers had accurate, multi-shot, rapid fire
weapons in an era when the colonial administrators took a much more hard-line
approach to relations with Aboriginal people (Broome 2010). The latter half of the
nineteenth century saw an evolution in western views about Indigenous people, who
came to be seen as 'primitive', an inherently lower type that did not have the right to
stop settlement by more 'progressive' races (Broome 2010). Even so, the Western
Australian government remained extremely sensitive to criticism from London that it
was not able to 'protect' Aboriginal people in the north, and sought to defend practises
such as neck-chaining to the imperial authorities until well into the twentieth century
(Jebb and Alcott, pers. comm. 2010).
When the King Leopold Ranges were eventually settled after 1900, a cycle of cattle
spearing, resistance, pacification, clearance of Aboriginal people from their land, and
arrests occurred. Scores of Ngarinyin, Worrorra, Wunambal and other Aboriginal men
were rounded up and transported to court in neck chains. The police received a ration
payment per head per day, so they profited from the clearances – though as historian
Geoffrey Bolton notes, this at least provided motivation for them to bring their
prisoners in alive (Broome 2010; Bolton 2008).
Station life
The initial frontier conflict in the Kimberley resulted in large numbers of Aboriginal
people losing their lives, and the active conflict was followed by a period of huge
readjustment. The terms 'quietening down' or 'coming in' are still used by old people
in the Kimberley to describe the early days when individuals, families and large
groups of people moved in from the bush to live and work on stations. A rich oral
tradition tells of the entry of Aboriginal people into station life (Munro 1996;
Chalaremeri 2001; Richards et al. 2002; Marshall 1988). Jebb characterises this as a
process by which Kimberley Aboriginal people learned 'the rules of occupation' and
found 'a place that ensured their survival' (Jebb 2002). Coming in was an ongoing
process rather than a single event, and it did not mean that people would no longer
have contact with the bush or with bush life. While Aboriginal people who were
associated with pastoral settlements were not free to continue a traditional way of life,
many groups who lived on stations were able to maintain and adapt their traditional
Law and culture to new circumstances, and continue living on or near their traditional
country.
From 1905, the permit system created by the Aborigines Act bound Aboriginal people
to the pastoral station where they worked and lived. If an Aboriginal person left a
station without the manager's permission, they could be returned by force, jailed or
sent to a mission or government ration station. Police patrols of bush areas helped to
bring people into the stations.
Generally speaking, Aboriginal resident populations were seen as a fixed asset of a
station, available as a pool of labour to undertake the many tasks associated with
station life. Aboriginal workers were considered part of the property, and stations sold
with an Aboriginal workforce fetched a higher price (Jebb 2002). Everyone who
could work was required to do so: men, women and children. Labour contracts, under
which Aboriginal people were tied to a station, were an early feature of station life, as
reflected in the 'master and servant' laws and later Aboriginal 'protection' laws
59

introduced by the West Australian legislature in 1898 and 1905. Those unable to work
because of old age, injury or illness were required to be looked after by pastoralists,
although many pastoralists complained about this expectation. Payment was
principally in rations and, as the twentieth century wore on, attempts by Aboriginal
people and their supporters to establish a cash wage were repeatedly resisted by most
Kimberley pastoralists and influential lobbyists. On many pastoral stations,
Aboriginal people endured harsh living and working conditions, and stories of
excessive corporal punishment are common (Marshall 1988; Jebb 2002; Smith 2000).
Aboriginal women were subject to sexual exploitation and mixed-descent children
were removed, often forcibly, to missions and institutions.
Although the changes brought by European settlement were dramatic, Aboriginal
people found ways to adapt that were in accordance with their traditional Law, and
that gave the new settlers a place in that Law also. Within the Wunan (Wurnan),
which refers to a system of exchange and sharing of resources, Aboriginal people
classified pastoral bosses and their families as 'strange relatives' giving them a similar
status to non-local Aboriginal people, thereby creating distant kin obligations and
reciprocations, as well as clearly defined rights and associations (Redmond 2005).
Aboriginal station workers considered themselves to be the land owners, and
considered the white bosses as the land managers (Redmond 2005). Managers were
responsible for looking after owners, and maintaining and interacting with country.
Aboriginal workers saw and still see themselves as being productive and autonomous,
and are proud that they 'made a good worker out of the boss… and settled the missus
properly', though they express mixed emotions at the huge amount of work they
contributed for so little reward (Redmond 2005). Some Aboriginal people have fond
memories of their former pastoral lives, and their role as station workers forms an
important part of their contemporary identity. Much pastoral work required highly
developed skills, which were taught and prized within the Aboriginal community.
Aboriginal people excelled at droving large herds of cattle safely over long distances
to fresh pastures, and for sale and slaughter. Stock work was seen as '…an important
part of Aboriginal men's identity' (Bird Rose 1991). Smith notes that 'working with
cattle replaced hunting as an activity where men acquired prestige…Their use of this
work to continue ritual ties with the land challenged colonial ownership' (Smith
2000). It was not only men who provided the labour: if they were physically able,
women, children and old people from the camp also worked around the homestead,
maintaining the gardens and undertaking daily chores such as collecting firewood,
cooking, washing and cleaning. Some women also worked alongside men, droving
and managing stock, as Daisy Angajit, a Ngarinyin elder, recalled:
* * * *
'We were ringers, not proper big house girls. We wore trousers and a proper man's
shirt, boots, leggings, spurs, whip, hat, handkerchiefs around our necks, just like a
cowboy. We worked cattle, made ropes, carried the branding iron. Jumped up quick
too, not walking or we got a whip behind us' (quote by D Angagit inMunro 1996).
* * * *
Some Aboriginal people stayed outside station life, avoiding contact with European
settlers. Others lived in the bush for most of the year and made only occasional visits
to a station. In Ngarinyin, Worrora and Wunambal country in the north Kimberley, in
jila country in the Great Sandy Desert to the south, and Tjurabalan country in the
60

south-east around Lake Gregory (Paraku), some Aboriginal groups continued to live
in the bush until the 1950s (Jebb 2002).
During the wet season, work would often slow on the stations, and some managers
would stop providing basic rations, though many would send workers off on holidays
with some rations. Many Aboriginal people could return to the bush at this time of
year, to take part in ceremonies and other community activities (Jebb and Allbrook
2009). The wet season break gave people 'opportunities to pass onto their children
skills and knowledge at many levels, as hunting and gathering was also an expression
of spiritual attachment to land with many complex meanings' (Young and Doohan
quoted in Smith 2000). However this occurred only at the discretion of the white boss:
some station workers were not given time off at all, or had their holidays shortened
regardless of their desire to join friends and family in the bush.
A Kimberley station manager informed a Royal Commission in 1928: 'If our native
labour were done away with we should have to walk out of the country. We depend
on our native labour and we find it dependable' (Bolton 1953). Despite the crucial role
Aboriginal people played in the industry, they continued to receive few of the
allowances or rights enjoyed by their non-Indigenous co-workers. In the period
following the Second World War, people from outside the region would become
increasingly concerned by the lack of wages and the poor living conditions that were
common on northern stations. The evolution of the station system had created a
delicate situation: in lieu of paying wages, station owners had taken on the
responsibility for providing rations to their workers and to the larger family groups
that lived on the station. The government was concerned that any attempts to enforce
stricter wages and conditions would result in thousands of local people being thrown
off stations and onto government welfare. An agreement was reached in 1940 that
there would be no government interference in pastoral wages, and that station hands
would be 'discouraged' by police and protectors from leaving their employment, in
return for pastoralists continuing to look after all station people, regardless of their
status as employees (Biskup 1973). By 1954, Western Australia was the only state to
retain penal sanctions for breach of an employment contract (Biskup 1973).
Missions and institutions
The structure of work in the pastoral and pearling industries dictated daily and
seasonal rhythms of life for many Kimberley Aboriginal people. Over time, most of
those who were not working in these industries came to live in institutions such as
missions, government reserves or settlements. Missions began to be established in the
west Kimberley from 1884, and were resisted in some areas. However as European
settlement expanded, Aboriginal people took whatever option best allowed them to
stay on their traditional land: missions initially attracted those people whose country
they were established on, but over time other groups joined voluntarily or
involuntarily, as independent living became harder, or when missions were relocated
onto their country (Crawford 2001).
The first Aboriginal mission in the west Kimberley was the Point Cunningham
Catholic mission (Goodenough Bay) on King Sound. It was short-lived, lasting only
from 1884 to 1887, partly because of Aboriginal people's fear of being 'blackbirded'
by the pearl operators who were active in the area at that time, but also as a result of
61

illness of the missionaries, their failure to make progress with the local people, and
attacks by Aboriginal people on mission facilities (Choo 2001). Other major west
Kimberley missions included Beagle Bay Mission (1890–1976), established by
Trappist then Pallotine monks; Lombardina Mission (1911–1984), an outpost of
Beagle Bay; the East Kimberley Forrest River (Oombulgurri) Anglican Mission
(1897–1899 and 1913 – 1968); Sunday Island Mission, established independently
(1899–1923); and Drysdale River Benedictine Mission at Pago, which moved to
Kalumburu (1908–1982).
The Port George IV Presbyterian Mission was established at Walcott Inlet in 1911
before moving to Kunmunya, where it functioned until 1950, until its merger with
Munja government station at Wotjulum United Aboriginal Mission (1951–1956),
before moving again to Mowanjum, near Derby. Worrorra, Wunambul and Ngarinyin
residents moved from Kunmunya, to Munja, Wotjalum, then Mowanjum Old Site,
finally and reluctantly the current location, Mowanjum (which means 'settled at last')
in 1977, a long way south of their traditional lands. Elkin Umbagai reflected that: 'It
was because the best of our traditional ways were maintained throughout those years
that we had the strength to stand up to all the moves and became welded into one
community' (Elkin Umbagai 1980 quoted in Jebb 2008).
The lists of mission children which are held by the WA State Records Office and
church archives give a sense of the longevity of some of the missions, but say little of
what they meant to those who occupied them. Some missions were places where
cultures met and mingled; at others, traditional practices, languages and relationships
were suppressed. Mission inmates, as they were known, worked hard to build and
maintain the missions, and to ensure that they were viable and self–reliant. Missions
were home for significant numbers of Kimberley Aboriginal people over many years.
Sacred Heart Church, Beagle Bay
The Beagle Bay mission was established by the Catholic Church in 1890, at Ngarlun
Burr (which means 'place surrounded by springs'), the site of a large Nyul Nyul
community. It was originally set up by Trappists monks but in 1901 was taken over
by the German Pallotine order. The St John of God sisters arrived in 1906 to establish
a school for the growing number of Aboriginal children at the mission. Paddy
Djiagween recalled that on the night they arrived, a big corroboree, with twenty to
thirty men, was held to welcome the sisters. One of the boys pointed out to the newly
arrived Mother Antonia that Father Bischofs was among the dancers. Bishchofs stood
out from the other dancers because he was dressed in shorts and decorated with white
cockatoo feathers (Paddy Djiagween quoted in Nailon and Heugel 1990).
The Sacred Heart Church at Beagle Bay was built while the German Pallotine priests
and brothers were confined to the mission during World War 1. The priests, brothers
and local Aboriginal people worked tirelessly: a kiln was constructed to bake the
60,000 clay bricks they needed; and Aboriginal people collected thousands of shells
from the beaches in bullock carts to be burned for the lime mortar and render. Local
pearl shell and other beautiful shells were used to decorate the interior of the church.
Some pearl shells were given to the mission for that purpose by Broome pearlers,
Clarke and Co. The roof was originally mangrove wood and brush and the ceiling was
decorated with shells to represent stars. This was destroyed by termites in the 1920s
and was replaced with flattened kerosene tins and later with corrugated iron.
62

The church's exterior is in the inter–war Gothic style. The interior is extraordinary.
Initial work on the altar was undertaken by Father Droste and two Aboriginal boys,
Joseph Neebery (Niada) and Joseph Gregory (Rosie Victor quoted in Nailon and
Heugel 1990). The main altar was decorated by Father Droste, Sister Raymond and a
number of skilled Aboriginal people. They used hundreds of pearl shell, cowries,
volutes and olives, and the side altars are inlaid with the lids, or 'trapdoors' from the
opening of mollusc shells. Whole pearl shell inlays of Pinctada maxima, of great
spiritual significance to Aboriginal people, were used to decorate the main altar and
are featured throughout the church. For many, the use of pearl shell on the altar was a
symbol of the close relationship between the Catholic church and the local Aboriginal
people (Akerman et al. 010). The altar is a place of great beauty, imbued with the
shimmering power of the shell, as the luminescent surfaces reflect the light. Pearl
shell inlays of Christian and Nyul Nyul, Bardi and Nimanborr tribal symbols are also
incorporated into the altar's tiled floor.
Former resident Rosie Victor, a Nyikina woman, remembered being taken in a canoe
by her parents from Sunday Island, via Lombardina Mission, to Beagle Bay Mission
in 1918. 'I had to do the shell work. They had done three altars in the church
already… at the age of twelve I helped in the church putting the shells around the
Stations of the Cross' (Stanley Victor Senior 1, unpublished pamphlet). Aboriginal
people and their descendents often express an ongoing relationship with their former
missions, and speak with fondness of their times there as children. Rosie Victor left,
but later returned to Beagle Bay to bring up her children with her husband, Stanley
Victor Senior, a Nyul Nyul Traditional Owner for the area. Three of their four
children and later Stanley developed leprosy and lived at Bungarun, where Stanley
was known as a medicine man. At the leprosarium, 'the Sisters admired Dad's
trustworthiness and reliability – he was there when he was needed, always involved as
a peacemaker and organiser – and he never complained through his long illness…[he]
…was a competent musician and played the violin and the cello and was a leading
member of Sister Alphonse's orchestra (Stanley Victor Senior 2, unpublished
pamphlet). The family continued to have a long association with Beagle Bay mission.
Their son Stephen returned to the mission to work in various jobs as an adult. He
married his wife Dorothy when she was moved to the mission from Broome in 1962.
In 1964 he re-cemented the Church floor with pearl shells.
The years have brought a number of changes to the Sacred Heart Church. A 12-metre
bell tower was added in the 1920s, and houses the original bell brought by the
Trappist monks, as well as two other bells donated by a German parish. The bell
tower collapsed in September 2001 and was restored in 2002. The church retains a
high degree of authenticity despite the original floor and ceiling finishes being
replaced. Currently the mission is leased to the Beagle Bay Aboriginal community
and the church is the centre of a large and vibrant community under the control of the
Spiritan Missionaries. The church is also a beautiful and unique focal point for the
thousands of visitors touring the Kimberley during the dry season each year.
Some of the missions were initially established to provide protection and rations for
local populations. The twentieth century brought increasing government intervention
in the form of removal of Aboriginal children from their home environments, and this,
along with the offer of per capita subsidies, led missions to cast a wider net in their
63

search for inmates. From 1910 to 1960, many full and mixed descent children were
removed from their families to different missions and institutions (DEH 2004; Pocock
2007). Places such as Beagle Bay, Lagrange and Forrest River drew or received
against their will, people from around the region, and thus acted as a significant driver
of dispossession for many Kimberley people. The treatment of Aboriginal people in
the missions and other institutions varied depending on the denomination of the
church and, more critically, the attitudes of the superintendent or manager. Some
mission staff were supportive of Aboriginal culture and others had attitudes and
practices that were considered extreme and not aligned with mainstream Christian
beliefs or denominations (Loos 2007). A former resident at Beagle Bay Mission,
where many Kimberley Aboriginal children were sent, recalls nuns taking Aboriginal
children in the only mission car to visit places and allowing them to gain knowledge
of Nyul Nyul country from the local residents. They attended corroborees with the
nuns, although speaking language and participation in ceremonies were forbidden
(Esther Bevan, Gija and Nyul Nyul pers. comm. 24-25 May 2010).
Some children were accompanied by their families to the missions and many have
fond memories of mission life. Phillip Cox recalled: 'Beagle Bay was a happy
place…even though the place was very poor… it was just like one, big happy family –
everybody together. Caring and sharing…they were strict, but they were kind, and
they believed in discipline' (Mr Phillip Cox, quoted in Mellor and Haebich 2002).
Children were educated and, like the adults, assisted in doing jobs to help make the
missions self reliant. Ex-students were taught trades and were involved in other
mission building projects.
Some missions, reserves and government stations gave their inmates not only rations
but also additional fresh food grown in their own gardens. For many Aboriginal
people, though, supplementing rations with bush foods was essential to their survival
(DIA 2004: Biskup 1973). At Kunmunya, where Reverend Love was superintendent
from 1927 until 1940, the mission supported itself raising cattle and goats for meat
and milk, and growing vegetables for people to eat. While those who were not able to
work were provided for, those who could were either paid for the work they
undertook, or supported themselves through traditional means. Far from forbidding
Worrorra from being spoken, Love studied the language of the Worrorra people,
translating sections of the Bible into Worrorra, and some Worrorra stories into
English (ADB 1986).
Government feeding depots and stations such as Lombadina, LaGrange, Munja and
Udialla were established to feed, train and isolate Aboriginal people, as well as to
develop a labour reserve that could be assigned to pastoralists. Reserves were created
with the rationale of preserving Aboriginal culture through isolation, and to reduce the
tension between Aboriginal people and pastoralists over cattle killing. Use of
Aboriginal reserves changed over time subject to Government policy. In 1913, part of
the original 1.6 million hectare Marndoc reserve, which had previously been set up in
1911 near the Cambridge Gulf, became the Anglican Forrest River Mission
(Oombulgurri). In 1922, the southern half of the reserve was excised for World War 1
soldier resettlement blocks (Biskup 1973; Loos 2007; DEH 2004). In 1926, the
Forrest River massacre took place in the vicinity of the mission. The findings of the
subsequent WA Royal Commission are still the subject of ongoing debate (Loos
2007).
64

Bungarun
Bungarun (the Derby Leprosarium) functioned for fifty years as a place where
Aboriginal people suspected of having or carrying leprosy were isolated, segregated
and treated. Between 1936 and 1986, 1,400 people from across the Kimberley were
sent to this institution, where they were incarcerated for compulsory treatment. More
than 300 people are buried in the Bungarun cemetery. Bungarun was the last
operational leprosarium in Australia (Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
The first cases of leprosy in the Kimberley were diagnosed in 1908. Between 1908
and 1914 leprosy carriers were sent to Bezout Island in the Pilbara region and, within
a few years, to fenced compounds at Beagle Bay Mission and the old Derby
Residency, which became a native hospital in the 1920s (Jebb and Alcott 2009).
In 1934 an increase in the incidence of leprosy, and the work of leprosy patrols,
brought Aboriginal malnutrition and mistreatment to government and public attention.
The Moseley Royal Commission, which was held in response, found that a local
leprosarium was necessary to protect public health. The report stated that because '…
the natives are deeply prejudiced against removal from their own country the
government has come to the conclusion that a leprosarium must be erected at Derby'
(NAA A461/1347/1/10). On this basis Bungarun was established in 1936, around 20
kilometres from Derby. Further surveys of the extent of leprosy amongst Aboriginal
people in the Kimberley were undertaken by Dr Musso, between 1938 and 1940,
under financial grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NAA
A659/1/1945/1/2887). Musso was accompanied on some of his trips by Reverend
Love from Kunmunya mission (Briscoe 1996).
The Sisters of St John of God cared for the inmates of Bungarun, a closed community,
under the supervision of a government superintendent. Operational policies included
not allowing mothers to touch their babies, who were removed at birth and sent to the
Native Hospital to be fostered out (Derby Extra 13/03/2003). Despite the nuns'
opposition, harsh punishments were meted out to anyone who attempted to escape, or
who was considered to be involved in other misdemeanours (Jebb and Allbrook
2009). Aboriginal leprosy sufferers worked in the gardens at Bungarun, tended the
livestock, cooked, cleaned and made traditional crafts for sale. Nuns taught them
music, creative arts and held sporting competitions. An orchestra practiced at night to
lift inmates' spirits, and people were encouraged to produce artefacts to keep their
hands agile (St John of God Relationships exhibition 2009). Like many of the
Kimberley missions, Bungarun was a self-contained community supplying most of its
own needs.
Following the bombing of Darwin in the Second World War, Bungarun was extended
at Commonwealth expense to house 50 leprosy sufferers evacuated from the Channel
Island Leprosarium (NAA A659/1/1945/1/2887). After Broome too was bombed,
Bungarun was evacuated several times, and makeshift camps were set up in the bush.
While many non-Aboriginal people were evacuated from the region, Aboriginal
people stayed in the Kimberley, and lepers in particular were unable to go south of the
Leper Line, which had been established by the 1905 Aborigines Act, and amended in
1936. The Leper Line was a geographical boundary which had originally restricted
full blood Aboriginal people from moving south, and convicted labour from moving
65

north. The line was in place until 1963, and aimed to stop the spread of the disease to
the southern white population.
After the war, in 1947, leprosy became the responsibility of the state Health
Department (NAA A659/1/1945/1/2887). In 1948 the use of chains was outlawed
(Jebb and Allbrook 2009). The number of inmates at Bungarun peaked in 1951,
following the development of antibiotics which made treatment increasingly effective.
As the destructiveness of the disease became clear it became known as the 'big sick',
and many Aboriginal people chose to go to the leprosarium for treatment (Jebb and
Allbrook 2009). During the 1950s and 1960s, the Bungarun orchestra gave concerts to
audiences from visiting passenger ships (Jebb and Allbrook 2009). The use of new
drug therapies in the 1960s quickly made leprosy non-contagious once treated.
In the 1970s, a new building program extended and increased Bungarun's capacity.
This was arguably a response to a lack of alternative housing, welfare support, or
medical services, which left Aboriginal residents unable to leave Bungarun. Many
people, especially long term inmates, stayed on into the 1980s and considered
Bungarun their home. Bungarun was closed in 1986 (Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
The removal of so many people from across the Kimberley to Bungarun, often by
force, resulted in families being separated and people disappearing from their country,
sometimes never to return (Jebb and Allbrook 2009). Today the place continues to be
extremely important to Kimberley Aboriginal people. Regular services and
ceremonies are held at the cemetery, which remains a place of quiet reflection for
former patients and their families (Heritage Council of Western Australia Register,
2980, 2010).
Bringing the Kimberley closer
While travel and communications over the long distances between the Kimberley and
larger centres such as Perth were predominantly conducted by sea, in 1921 'Western
Australian Airways' (WAA) began operations, and quickly became an institution that
would change the lives of those in the state's remote regions. The early airplanes
could not transport passengers, but they carried the mail much more quickly than cars
or trucks. Land transport in the Kimberley was hampered by poor roads – as late as
the 1950s there was no road link at all to Darwin, and the Great Northern Highway
travelling south was a rough dirt track (O'Byrne 2006). The introduction of regular air
transport meant that communication that would previously have taken weeks could
now be made in days.
The first time many people in southern Australia heard of the Kimberley was in 1929,
when famed aviator Charles Kingsford Smith became stranded there while attempting
to break the Australia–England flying record. Kingsford Smith became disoriented in
bad weather, with low fuel. He managed to land the plane undamaged on a mudflat of
the Glenelg River estuary. He and his crew hoped for a quick rescue: they were still
able to receive radio transmissions, and so they knew their disappearance was
receiving national attention. They heard reports of the efforts being made to find
them; but were not able to send transmissions from the ground. On a number of
occasions they saw rescue planes circling above, and then flying away.
By the time they were located they had used up their supplies and had resorted to
66

eating snails and weeds. Their one source of water was rapidly drying up. Kingsford
Smith was determined to fly out and continue on to England. Albert Barunga, a
Worrorra man from Kunmunya mission, along with two others, was sent to assist the
aviators. Barunga stayed for five days, and helped the crew to jack the aircraft's
wheels out of the mud. On April 19, with additional fuel and the mud all dried up, the
men were able to fly on to Derby. On their arrival they found that one of the planes
sent to search for them had been lost, and its crew had perished in the Pilbara
(Australian Dictionary of Biography 1983).
The Second World War
Some of the racial anxiety that underpinned the White Australia policy was a result of
Australia's distance from Europe, and proximity to Asia, and this geography also
shaped Australia's wartime experience. Japanese aggression during the Second World
War fuelled racial fears in Australia for a long time after. Following the bombing of
Pearl Harbour and the declaration of war against Japan in 1941, 500 Japanese
inhabitants of Broome were classed as undesirable aliens and transported to
internment camps in the southern states, as were the German Pallotine missionaries
who administered the Catholic church and school (Tyler 1987). After Darwin was
bombed on 19 February 1942, the War Cabinet ordered the evacuation of all nonessential
'whites' from the north-west of Australia. Chinese women and children were
shipped to Perth, and other Asians and Aboriginal people remained in the Kimberley,
with many sent to the mission at Beagle Bay.
The Kimberley played an important role in Australia's defence during the Second
World War, because of its strategic location, in particular its proximity to Koepang in
Timor (also referred to as Kupang and Kopang in some wartime documents). In late
1939, the RAAF began to develop a network of airfields around the Australian coast
to help protect Australia's sea lanes. Existing airfields at Broome, Derby and
Wyndham were upgraded. Some of these airfields were used as advanced operational
bases, and others were emergency landing grounds. In 1943 General Douglas
Macarthur, Commander in Chief of the South West Pacific Area, was in charge of the
main allied advance to defeat the Japanese. The mainland and occupied islands of
north-western Australia were crucial to the success of the air war proposed by
Macarthur: still more and larger airfields were required in northern Australia, within
close striking range of the enemy (Beasy 1995).
At that time, the most northerly airstrip in Western Australian was next to the
Benedictine Mission (now Kalumburu), on a small rise less than a kilometre to the
north-west. This was to be the site of Drysdale Airfield, which was constructed by
Australian airmen, with the assistance of mission inmates. On 9 March 1942, 55
RAAF personnel arrived in two ships at Mission Bay, and temporarily took over some
of the Old Mission buildings. Around 100 tonnes of stores and equipment were
disembarked, and a camp was set up on 27 March. The first recorded operation
against the enemy undertaken from Drysdale was on 18 April, when 13 planes flew a
night bombing raid on Koepang and Penfui.
Drysdale was the second most active operational airbase in north-western Australia
during the Second World War. It supported an estimated minimum of 250 individual
aircraft movements during its operations from 1942 to July 1944 (AHDB Kalumburu:
ID 100984). The Kalumburu Mission staff and occupants provided great support to
67

the war effort in the region. In 1942 the mission helped rescue the stranded crew
members of the ship Koolama and her cargo. Father Sanz, assisted by Aboriginal
mission residents, moved 127 distressed people to Pago and Kalumburu.
After the fall of Singapore and the bombing of Darwin, the Broome airport runway
was extended for military use. With the imminent takeover of Java by the Japanese in
1942, allied personnel and their families were ordered to be evacuated from Java, and
Dutch flying boats and American aircraft ferried refugees to Australia. Broome was a
staging post for between 7,000 and 8,000 servicemen and evacuees from Java
(Edwards 1983).
In response to the threat of invasion by the Japanese, most of the luggers in Broome
were either burned or requisitioned by the navy, and indentured Chinese, Malay and
Koepang men were signed on by the navy to sail luggers to Port Hedland. The
remaining indentured workers were either sent to Melbourne for deportation or
ordered to stay in Broome to repair the airfield landing strip (Sickert 2003).
On 3 March 1942, sixteen flying boats were moored in Roebuck Bay. Because of a
shortage of accommodation in Broome, all of the passengers had to remain onboard
(Tyler 1987). When the Japanese raid began, the flying boats were an easy target.
Around 100 people were killed, including 50 Dutch refugees, mainly women and
children, as well as 32 US servicemen and five air force members. All the flying boats
anchored in Roebuck Bay and all the aircraft at the Broome airfield were destroyed,
and the airfield itself took heavy damage (Tyler 1987; Sickert 2003; Prime 1992). Just
over a fortnight later a second raid was made on Broome, but this time there was only
one death (Tyler 1987; Edwards 1983). For the remainder of the war, Broome existed
as little more than an army base for servicemen.
War casualties from enemy attack were significant in the west Kimberley, and not
only in Broome. In 1942 and 1943, Broome, Derby, Wyndham, Drysdale and
Kalumburu all experienced Japanese bombing and strafing raids. The other site of
significant casualties was the Kalumburu mission, adjacent to Drysdale airbase. On
the morning of 27 September 1943, the mission was attacked by Japanese bombers.
Six people were killed, including the mission superintendent. The church, convent and
workshop were severely damaged (AHDB Kalumburu: ID 100984).
As the war effort stepped up, a new northern base was needed; the runways at the
Drysdale Airfield could not support heavy bombers. Truscott Airbase was established
on the Anjo Peninsula, 35 kilometres north-west of Drysdale. Raids were launched
from Truscott by medium and heavy bombers against Borneo, Java, Timor and the
Celebes, where the remaining Japanese forces were located. From July 1944 to
October 1945, hundreds of missions were flown from Truscott by many of the Allied
squadrons based in the Northern Territory. At the peak of operations, 1,500 Australian
military personnel were stationed at Truscott. Some people died there, including the
12-person crew of a bomber which crashed on take off. The crew were initially buried
at Truscott, but were later re-interred in the War Cemetery at Adelaide River, in the
Northern Territory. A small stone cairn commemorating the crash sits among the
wreckage, and can still be seen today. At the end of the war the Truscott base was
abandoned, and the site and its contents put up for sale at the post war disposals
auctions.
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From 1943 to 1944, Noonkanbah was used as a RAAF staging base. Large petrol and
bomb dumps were established in the station's vicinity. Aircraft would fly from Perth
and land at Noonkanbah to be fuelled and armed, before flying out on bombing
missions against the Japanese. As part of the RAAF defence system, a number of
radar stations were established in the Kimberley to monitor the coastline.
Meteorological facilities were also provided at the new RAAF aerodromes, including
at Truscott and Noonkanbah.
Unlike many other residents, Aboriginal people were not evacuated from the
Kimberley during the Second World War: they were needed in the region. Allied
personnel relied on the assistance of Aboriginal people to help them traverse
unfamiliar land and navigate dangerous, uncharted water. Albert Barunga, a Worrorra
man who had earlier helped the stranded Kingsford Smith and his crew, guided
Australian naval vessels on coastal patrols in the region, as did Sam Woolagoodja and
several others. Mission residents were engaged in a range of defence work, as were
many Aboriginal stockmen who joined the Home Defence.
Army personnel used Liveringa Station as a base to prepare new recruits. Men were
trained to use machine and mortar guns under fire, and undertook mock raids, which
the Aboriginal locals excelled at. Using their knowledge of the land, 40 Aboriginal
men travelled overland from Mt Anderson via Pea Hill and captured the whole base at
Noonkanbah in a mock raid. Nyikina Traditional Owner Ivan Watson reflected that 'it
just goes to show if you know the place where you're operating you have a much
better chance of defeating an opposition that doesn't know those things' (Ivan Watson
quoted in Marshall 1988). Aboriginal men and servicemen also competed in boxing
and shooting competitions (Marshall 1988).
Aboriginal people's skills were recognised and valued by Australian and Allied
defence force personnel. As the ranking system in the Home Defence was associated
with skills, and Aboriginal knowledge was highly valued, Aboriginal men sometimes
outranked their European bosses. At Mt Anderson station, for instance, an Aboriginal
stockman was ranked above the station manager (Marshall 1988). Kimberley
Aboriginal men were seen as potential reinforcements for the infantry, light
horsemen, and tank squadrons, but they were not sent overseas. They provided
essential support to the Australian and allied forces, including by keeping pastoral
stations running, and ensuring that Defence personnel stationed in the Kimberley had
a reliable supply of meat (Ivan Watson cited in Marshall 1988).
Post-war modernization and development
While pastoral stations continued to operate during the war, after the bombing of
Darwin and Broome in 1942, all pearling activity ceased in the Kimberley. Japanese
workers and other resident aliens were interned, and most white residents evacuated.
Six luggers resumed operations in 1946, but most of the pearling fleet had been either
requisitioned or destroyed. Few pearlers could afford to purchase new luggers and
equipment. Given the anti-Japanese feeling at the time, at first only non-Japanese
workers were employed. It was not until 1953 that Japanese divers and tenders were
invited back.
In the second half of the twentieth century, the market for pearl shell declined
69

markedly in the face of competition from plastic buttons (Sickert 2003). In 1949 a
major and much-needed breakthrough in the industry occurred. With Japanese advice,
the CSIRO established a cultured pearl station in the Torres Strait. Researchers
demonstrated that, whereas pearls took four years to mature in the smaller Japanese
oyster, in the large Pinctata maxima oysters endemic to northern Australian waters,
cultured pearls would mature in just two years (Edwards 1983). Seven years later,
Australia's first pearl farm was established at Kuri Bay north of Derby (Bach 1955;
Edwards 1983). In the 1960s, pearl farms were established near Exmouth and at
Cygnet Bay between Broome and Derby. Many of the farms that are still well known
in the industry today were established in the 1960s and 1970s. Eighty Mile Beach,
south of Broome, is now a significant pearling area.
In the years following the Second World War, changes in technology and
infrastructure also affected the Kimberley pastoral industry. Kimberley pastoralists
sought to develop the local beef export industry by improving infrastructure. Three
brothers – Gordon, Douglas and Keith Blythe – who owned and operated several
pastoral leases in the east Kimberley, constructed a meatworks including an abattoir,
carcass freezing facilities and an aerodrome at the remote Glenroy Station on the
Mount House lease, about 100 kilometres east of Imintji Aboriginal Community, near
Derby. Beef cattle were brought in from a 160 kilometre radius to be slaughtered,
quartered, boned and chilled overnight, and the following day air shipments were
made to the port of Wyndham – a 290 kilometres, 75 minute flight. The beef was
frozen at Wyndham, and shipped from there to the United Kingdom. The plant had a
capacity of 300 head of cattle per week, and in an average season (from May to
September) would process around 4,000 cattle. During its operation from 1949 to
1965, the Air Beef Scheme boosted the economic development of Wyndham and
Derby, and strengthened the Kimberley pastoral industry. It was hoped that the
scheme would spawn a network of inland abattoirs throughout northern Australia,
however this did not eventuate; plans for a similar facility at Fitzroy Crossing came to
nothing.
In 1949 the Commonwealth Government passed the State Grants (Encouragement of
Beef Production) Act which provided funding for the construction of roads and other
infrastructure to support the beef industry. It was accepted by that time that, in the
long term, air freighting was not going to be economic. By 1953, the southern section
of the Gibb River Road to Derby was completed and the first live cattle were trucked
from the east Kimberley. The Derby Meat Company was established in 1959, and
from then on, shipments were made to the closer destination of Derby. The
construction of the road and the completion of slaughtering facilities in Derby in 1965
signalled the demise of the Air Beef Scheme, and the abattoir was closed later that
year.
It was not only infrastructure for the pastoral industry which received increasing
Commonwealth government support at this time. From the 1960s, station bosses were
the recipients of a range of Aboriginal welfare payments that were credited directly to
the station store, which they deducted for their Aboriginal workers' living costs – a
system that was open to abuse (Kolig 1987; Smith 2000). These payments contributed
to the profits of the station, but Aboriginal people rarely received anything more than
a small amount of pocket money.
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In 1965, award wages were granted to Aboriginal pastoral workers who were
members of the Australian Workers Union. The Kimberley, however, was exempt
from the award on the ground that workers there were mostly 'full bloods', without the
capacity to manage money, and that the introduction of an award would likely result
in mass dismissal (Jebb 2002; Sharp and Tatz 1966). Equal wages regulations were
not applied in the Kimberley until 1972, when legislation brought the whole of
Western Australia into line with the Commonwealth.
In the period following the 1967 referendum, the majority of Kimberley missions
were closed either by the relevant government revoking the reserve, or the missionary
body leaving for a variety of reasons. Titles were often handed over to Aboriginal
communities to run via governing bodies such as Community Councils. Many
contemporary Aboriginal people are still affiliated with a range of churches and
missions and some are involved in the management of these sites.
Equal wages, combined with other factors including government payments and new
work practices in the pastoral industry, led to an exodus of Aboriginal people from
stations into towns in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But many who left regarded
their departure as temporary – as 'waiting' to get their country back rather than being
'stuck' on a town reserve (Jebb 2002). For some people the wait was not long. In 1972
the Commonwealth Government purchased the remote Panter Downs station lease on
behalf of the Mowanjum community who renamed the station 'Pantijan'. Pantijan
became a major stock and horse training station for young Worrorra and Ngarinyin
people, and was also used as a camp to 'dry out' people with alcohol problems (KLC
2004).
In the same year, the Commonwealth Government also overturned the White
Australia policy and introduced universal visa and citizenship systems. This rejection
of the longstanding policy was further reinforced by the enactment of the Racial
Discrimination Act 1975 (Tavan 2005). The exemption of Asian labourers in the
pearling industry from the White Australia policy appears not to have played any part
in the policy's gradual dismantling. Its cessation reflected changing opinions in
Australia and internationally, and was influenced by a wide range of factors. These
included the diminution of the British Empire following the Second World War,
lobbying by Australia's Asian neighbours, and greater contact between many
Australian citizens and Asian students during the 1950s. Moral concerns were raised
by church and other groups in Australia over injustices relating to Asian war brides.
Individual cases relating to migration, deportation and citizenship also had an
influence, as did the movement for Aboriginal rights, the radicalisation of young
people during the Vietnam War, and the need to seek Asian markets after the United
Kingdom joined the European Economic Community in 1971. The eventual end of
the policy in 1972 was the result of a complex intermingling of international politics,
economic transitions, and changes in individual perceptions (Tavan 2005).
Noonkanbah
In 1976, Noonkanbah station lease was purchased by the Commonwealth Government
and handed to the Yungngora Aboriginal Association. Within two years of
Noonkanbah's return to Aboriginal people, 497 resource exploration claims held by
about thirty companies or prospectors, covering a total of nearly 60,000 hectares
(about 35 per cent of the station area) had been filed (Allbrook 2009). In 1978, the
71

Yungngora community learned that Amax, a North American resource company, was
intending to drill an exploration well on the station in the vicinity of place called Pea
Hill (Umpampurru) '…a powerful malaji (increase site) centre and the home of a
great woman spirit and associated malaji sites…linked by Dreaming tracks up to ten
kilometres west…' (Hawke and Gallagher 1989; Ritter 2002). The Yungngora offered
to show Amax alternative sites, but these were refused by the company. The state
government intervened in an attempt to force the community to define an acceptable
site for drilling. The Western Australian Premier, Sir Charles Court, was determined
to open up the Kimberley to resource development and rejected advice by the WA
Museum (which administered the WA Heritage Act 1972) not to drill.
Consequentially the State grated a license to Amax. This caused the community to
seek the intervention of the Commonwealth Government. They also locked the gates
and blockaded the access road to the station. The first direct confrontation occurred
between the company, backed by the state government, and the community and its
supporters at the station gates. The issue was quickly propelled onto the front pages
and editorial columns of many of the country's newspapers (Allbrook 2009).
The most publicised act in the dispute occurred in August 1980 when a non-union,
strike breaking convoy transported drilling equipment 2,240 kilometres from Perth to
Noonkanbah. Backed by a large police presence, the forty-nine truck convoy broke
through a number of blockades, and arrests were made along the route. Just north of
Port Hedland a bridge was blocked by 160 local Aboriginal people, and near Broome
200 protesters greeted the convoy. At Noonkanbah, 60 men set up a blockade at
Mickey's Pool, on the access road into the station. After a long overnight vigil, police
finally cleared the blockade. In total fifty-five people were arrested by police,
including members of the Aboriginal community, church leaders and mining union
representatives (Howitt 1980; O'Lincoln 1993; Ritter 2002; Allbrook 2009). Although
the drilling crew got through the blockades onto the station, they were under pressure
from the ACTU, and voted not to operate the rig (O'Lincoln 1993; Gillespie 2009).
The Western Australian Government transferred the drilling rights to a 'two dollar
shelf company', thus allowing a non-unionised drill crew to sink the exploration well.
No oil was found. For Aboriginal people this outcome was to be expected because, as
one senior Aboriginal man who participated in the Noonkanbah struggle noted, the
local maparn – a clever, ritually powerful individual – had the power to relocate the
fat, that is, the oil of the Dreamtime Goanna (Dixon 1990 cited in Allbrook 2009).
Allbrook invites comparisons of Noonkanbah with the Eureka Stockade of 1854, that
other infamous episode in Australian history in which a section of society stood up to
what was widely perceived to be the unjust use of power by an Australian
Government (Allbrook 2009). Like Eureka, the protesters at Noonkanbah gained
widespread public support for their stand. Like Eureka, the protest at Noonkanbah
was put down by force and, like Eureka, although the State won the battle, the episode
was significant in ushering in changes to the law and to the way resource extraction
business was henceforth to be carried out across Australia.
Noonkanbah continues to have powerful meaning for Aboriginal people throughout
the Kimberley, many of whom view the dispute as the genesis of the pan-Kimberley
political movement. It is seen as ultimately having spawned Aboriginal organisations
that are now central to the articulation of the cultural, political and social aspirations
of Kimberley Aboriginal people. The establishment of the Kimberley Land Council,
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in May 1978, led directly to the formation of the Kimberley Language Resource
Centre (1984), the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (1984), and
Magabala Books (1987).
The Noonkanbah dispute is one in a series of important steps in the national struggle
of Aboriginal people to have their rights to practice traditional law and culture
recognised. In 2007, the determination of native title in favour of the Yungngora
people over the Noonkanbah pastoral lease conferred on them many of the rights they
had sought nearly thirty years before.
The Kimberley today
In 2010, many Aboriginal people in the Kimberley continue to identify as 'station
people'. Pastoral leases cover 50 per cent of the region, and well over a quarter of
these leases are Aboriginal-owned and managed (Australian Natural Resources Atlas
Kimberley Profile 2009). The Bunuba people, Traditional Owners of Leopold Downs
and Fairfield Stations near Fitzroy Crossing, have a vision for their land which has
been the guiding principle in all that they do: 'To develop a sustainable and
prosperous cattle business that respects Bunuba culture and protects the environment
for all Bunuba People to enjoy now and in the future'. The cattle herd on these two
properties has grown to nearly 20,000 head. The Bunuba people are fiercely
independent and proud of their success in managing their cattle stations, without
government assistance, in the commercial world (McCord 2010). One of the main
differences between Aboriginal-run stations and traditional pastoral stations is that on
many Aboriginal-run stations there are communities of more than 200 people who
choose to live on the stations because they regard them as their traditional homelands
(Schultz 1999).
The cattle grazing industry is today the main user and manager of land in the
Kimberley savanna country, as it has been since the early twentieth century. Both
Indigenous and non-Indigenous pastoral owners and managers are proud of their
connections to a heritage of struggle and perseverance under difficult conditions.
They continue to live and work in an environment that is very isolated from the
population centres where most Australians live and work.
A large area of the west Kimberley is recognised for its near-pristine condition. In
comparison with south-eastern Australia, much of its landscape and ecology is
relatively intact (ANRA 2009). In the central Kimberley, land that was once a pastoral
lease is now one of Australia's largest non-government protected areas. Mornington
Sanctuary, purchased and managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, covers
more than 3,000 square kilometres, including the upper catchment of the Fitzroy river,
and sections of the rugged King Leopold Ranges. Within its bounds there are a range
of ecosystems associated with northern Australia's tropical savanna, including open
eucalypt woodlands, savanna grasslands, rocky, spinifex-clad ranges, and fireprotected
wet gullies. As well as being managed for conservation values, the site is
the focus of comprehensive monitoring and research programs, providing a rare
opportunity to conduct large-scale, long-term research on critical environmental
issues that are important across the northern tropical savanna, such as fire
management and the impacts of cattle grazing on flora and fauna (AWC 2010).
Similar fire management programs are also run by Traditional Owner ranger groups
throughout the Kimberley, utilising traditional and western scientific knowledge to
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manage and reduce the impact of wild fires.
The Kimberley is one of Australia's least densely populated regions, with around
40,000 people living in an area almost twice the size of Victoria (the population of
Victoria is 5,000,000), and most of them in the towns of Broome, Kununurra and
Derby. Between 1996 and 2006, the Kimberley (including all four local council
shires) had one of the fastest growth rates of any region in Western Australia, and the
population is expected to more than double by the year 2031. About three quarters of
Kimberley residents are based in three major centres: Broome, Kununurra and Derby.
About half the residents of the Kimberley identify as being Aboriginal. The
population is relatively young, with a median age of 30, compared to the Western
Australian median of 36. The median age of the Indigenous population of the
Kimberley is only 22 (ANRA 2009; KDC 2008).
A significant addition to these numbers are those people who do not live permanently
in the Kimberley, but visit the region as tourists. Tourism WA estimated that, between
2005 and 2007, an average of 346,600 people visited the Kimberley each year, staying
a total of 2,808,300 nights and spending $257 million. These figures are expected to
increase in the coming years (WA Tourism cited in KDC 2008). While tourism offers
many benefits to the region, a rapid increase in visitor numbers also poses challenges
to land managers and Traditional Owners. Many places that tourists are attracted to
for their aesthetic or 'wilderness' qualities are also important sites for Aboriginal
people, and are connected to powerful creation beings and significant stories. As a
senior Wunambal Gaambera Traditional Owner whose country includes Punamii–
unpuu (Mitchell Falls), said:
* * * *
'[W]e want (tourists) to understand how we want to manage that land, and they have
to respect. They have to respect what we say, even if it's a bit hard for them to
understand. The only thing we do not want in this Wunambal country is disrespect' (a
quote taken from Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation 2001).
* * * *
Traditional Owners want visitors to know how they should behave on country, and
which places or actions should be avoided. Throughout the Kimberley, Traditional
Owners are keen to have a greater involvement in the management of their country.
While the Kimberley has not yet been acknowledged for its Indigenous aesthetic
values, Kimberley Aboriginal people possess their own distinctive ideas about what
constitutes 'beautiful' or 'healthy' country. In the words of a senior Warawa man , 'a
beautiful country is an occupied country, where the right people tell the story and the
right story comes out' (KLC 2010).
From its inception in the second half of the nineteenth century until the cultured pearl
industry of the late twentieth century, pearling has forged a unique multicultural
community in Broome. This fusion of cultures is manifested in the architecture,
maritime traditions, community infrastructure and garden landscape of the town
(Sickert 2003; Akerman et al. 2010). Despite attempts to keep people separated,
Broome people have mixed and shared their lives and culture. One long-term resident
claims, 'I'm proud to be a Broome person…against adversities, we've made it.' And
speaking of other families that faced adversity: 'they're still got their grace…it's all
74

part of absorbing these cultures' (Hamaguchi 2006). A large mixed-race population of
Asian-Aboriginal descendants identify with Broome as their home and a significant
part of their heritage. This distinct population has become a unique characteristic of
Broome today (Sickert 2003; Zucker 2005). Tourists are drawn to Broome in part
because of this unique character, and for the town's remarkable pearling heritage.
Broome's multicultural heritage is now celebrated through the annual Shinju Matsuri,
or Pearl Festival. Shinju Matsuri is an amalgamation of traditions and festivals of the
Japanese, Chinese and Malaysian communities of Broome. The traditional festivals of
these communities – the Chinese Hung Seng, Japanese O'Bon and the Malaysian
Mederka – were practised during the pearling days exclusively by these communities.
The traditional festivals are now open to the public through Shinju Matsuri (Kaino,
2005).
For the first 20 years of its existence, Shinju Matsuri appealed to the tourist public by
representing an ideal multicultural community, showing an ethnically diverse
community living in racial harmony. It has evolved since then and, for a period while
being chaired by an Aboriginal man of Asian descent, was annually dedicated to each
ethnic group resident in Broome. While the festival incorporates some commercial
elements to attract tourists, it also retains historic characteristics which are valued by
the individual cultural communities within Broome. It has been claimed that the
festival has 'shaped a strong sense of community and the desire of its townspeople –
new and old – to both re-interpret and retain aspects of Broome's traditional culture'
(Kaino 2005).
The pearling industry continues to be important to the Kimberley. There are four
pearling zones in the north-west of Western Australia, of which zone three (the
largest) and the western half of zone four stretch across coastal areas of the west
Kimberley, although the main fishing areas now lie to the region's south. The industry
employs around 500 people, including fishing vessel crew and pearl farm staff (Hart
and Murphy 2007). By 1997, Western Australia produced around 1,575 kilograms of
cultured pearls each year, with an estimated value of $200 million (Muller 1997). The
state is the source of over 90 per cent of Australia's total cultured pearl production
(Muller 2009; Muller 1997). In 2006 and 2007 there were 17 pearling licensees in
Western Australia diving for wild, hatchery-reared and pearl-farmed shells (Hart and
Murphy 2007). Pearl shell carving is an Aboriginal tradition shared by Traditional
Owners across the Kimberley and in other parts of Australia. Pearl shell carving and
incising is also a popular form of Aboriginal art that is internationally well-known
(Akerman et al. 2010). Artist Aubrey Tigan says:
* * * *
'When I do riji I feel good and strong; when I carve the old designs that I saw my
father making I feel connected to my father and grandfather and to my country. Then
they come to me in dreams and tell me what to do; what to carve.
'I want to go back to my country, back to the source, back to the islands where my
grandfather comes from. I want to record all the stories that I know for my children. I
want them to be able to have the same inspiration, the same connection. I want to
show my children so they can learn how to feel strong like I do. It is for them that I
want to do this' (quoted in Akerman et al. 2010).
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* * * *
One way that Kimberley Aboriginal people are able to look after their country is
through the Kimberley Ranger Initiative, facilitated by the Kimberley Land Council
through the Working on Country Program. This initiative employs Aboriginal men
and women while equipping them with TAFE qualifications in Conservation and
Land Management. More than 50 rangers are employed in six fulltime ranger groups:
Bardi Jawi, Wunggurr, Uunguu, Paruku IPA, Nyikina Mangala and Karajarri.
Emerging groups include the Kija, Balanggarra, Dambimangarri, Goonyiandi, Nyul
Nyul and Ngurrara Warlu Jilaja Jumu rangers.
The work undertaken by these ranger groups is guided by elders in the community.
Rangers complete a range of tasks including the protection of cultural sites, weeding,
wildlife and biodiversity monitoring, burning, conducting research, monitoring the
health of rivers and waterways, and sampling fish. Traditional knowledge about how
to care for country is passed down from generation to generation to ensure culture
remains alive. Rangers learn how to use a combination of cultural and traditional
knowledge and western technologies (KLC 2010).
During the decades that they were operating in the Kimberley, missions were
responsible for removing three to four generations of Aboriginal children from their
families and from their country. Many children were either taken under false
pretences or forcibly removed. There are heart wrenching stories of Aboriginal
children being taken away from their parents, and some of these children never saw
their loved ones again. The effects of this separation are still being felt today, as
concluded in the Bringing them Home report: 'The evidence clearly establishes that
families and whole communities suffered grievously upon the forcible removal of
their children' (HREOC 1997).
A positive legacy of the missions is that Aboriginal people adapted in a variety of
ways to the constraints imposed upon them. Aboriginal people from all over the
Kimberley today have access to the stories and cultural heritage of others through
relationships and cultural rights that were initially formed when they were living in
missions (Esther Bevan pers. comm. 24-25 May 2010).
Today, former residents are involved in the management of many missions such as
Beagle Bay, and 'a lot of the older ones are mighty proud of what they have achieved
in transforming the once mission-run institution into a well managed Aboriginal
community' (Moncrief, Bringing them home goes to Beagle Bay, Bringing them
Home Oral History Project, NLA website accessed 15/9/09). Another former mission,
Mowanjum, has '…a thriving fine art industry… most prominently in the dances and
the art that are seen as a way to build independence and autonomy as well as offering
a means to recreate traditional culture and pass it onto younger generations' (Jebb
2008).
Throughout the Kimberley, the landscape contains layers of the past that shaped it,
recent and ancient, tangible and intangible. At Mount Hart, which was run as a cattle
station until the late 1980s, the ruins of early homesteads, including the first station
established 'over the ranges' in 1913, provide a link to the early pastoral history of the
region. There is a boab tree on the property carved by European explorer, Frank
76

Hann. The remains of the old Gibb River Road, constructed in the early 1900s, also
runs through the property: and like a lot of Kimberley infrastructure, for the road to be
built, rock had to be carted and cleared by hand.
The Kimberley is a remarkable place, and it is valued by many different people for
different reasons. There are a multitude of stories about the region's history, reflecting
a wide variety of perspectives and experiences, and only some of these stories have
been told here. There is also much that is not yet known about its geology, its plants
and animals, rivers and coastline. While there is much still to be learned, National
Heritage listing provides recognition of the west Kimberley's outstanding natural,
Indigenous and historic heritage values.
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Condition Report
The west Kimberley has been subject to a range of land uses and environmental
conditions over time, some of which have had varying effects on the values. Some
areas are relatively inaccessible and remain virtually untouched by modern
development.
Land use continues to vary widely across the place. As a result the west Kimberley
constitutes a patchwork of developed and natural environments in a range of
conditions.
The place is managed by a number of organisations and private landholders including
Western Australian Government agencies, Commonwealth agencies, Indigenous
community groups and Native Title holders, local councils, pastoral lease holders and
others. There are also a number of both active and pending mineral exploration and
development tenements and petroleum exploration permits within the place.
Threats to the values of the west Kimberley include (but are not limited to)
uncontrolled fire, feral animal and plant invasion, mineral and petroleum
developments, increased tourism activity and global climate change events.
Comparative Analysis
Method
The methods used in the following analysis include available literature and expert
opinion, additional information on heritage values received during consultation and
the following resources:
Historic Values: Historic heritage values of the west Kimberley are addressed in a
national context through analyses using historic thematic studies and a thematic
literature review relating to the west Kimberley. Aesthetic heritage values are
assessed in a national context with reference to reports commissioned from experts in
aesthetic heritage assessments. These sources are supplemented with published and
unpublished literature.
Indigenous Values: Indigenous heritage values of the west Kimberley are addressed
in a national context with reference to reports commissioned from experts in history,
anthropology and archaeology. Departmental officers have been working with the
Kimberley Land Council to seek input from Kimberley Traditional Owners (TO) on
the stories and associated places within the study boundary that might have
outstanding heritage value to the nation.
Natural Values: Natural biological heritage values of the west Kimberley are
addressed in a national context through analyses using the Australian Natural Heritage
Assessment Tool (ANHAT) and with reference to reports commissioned from
experts. The geological heritage values are assessed in a national context with
reference to reports commissioned from experts in geology and palaeontology. These
sources are supplemented with published and unpublished literature.
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CRITERION (a) – The place has outstanding heritage value because of the place's
importance in the course, or pattern of Australia's natural or cultural history.
ASSEMBLING A CONTINENT
The King Leopold orogen represents the remnants of the three major orogenic or
'mountain building' events (orogenies) that affected the Kimberley from 1870 to 560
Ma (million years ago), exposed on Yampi Peninsula, and in the Fitzroy uplands
province which includes the King Leopold Ranges (as defined by Maher and Copp
2009). A product of plate tectonic activity, orogenies are time constrained and
associated with distinctive structures and lithology, including mountain ranges.
'Orogenic belts' or orogens are their legacy in the landscape. These orogenic belts can
be mountain ranges like the Andes or the Appalchians, but they can also be eroded
away, recognisable only by their structural and lithological footprint. Old orogenic
activity may be represented by the exhumed core of ancient mountains – intruded
granites or metamorphic rocks often uplifted from several kilometres below the
surface (Maher and Copp 2009; Stanley 1999). There is little consensus among
geologists on plate tectonic activity in the early Earth. Therefore rocks from the
period from 2,700 Ma to about 700 Ma, such as those encompassed by the King
Leopold orogen, are very important in understanding the timing and nature of modern
plate tectonics (Witze 2006; Stanley 1999).
Collisional orogenies like those represented in the King Leopold orogen occur when
the movement of tectonic plates causes continental plates to collide. The events of
these three Proterozoic orogenies are preserved and particularly well displayed in the
spectacularly folded Proterozoic quartzites and sandstones of Yampi Peninsula and
the granite domes, gneiss hills and schist ridges of the Fitzroy uplands province. The
rocks of the King Leopold orogen provide strong evidence of Palaeoproterozoic plate
tectonic activity, at a period prior to the formation of the Neoproterozoic
supercontinent Rodinia (which preceded the Greater Gondwana and Pangean
supercontinents of the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic eras). This early collision
event is known as the Hooper orogeny. The King Leopold orogen also preserves rocks
from the Yampi and King Leopold orogenies that occurred later in the Proterozoic
eon and record events associated with the current Kimberley topography (Maher and
Copp 2009; Maher and Copp 2010).
Other Proterozoic collisional orogens are preserved elsewhere in the North Australian
and West Australian cratons. Of those associated with the West Australian craton the
Albany–Fraser orogen is more restricted in its timing than the King Leopold orogen,
and along with the Pinjarra and Paterson orogens is poorly exposed in outcrop. As a
result, these orogens are also little studied. The Capricorn orogen represents four
orogenic events from 2,200–1,620 Ma, associated with ocean closure and so tells a
different story to that of the King Leopold orogen which is closely associated with the
Meso to Neoproterozoic formation of Rodinia. Of the Proterozoic collisional orogens
associated with the North Australian craton, the most significant are the Halls Creek
and Pine Creek orogens. The Pine Creek orogen contains rocks from events dated
from 1,863–1,780 Ma, making it more restricted in time than the King Leopold
orogen. The Halls Creek orogen spans the period from 1,870–300 Ma, including the
orogenies recorded in the King Leopold orogen as well as two more, the 1,850–1,840
Ma Halls Creek orogeny and the 300 Ma Alice Springs orogeny. However, the Halls
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Creek orogen is located further inland than sections of the King Leopold orogen. As a
result, the outcrops of this orogen are generally poorer and the structures harder to see
and interpret on the ground (Maher and Copp 2010; Patrick Maher pers. comm.
2009).
There is evidence of much older orogenies preserved in Australian rocks. However,
During the Archaean, Earth was much hotter than present. At the beginning of the
Palaeoproterozoic, about 2,300 Ma, the deep Earth was still about twice as hot as in
the later Phanerozoic, and plate tectonic mechanisms did not function as currently
understood, if at all, so the rocks of Archaean are not referable to modern processes.
Extensive deposits of Proterozoic age, like the King Leopold orogen, document
ancient mountain building events strikingly similar to those at collisional boundaries
today (Stanley 1999; Iain Copp pers. comm. 2009; Maher and Copp 2010).
Other important Australian orogenic belts are younger than the King Leopold
orogeny, and include the remains of the Delamerian orogeny in South Australia, the
rocks of the Lachlan fold belt in Victoria and New South Wales, and ongoing uplift in
the eastern Australian highlands. The Delamerian orogeny occurred in the early
Palaeozoic era, when a huge mountain range spanned southern Australia and
Antarctica which were then joined as part of Greater Gondwana (Giesecke 1999). The
rocks of the Palaeozoic Lachlan orogen occur in a 700 kilometre wide belt of Victoria
and New South Wales, extending into Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and
Queensland. The Delamerian and Lachlan orogens are adjacent and follow the
Precambrian margin of eastern Australia. They are considerably younger than the
rocks of the King Leopold orogen, revealing much about the assembling of the eastern
seaboard of Australia during the last 500 million years, while the King Leopold
orogen tells a different story altogether: one that is much older, spans a greater time
period and describes the formation of a much earlier 'Australia', at a period when
modern plate tectonic processes were beginning to operate (Maher and Copp 2010;
Witze 2006).
Uplift in eastern Australia is ongoing. The eastern Australian highlands demonstrate
current processes in an active orogenic belt. However, the remnants of the King
Leopold orogen are eroded, and revealed in dramatic coastal exposures, so as to help
explain much more about the events occurring deeper in the crust, which are only
accessible otherwise to geologists through seismic profiles and modelling (Maher and
Copp 2010).
The King Leopold orogen displays a significant geological record of past orogenic
events which led to the Proterozoic assembly of Rodinia, representing key tectonic
events in the evolution of the Australian continent and a major stage of Earth's
history. This record is displayed in significant fault and fold structures in rocks
exposed along the coast of Yampi Peninsula, in the King Leopold Ranges and the
Fitzroy Uplands. These geological features highlight the powerful tectonic forces and
the physical geological structures formed during orogenic processes (Maher and Copp
2010).
The King Leopold orogen of the west Kimberley has outstanding heritage value
to the nation under criterion (a) for recording pre-Rodinian and Proterozoic
plate tectonic processes, key events in the evolution of the Australian continent.
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ECOLOGY, BIOGEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION
The Devonian reef complexes preserved in the Oscar, Napier, Emmanuel and Pillara
ranges show continuous deposition from 390 million years ago (the Givetian stage of
the middle Devonian period) to 370 million years ago (the Famennian stage of the late
Devonian) (Playford 1980; Tyler 2000). The extent and duration of this deposit, as
well as the time period it represents is unique on this continent. It spans the Frasnian-
Famennian mass extinction and is among only four sites in the world where there is
evidence that reef environments survived this event, although the major reef-building
organisms changed (Wood 2002). Natural sections through the reef occur in several
places, revealing the reef structure in spectacular cross section: the most remarkable
are Windjana and Geikie Gorges, through which run the Lennard and Fitzroy rivers
(Playford et al. 2009).
The Devonian was the largest pre-Holocene reef-building period; Devonian reefs are
common throughout the world and in Australia. However, the majority of these reefs
disappear from the record at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, 375 million years
ago. This coincides with a mass extinction in which 57 per cent of genera were lost
worldwide, making this as significant a biological event as the better known
Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction that brought the 'Age of Dinosaurs' to a close
(Sepkoski 1996 quoted in Wood 2000). The exposed Kimberley Devonian reef
complexes are relatively undisturbed by burial, taphonomic or tectonic processes and
offer an in situ sequence through this time (Playford et al. 2009). This sequence
demonstrates how reef communities reacted to climate and sea level changes at the
Frasnian-Famennian boundary (Playford and Lowry 1966; Playford 1980).
Another outcrop of the same Devonian reef occurs in the Ningbing range, indicating
the extraordinary geographical extent of this reef complex at times, but this outcrop is
significantly smaller than those of the west Kimberley and much less well studied.
Other areas in Australia that preserve significant Devonian reef assemblages are
Buchan, in Victoria, and Taemas and Wee Jasper, in New South Wales. These
outcrops date from the Early Devonian, preserving reefs that are tens of millions of
years older than the Kimberley reefs, and do not span a global mass extinction event
(Basden et al. 2000). The most fossiliferous outcrops at Buchan have been removed
through mining (Inan et al. 1992). Wee Jasper and Taemas in New South Wales
preserve the Early Devonian reef limestones of the Murrumbidgee Group. The
outcrops at Taemas are equivalent in age to the Buchan group, while those at Wee
Jasper continue for a few million years longer (Basden et al. 2000). Both the
Murrumbidgee and Buchan groups have been deformed through tectonic movement,
folded by the middle Devonian Tabberabberan orogeny and often subject to extensive
dolomitisation (Yeates 2001). Neither of these formed at the right time to provide any
evidence relating to the Frasnian-Famennian extinction or any other recognised
significant extinction events.
The Devonian Reef sequence preserved in the Kimberley region is a continuous
record from the Frasnian to the Famennian stage of the Late Devonian. Famennian
reefs are rare throughout the world and none are present elsewhere in Australia. In
addition, valleys that run through the reef at Windjana and Geike Gorges provide
81

sections that give palaeontologists and geologists a unique window on this sequence.
The area has been subject to little significant tectonic deformation or dolomitisation
(Playford et al. 2009), which is unusual in such ancient rocks and also distinguishes it
from Early Devonian reef deposits in South-eastern Australia such as Buchan and
Wee Jasper/Taemas.
The Devonian Reef of the Kimberley has outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (a) because it is a continuous record of 20 million years of reef
deposition and shows the response of a Late Devonian reef complex to a mass
extinction event.
The Gogo fossil sites have produced the most complete Devonian tetrapodomorph fish
specimen yet discovered, Gogonasus andrewsae (Long et al. 2006; Holland and Long
2009). This specimen provides important information about the transition from fish to
tetrapods, the first terrestrial vertebrates (and as such, early ancestors of humans)
(Long et al. 2006). The completeness of the fish preserved at Gogo has meant that
many specimens preserve features not seen on fish preserved elsewhere, for example,
Gogonasus is the only known Devonian fish that shows a complete pectoral limb
(Long et al. 2006). Preservation of delicate, tiny bones has shown the presence of
embryos in some of the fish fossils here, while others have revealed anatomical details
that provide the earliest evidence of internal fertilization and sexual dimorphism
within vertebrates (Long et al. 2008; Long et al. 2009; Ahlberg et al. 2009).
Furthermore, the Gogo fossil localities show extraordinary diversity, with around 50
species so far identified, from the three living classes of fish, including
sarcopterygians (which includes lobe finned fish and is ancestral to all tetrapods),
actinopterygians (the class of ray finned, or bony fish, represented in living groups by
the teleosts, the most common type of modern fish) and chondrichthyans (the class of
cartilaginous fish, which includes sharks and rays), as well as placoderms (a class of
armoured fish which became extinct at the end of the Devonian period) (Long 2006;
Siversson 2006). For these reasons, Gogo is acknowledged as one of the world's most
important early vertebrate fossil localities.
Australia has several sites important to the story of vertebrate evolution. The National
Heritage listed Ediacara fossil site at Nilpena in South Australia contains the earliest
known metazoans (animals) and chordates (vertebrate ancestors) with a global
distribution. The World and National Heritage listed Australian Fossil Mammal Sites
(Riversleigh in Queensland and Naracoorte Caves in South Australia) preserve
Tertiary faunas, important for understanding the development of the unique
Australian mammals. Gogo is an important link between these two snapshots of the
development of Australian animals as it preserves animals that exemplify the fish–
amphibian transition, species which had worldwide distribution and species which
were endemic to the Gondwanan supercontinent. It is therefore an important chapter
in the story of vertebrate evolution in Australia.
The story of early vertebrates in Australia is also told by the Devonian fish fossil site
of Wee Jasper, which is similar to Gogo in quality of preservation but has not yet
produced fossils as complete in fine details. Australia's oldest tetrapod fossil,
Metaxygnathus denticulus, comes from the Cloghnan Shales near Forbes in New
South Wales (Campbell and Bell 1977). However this species is described from a
single jaw of late Devonian age and the site has not produced any more faunal fossils
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of note. More tetrapod species are found at Ducabrook, in Queensland, however these
younger remains are isolated, fragmentary bones and are Carboniferous in age
(Thulborn et al. 1996). Some track sites preserve footprints ascribed to tetrapods, the
most impressive of which is the Devonian Genoa River site in Victoria; however
these do not preserve body fossils of the trackmakers (Clack, 1997). None of these
sites, except perhaps Wee Jasper, can compete with Gogo in the diversity and
preservation of its fauna and Wee Jasper does not yet provide the fine resolution or
diversity of early tetrapodomorph features. While Gogo does not contain true
tetrapods, it preserves fish that are ancestral to this group and clarifies the anatomical
transitions that took place at the base of this radiation.
The Gogo fossil sites have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (a) for important transitional fossils that document the evolution of
early tetrapodomorph fish.
CONTACT, CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
The biological significance of the west Kimberley
The west Kimberley has nationally important areas of vertebrate species richness and
endemism, particularly in the rivers of the north and west, along the northern
Kimberley coast and islands, and at Roebuck Bay. These will be discussed below in
detail.
These and other places in the region also provide important 'ecosystem services' as
biological refugia.
This report considers refugia broadly, in terms of the ecosystem service they provide,
adopting the three categories identified by Morton and colleagues (1995):
evolutionary; seasonal or 'ecological' (Morton et al. 1995); changes associated with
the presence or absence of particular predators or competitors.
Refugia of the west Kimberley provide habitat for numbers of endemic species,
isolated populations or species at the limits of their ranges in many important taxa.
They provide seasonal refuges, refuge from introduced species and human activities,
and refuge over geological timescales. These refugial environments include
mangroves, vine thickets, archipelagos and peninsulas, mound springs, wetlands,
ranges and caves or subterranean systems including karst environments. A number of
these refugia, discussed below, are nationally important and illustrate the physical,
ecological and cultural evolution of northern Australia in response to plate tectonics,
climate, invasive species and human impact.
Rocky coast biodiversity
The rugged, highly dissected nature of the sandstone dominated coast of the north
Kimberley, including rocky islands, bays and peninsulas, has over time provided the
opportunity for the development of a complex pattern of ecosystems. Collectively,
these ecosystems support plants and animals of greater richness and higher local
endemism than is found to the south and west in the drier savanna woodland
communities. ANHAT analysis has shown the northern Kimberley coast and islands
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are exceptionally high for species richness and endemism for many mammal, reptile
and frog species. These high biodiversity values areas are found together with rugged
topography, diverse geology and the highest annual rainfalls in northwest Australia.
The endemism, and to a lesser extent the richness, of plants and animals associated
with the rocky coast, largely overlap in range. ANHAT analyses (2009) identified that
the north from Walcott Inlet to the Mitchell Plateau, across to Drysdale River
National Park and the Kimberley islands are nationally significant cluster points for
richness and endemism values for a range of different organisms. Many of these rank
at the highest or near highest value for the nation, these will be discussed below.
The very nature of this rocky landscape is proving to be an important refuge,
protecting many species that were previously found more extensively across northern
Australia (ANRA 2007a, b, c; Graham 2001b). Over millennia the sandstones have
provided indestructable shelter habitat for many species, broken up fires and stored
water that is released in seepages and creeks throughout the dry season (A Burbidge
pers. comm. Dec 2009). This landscape also offers greater protection from human
induced changes; evident, for example, with the absence, or near absence, of cats,
foxes, feral dogs, rabbits, goats, camels and livestock (Burbidge et al. 1991;
Woinarski et al. 2007). Examples of species that persist here, but are rare or absent
elsewhere, include the golden bandicoot (Isoodon auratus), golden-backed tree rat
(Mesembriomys macrurus) and the Kimberley rock rat (Zyzomys woodwardi). The
persistence of native mammal species on the Kimberley islands and the nearby
mainland rocky coast is in stark contrast to their absence in more inland areas;
indicating the extent of the impact of changed fire regimes, feral animals and
livestock (Abbott and Burbidge 1995; Johnson and Kerle 1991). Research into fire
ecology has begun to examine the effects of increased fire frequency, and the timing
of fires, on species such as the seed eating Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae) which
has undergone alarming range reductions in recent years (Legge et al. 2008; Murphy
et al. 2005; Radford & Fairman 2008). Seed eating savanna birds and rodents such as
the golden-backed tree rat (Mesembriomys macrurus) are now scarce on the mainland,
with more frequent fires probably removing key food plants that no longer have
sufficient time between fires to set seed (Bowman and Panton 1993).
The Kimberley Plateau, particularly the Mitchell Plateau, (see description for regional
definitions) is notable for the highest ANHAT plant richness and endemism scores in
the Kimberley. The highest (or close to highest) endemism values for the nation were
returned for the families Zygophyllaceae, Tiliaceae, Combretaceae and
Amaryllidaceae. The highest endemism score for Grevillea outside southwest
Western Australia occurs in the Kimberley Plateau. Annual plant families
Lentibulariaceae (bladderworts) and Stylidiaceae (triggerplants) showed high richness
and endemism values for this region and for the Prince Regent Nature Reserve. These
families are likely to be indicative of other small ephemeral plants (not indexed in
ANHAT) that undergo population explosions on sandstone and laterite pavements.
The ephemerals are dispersed during the wet season, then drop their seed before dying
in the lead up to the next wet season. These pavements play an important seasonal
refugial role, sustaining these vulnerable, highly specialised plants (Kevin Kenneally
pers. comm. March 2009). The endemism and richness scores for these pavement
plant families are only matched by Kakadu and west Arnhem Land in the Northern
Territory.
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The second highest endemism score in Australia for reptiles occurs in the area
surrounding the Mitchell River. Rodentia (rodents) (top 0.3 per cent in the country)
and Muridae (rats and mice) (top 0.3 per cent) show significant species richness
scores. Rodents showing high values nationally in the Kimberley, coastal north
Queensland, the MacDonnell ranges in central Australia and Kakadu/Arnhem Land.
ANHAT analysis also showed strong results for endemism; nationally significant
scores were found for Rodentia (rodents) (top 0.2 per cent) and Phalangeridae
(possums) (top 0.3 per cent). Possums showed the second highest endemism score
nationally, after the well recognised Queensland Wet Tropics hotspot. High endemism
values for mammals where further supported by a comparison of IBRA bioregions,
which showed the North Kimberley bioregion, which is dominated by the Kimberley
Plateau, as having close to the highest index scores nationally (ANRA 2007c). Areas
that contain new endemic species (i.e. species that have undergone major range
contractions) are often important refugia for threatened species.
ANHAT analysis has shown the Kimberley Plateau has a rich reptile, frog and bat
fauna. Nationally significant species richness and endemism scores were found for
both the Diporiphora (dragons) and Gekkonidae (geckoes). These scores largely
reflect the presence of the highly restricted dragons Diporiphora convergens and D.
superba, the cave geckoes Pseudothecadactylus cavaticus and P. lindneri and Oedura
gracilis, a velvet gecko only found on the Kimberley Plateau. The highest national
endemism score for Boidea (pythons) occurs in the Kimberley Plateau, resulting from
the presence of the rough-scaled python (Morelia carinata), only known from the
Kimberley Plateau. The distinct high rainfall zone of the northwest Kimberley is a
centre of species richness for frogs, in fact it is the only region in Australia that
contains high richness values for both of the endemic Australian frog families,
Hylidae (tree frogs) and Myobatrachidae (Southern frogs). ANHAT endemism scores
were found for Hylidae with the presence of Litoria splendida, L. cavernicola and
Cyclorana vagita, which are restricted to the Kimberley. High Kimberley Hylidae
endemism values were supported by phylogenetic analysis, which has confirmed there
is a high genetic diversity among restricted species of the Kimberley Hylidae
(Rosauer, D., pers. comm., June 2008). Myobatrachidae show a very high endemism
score due to the presence of a number of restricted species, including Uperoleia
marmorata, U. micra and Crinia fimbriata (Cogger 1992; Tyler et al. 2009).
Nationally high endemism scores are also recorded for microbats of the
Hipposideridae and Vespertilionidae families, reflecting the presence of restricted
species such as the Yellow-lipped Cave Bat (Vespadelus douglasorum), the Northern
Long-nosed Bat (Hipposideros stenotis) and the Northern Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus
westralis).
Despite a wide range of bird species, ANHAT analyses showed no nationally
significant scores for birds for the west Kimberley region. Maluridae returned high,
but not nationally high, endemism scores due to the presence of what a single
restricted species, the Black Grasswren (Amytornis housei). Further bird collection
and observation over time may provide a higher level of significance for bird richness
and endemism. The importance of mangroves as seasonal refuges for birds is
discussed below in mangrove refugia.
The Kimberley Plateau is important for land snail richness and endemism. These
species are typically, but not exclusively, found in the vine thickets of the Kimberley.
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The National Heritage significance of these snails is discussed as part of vine thickets
below.
ANHAT analysis showed that the Prince Regent Nature Reserve is particularly rich in
possums, reptiles, Grevillea and the annual pavement plant families discussed under
the Kimberley Plateau above.
A nominator claimed that the Drysdale River National Park possessed high richness
and endemism for plants, mammals, reptiles, frogs, birds and freshwater fish.
ANHAT analyses partly supported this claim with the highest national endemism
score for reptiles recorded in the area. The area surrounding the Drysdale River
(including between Drysdale River National Park and north towards the coast)
possess one of the highest national endemism scores for bats (Vespertilionidae
family), whistler birds (Pachycephalidae), blind snakes (Typhlopidae), Dasyuridae
(carnivorous marsupials such as the northern quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus), frogs
(Myobatrachidae), lizards (families Varanidae, and Scincidae; genera Lerista and
Oedura), land snails (particularly for the families Pupillidae, Camaenidae and
Achatinellidae) and trapdoor spiders (Ctenizidae). ANHAT analysis also returned
nationally high values for the plant family Tiliaceae for endemism. Fish were also
confirmed as having an exceptionally high rate of endemism, drawing on information
in the literature.
The present day Kimberley Islands (dominated by the Buccaneer and Bonaparte
Archipelagos) were likely part of the mainland coast as recently as 8,000 years ago
(Nix and Kalma 1972). It is reasonable to assume therefore that the present day island
terrestrial fauna was derived from northwest Kimberley mainland fauna, and has been
evolving in isolation since the islands became separated (Burbidge et al. 1978).
The Kimberley islands, based on the evidence from recent biological surveys, are
proving to be a faunal refuge from human-induced changes. The Bonaparte and
Buccaneer archipelagos are particularly sheltered from threatening processes such as
changed fire regimes, weeds (with the exception of weeds such as Passiflora foetida)
and invasive species (for instance, the recent arrival of the cane toad to the
Kimberley). As such, the islands are likely to be important refuges for fauna and have
the potential as future safe havens for translocated species that are under threat on the
mainland (Gibson et al. 2008).
With the exception of mammals, a lack of historic biological data has likely obscured
the significance of richness and endemism values of the Kimberley islands. The true
significance is gradually being revealed through modern survey work. In December
2006, a multi-year biological survey led by WA Department of the Environment and
Conservation (DEC) began documenting the plants and animals of the largest
Kimberley islands. These and previous surveys have recorded 91 reptile (including
several specimens yet to be described), 22 frog and 21 mammal species (excluding
bats) on islands of the Kimberley (Gibson et al. 2008, Russell Palmer pers. comm.
Nov 2009). Mammal species such as the western chestnut mouse (Pseudomys nanus),
red-cheeked dunnart (Sminthopsis virginiae) and agile wallaby (Macropus agilis) are
newly recorded as existing on the Kimberley islands, the latter two being the first
records found on any Western Australian island. Collection has also included 63
species of Camaenid land snails, 27 of these being new to science with at least two
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new genera (see more detail under vine thickets below). All snail species appear to be
endemic to the islands (i.e. do not occur on the mainland) and each island tends to
have a unique suite of species (Köhler 2009). These discoveries lend support to the
argument that speciation is occurring within a region of stable, long term evolutionary
refugia.
Related to discussions of island refugia, a nominator claimed that there were
genetically isolated populations of dingos (Canis lupus dingo) on a number of the
islands of the Bonaparte Archipelago. It was claimed that due to their isolation, like
Queensland's Fraser Island dingos, the Kimberley Island dingo population best
represents an 'outstanding' example of the original genotype and phenotype ('ancestral
dingo') that first arrived in Australia approximately 4,000–6,000 BP (DEWHA 2008).
Recent survey work found evidence of dingos on Uwins Island (DEC survey) and the
eastern most of the Purrungku Islands (How et al. 2007), however their presence was
not confirmed on another four islands for which there are historical records of dingo
scats or tracks. This raises doubts over the sustained dingo occupation of the
Kimberley Islands (Russell Palmer pers. comm. November 2009).
Island populations of critical weight range species such as the northern quoll
(Dasyurus hallucatus), the golden bandicoot (Isoodon auratus), the scaly-tailed
possum (Wyulda squamicaudata) and the golden-backed tree rat (Mesembriomys
macrurus) are of particular importance due to their decline on the mainland caused by
an array of human-induced threatening processes. Populations of these species
recorded from the first island surveys in the early 1970s were all found to be robust
when these islands were resurveyed in 2007–09. This provides support for the
argument that the Kimberley islands are playing an increasingly important role as
places of human induced refugia.
Savanna woodland, typically composed of eucalypt and bloodwood canopy above a
grassy understorey, dominates most parts of the Kimberley and northern Australia.
ANHAT analysis shows that moving away from the north coast and islands into this
drier savanna country coincides with lower endemism and richness values. The
significance of savanna communities, as part of the Kimberley regional flora, is
discussed under the Wealth of the Land and Sea section.
The significance of areas such as Yampi Peninsula and the country to the east of
Drysdale River National Park are likely to be underestimated due to limited historic
biological surveying. However the national strength of the ANHAT richness and
endemism values for the Mitchell Plateau is real and correlates closely with the
locally high rainfall (Kenneally et al. 1991). This trend is consistent with other
northern Australian biodiversity hotspots, such as the Top End and the orographically
rain fed mountains of Cape York and the Wet Tropics (Abrahams 1995; Bowman
1996; Woinarski et al. 2006).
To summarise the above findings, biodiversity analysis using the Australian
Government's Australian Natural Heritage Assessment Tool (ANHAT), supported by
the Australian Heritage Council’s expert opinion, has shown the northern Kimberley
coast and islands, the Kimberley Plateau and the west Kimberley Devonian reefs are
nationally significant for species richness and endemism for many plant, mammal,
reptile, frog and invertebrate groups. Island populations of critical weight range
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species such as the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), the golden bandicoot
(Isoodon auratus), the scaly-tailed possum (Wyulda squamicaudata) and the golden–
backed tree–rat (Mesembriomys macrurus) are of particular importance due to their
decline on the mainland caused by an array of human–induced threatening processes.
The northern Kimberley coast and islands, the Kimberley Plateau and the west
Kimberley Devonian reefs have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (a) for plant, mammal, reptile, frog and invertebrate species richness
and endemism; and also as refugia in protecting against human-induced
environmental changes.
Vine thickets: Evolution in the litter
Vine thickets (rainforests) make a considerable contribution to the floristic diversity
of the Kimberley region. Four hundred and fifty-three (453) plant species have been
recorded from 99 patches (out of an estimated 1,500) of rainforest, representing about
25per cent of the Kimberley flora, in a total area of rainforest of less than 8,000 ha
(Kenneally et al. 1991, Kenneally and McKenzie 1991). Northern Territory
rainforests possess a higher generic richness and higher species numbers (604) found
in a total of 1,245 sites (Liddle et al. 1994). The rainforests of the Iron and McIlwraith
Ranges of Cape York while possessing a greater richness in plant species than the
Kimberley (1,156 species in Iron Range National Park alone), are more comparable to
the wet, structurally complex rainforests of the Wet Tropics. The dry, structurally
simpler vine thickets growing inland of Townsville show far greater similarity to the
Kimberley's rainforests. Thickets inland of Townsville, such as at Toomba, Undara,
and Chillagoe form similar small isolated patches that possess low plant species
richness (Thurgate 1996). However surveys of the area (Fensham 1995) found the
largest patches associated with basalt flows, such as those found at the Toomba Lava
Flow (160 species in a 512 kilometre 2 patch) possessed greater species richness than
the larger patches in the Kimberley, where the maximum recorded in any patch was
119 species (Kevin Kenneally pers. comm., 19 November 2009).
Most plant species in the Kimberley rainforests also occur in rainforests of the
Northern Territory and/or Cape York, indicating likely bird and bat fruit dispersal
(Kenneally et al. 1991; Price 2006). Liddle et al. (1994) identified that 78 per cent
(404 species) of Northern Territory rainforest species are shared with Queensland and
51 per cent (266) shared with the Kimberley. These proportions highlight the relative
floristic continuity of the northern Australian rainforest flora. Only one species
Hibiscus peralbus (Malvaceae) is considered endemic to the Kimberley. The Northern
Territory rainforests include 36 species that are considered locally endemic (Liddle et
al. 1994) and the inland Queensland vine thickets shelter a few endemic plant species
but largely share species known from the wetter, more coastal rainforest areas of
Queensland (Thurgate 1996).
The likely young age of the Kimberley's rainforests may not have provided sufficient
time to enable these communities to play an evolutionary refugial role to allow the
development of a specialised endemic vertebrate fauna (Barlow and Hyland 1988;
Covacevich and McDonald 1993; Kendrick and Rolfe 1991). Friend et al. (1991)
noted that only a few mammals, such as northern long-eared bat (Nyctophilus
daedalus) and the mosaic-tailed rat (Melomys burtoni) show regular dependency on
Kimberley rainforest patches. Most of the 29 mammals recorded from Kimberley
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ainforests, including the golden bandicoot (Isoodon auratus) and the golden-backed
tree rat (Mesembriomys macrurus), occupy the patches only seasonally or in response
to external threats such as bushfires. Similarly Kendrick and Rolfe (1991) observed
that none of the 49 reptiles or 13 frogs recorded in Kimberley vine thicket patches
were entirely restricted to these communities. While this behaviour is similar to what
has been observed in Kakadu (Braithwaite et al. 1985), it contrasts with Queensland
where 43 reptiles and 31 frogs have been found to be entirely obligate to (or largely
dependent) wet, high altitude rainforests (Covacevich and McDonald 1993). In the
Kimberley, it was also considered that species present in individual patches are
determined by other biogeographic processes operating outside the rainforest patches,
such as close proximity of grasslands and wetlands for the presence of the frogs
Litoria bicolor and L. inermis. Rainforest thickets, with fewer grasses, offer greater
protection from seasonal fires. Patches are therefore likely to provide local refugia
from which herpetofauna can recolonise burnt savanna communities. Vine thickets
inland of Townsville have been shown to play similar refugial roles (Kahn and Lawrie
1987).
Vine thickets seem to be playing an increasingly important role as refugia for
vertebrates from human-induced environmental changes. As introduced livestock alter
savanna ecosystems and fire frequency increases, vine thickets may be critical to the
long term survival of many vertebrate species. It should be noted that vine thickets
themselves are not immune from these new threats, though patches in rugged terrain
have greater protection (Kendrick and Rolfe 1991). This refugial role is not limited to
the Kimberley, rainforest patches across northern Australia are likely to be just as
important.
The 141 bird species found in the Kimberley's vine thickets occur in equivalent
Northern Territory environments, and no Kimberley endemics have been recorded to
date. The richest Kimberley rainforest bird fauna is associated with moisture
availability and floristic richness, with the highest species numbers being found in the
best developed patches of the northwest coast (Johnstone and Burbidge 1991).
Vine thickets do however seem to play an important seasonal refugial role (Morton et
al. 1995), supporting a range of flighted vertebrates that would not otherwise be able
to survive in the Kimberley without these patches at critical times. Birds such as the
rainbow pitta (Pitta iris) and orange-footed scrub fowl (Megapodius reinwardt) have
been found to be largely confined to vine thickets in the Kimberley. Flying foxes and
frugivorous birds such as the Torresian imperial pigeon (Ducula spilorrhoa) (Russell-
Smith et al. 1992), rose-crowned fruit-dove (Ptilinopus regina) and the great
bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis) (Black et al. 2010) frequent these thickets to escape
from the nearby seasonably inhospitable tropical savanna and to access fruiting cycles
closely tied to wet season rainfalls (Bach 2002; Price 2004 and Price 2006). Also
seeking seasonal refuge, the common koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus), visits the
Kimberley vine thickets from neighbouring Southeast Asia (Johnstone & Burbidge
1991). The Northern Territory in comparison has a larger area of high rainfall country
and a greater diversity of closed forest and wetland habitats (Kenneally et al. 1991).
Johnstone and Burbidge (1991) speculated that this is why species such as the rufous
owl (Ninox rufa) are confined to rainforests in the Kimberley but are found in a wider
range of habitats in the Northern Territory.
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From research focused on fragmented rainforest patches in the NT, Price (2006)
argues that in the long term, many rainforest plant populations depend on the dispersal
of seeds by frugivorous bird species. The species examined in this research are mostly
shared with the Kimberley. The widespread nature of this rainforest/frugivore
interdependence across northern WA and the NT makes it difficult to demonstrate that
the vine thickets of the Kimberley are any more important for birds and bats than
other areas of northern Australia. The refugial role of the closely associated mesic
Kimberley mangroves communities in maintaining populations of birds and bats is
discussed in mangroves refugia below.
The low degree of endemism associated with Kimberley rainforest plants and
vertebrates is in contrast with a much higher level associated with invertebrates. Many
of the small immobile invertebrate species endemic to the Kimberley have only been
recorded in its rainforest patches; this includes 90 per cent of the earthworms and 48
per cent of the land snails (Kenneally and McKenzie 1991). It is speculated that the
cooling and drying of the Kimberley, since the early Miocene (c. 20 million years
ago), led to a shrinking of the then more extensive rainforest into the isolated patches
present today (Köhler and Gibson 2009). When the rainforests shrank into these
patches they became evolutionary refuges (Morton et al. 1995) for associated
invertebrates (Köhler and Gibson 2009).
Survey and taxonomic work by Solem (1979, 1981, 1984 and 1985) and more recent
research (Graham 2001b; Köhler 2010) have helped highlight the national importance
of the Kimberley Plateau and adjacent islands for land snail richness and endemism.
These species are largely found in vine thickets. ANHAT analyses have supported the
findings of these researchers, showing the Kimberley Plateau is exceptionally high in
richness (with 120 species discovered to date in the Kimberley) and endemism for
Camaenidae (air breathing land snails). Restricted or locally endemic Camaenid snails
are found frequently in Kimberley vine thicket surveys, including the more
geographically isolated Dampier Peninsula dune thickets, as far south as Broome.
Researchers (Köhler 2009; Köhler and Gibson 2009.) speculate that this consistent
spread of now locally restricted species reflects long-term evolution through isolation,
with the once more widepread Kimberley rainforests of the warmer, wetter Miocene
contracting and fragmenting as the region became cooler and drier. Snail populations
became isolated as their communities reduced to small islands of rainforest
surrounded by drier, less habitable savanna woodlands. The remnant thickets became
refuges for the development of their very own sets of species. It is further speculated
that once isolated, this promoted parallel patterns of invertebrate radiation (i.e.
explosive evolution of species groups) and adaptation (Köhler and Gibson 2009).
Not only is the Camaenid species endemism high within these Kimberley rainforest
refugial pockets but the phylogenetic diversity has shown evidence of generic (genus
level) endemism (Solem and McKenzie 1991), with Torrestitrachia, Amphlirhagada,
Setobaudinia, Baudinella and Rhagada found exclusively, or nearly so, within the
region (Solem 1979, 1981, 1985). Recent work by Köhler (2010) described two new
genera Kimberleydiscus, Kimberleymelon, both endemic to the Bonaparte
Archipelago, further adding to this diversity. This higher level endemism and the
diversity of Camaenid snail species is reflected in ANHAT analyses, which centre on
the Prince Regent Nature Reserve, and the coast from Augustus to Bigge Island, and
the Devonian reefs in the west Kimberley. Camaenid snails found outside this core are
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considered to provide insights into the evolutionary refuges they occupy, however the
rates of endemism and species richness are not as high as on the Kimberley Plateau
and adjoining islands. One significant patch which may warrant further investigation
into its significance for endemism and species richness is found in the Ningbing
Ranges in the east Kimberley. The Ningbings feature karst landscapes similar to those
associated with the Devonian reefs of the west Kimberley. In another group of
invertebrates, the second highest richness values behind Chillagoe, Queensland, for
the family Pupillidae (minute, air-breathing land snails), was also found, centred on
the Prince Regent 1:100,000 map sheet, and possibly in the rainforest patches of
Prince Frederick Harbour and St Georges Basin.
An estimated 1,500 vine thicket patches occur in the Kimberley (Kenneally and
McKenzie 1991), of which very few have been surveyed to date. It is expected that a
more accurate understanding of greater flora and fauna richness will be revealed over
time as thickets are surveyed in greater detail. High species richness counts for ants
(Andersen 1992b), spiders (Main 1991), scorpions and pseudoscorpions (Andersen
and Burbidge 1991) have been recorded within Kimberley vine thickets. At this time
there is insufficient national data available to determine the true significance of these
groups.
In broad comparative terms, rainforests of much greater age, community complexity
and species richness are found in eastern Australia. However when comparing the
vine thickets of the Kimberley to other hot, dry rainforests across northern Australia,
their importance as areas of invertebrate refugia is readily apparent even when based
on the limited surveying that has taken place to date.
Vine thickets of the northern Kimberley coast and islands and the Kimberley
Plateau, and the Devonian reefs of the west Kimberley, are of outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for their evolutionary refugial
role that has resulted in high invertebrate richness and endemism.
Mangrove refugia: Preferable perches
The west Kimberley has the highest mangrove species richness in Western Australia,
with 16 species in the northwest Kimberley, more than are found in the extensive
mangal communities of Cambridge Gulf and the Ord River (13 species) (Kenneally
1982; Wells 1982). Nationally however, greater species richness can be found in Cape
York (30), and Arnhem Bay in the Northern Territory (20 species) than in the
Kimberley Plateau region, or further south and west at Roebuck Bay (11) (Abrahams
1995, Wells 1982). An ANHAT analysis of the richest mangrove family
Rhizophoraceae also confirmed higher richness and endemism scores in Cape York
(Jardine River and Temple Bay), Cooktown and the Northern Territory (Darwin and
Charlotte Rivers and Melville Island) than for the Kimberley (Mitchell, Lawley and
Roe Rivers and St Georges Basin (Kenneally 1982)).
Mangal communities found between Broome and Napier Broome Bay are an
important part of the Kimberley's refugial story. These communities provide a habitat
for a number of birds that in other parts of Australia are not confined to mangroves,
including species such as the great-billed heron (Ardea sumatrana) and brown-tailed
flycatcher (Microeca tormenti). McKenzie et al. (1991) notes that it is difficult to talk
of the refugial role of mangroves in isolation from rainforest communities. The two
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mesic communities are often found adjacent to one another in the Kimberley and the
Northern Territory and resident and visiting fauna often use both communities as part
of their life cycles.
There is a significant anomaly in that the floristically richer and taller mangroves of
northeast Queensland have fewer mangal-dependent species of birds than the
floristically poorer and more stunted mangroves of northwest Australia (Schodde et
al. 1982). Kimberley mangrove communities provide vital feeding habitat and shelter
for birds such as the common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) and the whimbrel
(Numenius phaeopus), particularly important in the harsh dry seasons. Furthermore, a
higher proportion of birds that are obligate (confined to) to these communities are
found in the northwest (12 species) than in the northeast (8 species), north of 19°S. A
particularly rich fauna has been observed in the Rhizophora mangrove forests north of
Derby, fed by the freshwaters of the Fitzroy River (Johnstone, R., pers. comm., June
2010). In eastern Australia these birds are found more widely, beyond mangroves into
adjacent rain and gallery forests (Schodde et al. 1982). Birds that have adapted to
these two forms of ecological behaviour are indicative of the refugial importance of
the mangroves juxtaposed against the drier, more exposed savanna communities that
dominate the Kimberley and parts of the Northern Territory. It is speculated that the
mangroves play a seasonal refugial role (Morton et al. 1995) to mangal dependent
birds that use mangroves as a reliable, season proof source of food. This can be
distinguished from the mangal obligate bird species that seem to have developed a
long term residential dependence on the Kimberley mangroves; in other words these
mangroves play an evolutionary refugial role (Morton et al. 1995).
The ecological refugial role (Morton et al. 1995) played by mangroves is also
pronounced for bats species such as Pipistrellus westralis, Mormopterus loriae and
Nyctophilus arnhemensis. These species are endemic to mangroves in the Kimberley
and parts of the Northern Territory; their closest affinities being species that favour
more widespread rainforest communities in north-eastern Australia and New Guinea
(Friend et al. 1991; McKenzie et al. 1991).
While mangrove and vine thicket environments perform these roles elsewhere in
northern Australia, the importance of mangroves in the Kimberley as bird and bat
refuges is greater, against the backdrop of a harsher, more arid environment.
However, there are many habitats across Australia that provide refuge for species that
are otherwise widespread. For example, the mound springs and many other wetlands
of central Australia play an important refugial role for birds, as do wetlands across the
Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Kimberley mangroves, while providing an important role in maintaining
populations of both bird and bat species, nevertheless are not demonstrated to be
of greater importance than other refugial habitats across Australia, and
therefore do not have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion
(a) as refugia for mangal-dependent and mangal-obligate avifauna.
River refugia: There's something in the water
There is evidence that the river systems of the north Kimberley serve as refuges to
freshwater fish species, with a consequently high endemism found in several families.
With 18 species that are endemic to the region, the west Kimberley has the highest
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number of endemic freshwater fish in comparison to any other region in Australia
(ANHAT 2009, Allen et al. 2002, Morgan 2008, Unmack 2001). While over 30
species are confined to Cape York in Australia, over 20 of these have a transcontinental
distribution, with many occurring in Papua New Guinea or further afield
in the Pacific (Allen et al. 2002). It should be noted however that the large number of
endemics that have been recorded within the Kimberley may in part relate to limited
historical surveying. This is largely due to the general isolation of the region and
seasonal access difficulties (Morgan et al. 2004).
In their paper on the fishes of the Kimberley, Allen and Leggett (1990) speculate that
the highly dissected nature of the landscape has served as an isolating mechanism
between species, with the numerous large and deep waterholes acting as refugia, and
resulting in centres of speciation, which are speculated to have been in existence since
the fluctuating climate of the late Cenozoic. The authors also point out that the
Kimberley landmass is isolated, and mostly surrounded by the sea or the desert, with
only a narrow corridor of high rainfall that links the Kimberley with the northwestern
corner of the Northern Territory (Allen and Leggett 1990). In his 2001 paper on the
biogeography of Australian fishes, Unmack notes that the Kimberley region has a
very high endemism, along with a number of species that have disjunct populations.
At the time, the author recorded a total of 13 species that were endemic to the west
Kimberley, compared with a maximum of six endemics confined to any single
drainage basin for the remainder of northern Australia and the entire east coast of
Australia. The only basins that rivalled the Kimberley at that time for numbers of
endemics were the Lake Eyre Basin (12 species) which is approximately five times
larger that the west Kimberley and the Murray Darling Basin (9 species), which is
likewise around four times larger. Since 2001, another five species have been
recorded as endemic to the west Kimberley (Morgan 2008), which is a relatively high
rate of discovery and lends support to the likelihood of a high ongoing rate of
discovery of new species in the west Kimberley in general.
Rivers that are particularly important for species that are either endemic to the
Kimberley, or to one or two river systems within the Kimberley, are those that lie in
the far north and west of the west Kimberley and include the Drysdale River (6
species), the Prince Regent (6 species), the Roe and Moran Rivers (4 species), Carson
River (4 species) and Isdell River (3 species) (Morgan 2008, Allen et al. 2002). The
Kimberley fish endemism also extends to the Fitzroy River (1 species with 2 near
endemics) (Dave Morgan pers. comm. April 2010), however, the catchment size of
the Fitzroy is far larger than the northern and western rivers, being roughly equivalent
to all the above mentioned river catchments combined. The rate of fish endemism
within the Fitzroy is comparable with other rivers across tropical Australia of
approximately equivalent size. For example, there are four species that are endemic to
the Flinders River system, which flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria; and four species
endemic to the Daly River in the Northern Territory. This is in contrast to the 18
species in total that occur in the eight river systems of the far north and west
Kimberley. This combined with the fact that many of these rivers are relatively short
in length, highlights their significance for overall numbers of endemic species, in
comparison with other rivers across northern Australia, including the Fitzroy.
The fossil evidence across Australia for freshwater fish demonstrates persistence of
some families up to 45 million years (Crowley 1990; Unmack 2001). Unmack (2001)
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also speculates that patterns in the present day fish distributions are a result of
climatic patterns and sea level changes. As fish are limited to the persistence of
freshwater, and because of the high relative rate of endemism of the freshwater fish
fauna of the Kimberley, the region has the potential to tell us much about long term
changes in the Australian environment, the drying of the continent and its related
evolutionary refugial role (Dave Morgan pers. comm. November 2009).
Research in recent years on freshwater turtles has shown the importance of rivers of
the Kimberley for endemic turtle species. Endemic to northwest Australia, most
populations of the recently described bearded longneck turtle (Macrochelodina
walloyarrina) and the sympatric M. kuchlingi are found in the Mitchell, King Edward
and Drysdale river systems (McCord and Joseph–Ouni 2007). Chelodina
burrungandjii, another endemic to the Kimberley, inhabits streams and associated
billabongs of the sandstone plateaus and associated escarpment country. This high
endemism was supported by an ANHAT analysis which returned the second highest
national Chelidae (side-necked tortoises) endemism score for mapsheets
encompassing the northwest Kimberley, particularly in the Drysdale River region.
High endemism for turtles further supports the freshwater fish argument that the
Kimberley Plateau river systems have played an important evolutionary refugial role.
The Drysdale, Prince Regent, Roe, Moran, Carson, Isdell, Mitchell and King
Edward Rivers are of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion
(a) as areas of evolutionary refugia demonstrated by nationally high values for
freshwater fish and turtle endemism.
Wetlands, waterholes and mound springs
In their report on a synthesis of scientific knowledge of the Kimberley, DEC (2009)
state that wetlands of the Kimberley are 'an important resource for waterbirds and
provide refugia during the dry season for many savanna species, as well as containing
a vast array of aquatic species…' The severity of the dry season is such that, for many
months and over large areas of the Kimberley arid tropics, surface water resources are
restricted to a few permanent or semi-permanent water holes and streams, which
become key refugial foci in the landscape, particularly for migratory birds.
No systematic survey of wetlands has been undertaken across the Kimberley (Vernes
2007) but four Ramsar listed sites and 21 'nationally important wetlands' are found
within the Kimberley as a whole ('Nationally important wetlands' are those wetlands
that are documented in the Directory of Important Wetlands (DEH 2001), which is not
synonymous with national significance as defined by the National Heritage criteria).
Only one listed Ramsar site occurs in the west Kimberley region – Roebuck Bay. Of
the 'nationally important wetlands', 15 occur in the west Kimberley study area. They
range from the seasonally inundated Roebuck Plains, to the Camballin Floodplain of
the Fitzroy River system, to the mound springs and wetlands on Dampier Peninsula,
and the discrete sites at Tunnel Creek and Windjana and Geikie Gorges within the
creeks and rivers of the Oscar and Napier Ranges. The entire river systems of the
Prince Regent and Drysdale Rivers are also listed in the Directory.
In 2001, the authors of the Western Australian chapter in the Directory of Important
Wetlands noted that Western Australia has at least 2,000 wetland plant species
recorded, and that endemism among wetland flora is high, particularly in the
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southwest of the State (DEH 2001). The authors also pointed out the high level of
endemism among wetland vertebrate species, with for example over 30 wetland frogs,
and 28 inland fishes being confined to Western Australia. In contrast, Vernes (2007)
states that there is a paucity of published information on Kimberley wetland systems
and that most catchments have lacked general baseline surveys. With respect to the
larger Ord and the Fitzroy systems, Vernes (2007) notes that these have been more
systematically surveyed and reported on, but that there are still gaps regarding
connectivity of floodplain wetlands, swamps and groundwater dependent systems.
Vernes also notes that to date there is not a national wetland typology, which makes it
difficult to classify wetland systems; though the High Conservation Value Aquatic
Ecosystem (HCVAE) classification (SKM 2007), when complete, will assist in
identifying wetland typologies. More recent work is examining the similarity between
rivers across northern Australia based on a features such as flow regimes, catchment
size, topography and geology, allowing a more systematic comparison between rivers
(O'Callaghan 2009). In their paper on an inventory of data for northern rivers, Lowry
and Alewijnse (2005) found that knowledge gaps exist on the ecological character of
many tropical rivers and wetlands, and that much of the data collected up to that point
was at the broad continental and catchment scales. While much has been done since
that time to address these gaps, much still remains to be surveyed and documented.
The Directory of Important Wetlands (DEH 2001) is a resource that can assist in a
comparative analysis of wetland systems across northern Australia. However,
researchers that compiled the Western Australian, Northern Territory and Queensland
sections of the Directory note that it is not a complete record of all wetlands in the
tropics. In the chapter on Western Australia, the authors noted that more field work is
needed to ensure that the diversity of wetlands in this western one third of the
continent is better represented (Lane and Lynch 2001). The Department hosted a two
day workshop in March 2010 to collate what additional information is known of
northern Australian wetlands and to determine how Kimberley systems compare to
other tropical systems, The national significance of the specific Kimberley wetlands
discussed below has been determined using a combination of statistics from the
Directory, other wetland publications and the expert opinion of workshop participants.
Roebuck Bay is Ramsar listed largely in recognition of its significance as an
international migratory bird destination. Sixty four species of waterbird have been
recorded at Roebuck Bay, 34 of which are listed under international treaties (JAMBA,
CAMBA and ROKAMBA). Watkins (1993) ranked Roebuck Bay as having the
highest numbers of waterbird species of international importance (20 species) in
Australia; additions to these lists have in subsequent years have seen the number
increase to 34. Species include Mongolian plovers (Charadrius mongolus), ruddy
turnstones (Arenaria interpres) and black-winged stilts (Himantopus himantopus). In
addition to international visitors, Australian resident breeding shorebirds also make
Roebuck Bay home for part of the year. Birds such as the red-necked avocet
(Recurvirostra novaehollandiae) use Roebuck Bay as a seasonal refuge, flying to the
site from inland Australian wetlands as they dry out. Roebuck Bay has been
considered more fully under criterion (d) for, among other values, waterbirds. The
above values are included here for comparative purposes for the other wetlands
discussed in this section.
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The west Kimberley has a number of palustrine (swamps, fens, bogs) dominated
wetlands that are destinations for both international and national migratory bird
species. The seasonally inundated Roebuck Plains (48,000 ha) is found inland of
Roebuck Bay, occupying the space that in past times was the Fitzroy River delta when
it met the ocean at Roebuck Bay. The close proximity of these plains to the bay's
coastal mudflats results in considerable overlap in the presence of many migratory
bird species. Roebuck Plains is a permanent home to or seasonal stopover for a wide
variety of waterbirds (64 species) including the oriental pratincole (Glareola
maldivarum) and the little curlew (Numenius minutus) but with fewer on international
treaties (22) than the neighbouring bay. The site is also used by Australian migratory
species such as the freckled duck (Stictonetta naevosa) and the yellow chat
(Epthianura crocea) (DEH 2001).
The Camballin floodplain (30,000 ha) is an extensive black soil floodplain adjoining
the Fitzroy River featuring two principal claypan swamps: the Le Lievre and
Moulamen. These systems, along with the nearby Mallallah and Sandhill swamps of
Noonkanbah, are the permanent home or seasonal refuge to 67 species of birds, 20
species listed on JAMBA/CAMBA and seasonally attracting between 20,000-38,000
birds (Jaensch and Vervest 1990). Some of these species are found in significant
numbers, including the plumed whistling-duck (Dendrocygna eytoni) and the
Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) (Sutton 1998).
While Roebuck Plains and the wetlands of the Fitzroy River are important waterbird
refugia, nationally there are a number of other systems in northern Australia of equal
or greater significance. According to Watkins (1993) and the Directory (DEH 2001),
Roebuck Bay, the southeastern Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland and Eighty Mile
Beach are nationally the most significant sites for migratory birds for richness,
international treaty listed species and for overall abundance of birds. Regionally, Lake
Argyle in the east Kimberley is home to over 270 species of birds, including 74
waterbird species and 22 species listed under treaties. Parry Floodplain, while smaller
in size than Camballin (9,000 ha) possesses greater numbers of waterbird species (77)
and more species under treaties (22) (DEH 2001). In terms of seasonal refugia, it
could be argued that systems like Lake Gregory to the south of the Kimberley play a
greater role when compared nationally. Differing from the palustrine dominated
systems to the north; the lacustrine Lake Gregory is home to 73 water bird species, 21
species under treaties and up to 650,000 birds annually (Halse et al. 1998). Given its
more arid, inland position and greater diversity of birds, Lake Gregory is considered a
more important refuge for seasonally visiting international and national waterbirds.
The consensus of participants at the 2010 Heritage Wetlands workshop was that
Roebuck Bay, Eighty Mile Beach, Lake Argyle and Lake Gregory were nationally
more significant for bird heritage values than Roebuck Plains or the Fitzroy River
wetlands. Lake Argyle was noted by workshop participants as being an artificial lake;
on this factor alone it was the consensus opinion that it should be excluded from
future National Heritage considerations.
The palustrine wetlands of the Roebuck Plains and the Fitzroy River floodplains
are unlikely to have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a)
for richness or endemism, or as refugia for migratory, protected or endangered
avifauna.
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A series of scattered freshwater wetlands, mostly centred around mound spring
structures, occur intermittently along the coast of the largely arid Dampier Peninsula
(McKenzie & Kenneally 1983). These include Lollywell, Bunda Bunda and Willy
Creek (Graham 2002); the latter two are listed as wetlands of national significance
(DEH 2001; WA Government 2009). A complex of fresh water seepages known as
Big Springs is located to the north-east of Derby on the Yampi Peninsula (DEH
2001). Mostly, the supply of water to these discrete wetlands is maintained by water
discharging from underground aquifers. These aquifers are in turn replenished during
the wet season (WA Government 2004). Given the relative permanency of water
supply at these small wetlands, each of these sites is likely to act as regionally
important habitats for a wide range of the Kimberley's fauna, including waterfowl and
waders. However, there is insufficient evidence at this time to support a claim that
these Kimberley mound springs are of national significance for species richness,
endemism or for refugial values. A recent report accessing the High Conservation
Value Aquatic Ecosystem (HCVAE) criteria of mound springs in Western Australia
found that there was 'not enough information' to assess the refugial values of these
springs (Shanahan and Coote 2008). This status may change if further surveys of the
Dampier and Yampi peninsulas are undertaken. Mound springs of the Great Artesian
Basin (GAB), especially the National Heritage listed Witjira-Dalhousie and Elizabeth
Springs, on the evidence available have much stronger richness, endemism and
refugial values. Morton et al. (1995) documented that the GAB Springs are important
for illustrating the role of evolutionary refugia for relict animal and plant species,
which have evolved over long periods of time into distinct and endemic species.
Witjira-Dalhousie Springs alone contains five endemic fish species. To date there are
no known endemic fauna at the Dampier and Yampi peninsula mound springs
(Morgan, D., pers. comm. May 2010); systematic surveys of these systems are needed
to identify the full list of species present.
Other spring systems were discussed at the 2010 Heritage Wetlands workshop,
including the McLarty Hills and Dragon Tree Soak to the south of the Fitzroy River
and the Karajarri wetlands complex inland of Eighty Mile Beach. Karajarri includes
Mandora Marsh, which has a community of inland mangroves and at least once per
decade is exceptionally important for waterbirds (C. Minton pers. comm. in DEH
2001). Little scientific information is known of these quite complex wetland systems.
Experts at the workshop were of the opinion that these systems were likely to be of
equal or greater heritage value than the springs within the Dampier Peninsula or north
Kimberley.
There is insufficient evidence at this time to demonstrate that mound springs of
the Dampier Peninsula have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (a) for species richness, endemism or as refugia.
One other small wetland system is found at Disaster Bay (on the Dampier Peninsula).
A number of other wetlands are found on Yampi Peninsula and around the river
outflows at the back of the Walcott Inlet (to the north of the Yampi Peninsula). There
is very little known about these systems and survey work is required to quantify what
heritage values may be present.
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There is insufficient evidence at this time to suggest that Disaster Bay, Yampi
Peninsula or Walcott Inlet have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (a) for species richness, endemism or as refugia.
Karst refugia
In their report on the karst fauna of the Kimberley, the authors note that there has
been a general paucity of research, and despite the fact that the limestone ranges of
the Kimberley represent one of the major karst areas of Australia, relatively little
information on the vertebrate and invertebrate fauna has been recorded to date
(Anderson & Anderson, 2010). Cave systems that have been studied to some extent
include the Napier and Oscar ranges, and the relatively small amount of research that
has been undertaken in these ranges points to the likely occurrence of high numbers of
highly endemic invertebrate species within the system as a whole (Anderson &
Anderson, 2010; Humphreys, 1995). Again, there is very little known about these
systems and survey work is required to quantify what heritage values may be present.
There is insufficient information at this time to demonstrate that the karst
systems of the west Kimberley are of outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (a) for species richness, endemism or as refugia.
WEALTH OF LAND AND SEA
Plant richness and endemism
The Kimberley region is made up of a diversity of vegetation communities in
generally good condition, dominated by savanna grassy woodlands. A number of
nominators have claimed that the Kimberley is a region with significant floral
richness and endemism. Clarkson and Kenneally (1988) provide a useful floral
richness comparison between the Kimberley (1,592 species) and Cape York Peninsula
(2,412). Cape York is richer by a factor of 1.5 at the species level, 1.7 at the generic
level and 1.4 at the family level however, it should be noted that proportions have
somewhat shifted since Clarkson and Kenneally's 1988 publication as new taxa in the
Kimberley have been discovered and described (Kenneally, K., pers comm., Nov
2009).
Species richness for Cape York Peninsula is even greater when proportionally
comparing the two study areas: Cape York Peninsula (13.5 million hectares) and the
Kimberley region (30.2 million hectares). Nationally, the richest area for plant species
is recognized as being the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia with
9,500 taxa (Beard et al. 2000; Crisp et al. 2001; DEC 2010). This region (at 31
million hectares) is on an equivalent scale to the Northern Province, dominated by the
Kimberley, which is estimated to have 2,900 plant taxa (DEC 2010), comparatively
far fewer than the southwest. The Northern Territory is estimated have over 4,000
plant species (NRETA 2009), the majority of which are found in the Top End (north
of 18°S) with a secondary refugial concentration around the MacDonnell Ranges
(Bowman 1996).
The Clarkson and Kenneally (1988) analysis ranked families by the number of genera
present and they found Poaceae (grasses) and Fabaceae (i.e. peas, wattles and allies
combined) are most dominant in the Kimberley and Cape York Peninsula. The
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Kimberley has three plant families not present in Cape York, whereas 65 Cape York
families are not found in the Kimberley region (Mackey et al. 2001). The generally
higher rainfall in the tropical east is matched by a greater diversity of closed or
swamp forest communities which support many of the Cape York families that are
missing from the Kimberley. Orchidaceae and Sapindaceae, which favour closed
forest communities, appear in the top ten families for Cape York while
Amaranthaceae (Amaranth herbs) and Malvaceae (including Hibiscus), which have
better adapted to drier environments, replace them in the Kimberley. The Kimberley
is more significant for the families Asclepiadaceae, Chenopodiaceae and
Scrophulariaceae, and Acacia species numbers are double those found in Cape York
Peninsula (Clarkson and Kenneally 1988; Mackey et al. 2001).
Meaningful assessments of the richness and endemism of large areas, such as the
Kimberley, must relate to defined, comparable areas. Increasingly, geographical
definition in Western Australia has come to rely on ecological regionalisations. Based
on the development of phytogeographic regions in earlier work, Beard and co-workers
were able to undertake a Western Australian state-level comparison of the Southwest
Province (Perth and wheatbelt country), the Eremaean Province (west coast and
central arid country) and the Northern Province, which included the Kimberley (Beard
1980; Beard et al. 2000). Beard et al. (2000) noted that in terms of plant richness the
Northern Province had more families, fewer genera and less than half the species
found in the Southwest. A recent inventory of WA plant taxa numbers (DEC 2010)
provides a useful comparison for the three provinces: Northern (2,904), Eremaean
(5,759) and Southwest (9,481). While there no doubt are many undiscovered and
undescribed plant taxa across WA, this state of knowledge differs between the
provinces and is considered by the Western Australian Herbarium as being
particularly poor in the Kimberley. However, asymptotic modelling undertaken by the
herbarium to help track the rate of plant discovery has predicted that the Northern
Province will fall further behind the other two provinces in species richness.
West and others (2002), using the IBRA regionalisation, undertook a national analysis
that showed the greatest richness for Acacia (222 species) and eucalypts (160 species)
are in a single subregion of semiarid southwest Western Australia. Moderately species
rich bioregions were found to be in the Kimberley, Arnhem Land, Barkley Tableland,
the subtropical humid and the subtropical and temperate coastal areas of eastern
Australia. Using more recent ecological regionalisation data (DEC 2010), the
Southwest Province is richer for both Acacia and eucalypts (566 and 425) than both
the Eremaean Province (430 and 290) or the Northern (Kimberley) Province (149 and
82).
ANHAT analysis displays the Kimberley as having close to the highest national
species richness score for Combretaceae (plums, bullwaddies, mangroves and
bushwillow) along the Kimberley north coast. This observed richness is supported by
Wheeler et al. (1992) who notes that all 12 of the Kimberley Terminalia species are
found in this area. However higher scores for Combretaceae richness were found in
the east Kimberley and the Darwin regions. Apart from these regionally high values,
no other groups on current analysis were shown to have species richness scores of
significance when compared nationally.
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Wheeler et al. (1992) identified 290 species with high endemism, or that are
insufficiently known, within the Northern Province. Later, Beard et al. (2000) argued
that the Northern Province actually had a relatively low rate of endemic species at
14.3 per cent (306 species), far fewer than the species endemic to the similarly sized
Southwest Province. The WA Herbarium state taxa inventory (DEC 2010) calculated
percentages of endemic taxa based on plants entirely restricted to their province as
compared to the other two provinces in WA: Northern (59.2 per cent), Eremaean
(29.7 per cent) and Southwest (65.6 per cent). While this shows a high percentage for
the Northern Province (Kimberley), this state comparison is somewhat misleading
when taken nationally, as many of the Northern and Eremaean plants also grow in
other states, reducing the percentage of plant taxa that are truly endemic to these
regions. However, plants found in the southwest, which is isolated from other areas, is
clearly greater for plant endemism in real terms at a national scale.
Woinarski et al. (2006) identified the Northern Territory's plant endemism hotspot
(172 species) as being focused on the sandstone plateaus of west Arnhem Land. While
this figure is smaller than the Western Australian Northern Province (290 species in
35 million hectares) the west Arnhem Land region is significantly smaller in area (3.2
million hectares). A more scale appropriate comparison was provided by Petersen and
Watson (1998) who determined that the Top End of the Northern Territory (north of
16 ° S encompassing 31.6 million hectares) possesses 438 endemic plant species,
surpassing that of the Kimberley. By comparing endemic species on a per hectare
basis, the smaller Cape York Peninsula (13.5 million hectares) with 264 endemic
plant species (Abrahams et al. 1995) rivals both the Kimberley and Top End regions.
ANHAT analysis showed one of the nationally significant localised endemism centres
(tope 0.2 per cent for country) for Corymbia (bloodwoods) around the Windjana
Gorge and King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park, with a second, less significant
centre occurring around the Gibb River and Drysdale River stations. The presence of
a number of restricted species together, including Corymbia pedimontana, C. torta
and C. collina, is unusual in the context of Australian tropical savanna woodlands.
The North Kimberley IBRA region, which includes some of these centres, also was
shown to possess a high, but not nationally high, eucalypt endemism score in West
and others' (West et al. 2002) assessment. While ANHAT analysis showed there are
other, less significant areas of bloodwood endemism, including the southeast
Kimberley and Kakadu, the general pattern for savanna woodlands is for the upper
strata to be dominated by eucalypts (Eucalyptus and Corymbia) with very wide
ranging distribution patterns. The concentration of these endemics is likely a factor of
a more variable topography, endemism also being found within rugged west Arnhem
Land. Bloodwood species richness is by far greatest in the northwest of the Northern
Territory; coupled with strong endemism scores, the Northern Territory Corymbia
dominated woodlands are considered to be of greater national significance than those
found within the Kimberley. When considering eucalypts overall (Eucalyptus and
Corymbia combined), according to literature (West et al. 2002) and ANHAT analyses,
the nationally strongest scores are found in the southwest of Western Australia for
both richness and endemism.
ANHAT analysis also showed a significant endemism score in the Kimberley for
Fabaceae (peas), due the presence of restricted species in a range of genera, including
Indigofera, Desmodium, Dendrolobium, Cajanus and Tadehagi. While Fabaceae in
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the southwest of Western Australia is largely comprised of a different suite of genera,
this region's endemism is far stronger and more widespread than the smaller pockets
found within the Kimberley. While there is a degree of endemism associated with
Fabaceous pea shrubs found in the Kimberley, there are comparable sites of
significance in the Northern Territory and along the east coast.
While additional surveys have taken place across the Kimberley since this time, there
is still considerable botanical research needed within the northwest of Australia.
The Kimberley as a bioregion is unlikely to have outstanding heritage value to
the nation under criterion (a) for floral species richness and/or endemism.
Marine environment
The largely unknown near shore marine environment of the Kimberley includes a
range of benthic filter–feeding and coral communities and reef systems. One of these
coral communities, Montgomery Reef, may feature rare emergent platform reefs,
although their lithology is currently not resolved. The macrotidal range of the region
exposes these platforms by up to four metres at low tide. However despite its
remarkable features, this 'reef' has been little studied. Research is underway by the
Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI) which may help to
determine the uniqueness and National Heritage significance of the Kimberley marine
environment, particularly for coral communities and sponges. Insufficient national
data about nearshore marine environments at present precludes detailed comparative
analysis and hence a determination of the regional and National Heritage significance
of these systems (Wilson 2009a; Wilson 2009b).
There is insufficient data to demonstrate that the biology of the Kimberley
marine environment has outstanding heritage value to the nation for species
richness or endemism.
Antiquity of the long distance movement of material (marine shell beads) by
Aboriginal people
Exceptional preservation conditions provided by rock shelters in remnant Devonian
reef formations in the west Kimberley provide evidence that long distance trade
networks may have been operating during the Pleistocene, some 30,000 years ago.
Marine shell beads (Scaphopoda/Dentalium sp.) were found in inland rock shelter
occupation deposits in the Lawford (Riwi cave: Balme 2000) and Napier Ranges
(Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter: O'Connor 1995). Carpenter's Gap 1 is also known as
Jambarurru to Bunuba people (S. Pannell pers. comm. 5 May 2010 and Tangalma to
the Unggumi (Playford 1960, 2007).
Given that no unmodified marine shells of this species have been found at either Riwi
or Carpenter's Gap 1, it is likely that the shell beads were processed elsewhere,
possibly on the coast at their source, and were transported to the inland rock shelters
either directly by their manufacturers or through a system of exchange (Balme and
Morse 2006). At the time when the shell beads were deposited, the Kimberley
coastline would have been located some 500 kilometres from Riwi, and about 300
kilometres from Carpenter's Gap.
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The beads provide evidence that Aboriginal people transported a valued commodity
over a distance of some 500 kilometres (Balme and Morse 2006). In view of the
distance the material travelled it seems likely that the shell beads at Riwi and
Carpenter's Gap 1 were highly prized for their decorative or symbolic value.
Historical photographs show coastal Aboriginal people wearing necklaces of these
small bugle-shaped shells (O'Connor and Marwick 2007).
Marine shell beads of greater antiquity dated at 39,000 years before present (BP) were
excavated at Mandu Mandu Creek, an occupation site on the Cape Range Peninsula
within the Ningaloo Coast National Heritage place. However, these beads were found
on the coast, most likely at the place where they were manufactured (Morse 1993b).
Evidence of the long distance movement of material during the Pleistocene has also
been uncovered in central Australia at a site known as Puritjarra, a rock shelter
located in the Cleland Hills. The place shows that people were acquiring ochre from a
source 125 kms to the north-west, an activity that occurred intermittently since 39,000
years BP (Peterson and Lampert 1985; Smith et al. 1998; Rosenfeld and Smith 2002;
Hiscock 2008).
The occurrence of marine shell beads in occupation deposits at Carpenter's Gap 1 and
Riwi cave dated to 30,000 years BP is exceptional, providing testimony for not only
the antiquity of the movement of a processed marine resource, perhaps in some kind
of system of exchange, but also for the distance that the material travelled from its
source of manufacture to its place of deposition, some 500 kilometres (McConnell
and O'Connor 1997; O'Connor 1999; Balme 2000; Balme and Morse 2006).
Carpenter's Gap 1 and Riwi rock shelters have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (a) as they demonstrate the operation of Aboriginal social
and economic networks 30,000 years ago over distances of 500 kilometres.
Antiquity of the symbolic application of ochre onto a rock surface – earliest
evidence for 'art' in Australia
The earliest indirect evidence for 'art' in Australia is associated with ochre recovered
from occupation sites with some of the earliest evidence for human presence in
Australia, but the dating of these events remains uncertain. At Malakunanja II and
Nauwalabila I, two rock shelters located in western Arnhem Land, pieces of high
quality ochre occur in the earliest occupation levels, which have been dated by
thermo-luminescence and optically- stimulated luminescence respectively to between
50,000 and 60,000 years BP. However, these two dates remain controversial amongst
researchers. Morwood (2002) argues that the earliest radiocarbon dates of around
40,000 BP may be a better estimate.
Ochre also occurs in the lowest levels of other sites that document the initial arrival of
humans, including Mushroom Rock in the south-east of the Cape York Peninsula and
Carpenter's Gap 1, a limestone rock shelter in the west Kimberley's Napier Range. At
Lake Mungo in New South Wales ochre had been scattered over the human burial
known as Willandra Lakes Hominid 3, sometime between 28,000 and 32,000 years
ago.
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The earliest evidence for the application of ochre onto a rock surface in Australia
comes from Carpenter's Gap 1, also known as Jambarurru to Bunuba people (S.
Pannell pers. comm. 5 May 2010) and Tangalma to the Unggumi (Playford 1960,
2007). A slab of the rock shelter's roof that had been coated with red pigment fell to
the floor some time before 39,700 BP. The ochre appears to have been blown onto the
surface, probably in a similar method to that recorded in Australia in ethnographic
times (O'Connor and Fankhauser 2001; O'Connor and Marwick 2007). While not
enough of the slab remains to allow researchers to tell what was being represented,
this is the oldest trace of ochre intentionally applied to a rock surface presently known
in Australia, and is one of the earliest examples on a world scale. In comparison, the
celebrated Paleolithic art tradition of Western Europe began about 32,000 years BP
(Morwood 2002).
Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter has outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (a) as it provides evidence of the antiquity of the symbolic use of
ochre through its intentional application onto a rock surface by Aboriginal
people sometime before 39,700 BP.
Kimberley pearl shell: the most extensively traded item in Aboriginal Australia
Pinctada maxima, the large and luminescent pearl shell found along the west
Kimberley coast is highly valued by Aboriginal people in the Kimberley and across a
large part of Aboriginal Australia for its power to regenerate, renew, and transform.
Universally valued as the 'emblem of life' (Akerman and Stanton 1994, 19), the pearl
shell's power is represented by the brilliance and shimmer of the shell's nacre.
* * * *
'This is for everybody – man and woman. This is rain. This everything water'
(Walmajarri elder cited in Akerman and Stanton 1994, 2).
* * * *
Pearl shell's correlation with water, including its creation and control, and its
associations with supernatural beings and the forces of life and death, make it a
profoundly important element in Australian Aboriginal cosmology (Akerman &
Stanton 1994). Pearl shell was created by Dreaming Beings who placed the shells in
certain locations and gave rules about its use. For the Bardi people of the Dampier
Peninsula, the Rainbow Serpent, Alungun, is the creator of pearl shell, which it expels
during king tides. The nature of Alungun is related to water. In translation 'iridescent
it rises from the sea as a rainbow; ascends into the sky and drinks to end the rains'
(Petri 1938,40). For the Traditional Owners of Wunambal and Gaambera country to
the north, the Wanjina, Jakulamarra, is said to have come from the north, bringing
with him the double log raft, pearl shell and laws about the pearl shell being used by
men when dancing in ceremony. He was a saltwater Wanjina, the boss of a number of
islands in Wunambal and Gaambera country (within the Wanjina-Wunggurr cultural
domain) and the ancestor of Traditional Owners who belong to those islands. As he
travelled Jakulamarra left the pearl shell in a number of locations along the coast for
people to collect and use (Uunguu elder cited by Doohan 2009). Around Cape
Londonderry in the far north, the origins of the pearl shell are linked to a star that fell
into the sea and became the shining pearl shell, rinjii (Balanggarra elder cited by
Doohan 2009).
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The shell was gathered by 'dry shelling' or 'reefing' at low tides. In the past, the double
log raft was used to visit offshore reefs to collect shell. Today Aboriginal people
source their shell from pearl farm operators with whom they have an arrangement, or
still go out on the reefs to harvest them.
Pearl shell has a variety of uses ranging from the decorative to the secret, including
personal adornment, rain making, the denoting of status, initiation, and in magic and
sorcery (Akerman and Stanton 1994). It is a key component in the traditional systems
of justice of Kimberley people, it figures in their religious narratives of the Dreaming,
it is depicted in Kimberley rock art, and it is a component of the regalia used in
traditional performances of song and dance (Doohan and Bornman 2009).
Throughout the Kimberley, men and women use small blades, discs and crescents of
pearl shell for personal adornment. The Bardi use whole shell as 'phallocrypts' (pubic
covers) in ceremonial dance and the Nyikina suspend them from a frame to attract
rain. The Bardi and Nyul Nyul use plain and engraved shells as emblems for
initiation, to signify status, in ceremony and law. The Worrorra use it in law and for
ornamentation, and the Wunambal use fragments for ornamentation and in men's
ritual performance, law and justice (McCarthy 1939). The Forrest River people use
engraved fragments in medicine and sorcery (McCarthy 1939). While pearl shell
objects may be used in a public or profane domain where women and the uninitiated
can see and handle them, there are other uses of these shells that are closed and may
only be discussed by initiated men. The pearl shell may move from the profane world
into the sphere of the secret-sacred and then be returned to the secular arena at the
conclusion of ceremonies (Akerman et al. 2010).
McCarthy identified seven trade trunk routes related to the 'barter, exchange and
distributions of boomerangs, ochre, pitjuri, pearl and baler shells' (McCarthy 1939,
104). Of all these routes, the Kimberley pearl shell and Cape York baler shell were
the most extensive: 'The distribution of pearl and baler phallocrypts and ornaments
forms the most remarkable example of distant trading relationships in Australia'
(McCarthy 1939, 92).
Within the Kimberley, pearl shell is part of a regional exchange system known as
wurnan to Worrorra, Wunambal, Gaambera, Ngarinyin and Kwini language groups
[also known as anngarr or rubarn to the Bardi-Jawi (Bagshaw 1999) and yinyili to
the Yawuru and Karajarri (Akerman et al. 2010)]. This exchange network,
documented in the earliest ethnographic accounts, continues to be of major
significance to Kimberley Aboriginal people today as part of their economic and ritual
life (Doohan and Bornman 2009).
* * * *
'All us Kimberley Aborigines are connected through the wurnan. This is how we trade
one thing or another right across the Kimberley and down into the desert. All sorts of
things, not just secret thing, but meat and sugar-bag, clothes and motorcars and money
too…We send back jaguli, pearl shell. Other people might ask me to bring white
ochre from my country for painting a background…'(quote from Paddy Neowarra
cited in Redmond 2001, 187).
* * * *
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Ethnographic evidence shows that both men and women participated in the exchange
of shell within the Kimberley and adjacent areas (Akerman with Stanton 1994;
Kaberry 1939, 168-9 and 171). A senior Worrorra woman (now deceased) referred to
pearl shells as the 'black man's passport' because in the old days people who wanted to
visit another group would send a shell ahead with a messenger in order to announce
their intention to visit. If the shell was sent back, they knew they were unwelcome at
the time (Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005, 246).
Plain and engraved Kimberley pearl shell, and fragments of pearl shell, have been
traded via networks as far south as the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula and as far east
as Boulia in Queensland (Roth 1897; Bolam 1923; McCarthy 1939). It was also
recorded by ethnographers in the possession of Arrernte and other central Australian
Indigenous peoples (Spencer and Gillen 1899). Its use has been mapped across twothirds
of the Australian mainland (McCarthy 1939; Akerman and Stanton 1994;
Kerwin 2006). McBryde (1987, 603) refers to the trade as '…spectacular, spanning
the continent' and Bornman (2009) confirms the trade of pearl shell continues today.
During the 1980s, as the production of carved shell declined at coastal centres,
Indigenous artisans at centres far removed from the coast began to shape and decorate
natural valves of pearl shell, which had largely replaced the previously worked shell
as an important item of gift exchange. Pearl shell is known to have been carved at
centres including Fitzroy Crossing, Christmas Creek, Balgo, Jigalong, Wiluna and the
Warburton Ranges in Western Australia, and at Timber Creek, Lajumanu and
Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. On the coast a resurgence of production of
engraved shell, both for internal cultural consumption and to supply the growing art
market, was undertaken by a small group of craftsmen under the supervision of a
senior Traditional Owner at Lombadina in the early 1990s. Shells carved during this
period were seen at Yagga Yagga, south of Balgo/Wirrimanu, early in that decade
(Akerman et. al. 2010).
It is important to note that the cultural values associated with Kimberley pearl shell
objects make them of great cultural relevance across the whole area of their
distribution, and these values or qualities are maintained even when the shell enters
areas such as the Gulf of Carpentaria region or East Arnhem Land, where pearl shell
is available locally – it is the exotic Kimberley shell, sourced through traditional
exchange mechanisms, that is sought after and prized, (Trigger 1987, 76; Berndt et al.
1982, 112; Akerman with Stanton 1994, 17 and 22). This sustained interest and
engagement in the trade of pearl shell from the Kimberley coast confirms McCarthy's
(1939, 92) opinion, that the distribution of pearl shell is the 'most tangible example of
distant trading relationships in Aboriginal Australia'.
Traded items with less extensive distributions than Kimberley pearl shell include:
undecorated pearl shell and melo shell from Cape York (Akerman and Stanton 1994);
baler shells from Cape York (McCarthy 1939; Akerman and Stanton 1994; Kerwin
2006, 99); stone axes from Mt Isa (Tibbett 2002, 24) and Mt William (DEWHA
2007) and the central Australian trade in pitjuri (Watson 1983, Kerwin 2006) and
Pukardu ochre (McBryde 1987; Kerwin 2006, 177).
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Kimberley pearl shell's (Pinctada maxima) correlation with water and its
universal value as the 'emblem of life' has made it the most widely distributed
item in Aboriginal Australia. Modified pearl shell has been traded across two
thirds of the Australian continent and continues to be traded today by
Aboriginal people.
Pearl shell beds at a number of identified sites from Bidyadanga to Cape
Londonderry, where in Aboriginal law and culture the shell is believed to have been
created by Dreamtime Beings and is collected by Traditional Owners, have
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as the source of the
item most widely distributed by Aboriginal people in the course of Australia's
cultural history.
Pastoralism
The beef cattle grazing industry in the Kimberley is the major user and manager of the
land. Pastoral leases cover approximately 50 per cent of this region, 20 to 25 per cent
of which are owned by Indigenous landholders (Australian Natural Resources Atlas
Kimberley Profile 2009). Regions across Northern Australia have a similar pattern of
landuse and a distinctive heritage associated with cattle and living in the outback
(Woinarski et al 2007).
The Kimberley pastoral industry is based on rangeland production of beef cattle.
Cattle turnover from the region was about $42.7 million in 1996–97. In 1997 the
cattle population was estimated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to be 489,000
head, 25.6 per cent of the Western Australian herd. While the area previously had a
number of abbatoirs, there are currently no meat processing plants in the Kimberley
area, and cattle are exported live or sold as stores (Northern Australia Information
Resource 2010).
While the cattle industry is dominant today, until the 1960s sheep farming was an
important industry in the Kimberley.
Course and pattern of pastoralism
A national thematic study of pastoralism (Pearson and Lennon 2008) was used as the
primary source for the identification of potential National Heritage values for
European pastoral history. Aboriginal participation in the Kimberley pastoral industry
and droving were also identified as important elements. These latter aspects are
addressed elsewhere in the place analysis.
The thematic study's analysis was undertaken at a national level for course and pattern
of Australia's history. The findings of the study shows that pastoralism in Australia is
a meta-narrative which encompasses the length of Australia's history from first
settlement to 2000. In the course and pattern of this history there are also many
intersecting themes. It is noted that in response to this complexity only the major
trends and national stories have been identified in the Pearson and Lennon thematic
study.
In addition to the thematic study, further review of literature associated with
pastoralism within the Kimberley was undertaken to support the historical thematic
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analysis of the west Kimberley against the theme of pastoralism. State and national
heritage registers were also reviewed to identify potential National Heritage values.
Pearson and Lennon (2008) used eight place significance indicators for the
identification of potential National Heritage values. These include: the pastoral
footprint (pastoralism as exploration, settlement patterns, frontier conflict, industrial
relations, self sufficiency, breeding, pest and disease control and innovation),
government regulation (soldier settlement, closer settlement, travelling stock routes,
transportation, pest control and water infrastructure development), environmental
constraints (retreat and advance along the arid margins), fluctuating markets (impact
of gold mining, woolstores development, beef for burgers push, impact of transport by
rail/river boat/coastal shipping and the impact of British wool market arrangements in
World War I and World War II), off farm processes (meatworks and woolscours), the
human response to pastoralism (pastoral dynasties, worker quarters, homesteads,
schools, swimming holes, artistic associations in literature, poetry and art, making do
and hanging on and other sub topics demonstrating aspects of the pastoralism story
(for example: convict stories). Importantly Pearson and Lennon noted that their study
was focused on the broad national course of history associated with pastoralism in
Australia. Their study was not scoped to include cross cutting historical analyses
associated with aspects of economic and social history, environmental history, frontier
history or the history associated with Indigenous people.
Twenty two places around Australia were identified against these significance
indicators. None of these places are within the west Kimberley area. Kimberley
pastoral stations generally however were noted as places with some potential
significance. Compared to the stations analysed in the thematic study the Kimberley
pastoral stations were found to have some significance under criterion (d) as examples
of Northern Australian pastoral stations but not considered to have other
characteristics or other associated historical significance which would be outstanding
at the national level.
A few other places in the west Kimberley were also mentioned in the study's
historical description of pastoralism. These included Mount House abattoir (for the air
beef scheme), Derby wharf, Noonkanbah and Yeeda Station. The individual place
histories associated with Derby Wharf, Noonkanbah, Yeeda Station and Mount House
abattoir were assessed for significant outstanding events or historical patterns.
While the histories associated with Mount House abattoir and Derby Wharf illustrate
aspects of the pastoral story in the Kimberley, no evidence was cited in the literature
to indicate evidence of outstanding events or other patterns of historical significance
at the national level.
Noonkanbah's history was found to have some historic importance relating to the
mining dispute of 1978-1980. Further analysis on this place and the dispute is
included elsewhere in the comparative analysis.
Historical information about Yeeda Station was not prominent in the pastoralism
literature. Nor was there any evidence to indicate that Yeeda Station is associated with
an outstanding event or pattern of historical significance at the national level.
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In summary, the history of pastoralism in the west Kimberley is a prominent
part of the region's history. Thematic study of pastoralism in Australia has not
identified places of potential National Heritage value within the west Kimberley
area. While Kimberley pastoral stations have some potential importance as
examples of stations typical of Northern Australia under criterion (d), none has
been specifically identified in this analysis.
Droving stories
In the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, pastoral activities
supported the spread of settlement, provided wealth that was fed into other areas of
economic development and played a major part in forging an identity shared and
valued by many Australians today. The drover with his flocks and herds rode in the
advance-guard of settlement, and overlanders covered very long distances to open up
new country. Droving and overlanding became an important part of the development
of pastoral activities in Australia. As early as 1836, Joseph Hawdon moved 300 cattle
in 26 days from the Murrumbidgee River to Melbourne, a distance of about 480
kilometres. As droving developed, more challenging assignments were undertaken.
By 1863 drover George Gregory drove 8,000 sheep 2,100 kilometres from near
Rockhampton to the Northern Territory border, the journey taking seven months.
During the latter half of the nineteenth century the movement of large numbers of
stock over eastern and northern Australia became widespread. The story of Harry
Redford's overlanding of 1,000 stolen cattle in 1870 from Bowen Downs Station,
Longreach, Queensland to South Australia is an example, in this case using the wellknown
Strzelecki Track.
Despite Western Australian Government assistance, early attempts to set up pastoral
stations and settlements in the Kimberley at Roebuck Bay in 1863 and Camden
Harbour in 1864 failed. In 1879, the Western Australian surveyor Alexander Forrest
set out on an official expedition to look for land and gold in the northern part of the
colony, and his expedition reports identified the area's potential for cattle. As a result,
throughout the 1880s pastoralism became more widespread in the Kimberley, and
received significant levels of political promotion and support. The Western Australian
Government used the Melbourne Exhibition of 1880 as a forum to advertise for
settlers for the northern parts of the colony, with the aim of capturing some of the
enthusiasm for expansion. When in 1881 they offered land in the Kimberley by ballot,
promotion of the ballot sparked a series of epic overlanding expeditions by colonial
pastoralists from Queensland and New South Wales to the Kimberley. In 1881 Yeeda
Station was established as the first pastoral station on the lower Fitzroy River in the
west Kimberley, and by 1883 there were eight stations running a total of 22,000 sheep
along the lower valleys of the Mina, Fitzroy and Lennard Rivers. By 1889 over
100,000 sheep were grazed in the south-western Kimberley, almost five times as
many as there had been six years earlier (Pearson and Lennon 2008). This spread of
pastoral activity into the Northern Territory and the Kimberley provided the impetus
for Australia's greatest droving exploits.
Nat Buchanan was the first to take cattle into the Kimberley, crossing the Victoria
River country with 4,000 head to stock the Ord River Station in 1883. In 1878 he
drove 1,200 head of cattle over 2,255 kilometres from Aramac, central Queensland, to
Glencoe Station NT (between Darwin and Katherine), and in 1881 he drove 20,000
head of cattle over 3,220 kilometres from St George (Qld/NSW border) to Glencoe
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Station NT – a feat which became known as 'The Great Drove'. In 1883, the Duracks
drove 7,250 cattle and 200 horses over 4,828 kilometres from Thylungra Station to
Argyle Downs and Lissadell Station in the north east Kimberley.
The story of the Durack droves has become widely known through Dame Mary
Durack's best selling books, Kings in Grass Castles, To Ride a Fine Horse and Sons
in the Saddle.
Part of the mystique of the history of Kimberley cattle men in popular imagination
comes from its association with these overlanders who established the first pastoral
runs in the Kimberley. They travelled astonishing distances with large numbers of
cattle over largely unmapped country distant from established European settlements.
Some were assisted by Aboriginal people and some experienced conflict and
resistance from Aboriginal people. It is also clear that the drovers and animals alike
faced harsh conditions.
In contrast to many who admired these pioneering feats, overlanders were at times in
conflict with other pastoral landowners when during a drove they squatted on others
land. This conflict was particularly difficult in times of drought. Nevertheless, drovers
became a symbol of European adaptation to a harsh environment as well as of
adventuring into the unknown in far and isolated places. Their tenacity played a role
in the development of the Australian identity and their place in Australian legend is
reflected in folklore and balladry. The life of the drover is described in poems by
Henry Lawson and 'Banjo' Patterson, in books written by Judith Wright and in
Australian song, film and art.
The drove undertaken by the MacDonald brothers from 1883-86 epitomises both the
outstanding exploits of drovers during this era, and the endurance of these men in
moving stock great distances across the country. In financial partnership with the
MacKenzie family to whom they were related by marriage, they sought to take
advantage of the new grazing country opening up in the Kimberley. Over a three year
period between 1883 and 1886, the MacDonald brothers drove 670 head of mixed
cattle, 32 bullocks yoked to two wagons, and 60 horses from near Goulburn in NSW
to Fossil Downs in the Kimberley (MacKenzie 1985). This drove illustrates the
hardship faced by both men and animals during a journey of this length. Many cattle
and horses were lost because of drought conditions in Queensland, boggy river
crossings and Aboriginal attacks on stock. In addition stock illness caused problems
when the leading mobs of cattle came down with pleural pneumonia. Malarial fever
struck the expedition and both the assistant drover and the bullock handler became so
ill they had to leave the drove. The Chinese cook was also killed during what is
recorded as an attack by Aboriginal people. Two years into the trip Charles
MacDonald, the expedition leader, became so sick with malaria that he had to be sent
by steamer back to New South Wales (MacKenzie 1985). Later his brother William
MacDonald was also struck down with malaria and became too ill to go on. He also
returned to New South Wales to recuperate, and this in turn delayed the ultimate
completion of the trek (MacKenzie 1985). They eventually arrived on 3 June 1886 at
their destination, at the junction of the Margaret and Fitzroy Rivers near a tree marked
F136 by explorer Alexander Forrest. The drove had taken three years and covered a
distance of over 5,600 kilometres, a feat unequalled by any other drovers and
recorded as the longest drove in Australian history.
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In summary, droves such as that of the MacDonald brothers were an important
activity which established large cattle stations, the basis of European settlement of the
Kimberley and the north and the mainstay of economic development in the area.
Fossil Downs, established by the MacDonald brothers following their epic drove, was
to develop into the largest privately owned cattle station in Australia at over a million
acres (ADB 1974).
Droving and overlanding livestock throughout Australia is a significant national
story valued especially for the demonstration of early settlement processes and
the hardship experienced by those on the early frontier beyond more settled
districts and towns. The place where the tree marked F136 once stood has
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for its association
with the pioneering overlanding journey undertaken by the MacDonald brothers
in 1883-1886.
Pearling industry
Based on the large luminescent pearl shell Pinctada maxima, found along the west
Kimberley coast, the pearling industry in Western Australia has operated for over 120
years. These saltwater clams (pearl oysters) are highly significant to Aboriginal
people living along the coast and in surrounding areas and this significance is
discussed elsewhere in the place analysis.
When the pearl shell industry in Western Australia was established Aboriginal people
formed part of the pearling work force, often participating against their will as skin
divers and working in poor and dangerous conditions. Reports of abusive employment
practices such as slavery and extreme violence led to legislation in 1871 and 1875
which regulated 'native labour' and prohibited the use of women as divers. This led in
part to the employment of foreign indentured labour. However Aboriginal people
continued to work in the pearling industry providing essential labour for the
development and operation of the industry.
The industry developed from the 1880s to its peak in the early twentieth century when
400 luggers operated from Broome and Broome produced three quarters of the
world's pearl shell output. In 1903 Australia's pearl shell production was valued at
£419,000 with £174,322 contributed from Western Australia (Coghlin 1904).
In the first decade of the twentieth century Broome was handling 80 percent of the
world's mother of pearl shell for the production of buttons. At this time Broome was
recognised as the pearling capital of the world.
While this productive capacity is principally associated with Broome because it is the
main pearling port, Eighty Mile Beach to the south is also recognised as a significant
contributor to this production of wealth. Eighty Mile Beach continues to be used as
the Western Australian industry's main pearling bed and is considered by Australian
pearlers to be the last commercially viable pearling bed in the world and an important
natural resource which contributes to Australia's pearling industry and productive
capacity (B McCallum pers. comm. 3 June 2010).
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The industry developed into the cultured pearl farming industry during the latter half
of the twentieth century with Australia producing between 50 per cent and 60 per cent
of the world's market. Ninety per cent of this was from Western Australia (Muller
1997). In the 1980s the Western Australian pearl industry was worth $15 million
annually, employing around 200 people (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife 1983).
By 2003–2004 the regional cultured pearl annual value was estimated at $122 million
(Department of Fisheries and Wildlife 2006).
Economic impact
The pearling industry, while contributing to regional and national development and
exhibiting a long period of continuous production and substantial wealth generation,
did not contribute to nation building as comprehensively as the gold rushes of the
nineteenth century. Similarly the wealth generated by the pearling industry has not
been as substantial as that generated by the mines of Broken Hill, which has
significantly influenced the course of Australia's economic history (City of Broken
Hill National Heritage List Place Report 2010).
Distinctive pattern of European pearling - Broome
Broome has been closely associated with European pearling since the industry was
established along Western Australia's pearling coast (Eighty Mile Beach to Cape
Londonderry). Broome was the industry's major produce port and still retains this
function today, along with Darwin. Its reputation as a pearling port has been the
subject of writing about the place, and the town has been referred to at various times
with titles such as 'pearling capital of the world', 'Queen City of the North' and
'Australia's first multicultural town', and more recently as 'the fabled town with its
chinese shops, its corrugated iron storefronts and palm trees' (Tim Winton 2001).
Broome is recognised by an industry expert as Australia's premier pearling centre
(Brett McCallum pers. comm. 6 June 2010).
The history of Broome associated with the pearling industry's use of indentured
labour is distinctive. People from many near Asian countries worked in Broome under
indentured labour arrangements with Australian pearlers often sourced through
Singapore. At a time when Australia's settler population was predominantly British or
Irish in origin, Broome's Asian population was unusual in its diversity. This
distinctiveness is considered further below in relation to the topics of migration and
the White Australia policy.
Migration history
'Since 1945, around 6.9 million people have come to Australia as new settlers. Their
contribution to Australian society, culture and prosperity has been an important factor
in shaping our nation' (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2010). Today
nearly one in four of Australia's more than 21 million population were born overseas
(Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2010).
Following the arrival of Indigenous people to Australia, there were waves of
migration: convict transportation (commencing in 1788), free settlers (starting in the
early 1790s), migration from the United Kingdom from the 1820s in response to the
demand for labour in the wool industry and immigration during the Gold Rush era of
1851 to the 1860s (Chinese immigrants were the largest non-British group), and the
post World War II immigration boom. Other migration trends happened in response to
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economic or social conditions in Australia and elsewhere. For example Irish
immigration (1840s) to Australia to escape famine in their homeland, labourers from
Melanesia (1860s) for work on Queensland's sugar plantations and Japanese fishers
who are recognised as being instrumental in the pearling industry in the late
nineteenth century (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2010).
Akerman and others highlight the social history associated with Aboriginal people
and Asian indentured labourers who worked in the pearling industry in Broome since
its early establishment (Akerman et al. 2010). The local history associated with the
impact of the White Australia Policy, the operation of the Aborigines Act 1905 (WA)
segregation and the development of Broome's local multicultural society is noted in
particular. Kaino (2005) also describes aspects of Broome's social history which, in
the Australian context, demonstrates the evolution of a distinctive local multicultural
society.
In summary, Broome's association with Australia's pearling industry has shaped its
economy and society. In relation to migration history, focusing on the indentured
labourers who came to Broome to work, their story demonstrates the important role of
these workers in the development of Australia's pearling industry. The difficult and
harsh conditions of work are also evident as is their part in the development of a
distinctive multicultural society in Broome. At the national level however, this
history, in the context of Australia's migration history, does not demonstrate the same
impact on Australia's society, culture or prosperity as the impact of the post war
immigration boom. Some other aspects of Broome's distinctive social history are
considered under criterion (g).
White Australia policy exemptions
Non-European pearl divers in Australia's north were able to continue to work in the
pearling industry because of an exemption from the White Australia Policy from
1901.
From the 1870s, the pearling industry relied on the employment of an indentured
migrant labour force at low rates of pay. These men, often highly skilled, worked in
difficult conditions, often without their families, could be readily deported if found
unsatisfactory, and out of economic necessity were willing to risk their lives in very
unsafe conditions with no compensation should they be injured or killed. Between
1910 and 1917, 145 Broome based divers died, primarily from decompression
sickness. (Edwards 1983; Sickert 2003; Bach 1955). By the early twentieth century
the Western Australian pearling industry was employing over 2,000 men, 1,700 of
them Japanese or Malays, with smaller numbers of Filipino, Chinese, Koepang
(Timor), Ambon, Macassan and Aboriginal men (Hocking et al 1993).
Prior to Federation, there was strong local support in the colonies of Western
Australia, Queensland and in Northern Territory for the use of cheap indentured Asian
labourers for the pearling industry, although each state's legislation differed. Japanese
divers were particularly valued for their proven skills in collecting pearl shells. In
each case, the respective colonial authority either supported the practice of using
indentured labour as an essential measure for the industry or the region's survival, or
agreed to a qualified exemption from restrictions applied to other industries in more
populous areas. Other exemptions included the importation of South Sea Islanders to
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work in the sugar industry, while non-white labour filled a variety of occupations
across the Northern Territory in the 1890s (Bach 1955, 20). Following Federation, the
pearling industry, in common with a number of other remote-area industries, was
partly exempted from the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, the cornerstone of the
Commonwealth's White Australia policy.
The exemption of the pearling industry from the usual immigration requirements was
re–examined several times in the first two decades following Federation. This
ongoing scrutiny indicated that the exemption was considered to be a loophole in the
White Australia Policy which the Commonwealth Government tried to close by
importing white divers in 1912. On this and subsequent occasions the Commonwealth
Government reluctantly accepted evidence that it would not be practicable to replace
non-white divers and crews with white divers. There were other similarly
unsuccessful attempts to replace Asian workers in a particular industry; for example
on the goldfields of the Northern Territory (Reynolds 2003).
The presence of indentured Asian divers and the longevity of their connection with
Broome, due in part to the exemptions to the White Australia Policy, have contributed
to the multiculturalism for which Broome is known, and is an important demographic
feature of the region. This aspect of Broome is considered further. See migration
history below for further discussion.
The history of indentured labour and the application of the White Australia Policy are
important subcategories of the historical themes of immigration and nation building in
the colonial and post colonial eras. The pearling industry is one of several industries
to be largely exempted from the White Australia Policy for several decades after
Federation (Willard 1923). The pearling industry of the west Kimberley is similar to
other industries which used indentured labour, most notably the Queensland sugar
industry during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Following Federation, pragmatic temporary exemptions to the Immigration
Restriction Act 1901 were granted for a range of non-whites deemed essential for
particular roles (such as the Afghan cameleers) or industries, especially those
involving relatively small numbers working in inhospitable conditions in remote
locations that were therefore unlikely to undermine the White Australia Policy. For
example, following agitation by the Queensland Government, the Immigration
Restriction Act 1901 and the Pacific Islands Labourers Act 1901 were amended to
enable around 21 per cent of the Pacific Islanders to remain in Australia when the
remainder were deported in 1906–1907 (Reynolds 2003). While exempted from the
dictation test, these workers remained subject to strict controls not applied to white
migrants, and it was generally a condition of the exemption that non-white migrants
be repatriated at the end of a specified period (although an extension of the exemption
certificate could be granted). Indentured workers in the pearling industry could be
readily deported if they did not work as directed, or were rebellious (Sickert 2003).
Analysis of the history of indentured labour and the White Australia Policy in Broome
shows that exemptions were not influential in the operation or evolution of the policy
nationally, and were similar to other exemptions made for similar reasons in other
areas of Australia.
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In summary, the pearling industry of the west Kimberley does not demonstrate
outstanding heritage value to the nation in comparison with other industries under
criterion (a) for its importance in the course or pattern of Australia's history in relation
to the operation or development of the White Australia Policy.
Communications history
In relation to Broome's communications history the cable station and telegraph link to
Java has also been assessed for potential National Heritage values.
In 1889 a new telegraph cable was laid between Java and Roebuck Bay. The cable
ship Seine laid the cable in 10 days between Banjoewangie, Java and Broome, a
distance of 1,650km. The cable was laid to the beach now known as Cable Beach and
linked Broome directly with England via Singapore, India, Aden, Egypt, Malta and
Gibraltar.
At this time two cables already linked Java to Australia via Darwin. The Broome
Cable Station and the government owned telegraph station in Broome opened at the
same time. As a result Broome was able to have direct communication with Asia,
Britain and cities throughout Australia. Messages from Perth were now routed
through Broome direct, rather than via Darwin or Adelaide. In 1912 the Cable Station
was transferred to Cottesloe near Fremantle in Western Australia. The original
Broome cable station building was converted for use as a court house in 1921.
This engineering and telecommunications achievement can be compared to the
construction and national impact of the overland telegraph line between Darwin and
Port Augusta in South Australia which was completed in 1872. This line was built
over a period of almost two years stretching more than 3,000km through harsh and
largely unknown country. Once constructed the line linked Australia to the rest of the
world for the first time and is considered to be a milestone in Australia's
communications history (Register of the National Estate: Place 165; and Australian
Bureau of Statistics 2010).
While important in the history of communications in north-western Australia the
establishment of a communications link between Java and Broome is not sufficiently
compelling to demonstrate an outstanding aspect of history of national significance.
On the basis of current evidence, and in comparison to other historical events,
the west Kimberley does not have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (a) for its importance in the course or pattern of Australia's economic
and social history, communications history or other history associated with the
White Australia Policy.
CONTACT, CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
European explorers
William Dampier
William Dampier occupies a significant place in the process of changing European
perceptions about Australia. Although the Dutch had been accumulating information
about the coastline and extent of Australia (then known as New Holland) for almost a
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century, their interest was commercial. To protect any commercial advantage this
information was held in the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische
Compagnie, or VOC) archives and not disseminated throughout Europe. The Dutch
thought that the north-western coast of Australia was bleak, inhospitable and without
commercial attraction. Because of this perception, the Kimberley region was to
remain one of Australia's most isolated and unsettled areas, with European settlement
only developing in the late nineteenth century.
William Dampier stayed in the west Kimberley coast area for more than one month in
early 1688, landing first at Pender Bay, then sailing and anchoring in Karrakatta Bay,
where he camped onshore with the crew of the ship Cygnet . Dampier and the Cygnet
crew lived at Karrakatta Bay while the ship was careened, 'canoed' and fished in the
nearby sea, met a group of Aboriginal people on an island, observed Aboriginal
people elsewhere and swimming between islands. Dampier also notes in his account
old wells, low even land, sandy banks against the sea, rocky points, the careening
beach, the islands in the bay, the 'dragon' trees and the Aboriginal stone fish traps
described as 'weirs of stone across little coves or branches of the sea'. A full
description of his observations is included in his account of his voyages around the
world (Dampier 1697).
Dampier spent more time on the Australian coast than any previous European
navigator and was one of the first to make observations and record information about
the new land. These accounts became known by Europeans through publication of his
books. The information about 'New Holland' published by Dampier in these books
played a pivotal role in the process of revealing the geography of Australia to
Europeans. This information also stimulated a new drive for discovery and had further
impact on European philosophy at the time. Dampier's books became bestsellers
across Europe and because of their popularity became extremely influential in
forming European attitudes to Australia (Pearson 2004).
Dampier's accounts, which included his observations at Karrakatta Bay and nearby,
fostered widespread interest in the 'new south land' and were influential in shaping
late seventeenth and eighteenth century attitudes towards Australia and its Indigenous
people. Dampier's observations also provided encouragement for further exploration
by many European explorers, including for example French explorers and Dampier's
own later voyage in the Roebuck which was sponsored by the British Admiralty
(Pearson 2004) and during which Dampier collected some Australian plants,
foreshadowing the birth of Australian botany. This exploration stimulus foreshadowed
Cook's voyage to the Pacific and the eventual establishment of a British at Botany
Bay and the founding of modern Australia. In this regard the discovery and settlement
of eastern Australia may be viewed as the indirect but none the less real conclusion of
Dampier's work (ADB 1966c).
In summary, Karrakatta Bay is considered to have a significant association with the
nation's cultural history because of its association with William Dampier and his place
in the process whereby the mythical terra australis incognita was transformed in
European consciousness into the continent of Australia. The environment Dampier
observed is substantially unmodified since his 1688 landing and can be seen today.
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Phillip Parker King
Just as Dampier has an important place in the process of accumulating knowledge
about the Australian continent as the first to make direct information about Australia
widely available to the European public, so too Phillip Parker King has a pivotal role
as the man who completed that process through his work in charting the majority of
the last unmapped areas of the Australian coast. He was able to complete the previous
early exploratory running surveys of the Australian coastline and record his findings
into accurate naval charts.
Tiley pays tribute to these achievements of King: 'they (King and other maritime
surveyors) laid the groundwork for the creation of major sea-lane security around
Australia's north, along the Barrier Reef and through Torres Strait… creating an
invaluable asset for Australia's commercial expansion' (Tiley 2006).
King careened his ship, HMS Mermaid, in 1820 at Careening Bay on the West
Kimberley coast. This was an activity of necessity and demonstrates the nature of his
survey work and the dangers that were faced by him and his crew in a small ship far
from settled districts without the support of modern communication technology or
other logistics support.
In summary, while the careening of the HMS Mermaid demonstrates the maintenance
aspects of King's survey voyages, careening by itself is not considered to be a shaping
or pivotal event in King's survey work along the Australian coast. Other aspects of
this history are discussed under criterion (b).
Inland exploration
A review of the inland exploration literature associated with George Grey, J. Lort
Stokes, Alexander McCrae and Alexander Forrest showed that their exploration
expeditions were restricted to the Kimberley region. The use of Aboriginal guides was
noted in the literature. Information gained from these expeditions led to a better
understanding of the Kimberley region and its potential for development. In
comparison with the more iconic expeditions of Carnegie (Coolgardie to Halls Creek
1896), Leichhardt (Brisbane to Darwin 1845), Stuart (Jugiong, New South Wales to
Lake Alexandrina SA 1830) these expeditions are not considered to be outstanding in
the national context.
Malcolm Allbrook (pers. comm. 6 November 2009) considers that the Kimberley
might have a special association with George Grey. Grey's sighting of Wanjina
figures in in the west Kimberley in particular was noted. Grey was the first European
to record and publish the Wanjina image. Matters associated with the Wanjina are
considered elsewhere in the place analysis.
The Kimberley coast is recognised for its association with early European
exploration of the continent. The William Dampier (Cygnet) (1688) landing
place, around Pender Bay, Karrakatta Bay, King Sound, the Buccaneer
Archipelago and nearby coast, has outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (a) for its association with William Dampier and the influence of
his published observations. The environment observed by Dampier is
substantially unmodified since his 1688 landing and can be seen today.
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Historic shipwrecks
A total of 237 shipwrecks are known in the north-west of Western Australia. Of these,
the locations of only fifteen have been recorded. Of the fifteen identified, only six
shipwrecks occur in the west Kimberley assessment area. These six shipwrecks are
the: Manfred, SS Karrakatta, SS Colac, Calliance, Sunbeam and Henry. All these
sites have local, regional and state heritage significance, however following
assessment by a Western Australian State Historic Shipwrecks Practitioner and a
DEWHA officer; none of these sites has outstanding heritage significance to the
nation.
Bunuba resistance to the rolling frontier of European settlement
The rolling frontier of European settlement finally reached the northwest of Western
Australia with Alexander Forrest's expedition of 1879. The Kimberley presented a
very different set of circumstances to that which had occurred in the east and the
south over the preceding 100 years. Authorities and settlers alike had learned from the
experiences of their forebears the most effective methods to remove Aboriginal
people from the land and by the late 1800s the colonial administrators were taking a
much more hardline approach to relations with Aboriginal people (Broome 2010).
This approach was no doubt also influenced by the change in western views about
Indigenous people; Indigenous people were considered 'primitive', and not having the
right to stop settlement by more 'progressive' races. Colonisation was seen as an
inevitable process in which peoples deemed to be 'inferior' were doomed to die out
(Kinnane 2008). Developments in technology and science during this late period of
settlement also created a vastly different set of circumstances for European settlers
and for Kimberley Aboriginal people. The availability of new gun technologies meant
that settlers and police had accurate, multi-shot, rapid-fire weapons at their disposal at
a time when police and settlers were not held to account for their responses to
Aboriginal resistance.
Despite this harsher set of circumstances, the Bunuba people resisted the onslaught of
colonisation for some 13 years using their intimate knowledge of the fortress-like
refuge of the Napier and Oscar Ranges, and ironically, by using the better weapon
technology of the day. The success of the Bunuba resistance brought a severe
response from authorities who threw enormous resources into efforts to capture the
perpetrators, sending a quarter of the state's police force to the Kimberley to put down
the Bunuba resistance, where only one percent of the European population lived
(Pedersen 2007).
The rolling frontier reaches the northwest
By 1882, only three years after Forrest's expedition to look for land and gold, most of
the lowland area of the west Kimberley had been taken up by sheep graziers. Seventy
seven people held leases to 18 million hectares of land across the region (Broome
2010). Aboriginal people living in the more accessible areas were unable to stop the
rolling frontier and soon became part of the growing 'station mobs' located along the
Fitzroy River corridor. By 1889, over 100,000 sheep were grazing in the south-west
Kimberley, almost five times as many as there had been six years earlier (Pearson and
Lennon in press).
As sheep and cattle enterprises continued to spread across the Kimberley so did
attacks on livestock as life became increasingly difficult for Aboriginal people living
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outside the stations. Stock supplied much needed food for Europeans but also for
Aboriginal people denied access to their traditional land and resources. From 1892,
police and settler recruits were granted greater discretionary powers to disperse
Aboriginal people and life outside the stations became increasingly difficult and
dangerous. Spearing of cattle became a criminal offence and gaol terms for cattle theft
were increased. In 1893, power was given to pastoralists to adjudicate on cases
involving their own stock (Broome 2010).
The Devonian Reef: Bunuba Country
The limestone complexes of the Devonian Reef provided a natural barrier to the
rolling advance of European occupation north of the Fitzroy River valley to the
rangelands beyond. Hicks, a member of Alexander Forrest's 1879 expedition, wrote
about the mountainous region saying that it seemed to 'completely shut us in with
bold, high, ranges.' Forrest named them the Oscar and Napier Range and the King
Leopold Range and the party could not find a pass through them (Edwards 1991).
Windjana Gorge, a natural passage through the impenetrable Napier Range to the
grassy rangelands beyond, was the scene of perhaps the best known confrontation
between the Bunuba and the Western Australian authorities. [see further discussion on
the Battle of Windjana under criterion (h) Jandamarra: a powerful magic man and a
clever military strategist].
The near vertical walls of the gorge, with their convoluted limestone faces and
jumbled limestone blocks provided protection and avenues of escape for the Bunuba
fighters during the Battle of Windjana. A chimney known as Marli allowed access to
the top of the range, and from there a path led to a natural spring called Limalwurru
(Playford et al. 2009). The extremely rugged nature of the limestone landscape made
it very difficult, if not impossible, to give chase on horseback.
Windjana Gorge was an important place to Bunuba people as a permanent source of
water. Even during the middle of the dry season, the Lennard River still retained some
large pools. The largest of these is located near the west entrance, around a large
fallen block, known as Bandangnan (Rainbow Serpent) who is said to have created
the gorge bringing spirits of the children to the waterhole. The permanent water of
Windjana Gorge also made it a particularly important pass for watering stock; its
control was critical to the rolling frontier moving forward.
Bunuba and other Aboriginal resistance to moving frontier of European settlement
Conflict between Europeans and Aboriginal people was endemic on the frontier of
European settlement (Reynolds 1976). As the wave of European settlement moved
south and north from the Sydney colony it took many forms from passive resistance
through to large-scale violent action, and was highly influenced by the terrain on
which it occurred. (Reynolds 1982; Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995; Grassby and
Hill 1988; Connor 2002). The Bunuba resistance would not have been as successful
without the impenetrable fortress-like qualities of their traditional country. The
limestone landscape of the Napier and Oscar Ranges provided the Bunuba with a
refuge from which to defend their country and a fortress to attack would-be settlers
and the police.
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The resistance campaign was unprecedented in Western Australian history as was the
ferocity of the police and settler response. For some 13 years, the Bunuba resisted
European settlement, preventing the progression of the rolling frontier, an unusual
achievement by Aboriginal people in the history of Australian frontier conflict.
The experience across the new colony of New South Wales was one of dispersed
settlement rather than one single front. Governor Arthur Phillip initially concentrated
agricultural settlement in the districts of good soil around Parramatta, even though he
knew there were also rich alluvial soils in the Hawkesbury region north of Sydney.
Phillip was conscious of not wanting to overstretch the young colony. Phillip's
successor, Lieutenant-Governor Francis Grose, however had no such qualms, and in
January 1794 granted land on the Hawkesbury River. The rolling frontier of
settlement now had many fronts on which to spread. The Eora and Darug attacked
settlers and property across the new colony from Port Jackson to Parramatta in the
west; Toongabbie in the south and the northern settlements of the Hawkesbury (Elkin
1974; Roberts 1978; Barlow 1987; Connor 2002; Perkins 2008). The Eora reportedly
'conducted themselves with much art' and by 'flying immediately into the
woods…eluded all pursuit and search' (Martin 1988). Once farms had been
consolidated in the Hawkesbury area, the Darug rarely raided them, instead focussing
on the more isolated farms near woodlands (Connor 2002: 43). The frontier had
already dispersed the Aboriginal Traditional Owners living within the Sydney Basin
who could not stop the frontier's progression.
Later, in the New South Wales colony, a road was built from Emu Plains to Bathurst
following a trade route that had been used by Aboriginal people for generations
(Newbury 1999). Settlement of the fertile valleys west of the Blue Mountains out to
the Bathurst Plains was relatively peaceful between 1815 and 1822. Connor (2002)
notes that the small number of Europeans, and their limited use of the land to run
sheep and cattle, meant that the chance of conflict with the Traditional Owners, the
Wiradjuri, was lessened. However, when the new Governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane,
ended Governor Macquarie's limit on inland settlement and granted large tracts of
land around Bathurst, the Wiradjuri's resistance increased.
Parties of raiding Wiradjuri burned down buildings, attacked armed garrisons and
destroyed sheep, cattle and crops (Perkins 2008, Coe 1989). The attacks got so bad
that in 1824 the New South Wales Premier suspended the normal legal process and
declared a state of martial law in all the country west of Mount York (Lowe 1994).
Settlement by this point was dispersed across the western slopes out to Bathurst and
north to Mudgee. The Wiradjuri took advantage of the dispersed nature of the pastoral
frontier to ambush individual stockmen and farms. The mountainous terrain on the
edges of the Bathurst Plains and around Mudgee assisted the Wiradjuri warriors in
their attacks and gave them what the Sydney Gazette described as 'an interminable
extent of country to retire back on'. Connor (2002) notes that unlike the Bunuba, one
leader could not coordinate all the Wiradjuri groups. As the British advanced through
the vast Wiradjuri lands each group fought the invasion in their turn, 'country by
country'. There is no record of Wiradjuri using firearms in frontier conflict.
Unlike the rolling frontier in the northwest of Western Australia, the colony of New
South Wales had many fronts which Aboriginal people boldly resisted but were
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unable to hold back. The Wiradjuri resistance only lasted a short time and by the end
of 1824 the Bathurst frontier was again peaceful (Connor 2002).
Similarly, in southeast Queensland, Dundalli, a Ningy-Ningy man whose traditional
land included the Bunya Mountains, conducted acts of retribution for tribal elders
during the 1850s against an already dispersed European settlement. His actions,
including the spearing of settlers and the raiding of stocks and supplies, threatened the
economy of the colony rather than preventing its spread. Using his knowledge of the
rugged range country around Brisbane and the mangroves and estuaries of the coastal
hinterland, Dundalli evaded capture until he was eventually caught, indicted for
murder, found guilty and hanged in 1855 (Connors 2005).
Likewise in southwest Victoria, settlement had already dispersed in the districts
around the Mt Eccles lava flow from which the Gunditj-mara people launched their
punitive raids, known as the Eumeralla Wars. While the clashes severely hampered
the activities of the surrounding settlers, it did not stop settlement. The skirmishes
between Aboriginal people and Europeans were some of the most prolonged and
violent in Victoria's history. Eventually the native police subdued the resistance (DEH
2004).
In north Queensland during the 1860s, the Kalkadoons (Kalkatungu) fought a war of
resistance in the country between Mount Isa and Cloncurry for six years. The
Kalkatungu used their knowledge of the rugged mountain terrain and deep gorges to
evade capture, but the landscape had not acted as a barrier to European settlement.
Stations were already dispersed throughout the region. The most famous conflict
between the Kalkatungu and the settlers is known as Battle Mountain, which saw the
only old-style European cavalry charge in Australia's history (Lowe 1994). The
Kalkatungu positioned themselves on a 'boulder-studded hill' that was too steep to
climb for the Europeans on horseback, and the men were 'forced to dismount and run
for cover as spears rained down' (Newbury 1999, Coulthard-Clark 1988). The
Kalkatungu only had traditional weapons and they were no match for the trooper's
firepower.
In considering the body of literature on frontier conflict, from the first colony in New
South Wales, north into Queensland and south through Victoria and beyond, the story
is a similar one. Aboriginal resistance was most successful where the landscape of
their traditional lands provided protection. The Nyikina whose traditional lands
included the Fitzroy River floodplains had been decimated by disease and violent
confrontations within a short time of the first wave of settlement. Unlike the Bunuba,
this group simply lacked a refuge and stronghold from which to launch their
resistance. But the Napier and Oscar Ranges not only gave the Bunuba protection,
they also physically barred the way to prospective pastoralists. Control of the
mountain passes, like Windjana Gorge, meant control of the colonising project and for
13 years the Bunuba held back the rolling frontier.
Many named and unnamed Aboriginal people participated in the Bunuba resistance
over that period. Ellemarra, considered a powerful and charismatic man by both his
own people and the European settlers, led the Bunuba resistance until his death in
1894, after which time his nephew, Jandamarra took over leadership. Other Bunuba
men including Byaburra, Luter, Bool, Muddenbudden, Lilamurra, Bundejan and
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Woorunmurra are all recorded as taking part in the resistance. Bunuba women also
played a significant role in the resistance, providing food and acting as sentinels to
warn of approaching police patrols (Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995, 146).
Throughout Australia, Aboriginal people resisted European occupation. Competition
for land and water, increased population pressures, European brutality and
encroachment on, or violation of, significant sites were all catalysts that contributed to
the onset of hostilities between Aboriginal people and European settlers.
The Bunuba resistance would not have been a success without the impenetrable
fortress-like qualities of their traditional country. The limestone landscape of the
Napier and Oscar Ranges provided the Bunuba people with a refuge from which
to defend their country and a fortress to attack would-be settlers and the police.
Control of the Devonian reef was crucial for the rolling frontier of European
settlement to move forward. The limestone ranges of the Devonian Reef have
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as the place where
Bunuba resistance held back the advance of European settlement for 13 years,
an unusual achievement by Aboriginal people in the history of Australian
frontier conflict.
Treatment of Aboriginal people after European settlement
Missions and reserves
There were three phases in the development of missions and reserves in Australia,
with many similarities among the colonies,states and territories, especially Western
Australia and the Northern Territory (DEH 2004, Pocock 2007). These phases align
with protection (segregation), assimilation and self-determination government policies
(DEH 2004).
The early phase from 1820–1910 saw the establishment of missions around Australia
under a variety of denominations. Missions provided a minimal standard of living and
operated to evangelise, protect and segregate Aboriginal people (Biskup 1973; Loos
2007; Pocock 2007). In the west Kimberley a number of Aboriginal missions were
established during this phase including Beagle Bay in 1890; Lombardina in 1892;
Sunday Island in 1898; Kalumburu in 1908; and Kunmunya in 1910. Prior to the
establishment of government institutions in Western Australia 'relations between the
missions and the government had their ups and downs…(missions) were tolerated
rather than encouraged' (Biskup 1973, 134). Western Australia had the majority of
missions and while Aboriginal affairs was under-funded across Australia, Western
Australia had the '…poorest per capita of all these administrations' (Loos 2007, 32).
With the exception of the Northern Territory, which came under Commonwealth
legislation until 1910, the states were responsible for Aboriginal affairs until 1967.
Following the 1904 Roth Inquiry in Western Australia and several inquiries in the
Northern Territory into the treatment of Aboriginal people, the Aborigines Act 1905
(WA) and the Northern Territory Aboriginals Act 1910 were passed, closely based on
the Queensland 1897 Aboriginal Protection Act (Loos 2007; Pocock 2007). Across
Australia, the police enforced the provisions of legislation which controlled all aspects
of Aboriginal lives.
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* * * *
'By 1911 the Northern Territory and the states had created reserves for Indigenous
people and had introduced 'protectionist legislation' giving the Chief Protector or
Protection Board extensive powers to control Indigenous people' (National Inquiry
into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their
Families 1977, quoted in DEH 2004, 11).
* * * *
Treatment of Aboriginal people in missions depended on the denomination of the
church and principally the attitudes of the superintendent or manager (Loos 2007).
Missions in the Kimberley offered protection from pearlers and pastoralists and the
appalling treatment and conditions of those early industries. In the Northern Territory,
missions also protected Aboriginal people from pastoral expansion (Pocock 2007).
Mission inmates worked hard to build and maintain missions and ensured they were
viable and self reliant. In 1906, Beagle Bay mission had 20 permanent buildings, a
vegetable garden and a well equipped blacksmith shop. Apart from government
subsidies and donations, income was earned from cattle, fishing and pearling
enterprises (Biskup 1973). The mission inmates supplied timber for verandah posts
and windows and produced soft drinks to sell in Broome (Relationships Exhibition, St
John of God, 2009).
The Hermannsburg German Lutheran Mission near Alice Springs has similarities to
Beagle Bay. For example, Hermannsburg was a refuge where staff mediated and
advocated for Aboriginal people during pastoral expansion. Like Beagle Bay, the
Hermannsburg mission was impacted by anti-German policies in the First World War,
and it was run as a self contained Aboriginal settlement managed by a denominational
body. German design is also strongly evident at both missions (NHL DEWHA 2006).
In the second phase of mission development from 1911 to 1960, state governments
increased their control of Aboriginal people and created new institutions. As the
number of mixed descent children increased, especially in Western Australia and the
Northern Territory, they were separated from full descent children and put into
missions and homes. In the Kimberley, many mixed descent children were removed
from their families to Beagle Bay and Forrest River missions (DEH 2004; Pocock
2007). Some mixed descent children were sent south to Sister Kate's Children's Home
in Perth (DEH 2004).
During this phase, reserves were set aside in the Kimberley for government pastoral
stations and 'feeding depots' to minimise stock killing, to isolate Aboriginal people
and train full descent Aboriginal children for pastoral work (DEH 2004). Lombadina,
on the Dampierland Peninsula started out as a government feeding depot that supplied
rations to independently living Aboriginal people. Other government pastoral stations
included Munja Station, near Walcott Inlet and Udialla Station on the Fitzroy River.
For many Aboriginal people, the government ration depot was their first experience of
colonization and represented a transitional arrangement for later transfer to missions
or stations outside traditional country (KLC 2010).
In 1954, Western Australian policies changed from marginalising missions to seeing
them as vital for the welfare of Aboriginal people (Pocock 2007). In 1958, the Native
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Affairs Department was set up and initiated assimilationist practices, including the
transfer of functions to mainstream departments and handing over government
institutions to Christian missions. In the Northern Territory and Western Australia
there was a steady increase in the number of missions and reserves in the period
between first settlement and the 1960s (DEH 2004).
In the final phase of missions following the 1967 referendum, legislative
responsibility for Aboriginal people, and hence their dealings with missions, was vested
in the Commonwealth. Around this time, the majority of missions were closed either
by governments revoking the reserve, or the missionary body leaving for a variety of
reasons. Titles were often handed over to Indigenous communities to run via
governing bodies such as Community Councils. Some former missions like Beagle
Bay, Lombardina and Mowunjum are now managed by their respective Aboriginal
communities.
A Departmental thematic study An approach to identifying National Heritage
significance for missions and reserves in Australia, (DEH 2004) considered the
National Heritage potential of a range of missions and Government institutions. The
study identified the fabric of the Sacred Heart Church at Beagle Bay mission as the
only place in the west Kimberley that might have outstanding heritage value to the
nation. Moola Bulla near Halls Creek was also identified in the study for possible
national significance under criterion (a) as the first self-contained native settlement set
up to isolate and train full descent Aboriginal children for the cattle industry.
Aboriginal children from outside the Kimberley region were also sent there (DEH
2004). However, Moola Bulla is located outside of the west Kimberley National
Heritage study boundary. Submissions from the Kimberley Land Council (2009,
2010) note the important colonising role of missions in the west Kimberley and that
they had a significant impact on Kimberley Aboriginal people, but they do not
provide specific evidence to support a claim that the mission history of this region is
outstanding compared to other similar histories across Australia.
While the missions and reserves of the west Kimberley may be significant at the
State, regional and local levels, nationally they are below threshold under
criterion (a) for their importance in the course, or pattern of Australia's cultural
history.
Bungarun (the Derby leprosarium) - the only extant facility to tell the national story
of leprosy treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia's cultural history
Bungarun is the Aboriginal name used by Kimberley Aboriginal people from across
the region for the Derby Leprosarium, a total isolation facility that operated between
1936 and 1986 to treat Aboriginal leprosy sufferers. Over the fifty years of its
operation, at least 1,400 Aboriginal people were isolated at the leprosarium, and at its
peak in the 1950s, there were more than 500 patients. There are very few members of
the older generation of Kimberley Aboriginal people who have not had some contact
with Bungarun, either as an inmate or as a relation of an inmate who died or was sent
there for isolation. Many of those who were sent to Bungarun subsequently died there
without ever returning to their traditional country. The Traditional Owners of the place
are recognised as the Warrwa language speakers (Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
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Leprosy, also known as Hansen's Disease, was first recorded in Western Australia in
1889. In 1908, the first cases were diagnosed in the Kimberley. The Asian pearlers
may have been the conduit for the introduction of the disease into this part of
Australia, or it may have been brought in by people moving from the Northern
Territory into the region (Davidson 1978; Jebb 2009 unpublished manuscript).
Isolation or quarantine facilities known as lazarets were established on a number of
islands off the Western Australian coast including Dorre, Bernier, Bezout and
Cossack, where Aboriginal people suspected of carrying venereal disease or leprosy
were sent (Jebb and Allbrook 2009). Australia went against international trends by
establishing rather than phasing out, total isolation hospitals for contagious disease
sufferers during the first decades of the twentieth century (Bashford and Nugent 2002;
Wokaunn 2006).
From about 1913, Aboriginal sufferers of the disease were sent to Beagle Bay mission
and the old Residency (doctor's house) in Derby. Government policy changes in the
1930s saw Western Australian Aboriginal leprosy sufferers being sent to the Northern
Territory's federally commissioned Channel Island leprosarium. However, these
arrangements were short lived. The sinking of one of the transport luggers killing all
onboard brought national attention to the terrible conditions Aboriginal people
suffered en-route to the Northern Territory leprosarium. Newspaper coverage and
parliamentary outrage in both the Western Australian and Federal parliaments led to
the 1934 Moseley Royal Commission into the welfare of Aboriginal people in
Western Australia. One of Commissioner Moseley's recommendations was the
establishment of a leprosarium in the Kimberley region, either on Sunday Island or
near Derby (Davidson 1978, Bungarun Museum 2009, Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
In 1935, the Western Australian Cabinet resolved that a leprosarium would be
established near Derby and within 18 months the leprosarium was built on marsh land
approximately 20 kilometres outside of the Derby township. Described as 'the best
and most up-to-date in the Commonwealth', the Derby leprosarium received its first
patients in December 1936, with the transfer of 90 leprosy sufferers from the old
Native Hospital in Derby. The Sisters of St John of God took over patient care in
1937 and continued to care for inmates until Bungarun closed in 1986. Bungarun was
the last isolation hospital for leprosy patients in Australia, and the last one operating
in the western world (Jebb and Allbrook 2009 citing Clark 1987).
For the Aboriginal people of the Kimberley, Bungarun allowed leprosy sufferers to
stay in or near their country. But while treatment was closer at hand, the methods used
to detain leprosy sufferers were often cruel and inhumane. 'Leper camps' were set up
to separate sick people on missions and stations across the region. Patrols sought out
these sufferers and often used chains to ensure they did not escape en-route to
Bungarun.
In 1941 State legislation was introduced to prevent Kimberley Aboriginal people
moving south of the twentieth parallel except for medical treatment, court attendance,
education, or for droving stock. This 'leper line' as it became known, was intended to
contain leprosy in the north, though its introduction during the Second War World
suggests that it was also a response to security and labour shortage concerns. The
'leper line' legislation was not removed from the statutes until 1963, and well into the
1970s children and relatives of known leprosy carriers underwent a compulsory
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medical examination before being sent south for schooling (Jebb and Allbrook 2009
citing Hunter 1988).
Isolation at Bungarun varied from a few weeks to forty years. For those taken from
country and family, the experience could be traumatic and for some Aboriginal people
remains a difficult experience to discuss (Jebb and Allbrook 2009). Many tried to
escape and some were successful. Contact between different language groups at
Bungarun resulted in conflict as well as friendly interaction and the exchange of
information. The ability to continue certain cultural practices was central to the
Bungarun experience. Corroborees and traditional singing were encouraged as were
art and craft production including painting, the carving of boab nuts, basket making
and the production of wooden artefacts (Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
The Bungarun orchestra became an important part of the social life at the institution.
Started during the Second World War, it grew to 40 violins, six banjos, one cello and
one cornet. The orchestra played complex pieces of classical music including
Beethoven and Mozart and contemporary dance music. Concerts were given for
patients, and during the 1950s and 60s to audiences composed largely of people from
visiting ships (Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
While Bungarun was not the only total isolation facility built for the segregation and
treatment of Aboriginal people with leprosy, it is the only facility of this type now
extant in Australia. Little remains of the Channel Island and East Arm leprosaria in
the Northern Territory or the Fantome Island leprosarium, located near Palm Island in
north Queensland.
The Channel Island leprosarium was commissioned by the Commonwealth
Government to treat the increasing numbers of leprosy sufferers in northern Australia.
A quarantine station was established on Channel Island in 1884, but it was not until
1931 that the place began to be used as an isolation facility for leprosy sufferers
(NTHAC 2002). By the end of the decade, 129 patients were isolated on Channel
Island, including Aboriginal people transported from the Kimberley (Parry 2003). The
place was closed in 1955. Records show that 443 patients were sent to Channel Island
during its operation, and at least 142 of those patients are buried on the island
(HCWA 2000). Channel Island was replaced by the East Arm leprosarium, also
located in the vicinity of Darwin Harbour (Parry 2003). Patients at East Arm were
cared for by the Sisters of our Lady of the Sacred Heart (Kiely media release 2008).
In the 1970s, it was renamed the East Arm Leprosy Hospital, recognising the success
of the treatments developed by Dr John Hargrave, whose achievements were also
recognised internationally. The East Arm facility was destroyed by a cyclone in 1974.
Patients were kept in nearby makeshift premises until it was decided to close down
the leprosarium permanently in 1982. Today, very little remains of the East Arm
facility (Parry 2003).
Fantome Island leprosarium was opened in 1940 as a non-denominational facility to
detain and treat Aboriginal people with the disease. On the closing of Fantome Island
in 1973 the property was burned and little remains today (Parsons 2009).
In striking contrast, much of the leprosarium facility at Bungarun is still intact. The
buildings and landscape elements of Bungarun, together with the area of the former
125

esidential units, the cemetery and the listed Aboriginal heritage sites tell the poignant
story of the isolation of Aboriginal people during a period of Australia's cultural
history when government policy was dominated by the fear of the disease and its
spread to the greater population in the south. Bungarun also has great significance to
Kimberley Aboriginal people as a place with a rich history of cultural interaction and
shared experiences with a sphere of influence that extends across the Kimberley
region. Three hundred and fifty seven Aboriginal people are buried at Bungarun, and
even today regular services and ceremonies held at the cemetery bring large groups of
Aboriginal people back to the place (Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
The archival records of Bungarun are also exceptional in their sheer size and detail,
and include oral histories held by the Sisters of St John of God, admission books,
pamphlets, more than 900 individual files over some 40 years duration, and more than
15,000 photographic images of patients taken since 1948.
Bungarun (Derby Leprosarium) has outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (a) as the only extant facility to tell the national story of leprosy
treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia's cultural history.
Aboriginal involvement in the Kimberley pastoral industry
Pastoralism is synonymous with the Kimberley region, and at one time or another
throughout the historical record, pastoral leases have covered much of the land north
of the Great Sandy Desert and west of the state border with the Northern Territory
(Allbrook and Jebb 2009). Kimberley Aboriginal people played a central role in the
pastoral industry from the late 1870s, when the first runs were established in the
Fitzroy Valley, Meda and May River areas (Allbrook and Jebb 2009).
Although resisted in many areas, pastoralism was one of the primary vehicles in the
colonisation of Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region. Large numbers of
Aboriginal workers provided a low cost workforce that ensured the viability of
Kimberley stations for decades. Aboriginal workers lives were controlled by work
permits and practices with few of the rights others take for granted. Relationships
developed as pastoralists and Aboriginal people incorporated each other into their
shared lives and the seasonal rhythms of the northern pastoral industry. The
introduction of equal wages from 1967 led to the virtual dispossession of Aboriginal
pastoral workers and their communities nationally, although this decision was
deferred in Western Australia until 1972 at which time the Commonwealth
Government initiated steps to return pastoral stations to Traditional Owners.
Some of the key features of the Kimberley Aboriginal pastoral experience include: the
relatively small number of large pastoral leases owned by family dynasties; the
movement and protection of Aboriginal workers by State legislation enforced by
police; the provision of rations as the principal payment and the station's subsequent
control of Aboriginal workers' entitlements; the roles of women and children; the poor
living conditions and harsh treatment, and the Aboriginal stockman's sense of
historical and contemporary identity.
Aboriginal people involved in the central and northern pastoral industries of Australia
share similar experiences, and their contemporary relationships are intertwined and
not divided by State borders (Bird Rose 1991, 1999; Baker 1999; Smith 2000; Riddett
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2003; River Junction Research 2006). As in the Kimberley, Aboriginal people were
the primary labour source for the establishment of pastoral stations in western New
South Wales, north of the Darling River from the mid 1860s; in the Northern
Territory from the 1870s; and the central Barkley Tablelands from the 1890s
(Paterson et. al. 2003). Similarly, in Queensland, Aboriginal worker's performed all
the tasks necessary to run the stations and 'became the backbone of the industry' from
the 1850s (de Plevitz 2010).
As noted by McGrath, Aboriginal peoples' skills were similarly invaluable across the
north of Australia:
* * * *
'Aboriginal people's widespread collaboration not only created our northern pastoral
industry, it enabled peaceful relations, wealth and innovation. Aborigines not only
share Australia's pastoral heritage, they shaped it…They incorporated aspects of cattle
culture into their own, combining a bush and station lifestyle not in a partial
'adaptation' but in a creative breakthrough, nurturing new and dynamic cultures to
embrace their present, post-contact time' (McGrath 1997, 9).
* * * *
Aboriginal resistance to pastoral expansion was met with excessive use of fire and
manpower resulting in greater losses of Aboriginal lives (Bird Rose 1991; Jebb 2002;
Allbrook and Jebb 2009; Baker 1999; Riddett 2003). Bird Rose (1991) records for
two Northern Territory Aboriginal communities, Victoria River Downs and Alligator
River, the losses ranged from 86 to 97% (Bird Rose 1991). In the Kimberley the
losses are unquantified (Smith 2000).
In the Northern Territory as in the Kimberley, Aboriginal people performed the full
range of tasks required to build and run the stations, duties as diverse as looking after
the houses and children of the bosses, building and maintaining the station
infrastructure of fences, yards, dams and wells, and managing, mustering and droving
stock (KLC 2010). Aboriginal women in the Kimberley and in the Northern Territory
also undertook stock worker roles (Jebb 2002; Bird Rose 1991; Baker 1997; Marshall
1989).
For Aboriginal people maintaining close contact with traditional land during the wet
season contributed to a similar history across northern Australia. Most people were
able to return to the bush in the annual wet season to take part in ceremonies and other
community activities.
* * * *
'This afforded opportunities to pass onto their children skills and knowledge at many
levels, as hunting and gathering was also an expression of spiritual attachment to land
with many complex meanings' (Young and Doohan quoted in Smith 2000, 83).
* * * *
Stock work became and continues to be an important part of Aboriginal identity (Bird
Rose 1991, 93; Jebb 2003; Allbrook and Jebb 2009; Smith 2000).
* * * *
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'Perhaps most significantly, station work was in many ways compatible with cultural
and traditional activities. Aboriginal people working on pastoral stations were able to
live on, travel around and take care of their traditional lands. Stockmen 'were
strategically placed to ensure a continuing say about disturbance to particular sites in
their country'. (WA Department of Primary Industry 2008)
* * * *
Some Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory trace their ancestry and rights to
other places. This is comparable to the situation in the Kimberley, with the movement
of desert people from the south into the pastoral industry in the Fitzroy catchment and
beyond, Aboriginal people across the north adapted to the movement imposed by
pastoralism by incorporating more distant relations within their closer kin
relationships (Allbrook and Jebb 2009; Rose 1991).
Smith (2000) provides a basis for comparative analysis of the pastoral industry across
the north of Australia that highlights the poor living conditions and harsh treatment of
Aboriginal pastoral workers in the Kimberley and Northern Territory. A 1951
Commonwealth survey shows that rations were the principal payment for Aboriginal
work in both regions; these were hugely deficient and this situation did not improve
for twenty years, even after minimum standards were introduced nationally in 1952
(Smith 2000, 80-92). Comparatively speaking, work and living conditions in the
Northern Territory were 'no better, nor worse than those upon other stations through
the Territory and East and West Kimberley' (Rose 1991, 145).
From the 1960s, new government payments and pensions for Aboriginal workers
were paid directly to station bosses. Like the previous ration system, these payments
ensured a dependent workforce and were open to abuse. In some instances payments
supplemented the incomes of stations and made it more profitable to have dependants
than employees (Rose 1991; Jebb 2002).
Equal wages for Aboriginal pastoral workers was legislated nationally in 1969,
although this was not fully implemented in the Kimberley until 1972. For Aboriginal
pastoral workers nationally, this decision led to the majority of Aboriginal people
voluntarily or involuntarily leaving pastoral stations. In the north for a variety of
reasons, some people left immediately, as occurred at Wave Hill in the Northern
Territory, while others left later, for example, at Victoria River Downs and Humbert
River in the Northern Territory in 1972 and Mt Elizabeth Station in the Kimberley in
1995 (Allbrook and Jebb 2009, Bird Rose 1991). Many workers feared and some
were threatened, that if they left the stations on their traditional lands, they would not
be able to return (Allbrook and Jebb 2009, Rose 1991).
In 1972, the Commonwealth Government purchased Panter Downs (Pantijan) in the
north Kimberley, vesting this station with the Mowanjum Community, followed by
Noonkanbah in 1976. 'Many Aboriginal people in the Kimberley continue to identify
as 'station people' and have a strong sense of identity and ongoing relationship with
pastoral stations as owners and managers' (Allbrook and Jebb 2009). Today,
approximately 25 per cent of Kimberley pastoral stations are held by Aboriginal
interests (KLC 2009).
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The Kimberley Land Council (2010) submission states that Kimberley
Aboriginal people identify strongly with the pastoral industry and that many
families are connected over generations to particular stations. While Aboriginal
workers in the Kimberley pastoral industry were vital to its development and
success, the same is true for the Northern Territory, Queensland and other parts
of Australia. Based on current evidence, Aboriginal involvement in the
Kimberley pastoral industry does not have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (a).
The Noonkanbah dispute
When Aboriginal people speak about 'Noonkanbah' they are referring to a series of
events which took place on Noonkanbah station between 1978 and 1980. These
events drew the attention of the nation to the struggle of Aboriginal people to protect
their rights to practice traditional law and culture in the face of a resources boom and
a state government's desire to develop its oil and mineral resources. The events at
Noonkanbah helped catalyse significant changes in law, policy and practice
associated with the recognition of Aboriginal people's rights to land and responsible
resource development by governments and companies alike. Noonkanbah 'cannot be
looked upon….as just another episode', but as a 'moment in history' that was a pivot
of change (Hagen 1979 cited by Hawke and Gallagher 1989, 294). 'Symbolically,
before Mabo, Wik and Hindmarsh there was Noonkanbah' (Ritter 2002, 1).
Noonkanbah station is located on the north bank of the Fitzroy River, about 100
kilometres south-west of Fitzroy Crossing. From 1886 when the pastoral lease was
initially taken up, until the early 1970s Aboriginal people supplied the necessary
labour to make the station profitable. Following the Second World War, Aboriginal
people began to leave the station in response to continued low wages and poor
conditions. The introduction of equal wages in the Kimberley brought a further
decline in Aboriginal workforce numbers. In 1972, when the Aboriginal Affairs
Planning Authority Act 1972 (WA) finally lifted all restrictions on the payment of
wages to Aboriginal people, the remaining workers left Noonkanbah to join the
rapidly expanding Aboriginal population in Fitzroy Crossing (Allbrook 2009).
Inspired by the passing of the Western Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 and
events such as the Wave Hill Walk Off and the Whitlam government's proposed land
rights legislation, Aboriginal workers from Noonkanbah, Quanbu, Jubilee and
Cherrabun stations formed an alliance to request a return of their traditional lands
(Hawke and Gallagher 1989). After prolonged negotiations, the Commonwealth
handed back Noonkanbah station in 1976 to the Aboriginal Lands Trust which passed
the pastoral lease on to the Yungngora Aboriginal Association. But within two years
of Noonkanbah's return to Aboriginal people, 497 resource exploration claims had
been filed, held by about 30 companies or prospectors, covering a total of nearly
60,000 hectares (about 35 per cent of the station area) (Allbrook 2009).
In May 1978, the Yungngora community learned that Amax, a North American
resource company, was intending to drill an exploration well on the station in the
vicinity of Pea Hill (Umpampurru) 'a powerful malaji centre (increase site) and the
home of a great woman spirit and associated malaji sites…linked by Dreaming tracks
up to ten kilometres west' (Hawke and Gallagher 1989, 121-125; Ritter 2002). The
Yungngora people offered to show Amax alternative sites, but these were refused by
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the company. The findings of a site inspection by the Western Australian Aboriginal
Sites Department, the agency responsible for administering the Aboriginal Heritage
Act 1972 (WA), that Pea Hill was surrounded by an 'an area of influence' (Ritter
2002) was not accepted by the Western Australian Government. According to the
Western Australian Government's publication 'Noonkanbah: The Facts' (1980) the
concept of 'areas of influence' was not supported by 'most anthropologists or
Aborigines'.
In May 1979, Dicky Skinner, a member of the Yungngora community, went to Perth
with a petition against Amax. The story was picked up by the media and Skinner
addressed the Western Australian Trades and Labour Council, which carried motions
of support and letters to Amax. Union rallies in Perth shortly thereafter recommended
bans on all drilling work at Noonkanbah and the Australian Workers Union (AWU)
suggested that all nine oil rigs operating in Western Australia could be closed down if
drilling at Noonkanbah went ahead. Bob Hawke, as leader of the Australian Council of
Trade Unions (ACTU) also called on Amax to pull back (O'Lincoln 1993).
The Yungngora community barred and locked the gate of Noonkanbah station in June
1979 amid Amax and state government threats to start drilling. Ritter (2002) notes the
spectre of physical confrontation receded with the success of an interim injunction
filed by the Aboriginal Legal Service to prevent drilling. While the injunction was
eventually lifted, the onset of the wet season prevented the company from further
drilling.
In March 1980, Western Australian Government ministers visited Noonkanbah to try
and resolve the situation, but with no success. Later that month, Amax entered the
property without notice, with a police escort and began bulldozing a camp site. A
second injunction was granted to stop the work, but was lifted a short time later
(Ritter 2002). In May 1980, the Western Australian Premier visited the station to
discuss the matter with the Yungngora community, as did the Federal Minister for
Aboriginal Affairs, Fred Chaney, but all talks failed to resolve the situation (Ritter
2002).
The most publicised act in the Noonkanbah dispute occurred in August 1980 when a
non-union, strike breaking convoy transported drilling equipment 2,240 kilometres
from Perth to Noonkanbah. Backed by a large police presence, the forty-nine truck
convoy broke through a number of blockades and a number of arrests were made
along the journey. Just north of Port Hedland, a bridge was blocked by 160 local
Aboriginal people, and near Broome, 200 protesters greeted the convoy. At
Noonkanbah, 60 men set up a blockade at Mickey's Pool, on the access road into the
station. After a long overnight vigil, police finally cleared the blockade. In total, 55
people were arrested by police as a result of the blockades, including members of the
Aboriginal community, church leaders and resource union representatives (Howitt
1980, O'Lincoln 1993; Ritter 2002; Allbrook 2009). Despite getting through the
blockades onto the station and under pressure from the ACTU, the drilling crew voted
not to operate the rig (O'Lincoln 1993; Gillespie 2009). To get around the ACTU ban,
the Western Australian Government transferred the drilling rights to a shelf company,
thereby allowing a non-unionised drill crew to sink the exploration well without
further delay. No oil was found. For Aboriginal people this outcome was to be
expected because, as one senior Aboriginal man who participated in the Noonkanbah
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struggle noted, the local maparn, a clever, ritually powerful individual had the power
to relocate the fat, that is, the oil of the Dreamtime Goanna (Allbrook 2009, 11 citing
Dixon 1990).
Although the State government had succeeded in the short-term in exerting its
authority, the actions taken at Noonkanbah were a catalyst for change in law, policy
and practice in how governments, resource companies and Aboriginal people would
do business in the future. The inability of statutory law to provide even a rudimentary
level of protection to Aboriginal sites of significance was starkly demonstrated by the
events of Noonkanbah. The failure of the Gove land rights case of 1970 (Milirrpum
and others vs. Nabalco Pty. Ltd and the Commonwealth of Australia) meant that
Australian common law did not recognize Aboriginal customary land ownership.
Partly as a consequence of Noonkanbah, some Australian governments progressively
implemented statutory land rights and heritage protection measures aimed at
providing limited avenues for Aboriginal assertions of traditional land ownership and
responsibilities to care for important sites. Noonkanbah exposed the fragility of
statutory law in providing even basic protection to Aboriginal sites of importance, and
illustrated the disjuncture between Aboriginal assertions of land ownership under
traditional law and custom and a government which was intent on showing that such a
view was not supported by the law. In response to Noonkanbah, the Western
Australian Government further narrowed the definition of Aboriginal heritage and
changed the previously independent Heritage Council to an advisory body, making
the Heritage Minister responsible for decisions. These amendments effectively cut
Aboriginal people out of any legal recourse to protect their heritage from resource
extraction activities.
* * * *
'If events like Noonkanbah are seen as giving rise to the Mabo legislation, the irony is
that, with the common law recognition of native title in Australia, there occurred the
greatest realignment in power over resources between Aboriginal people and industry
since the commencement of colonisation' (Ritter 2002, 8).
* * * *
Similarly, Allbrook (2009) states that the Noonkanbah episode brought an increased
radicalisation in Aboriginal politics, and an increased clarity in Aboriginal people
enunciating their concerns. Similarly, Vachon and Toyne (1983) noted that:
* * * *
'[T]he Government has inadvertently propelled them [the Noonkanbah protesters],
along with other Aborigines, into a political arena where land rights, and not only the
protection of sites, may just be possible … contrary to everything the Government
may have intended, a pan-Aboriginal unity has begun to emerge…'(Vachon and
Toyne 1983, 131).
* * * *
Noonkanbah represented 'worst practice' in relations between resource companies and
Aboriginal traditional owners, and played an important role in the subsequent
adoption of inclusive and co-operative exploration and resource extraction practices
which acknowledged Aboriginal rights and interests in land outside of the common
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law. An imperative to 'avoid another Noonkanbah' stimulated Commonwealth
discussions with peak mining and resource bodies such as the Australian Mining
Industry Council (AMIC) and the Australian Petroleum Producers and Explorers
Association (APPEA). All agreed that 'the interests of all parties will best be served,
not by confrontation, but by pursuing a policy of negotiation and consultation' (Berndt
1982, 146–147).
Kimberley Aboriginal people also took a proactive stance in developing their own
strategies and protocols to counter the absence of supportive heritage and land rights
legislation. Aboriginal community-based organisations such as the Kimberley Land
Council were at the forefront in negotiating innovative heritage protection and
clearance methodologies oriented towards recognising and balancing the rights and
interests of both Aboriginal Traditional Owners and exploration and resource
extraction parties (Doohan 2008).
Noonkanbah continues to have powerful meaning for Aboriginal people across the
Kimberley, many of whom view the dispute at Noonkanbah as the genesis of the pan-
Kimberley political movement which ultimately spawned Aboriginal organisations
that have become central to the articulation of the cultural, political and social
aspirations of Kimberley people. The establishment of the Kimberley Land Council in
May 1978 led directly to the formation of the Kimberley Language Resource Centre
(1984), the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (1984), and Magabala
Books (1987).
Allbrook (2009) invites comparisons of Noonkanbah with the Eureka Stockade of
1854, that other infamous episode in Australian history in which a section of society
stood up to what was widely perceived to be the unjust use of power by an Australian
Government. Like Eureka, the protesters at Noonkanbah gained widespread public
support for their stand. Like Eureka, the protest at Noonkanbah was put down by
force and, like Eureka, although the State won the battle at Noonkanbah, the episode
was significant in ushering in changes to the law and the way resource extraction
business was henceforth to be carried out.
Allbrook (2009) notes that Ritter (2002) and others claim that Noonkanbah was a 'key
event' in a 'crisis of legitimacy that engulfed the Australian political system in relation
to Aboriginal affairs between Milirrpum and Mabo', and 'one of the key stimuli for
[Aboriginal people] turning to the common law' (Palmer 1983; Keon-Cohen 2000).
The inception of the Mabo native title case in 1982 eventually brought a fundamental
shift in the rights of Aboriginal people to be involved in decisions over the use of
traditional lands. This was recognised by the High Court in its decision on the case in
1992, and in the Commonwealth Government’s statutory response to that decision. The
Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) provided an avenue for Aboriginal Traditional Owners to
claim the legal right to object, and limited rights to negotiate. The Native Title Act 1993
(Cth) also provided an avenue for Aboriginal Traditional Owners to claim the legal
right to object and negotiate over applications to use traditional lands.
Noonkanbah is one in a series of important steps in the national struggle of
Aboriginal people to have their rights to practice traditional law and culture,
and have their rights to traditional land ownership recognised. In addition,
Noonkanbah brought about significant change to resource company policies and
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practices in relation to consultation and negotiation with Aboriginal people and
in the protection of Aboriginal heritage.
Yirrkala, Wave Hill, Noonkanbah and Mer Island each assume their own
symbolic importance in the long, slow path towards the recognition of Aboriginal
rights and the protection of Aboriginal heritage.
The areas of Noonkanbah station encompassing the station gates, the crossing at
Mickey’s Pool, Pea Hill and the unsuccessful exploration well have outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as the site of the Noonkanbah
dispute, an important event in the national struggle of Aboriginal people to have
their rights to practice traditional law and culture recognised, and to protect
their heritage for future generations.
The Second World War in Australia
Research undertaken for the identification of potential National Heritage values
associated with the Second World War was assisted by the thematic Australians at
War study undertaken by Ziino and Beaumont (2004). This study was undertaken at
the national level.
In common with its effects in the rest of Australia, the war of 1939 to 1945 brought
significant political, social and infrastructural changes to the Kimberley region.
During the war years, people in Broome and Derby moved to safer locations, while
500 Japanese pearlers and German missionaries were sent to internment camps.
Existing airfields were upgraded and major new airfields were built at Drysdale (now
Kalumburu). In 1944 the major airfield, Truscott (now Mungalalu) was established,
along with two aviation meteorological stations and the pastoral property of
Noonkanbah was a staging post. Thousands of military personnel moved into the area,
bringing military equipment including ordnance, planes and trucks.
As well as the physical displacement of internment and evacuation, and the
infrastructural and population changes brought about by mobilisation, the west
Kimberley was subject to enemy air raids. In Broome 96 people were killed, 16 flying
boats carrying refugees and seven planes at Broome airfield were destroyed, and a
DC3 was shot down near Beagle Bay, and at Drysdale mission five Aboriginal
civilians were killed. Approximately two dozen military personnel also lost their lives
in wartime accidents in the region. Missionaries and Aboriginal people were involved
in courageous rescues of civilian and military personnel.
Some of the consequences of the Second World War in the west Kimberley are still
evident in the flying boat wreckages in Broome harbour revealed at low tide, in the
airfields of Truscott (Mungalalu) and Drysdale (Kalumburu), associated military camp
sites, war relics and the former radar station sites.
Australia's war history is important in the course and pattern of Australia's history.
The history of the First and Second World Wars has national importance and this
importance is recognised in official histories of Australia, in historical works
associated with nation building and in Australian's sense of identity, and in public
institutions like the Australian War Memorial.
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The effects of the Second World War on the home front were widespread and
common to many Australians. This shared history includes the experience of
rationing, domestic travel restrictions, prosecution of conscientious objectors and the
banning of particular political organisations (Darian-Smith 1996; DVA 2009; Ziino
and Beaumont 2004). Displacement was a common experience, in the form of
mobilisation, the deployment of family members, evacuation, internment, and death
(Darian-Smith 1996; Long 1973; Ziino and Beaumont 2004). Other effects of
mobilisation included the presence of foreign military personnel in Australian cities,
development of roads, ports, air fields, buildings, and communications infrastructure,
and the movement of troops and ordnance. Economic effects included the enlistment
of women, the encouragement of women into the workforce, subsidies for industries
associated with the war effort, and the fixing of profit margins (Darian-Smith 1996;
DVA 2009; Ziino and Beaumont 2004). Commonwealth and State governments were
motivated by strategic and security concerns as well as international obligations,
perhaps brought into focus following the war in Malaya, the fall of Singapore, Rabaul,
Ambon, Timor, Java and the defence of New Guinea (Beaumont 1996; DVA 2009;
Ziino and Beaumont 2004).
Events such as the disappearance of HMAS Sydney with all crew in 1941 and the
attack on Sydney Harbour by Japanese miniature submarines in May 1942 increased
domestic anxiety. Air raids in a number of towns in the north of Australia resulted in
devastating civilian casualties and may have heightened a collective sense of the
nation's vulnerability (DVA 2009; Ziino and Beaumont 2004). Some of these events
are evoked in surviving fabric. For example: the Japanese miniature submarine in situ
in Sydney Harbour, the Indian Ocean resting places of the Kormoran and the HMAS
Sydney II, a number of air fields and base camps throughout Australia, in towns and
military bases named for war heroes and in war memorials in towns across the nation
(Inglis 2008; Garrett and Keneally 2009).
In the west Kimberley region, these national stories are best preserved in the physical
remains resulting from air raids, and the remnants of infrastructure described above.
Communities in Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and the cities
of Sydney, Newcastle and Port Gregory all experienced attack from air or sea. The
campaign in the air began when Darwin was bombed by Japanese planes between
February 1942 and November 1943 and sustained serious damage as well as heavy
civilian casualties. These initial raids preceded 21 months of air assaults across the
Top End: Darwin, Adelaide River, Katherine and Milingimbi in Arnhem Land were
bombed 64 times; Horn Island (near Thursday Island) experienced ten raids during
March 1942 and June 1943; Townsville was subjected to three raids during July 1942;
Wyndham was raided four times; Exmouth experienced three air raids and Port
Hedland two air raids (Darwin Defenders no date; Dunn 1999). Grose (2009)
contends that the Australian Government bowed to military pressure to keep the
extent of the casualties from these attacks from the general public.
The attack in Sydney Harbour by Japanese miniature submarines between 31 May and
1 June 1942 preceded a month of raids along the eastern seaboard which disrupted
merchant shipping as well as bombing Sydney and Newcastle. These are the best
known Axis naval activities in Australian waters and, while the physical effects on
infrastructure were minimal, the psychological effects on the Australian Government,
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military and population centres were profound (Gill 1948).
The 2004 heritage theme report by Ziino and Beaumont on Australians at war did not
identify any places in the west Kimberley which had potent National Heritage values.
The national significance of overseas places like Kokoda, Gallipoli and Tobruk were
noted. Even given this thresholding caveat (inclusion of overseas places), the
bombing of Darwin – the first wartime assault on Australian soil – and the Northern
Territory was more extensive than that in the west Kimberley, and was accompanied
by heavier casualties. The effects of Japanese raids by air and sea on the heavily
populated eastern seaboard had immediate significant psychological and strategic
effects which the air raids in the remote north and north-west, subject to censorship
and media blackout, did not have (Grose 2009). The bombing of Darwin and the
eastern seaboard events have more significance in the course and pattern of
Australia's cultural history than the west Kimberley events because of their effects on
Australian security policy and political history.
In summary, the events of the Second World War in the west Kimberley have some
significance relating to the history of the home front in Australia, the war on
Australian soil and the regional history of the west Kimberley. The war sites also have
potential significance at a regional and state level. There is however no evidence to
indicate they have outstanding heritage value to the nation.
On the basis of current evidence the course and pattern of west Kimberley's
history associated with the Second World War events does not have outstanding
heritage significance to the nation under criterion (a).
CRITERION (b) – The place has outstanding heritage value because of the place's
possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia's natural or
cultural history.
ECOLOGY, BIOGEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION
The well-preserved Devonian fish fossils of the Lennard Shelf have attributes that are
rare in the palaeontological record in Australia and overseas. At the Gogo fossil sites,
near-complete, articulated fossil fish are often found in limestone nodules and up to
50 different species are preserved. The spectacular Gogo fossils have recently been
discovered to preserve soft tissue structures along with bone (Trinajstic et al. 2007;
Trinajstic and Long 2009; Ahlberg 2009). This discovery allows researchers to
examine fine details of anatomy that are usually lost during the fossilisation process.
Most remarkable of these finds has been evidence for viviparity (live birth), within the
extinct group of fish known as placoderms. Embryos, an umbilical cord and a possible
yolk sac have been found preserved. This represents the earliest evidence for internal
fertilization and live birth within the vertebrates (Long et al. 2008). Extensive remains
of soft tissue have allowed reconstruction of the body musculature in a stem
vertebrate (these fish being ancestral to tetrapods) (Ahlberg 2009). The Gogo fossils
are unique in preserving a diverse fossil fish fauna, complete with soft tissue anatomy.
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There are four other known Devonian fish sites in Australia that preserve articulated
skeletons (Long 1996). Two of these, Canowindra and Wee Jasper, are located in
New South Wales and two, Mt Howitt and Buchan, in Victoria. Preservation at these
sites varies, with Canowindra and Mt Howitt preserving fish in two dimensions while
Buchan, Wee Jasper and Gogo preserve fish in three dimensions. Two-dimensional
preservation at Mt Howitt consists mainly of impressions of the bones left behind in
the mudstone – where the bone is preserved it is usually badly weathered. Negative
preparations are used to study the Mt Howitt fish fauna by dissolving the weathered
bone and making latex casts of the impressions. Canowindra's preservation is mostly
natural moulds filled with hard sandstone casts, some of which preserve internal
structure of braincases and gills. There are eight species of fish found in Canowindra,
but the fauna is overwhelmingly dominated by just two species. The assemblage is
thought to represent a rapidly dried-out inland freshwater body. For both of these
types of preservation, while fine detail can be retained, soft tissue cannot.
Both Buchan and Wee Jasper represent Devonian coral reefs. At these sites, the fish
fauna is preserved in limestone rather than shale, which has made three dimensional
preservation of the actual bone possible. Limestone preservation has also meant that
acid etching of the fossils can be used in preparing them, progressively dissolving the
surrounding matrix rather than mechanically removing it and thus allowing recovery
of fine detail. Buchan's fossil fish are rare and as the most fossiliferous part of the
facies has been mined for many years, the deposit may be all but removed. Wee
Jasper, by contrast, has nearly as diverse a fish fauna as Gogo and apparently similar
preservation (Long 1996). However, as yet, there is no reported fossil from Wee
Jasper that preserves soft tissue structure.
The late Devonian Gogo fish fossil sites have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (b) for remarkable preservation of a diverse fauna of
entire fossil fish skeletons complete with the rare preservation of extensive soft
tissue.
The Broome sandstone of the Dampier Coast (between Roebuck Bay and Cape
Leveque) contains the only sauropod prints found in Australia (Thulborn et al. 1994;
Long 1998). The sauropod fauna of Australia is poorly known. One Jurassic form,
Rhoetosaurus brownei Longman 1926 and a single Cretaceous species, Austrosaurus
mckillopi Longman 1933, both from Queensland, had been described prior to 2009.
Two more sauropods were recently described from Winton, Queensland –
Diamantinasaurus matildae and Wintonotitan wattsi Hocknull et al. 2009. All of these
species are described from body fossils which can provide only limited behavioural
and ecological data. On the other hand, ichnofossils (geological markers of biological
activity like burrows, footprints, feeding marks and cavities left by the roots of plants)
can provide ecological, behavioural, social, anatomical and population data which is
inaccessible from body fossils alone, particularly in the concentration and variety they
are found on the Dampier Coast.
With some hind foot (pes) tracks as long as 1.75 metres, the Broome Sandstone tracks
are competitors for the title of world's largest sauropod prints – some recently found
in France are reported to be anywhere from 1.5–2 metres long (Wedel 2009). The
French tracks may, however, be composite prints (that is, fore and hind feet overlap)
(Thulborn pers. comm. 2009). The Broome Sandstone tracks indicate an animal that
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could have stood as tall as 5.4–5.6 metres at the shoulder and may have been up to 30
metres long (Gibson 1997; Thulborn, pers. comm. 2009). While some of these tracks
appear to be similar to the ichnogenus Brontopodus, there are three or four other types
of tracks which suggest the presence of multiple sauropod taxa (Thulborn et al. 1994;
Thulborn 1997). Also found here are the world's smallest sauropod tracks, indicating
a broader population sample than that of any other sauropod track sites known
worldwide. Further, some of the trackways are quite unusual in that there is a
disparity in the width of front and hind limb stances, indicating a previously unknown
sauropod gait. Other, exceptionally well-preserved tracks have provided the first
evidence of manus ('hand') claws in sauropods and some even preserve skin
impressions (Thulborn 2009).
Dr Giuseppe Leonardi, an Italian vertebrate palaeontologist and ichnofossil expert,
has described the Dampier Coast as a 'plant eaters' paradise' (Gibson 1997). Evidence
for the coexistence of sauropods and ornithopods, both herbivorous dinosaurs, is rare
in the world and unknown elsewhere in Australia. But it is not uncommon on the
Dampier Coast to find sites where tracks of both types of animals occur in the same
stratigraphic layer in relative abundance. In Dr Leonardi's experience of field work in
Europe and South America, carnivorous therapod dinosaurs are considerably more
common than they appear to be on the Dampier Coast. Such important behavioural
and population data underpins the scientific significance of the Broome Sandstone
(Gibson 1997; Thulborn 2009).
The Cretaceous dinosaur fauna of Australia is known almost entirely from sites on the
east side of the country. Flat Rocks and Dinosaur Cove in Victoria, Lightning Ridge
in New South Wales and the Winton Formation in Queensland have produced most of
the body fossils found. Some are known from the opal fields of South Australia;
Andamooka and Coober Pedy have produced isolated dinosaur bones. Very little is
known about the western half of the continent, which was separated from the east by
shallow inland seas. The Dampier Coast is the only site with extensive evidence of
western Australian dinosaurs. The only other evidence of dinosaurs in the west are
fragments of bones from the Giralia Range, Birdsong Sandstone and in the Molecap
Hill Quarry in Western Australia (Long 1998).
The National Heritage listed Lark Quarry in Queensland is another significant
Australian track site. Lark Quarry is remarkable for the sheer number of prints that
provide a 'snapshot' of a few minutes of activity during the Cretaceous period. Four
types of tracks of dinosaurs and thousands of prints are preserved at the site. Features
of the tracks have led to the interpretation that Lark Quarry captures a moment in
time: a group of smaller dinosaurs fleeing an approaching predator (Cook 1994). A
particular locality on the Dampier Coast, described as 'a beautiful mess', is one of
many that is comparable to the Lark Quarry site in its high-resolution capture of a few
minutes during the Cretaceous period: Dr Tony Thulborn, a vertebrate palaeontologist
who has worked on the Broome Sandstone localities for nearly two decades, interprets
this exposure as evidence of the passage of a herd of medium to large sauropods
'travelling along the coast in a corridor defined by a forested area (still preserved on
the eastward side) and open lagoons … I've seen nothing to approach it anywhere else
in the world' (Thulborn 2009; Thulborn 2010).
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Other Australian track sites include the Ipswich Coal Measures, the Precipice
Sandstone, the Razorback Beds and Walloon Coal Measures, all in Queensland. These
range in age from the Late Triassic through Mid Jurassic and so are all older than both
the Dampier Coast and Lark Quarry sites. No more than three types of tracks are
preserved at any of these other sites and the taxa represented are interpreted to be
ornithipods and theropods (Thulborn 2009). None of these sites approaches either the
Dampier Coast or Lark Quarry for the numbers of prints preserved, nor do any of
them come close to the Dampier Coast for the geographic extent of the tracks. Alone
of the Australian track sites, the Dampier Coast preserves evidence of sauropods. The
Broome Sandstone tracks along the Dampier Coast are the best record of dinosaurs
from the western half of the continent and the large number and variety of tracks in a
range of depositional settings provides an otherwise unobtainable census (Thulborn
2009) of dinosaur populations and communities.
The Dampier Coast dinosaur tracks have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (b) as the best and most extensive evidence of dinosaurs
from the western half of the continent, some of which are unknown from body
fossils; for the diversity and exceptional sizes of the sauropod prints; and the
unique census of the dinosaur community that they provide.
Anecdotal reports indicate the presence of human footprints in Quaternary sediments
at a number of named coastal sites on the west of Dampier Peninsula north and east of
Broome. Media reports, several books and a major summary of footprint sites which
appeared in the journal Ichnos in 2001 indicate that ichnofossils stolen from the area
in 1996 included human footprints as well as dinosaur tracks (Mayor and Sarjeant
2001; CNN 1996; Long 1998; Long 2002; Thulborn 2009). A paper by Welch (1999)
identifies a trackway elsewhere on the Dampier Coast of ten footprints, with an
eleventh print a short distance away, preserved on a beachrock shelf, probably
representing the passage of two people. Beachrock is consolidated or semiconsolidated
'sandstone' which forms when seawater-derived chemicals cement beach
sand at the intertidal zone along beaches and shorelines (Welch 1999). Welch
reported another footprint site nearby that is now covered by sand and mud.
Despite the compelling prospect that the presence of human and dinosaur ichnofossils
along the same coast vindicates Jules Verne and the makers of the Flintstones, they
are preserved in very different aged sediments. The beachrock in which the human
prints occur has been dated using optical spin luminescence to about 2000 years ago,
setting a maximum age for the walkers (Welch 1999). The dinosaur tracks have been
dated to the early Cretaceous, around 130 million years ago, although they do not all
occur in the same stratigraphic layer.
Track sites like the Pleistocene Lake Garnpung footprint site in the Willandra Lakes
World Heritage Area, which preserves more than 800 footprints, capture behavioural
and population data for a group of people living in arid inland Australia at the height
of the last glacial stage. The prints represent more than 20 individual trackways from
adults, adolescents and children, as well as some marsupials and birds over an area of
around 700 metres squared (Webb et al. 2006; Westaway 2010). Such sites begin to
paint a picture of the human experience of the last glacial maximum.
The late Holocene Dampier Coast trackway documented by Welch is significantly
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younger and smaller than the Lake Garnpung location, and only preserves human
tracks. It is comparable in age with a South Australian site inland from Clare Bay,
first described by Daisy Bates in 1914, which reveals numbers of human, kangaroo,
wallaby and emu prints impressed (not necessarily simultaneously) in carbonate
mudstone along the edge of a small swamp. This site has been dated to around 5000
years. At two localities in the Clare Bay swamp site, the presence of adults and
children are inferred (Belpario and Fotheringham 1990).
Fossil human tracks are rare in Australia. There are three occurrences documented in
the literature. The Dampier Coast site documented by Welch is the smallest of the
three. It is the only example yet found in Western Australia. Less clearly documented
accounts of human tracks along the Dampier Coast appear in the literature (Mayor
and Sarjeant 2001; CNN 1996; Long 2002).
Fossil human tracks are important for both scientific and symbolic reasons. Early
hominid tracks like the Pliocene Tanzanian Laetoli footprints provide important data
on the evolution of human bipedalism. The Pleistocene and Holocene human record
which the Dampier Coast tracks help to elaborate is very patchy. Documenting track
sites through human history can begin to reveal population data across a continent and
through time, to supplement other kinds of archaeological and historical evidence.
Tracks have the potential to reveal data which is hidden from those who only study
body fossils: about gait, anatomy, stature, size, population and speed. In other words,
they evoke 'the living behaviour of our ancestors' (Kim et al 2008; Webb et al 2006).
However, compared to the other documented track sites at Clare Bay and the
Willandra Lakes, the documented Dampier Coast human trackway on it own does
significantly build on the Pleistocene – Holocene archaeological record.
The fossil human footprint sites of the Dampier Coast have outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (b) as one of only three documented human
track sites in Australia and the only documented evidence of human tracks from
the west coast of Australia.
WEALTH OF LAND AND SEA
Antiquity of macro-botanical record and evidence of plant use over 40,000 years
Archaeological excavations by O'Connor at Carpenters Gap (McConnell and
O'Connor 1997) showed that this site, near Windjana Gorge in the Napier Ranges,
were occupied from around 40,000 years to the present. The exceptional preservation
conditions at Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter [also known as Jambarurru to Bunuba
people (S. Pannell pers. comm. 5 May 2010 and Tangalma to the Unggumi: Playford
1960, 2007)] have conserved an extensive micro and macro-botanical inventory of
over 2,000 seeds and plant parts, dating from 39,220 ± 870 years ago to 650 ± 90
years (McConnell and O'Connor 1997). Nowhere else in Australia is there a
palaeobotanical record of comparable length or equivalent antiquity. In addition,
Carpenter's Gap 1 provides evidence of a continuous cultural presence from the
Pleistocene through the last glacial maximum (18,000–20,000 BP, also commonly
known as the last ice age), and into the Holocene (from about 10,000 years ago until
the present).
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Analyses of the botanical remains recovered from Carpenters Gap 1 indicates long
term shifts in flora composition with changes in the climate, and provides evidence
that much of the macroscopic plant remains were deposited by Aboriginal plant food
procuring activities (McConnell 1997; McConnell and O'Connor 1997, 1999). In
support of this view, Wallis (2001) points to the selective burning patterns on some
plant remains; the lack of rodent gnaw marks on seeds; the fact that most of the plant
remains are culturally useful; and a botanic trapping exercise carried out at the shelter
that did not show significant botanic deposition by animal, wind or water action.
Grasses constitute about 50 per cent of the overall phytolith (microscopic bits of silica
stored in plant structures) assemblage throughout the Carpenter's Gap 1 sequence. The
grassland communities of 40,000 years BP appear to be similar to those seen in the
area today. Around 33,000 years BP, there was a reduction in the grass species
diversity, perhaps due to decreasing temperatures and water availability. Interestingly,
there are no obvious changes to these grassland communities through the last glacial
maximum. From about 17,000 years BP there is again an increase in grass species
diversity (Wallis 2001).
While there are no palm species growing in the Napier Range today, 40,000 years ago
the palms Livistona loriphylla and L. victoriae were present in considerable
abundance. This continued up until about 30,000 years BP, after which the palms
survived in smaller numbers until just prior to the last glacial maximum, when they
disappear from the record. Palms require a permanent water source to survive, and in
the Kimberley today they are commonly found on the edges of vine thickets and in
sheltered gorges and gullies along more northerly ranges (Kenneally et. al. 1996). As
climatic conditions deteriorated, i.e. got drier with the approach of the last glacial
maximum, the palms contracted to smaller areas and the southerly boundary of their
distribution moved northwards.
Also of interest are the sedge (Cyperaceae) remains. Macroscopic stem fragments
have been recovered from most levels of the site, except the uppermost Holocene
levels. Ethnographic evidence of the use of sedges by Aboriginal people as a late dry
season food source (Crawford 1982; Smith and Kalotas 1985), Wallis (2001) suggests
that these large pieces of sedge were culturally deposited.
The palaeobotanical record indicates that the Aboriginal inhabitants of Carpenter's
Gap 1 did not abandon this region during the last glacial maximum, but instead
adapted their survival strategies to cope with the changes. Other Pleistocene sites in
the Kimberley show a hiatus in occupation during the last glacial maximum (Riwi:
Balme 2000; Widgingarri and Koolan Island: O'Connor 1995, 1996, 1999).
Evidence of Pleistocene occupation occurs elsewhere in the Australian archaeological
record. Occupation sites from around the continent with dates of around 40,000 years
include: Puritjarra in central Australia (39,000 BP: Smith et al. 1997); Allen's Cave in
South Australia (40,000 BP: Roberts et al. 1996); Willandra Lakes in New South
Wales (46,000 to 50,000 BP: Bowler et al. 2003); GRE8/Lawn Hill in Queensland
(41,500 BP: O'Connell and Allen 2004); and Devil's Lair in southwest Western
Australia (41,000 to 46,000 BP: Turney et al. 2001).
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Evidence for uninterrupted occupation spanning the Pleistocene into the Holocene is
also not unique in the Australian archaeological record. Puritjarra rock shelter
provides evidence of continued human occupation, albeit of varying intensity, dating
from about 32,000 BP through to the late Holocene (Smith, 2006). Evidence from
Willandra Lakes also shows continuous occupation beginning in the Pleistocene and
persisting into the late Holocene (Allen et al. 2007).
Culturally deposited botanical material dating to the Pleistocene has also been
uncovered at Devil's Lair (Dortch 2004) and at Puritjarra rock shelter (Smith et al.
1995). However, in both cases, only hearth charcoal is present (Smith et al. 1995;
Shackley 1978). In terms of evidence on human adaptation to climate change,
Puritjarra rock shelter again offers some insights through stone tool development
(Smith 2006). Several sites in Arnhem Land also record evidence of human
adaptation to smaller climate change events caused by the el Niño/la Niña
phenomenon during the Holocene (Bourke et al. 2007).
The evidence provided by Carpenter's Gap 1 is exceptional as it has provided
researchers with a micro and macro-botanical collection of incomparable antiquity
and breadth of botanical variation, spanning 40,000 years. The micro-botanical
material, including phytoliths carried in the air and by water flows, are likely to
represent the vegetation of an extremely large catchment area, whilst the macrobotanical
remains including stems, leaves and seeds are likely to have been deposited
by human cultural actions or faunal activity from sources in closer proximity to the
rock shelter (Wallis 2001, 107-109). The combined botanical record allows for the
Carpenter's Gap 1 material to be used in creating both a broad geographic spectrum
and a predominantly localised model of the changing Kimberley environment over
time.
Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter has outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (b) for its rare archaeological sequence of micro and macrobotanical
remains spanning 40,000 years that contributes to our understanding
of the impacts of climate change on flora composition though time, and the rare
evidence it provides of plant procurement strategies used by Aboriginal people
from the Pleistocene, through the last glacial maximum, a period when many
occupation sites were abandoned across Australia, and into the Holocene.
CONTACT, CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
European explorers
Karrakatta Bay
The association of Karrakatta Bay with William Dampier has been addressed under
criteria (a) and (h).
Careening Bay
Just as Dampier has an important place in the process of accumulating knowledge
about the Australian continent as the first to make direct information about Australia
widely available to the European public, so too Phillip Parker King has a pivotal role
as the man who completed that process through his work in charting the majority of
the last unmapped areas of the Australian coast. With King, the last uncharted parts of
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the coast which were unmapped were dispersed in various sections of the whole
Australian coastline. Careening Bay exhibits a rare association with the work of
Phillip Parker King and the process under which the first exploratory running surveys
of the Australian coastline were refined into accurate naval charts.
King was the first, and for a number of years the only, Australian-born navigator to
attain eminence in the world outside the Australian colonies. On his first four voyages
he made significant contributions to Australian exploration by providing the first
surveys of previously uncharted coastlines, particularly around the north-west and the
Kimberley. He was the first to utilize nineteenth century advances in hydrographic
equipment and techniques in surveying and charting the Australian coastline. In 1825
the British Admiralty published the eight small-scale sheets of King's surveys,
together with seven larger-scale plans of sections considered important for their detail.
As a result, the process of mapping the extent of the Australian continent was
completed, and charts of the whole Australian coastline were available to mariners for
the first time. King's addition to Flinder's work of mapping the Australian coastline
was so great that in 1829 the Admiralty replaced Flinder's General chart of Terra
Australis or Australia originally published in 1814, with the General chart of Terra
Australis or Australia, from the surveys of Capt n Flinders and King. This
subsequently became Admiralty chart No.1042 (Hordern 1997). Of the eight coastal
survey sheets produced by the British Admiralty from King's work, two were used
during Second World War, and his 'Northern Sheet' became Admiralty Chart No.
BA1044 which was not withdrawn until 1955, over 130 years since it had first been
engraved (Hordern 1997). Lieutenant Commander G. C. Ingleton, himself a former
naval surveyor, has described King as 'the greatest of the early Australian marine
surveyors' and has written that his charts 'although not numerous, were of a quality
not attained by any previous navigator in the Pacific' (Ingleton 1944).
A century and a half after his death, Australia continues to reap the benefits of King's
work. What had begun for the British on Mermaid as a poorly resourced response to
Freycinet's 1817 voyage and the need to maintain British strategic advantage in the
southern hemisphere, grew into a professional hydrographic arm of the Navy that laid
the essential groundwork for any foreign British activity, whether commercially or
politically motivated (Tiley 2006). King's work completed the process started by the
Dutch navigators and Dampier whereby the extent of the Australian continent was
finally delineated for Europeans. Countless vessels have been guided through the
dangerous waters around Australia's coastline to safe havens as a result of the
increasingly accurate chart work done by King and his successors (Hordern 1997).
Only the 'Mermaid' tree in Careening Bay remains in situ as direct evidence of the
man and his great work.
In summary, the 'Mermaid Tree' is the only remaining direct physical link with the
important hydrographic work of Phillip Parker King. Although he left a memorial
hammered into Hamelin's post at Cape Inscription, this has now been removed to the
Western Australian Maritime Museum, and the 'Mermaid' tree in Careening Bay is the
only remaining direct physical link with King which remains in situ.
The Mermaid tree within Careening Bay has outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (b) as rare, in situ, physical evidence of nineteenth
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century hydrographers and in particular the survey work of Phillip Parker
King, one of Australia's most important early marine surveyors.
CRITERION (c) – The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because
of the place's potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding
of Australia's natural or cultural history
ANCIENT LANDSCAPES, GEOLOGICAL PROCESSES
A nominator claimed that the Prince Regent River has outstanding heritage value to
the nation under criterion (c) because 'the sunken coastline' of the Prince Regent area
'has the potential to provide information adding to our understanding of the changes to
our continent over geological time and in response to changing climate.' This
nominator also claimed that 'the Prince Regent limestone and its relationship with the
Prince Regent River extending over 150 kilometres from south-east to north-west and
the Roe river further north which sites at the interface between two distinct types of
bedrock – basalt to the East and sandstone to the West… are likely to yield
information that improves our understanding of the shaping of the north-west of our
continent and its movements over geological time.'
These claims cannot easily be demonstrated. Furthermore, the boundaries between
land and ocean are in constant flux. Coasts respond to and record the interaction of
climate, tectonic, sedimentary and biological (including anthropogenic) processes
over long and short timescales. The geological record provides persuasive evidence
all over the world of sea level change over time, driven by a variety of processes
including changes in sediment load, climate, continental ice storage and ocean basin
volume. Many of these processes continue today (Boyd 2007a).
On its own, the Prince Regent River is unlikely to have outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (c) for its potential to provide information
about geological and climate changes over time, nor for its role in shaping the
understanding of the shaping of north-western Australia.
ECOLOGY, BIOGEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE AND EVOLUTION
Reef ecology, response to change and resilience
The fossil Devonian reef assemblages of the Lennard Shelf, including the Napier,
Oscar, Emmanuel and Pillara Ranges span the Givetian-Famennian stages of the
Devonian period from about 390–359 million years ago, including the Frasnian–
Famennian mass extinction. While the causes of this extinction are still unclear,
suggested mechanisms include climate change and sea level changes. Sea level
changes occurred rapidly at the end of the Frasnian stage and at other reefs around the
world this boundary marks their extinction and burial by deeper-water sediment
(Wood 2000). In the Kimberley, there are records of the sea level changes, as well as
the extinction of a major component of the reef-building organisms, (large, calcified
animals) at this time. Despite this, the Kimberley reef remains, albeit with different
taxa, mostly microbial, taking up the role of reef building in the Famennian stage
(Wood 2000).
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Studying this sequence can provide information about how reef communities react to
climate change and to changes in sea level, both of which are key issues facing
modern coral reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef (Wood 2000; Wood 2002; Veron
2008). The story of this ancient barrier reef, responding to climate change on the west
coast of a proto-Australia, resonates with the story of the modern Great Barrier Reef
on the east coast of Australia. In contrast to the Kimberley's reef which grew for 20
million years, the Great Barrier Reef has been in place in its current structure for
approximately 6,000 years, although some researchers argue that it may have been
present sporadically in some form for as much as 30 million years (Veron 2008).
While the taxa involved in reef building during the Devonian were markedly different
to today's reef organisms, the structures are analogous and the Kimberley allows us to
study a reef that existed for a similar period of time to the Great Barrier Reef. The
Devonian was the last major reef-building period in Earth's history prior to the
Holocene, so comparing the two great barrier reefs of Australia provides fertile
ground for research. The Devonian reefs preserved in other areas of Australia, such as
at Buchan and Wee Jasper, are not as extensive as that of the Kimberley. These reefs
have also been deformed through later tectonic processes and in the case of Buchan,
have been mined for many years, decreasing the amount of information available at
these sites (Inan et al. 1992; Yeates 2001).
The science of ecology has been undergoing a paradigm shift in recent decades. Prior
understanding held that species had inherent ecological requirements that
predetermined the role that they could fill within a given ecosystem. This view rests
easily within an understanding of an ecosystem as a point in time, relatively
unchanging in its components and leads to a conclusion that the extinction of just a
few species can destroy an ecosystem. Reefs, especially, have been considered
delicate ecosystems that are particularly vulnerable to extinction and exceptionally
slow to recover (Veron 2008). This understanding has been challenged by a theory
that ecosystems are more dynamic assemblages of species that migrate between
communities, face local extinction, recruitment and so on. In this view, an ecosystem
is a dynamic community of organisms with similar ecological preferences, rather than
being rigidly bound by fixed ecological associations (Wood 2000; Wood 2002).
The Kimberley's barrier reef complex has been an important laboratory in which to
test this theory as it provides one of the few rich fossil records in the world that spans
a mass extinction boundary. Here, it is possible to study an ecosystem as it changes
through time and to evaluate the association of species and their roles in building the
reef community (Wood 2000; Wood 2002). It has the potential to yield information
that will contribute to an understanding of ecosystems as dynamic species
communities, testing our understanding of ecological theory. A comparable site is the
Miria Formation in the Giralia range in Western Australia. This outcrop is
significantly younger than the Kimberley barrier reef system, dating from the late
Cretaceous, but provides a marine record of the very famous mass extinction at the
Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary that also killed the dinosaurs (Silversson 2006). A
highly fossiliferous unit is overlain by a deeper, colder water unit that is absent of
fossils (McNamara 1997). While this site is significant for its preservation of an
iconic mass extinction boundary, the absence of fossils in the upper unit precludes it
being used for a palaeoecological analysis of pre and post-extinction communities in
the same manner as the Kimberley's reef deposits.
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The Devonian reef outcrops of the Lennard Shelf have outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (c) because of their potential to yield
information that will contribute to an understanding of the climatological and
biological processes that affect major reef systems.
Vertebrate evolution and analysis of fossils
Despite the large amount of work done on the Devonian Gogo fish fossil sites since
the 1960s and the many published studies, significant new finds are still common. A
major part of the story of Gogo studies is the development of new technology for the
preparation and study of specimens, which has allowed new layers of information to
be revealed. When the site was first found by Curt Teichert in the 1950s, he
disregarded the fossil fish possibly because, encased in hard limestone, the delicate
bones of the fish would not have survived mechanical preparation. In the 1960s, when
the site was visited by Harry Toombs, the newly developed method of dissolving the
limestone in an acid, chemically 'etching' the bones, allowed entire, delicate skeletons
to be revealed, often from fossils that had been discovered some time earlier (Long
2006). The most recent advances use high resolution scanning electron microscopy,
high-resolution computer tomography, X-ray and Synchrotron CT scanning to reveal
details of the soft tissue morphology that might otherwise be obscured by bone and
buried within the supporting matrix (Trinajstic and Long 2009; Ahlberg 2009).
Gogo's history is that of a site producing remarkable specimens with a potential for
study that increases with each new technological development and it has a high
potential to yield further information on the evolution of early Australian fish.
This potential is unlikely to exist to the same degree at the Devonian fish fossil sites
that have two-dimensional preservation. This material is often deformed as it is buried
and is rarely the original bone. At Wee Jasper, which has similar three dimensional
preservation, the material recovered so far has not been as complete as the Gogo
material. Nevertheless, some of the same techniques are revealing new details about
the Wee Jasper fish (Burrow et al. 2005). Together, Wee Jasper and Gogo provide
independent tests of new techniques in studying these Devonian faunas, which may be
applicable to other fossil types and sites in the future.
The Gogo fossil sites have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (c) as they have significant potential to yield new information about the
natural history of Australia, the evolution of Australian vertebrates and about
new technologies that can be used to study fossils.
Potential to yield further information on initial colonisation, human subsistence and
adaptation to climate change
The west Kimberley is in a strategic geographical position to answer a range of
important research questions regarding the initial colonisation of the continent, early
human subsistence and adaptation to climate change.
Only a small number of archaeological surveys have been undertaken in the region.
Those few investigations show that the west Kimberley has a long record of human
occupation from the Pleistocene through to the present day. Fifty thousand years ago,
the sea level was at least 100 metres lower and extensive coastal plains would have
provided food and other resources for the first human inhabitants. As the sea level
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egan to rise about 18,000 years BP, flooding of these plains would have forced
Aboriginal people to move further inland. By the time the sea stabilised at about 6,000
years ago, ancient mountain tops had become islands and escarpments once far inland
became the new coastline (Smyth 2007).
Carpenter's Gap 1 (also known as Jambarurru to Bunuba people: S. Pannell pers.
comm. 5 May 2010 and Tangalma to the Unggumi: Playford 1960, 2007), a rock
shelter located in the Napier Range about 100 kilometres inland from the present day
coastline, provides evidence of continuous occupation from 39,220 ± 870 years to
650 ± 90 years BP (O'Connor 1995). Other sites in the region show extended periods
of abandonment, i.e. Widgingarri shelters 1 and 2, first occupied 28,060 ± 600 years
BP, then abandoned from 18,900 ± 1800 until 7,780 ± 390 years BP (O'Connor 1999),
Koolan Island shelter 2, first occupied 26,500 ± 1050 years BP, then abandoned
23,900 ± 1360 BP until 10, 550 ± 150 BP (O'Connor 1999) and Riwi cave, first
occupied 40,700 ± 1260 BP, then abandoned from 29,550 ± 290 until 5290 ± 60 BP
(Balme 2000). All of these sites provide important insights into how human
populations adapted to significant environmental change, particularly during the
Pleistocene-Holocene transition (Veth 1995).
Together, these west Kimberley sites also provide some of the oldest evidence of
human occupation in Australia, comparable to Puritjarra in the Cleland Hills, central
Australia (39,000 BP: Smith 1997); Allen's Cave on the Nullarbor Plain in South
Australia (40,000 BP: Roberts et al. 1995); Lake Mungo in New South Wales (46,000
to 50,000 BP: Bowler et al. 2003); GRE8/Lawn Hill in north Queensland (41,500 BP:
O'Connell and Allen 2004); and Devil's Lair in south-west Western Australia (41,000
to 46,000 BP : Turney et al. 2001).
The evidence is unambiguous that humans had occupied all or nearly all parts of the
continent by at least 40,000 years BP. According to Hiscock (2008) the antiquity of
human colonisation of Australia may be older than 45,000 ± 5,000 BP, an age that all
archaeologists accept for sites like Malukunanja II and Lake Mungo, and colonisation
is likely to have been between 50,000 and 60,000 years BP. The little-investigated
west Kimberley region may provide the evidence to conclusively determine the
antiquity of human colonisation of the Australian continent.
As noted above, sites along the west Kimberley coast also provide important evidence
of the occupation of offshore islands. Koolan Island, part of the Buccaneer
Archipelago, provides evidence of punctuated human habitation from the Pleistocene
through to the Holocene, and suggests that a well developed maritime economy had
developed by 10,550 BP (O'Connor 1999). The High Cliffy Islands on the landward
edge of the Montgomery Reef, the most extensive inshore reef on the Kimberley
coast, also provide evidence of human occupation in more recent times. Located
approximately eight kilometres from the present coastline, these islands are connected
at low tide, with a combined landmass, including the exposed reef, of 300 square
kilometres. The islands were cut off by rising seas perhaps 9,000 years ago.
Aboriginal people visited the islands before 7,575 years BP and used it periodically
after that time (Hiscock 2008). On the largest of the High Cliffy islands, O'Connor
(1987) has identified hundreds of stone arrangements including circular stone
structures, stone pathways, standing stones and cairns. Aboriginal people, including
the Yawijibaya, the Traditional Owners of the saltwater country around Montgomery
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eef, utilised the massive tides to move between the mainland and the offshore islands
using light, buoyant rafts, to exploit seasonal marine resources.
There are many islands along the west Kimberley coast but their remoteness has
meant that few have been subject to archaeological survey. The potential for these
places to yield further important information on Aboriginal adaptation to climate and
sea level changes, and the subsistence strategies employed to overcome these
environmental variations is high.
The archaeology of the west Kimberley has already provided nationally significant
evidence on human adaptation to climate change, marine resource use, development
of symbolic behaviour and the antiquity of long distance exchange. The high
significance of the few sites surveyed, coupled with the argument that the west
Kimberley is one of the most likely points through which humans first entered
Australia, suggests that future archaeological surveys in the region may reveal sites of
even greater scientific and archaeological significance. The exceptional preservation
conditions offered by the Devonian reef complex also support the likelihood of further
significant discoveries.
The coastline from Cape Londonderry to Cape Leveque and the Devonian reef
complex have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for
their potential to yield significant new archaeological information contributing to
an understanding of Australia's natural and cultural history.
Natural disasters in the late Holocene: information from Indigenous traditions,
archaeology and the geomorphological record
The coastal fringe of the west Kimberley also offers opportunities for researchers to
investigate the intriguing relationships between oral accounts passed down through
the generations by Aboriginal people and cosmogenic tsunami events. The north-west
coast of Australia has considerable geological evidence suggesting a cosmogenic
megatsunami event as recent as the seventeenth century (Bryant and Nott 2001; Nott
and Bryant 2003; Bryant. 2007). Oral accounts shared by Aboriginal people of the
Wanjina–Wunggurr homeland recount a flooding event that occurred around Walcott
Inlet, north-east of Derby (Mowaljarlai and Malnic 1993). One version of the account
describes a flash flood (Mowarljarlai and Malnic 1993) while another relates to the
Wanjinas, Namarali and Wanalirri, who sent a flood to punish some children who had
been teasing the sacred owl, Dumbi (Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005). The
Balanggarra people of the north Kimberley recount a story about a reef they call
Rinjii-barda'bindingei, where the Dreaming Star 'fell down' to become the highly
prized (and 'very shiny one'), ritually and socially important pearl shell (Pinctada
maxima) (Blundell et al. 2009).
Everywhere in the Kimberley, the coastline evinces either the erosional effect of a
catastrophic wave or its depositional residue in sheltered embayments. Even relatively
small streams show evidence of catastrophic erosion (Nott et al. 1996; Bryant et al.
2007). Evidence suggests that the wave generated by this megatsunami event may
have travelled 35 kilometres inland into the Great Sandy Desert and deposited sands
40 metres deep on the lee side of headlands and laid down bedded gravels on the
landward side of 40 metre hills situated over five kilometres inland (Bryant and Nott
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2001; Nott and Bryant 2003). This event is estimated to have occurred around AD
1690.
Known megatsunami events have been reinterpreted in the light of Indigenous
traditions on the east coast of Australia and in New Zealand (Nott and Bryant 2003).
Investigation and redating of Kimberley tsunami deposits in the context of Indigenous
traditions has the potential to redefine recent geomorphological and climate history as
well as permitting reinterpretation of the traditions as perhaps describing a single
catastrophic event as well as an account of sea level rise over thousands of years. As
noted by Bryant et al. (2007, 213):
* * * *
'The spectacular nature of this cosmic phenomenon has dominated Aboriginal
mythology for the past four centuries. Only by interpreting the proper significance of
this rich oral history and artwork, especially in the Kimberley, can the true origin of
the tsunami be recognised'.
* * * *
Recent research in the Kimberley linking comets and tsunamis to Indigenous oral
histories, painted rock images and stone arrangements provides exciting opportunities
for future collaborative investigations between archaeologists, geologists and
Traditional Owners.
The west Kimberley coast between Cape Londonderry and Cape Leveque has
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for its potential to
yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the nature and the
effect of mega-tsunami events.
Potential of rock paintings to yield information
The fine graphic detail of the painted motifs in the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland and
the Balanggarra native title claim area provide invaluable insights into a number of
nationally important areas of research including climate change and species
extinction; early Aboriginal material culture and technology development; and the
interactions between Aboriginal people and outsiders. The exceptional illustrative
nature of the rock paintings has the potential to provide information at a level of
resolution currently absent from the archaeology. Welch (1993, 29) supports this
view, noting that early Kimberley rock art 'gives us an enormous insight into the
material culture of early Australians'. While the rock paintings of Arnhem Land and
the Kakadu region are also highly informative, Morwood (2002) suggests that the
Kimberley region may have greater potential in demonstrating changes in weapons
used, accoutrements and ideology.
Very few actual weapons survive in the archaeological record (Morwood 2002).
Evidence for the antiquity and development of spears and spear throwers in Australia
comes almost exclusively from the painted images in rock shelters in Arnhem Land
and the Kimberley (Walsh and Morwood 1999, Morwood 2002). In both places, the
Mimi and the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro painted motifs (the latter also known as
Bradshaw figures) show that 'the earliest weapons were boomerangs, clubs, hafted
stone axes and simple, hand-thrown spears; in both areas spear throwers and new
composite spear types subsequently appeared and developed, while boomerangs were
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phased out' (Morwood 2002, 162). But there are also significant regional differences:
'The 'spade handle' spear thrower depicted in the Kimberley never appears in Arnhem
Land rock paintings…and the broad spear thrower cited by Lewis to define a regional
art period in Arnhem Land is not depicted in the Kimberley'' (Morwood 2002).
The Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro painted images also provide insight into other aspects of
material culture, particularly perishable items that do not preserve well in the deposits
of north Australian archaeological sites. Armbands, belts, bags, strings, skirts, hats,
headdresses, tasselled objects and other forms of elaborate body adornment are
common in the images (Taçon et al. 1999). While earlier researchers (Bradshaw 1892;
Mathew 1894; Thomas 1906; Sollas 1915; Elkin 1930; Davidson 1938; Schulz 1956;
Lommel 1997 [1952]; Walsh 1994) suggested that the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro
paintings have a non-Indigenous origin, more recent experts (Welch 1993 1996,
Lewis 1997, Barry and White 2004) have demonstrated links to historic and
contemporary Aboriginal material culture and other north Australian rock art
traditions, such as the Mimi or Dynamic figures of the Arnhem Land and Kakadu
region (Taçon 2000). Welch (1993) notes that splayed neck dilly bags similar to those
portrayed in painted Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro figures were collected in 1912 from
western Arnhem Land (Isaacs 1984). However, dilly bags have not been made in the
northern Kimberley region in historic times, instead bark has been used to make
various containers (Welch 1993).
The technical detail of some of the painted images in the north Kimberley has also
allowed researchers to identify animals to the species level, including species that are
now extinct such as the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus). Akerman and
Willing (2009) recently described the painted image of a large, striped quadruped and
suggest that it might depict a Marsupial Lion (Thylacaleo carnifex), one of the socalled
megafauna that disappeared from the continent during the Pleistocene. Also of
scientific interest is the painted depiction of eight roosting flying foxes that have a
distinctive white facial stripe and pale belly (Pettigrew et al. 2008). None of
Australia's eight species of mega bat has this white facial marking. The closest flying
foxes to Australia that do are those found in Sulawesi and the Maluku Islands
(formerly the Moluccas).
A painted panel of 25 deer-like animals standing in a line has also been recently
recorded (Wilson 2006; Playford 2008; Crawford 2009). Playford suggests that these
four legged animals with obvious antlers may represent the Timor Deer (Cervus
timorensis) a species that at one time was abundant on Timor. This deer is no longer
found on Timor, but it has survived on reserves elsewhere in Indonesia, including
some isolated islands where it has been suggested that they were introduced by
Indonesian fishermen. The interpretation of the deer frieze remains controversial.
Playford (2008) and Walsh (2000) suggested that the images reflect a migratory event
of considerable antiquity, whilst Crawford (2009) notes that the deer painting may
simply reflect things seen by Aboriginal people during the Indonesian contact period.
Rock shelters in the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland and in the Balanggarra native title
claim area also contain painted images of a variety of watercraft that are instructive in
better understanding the interactions between Aboriginal people and outsiders, both
pre and post-European contact. In the Kimberley and in western Arnhem Land,
European vessels and canoes are the most common watercraft depicted (O'Connor and
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Arrow 2008). At a number of Kimberley sites there are painted depictions of small
canoes with upswept bow and stern, paddled by Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro-like figures
(Walsh 2000, Crawford 2009). Crawford (2009) suggests that these paintings
represent Indonesian canoes seen by an Aboriginal artist, or artists, painted in the
post-glacial period, i.e. post 8,000 years BP when the sea level reached its present
level. He further suggests that the paintings probably relate to events within the last
400 years (Crawford 2009, 32). This view is contrary to Walsh's interpretation of
these paintings which he dates to before the last glacial maximum when the coastline
was between 50 and 200 kilometres away.
There are also images of watercraft from the post-European contact period including
what appears to be a dinghy propelled by oars with rowlocks, with three Wanjina-like
figures with pipes in their mouths (Crawford 1968, 2001; O'Connor and Arrow 2008).
Painted images of single and double masted boats, possibly pearling vessels, have
also been recorded by researchers in the area (Sledge 1978; O'Connor and Arrow
2008).
The remoteness of the area and the ruggedness of the terrain have meant few
systematic surveys of the rock art. Grahame Walsh recorded the location and
photographically chronicled thousands of painted rock art images across the
Kimberley study area, but these details are not available to other researchers.
The rock paintings of the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland and the Balanggarra
native title claim area have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (c) for their potential to yield information that will contribute to an
understanding of climate change and species extinction; early Aboriginal
material culture and technology development; and the interactions between
Aboriginal people and outsiders.
CONTACT, CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
Potential to yield further information on Indonesian-Aboriginal interaction
The west Kimberley is in a strategic geographical position to answer a range of
important archaeological research questions regarding past Asian-Australian
interaction. Evidence for Indonesian contact comes from documentary sources,
Aboriginal oral traditions and archaeological sites.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the west Kimberley region was visited by
Indonesian fishermen, commonly referred to as Macassans. For perhaps hundreds of
years, Indonesians came to harvest marine resources including pearl and trochus shell,
turtle shell, clam meat, shark fins and trepang, also known as sea cucumber or bêchede-mer
(Morwood 2002). Macassar (Ujung Pandang) in Sulawesi was the main port
of origin for many of the boats that plied the waters between the Indonesian
archipelago and Australia to collect and process their annual harvest of trepang to sell
to the Chinese who seem uniquely to have appreciated their special qualities (Clarke
2000, Russell 2004).
The social and cultural interactions between these Macassan voyagers and the
Aboriginal people of Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt are well documented through
the archaeological record and historical accounts, particularly those of the Aboriginal
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people whose lives were so closely entwined with the Indonesian fishermen (Clarke
2000; Flinders 1814; Macknight 1969, 1972, 1976, 1986; Mulvaney 1975, 1989;
Ganter 2006). In the Northern Territory, the Macassans are the subject of many
Aboriginal songs, stories and ceremonies; Macassan words have been adopted,
including names given to land; and even elements of Macassan culture can be seen in
the clan totems (Clarke 2000). Paintings and stone arrangements depicting perahus
(Macassan boats) are commonplace and the trepang processing sites themselves have
been extensively studied, providing detailed evidence of Macassan material culture.
Not as much is known about Indonesian interaction with Aboriginal people of the
north-west Kimberley coast, but what is known suggests a very different kind of
relationship than that experienced by the Macassans in Arnhem Land. The
Indonesians called this part of the north Australian coastline 'Kayu Djawa' or 'Kai
Jawa', and as in Arnhem Land, set up camps along its shore and outlying islands to
process trepang (O'Connor and Arrow 2008; Russell 2004). Baudin's expedition of
1803 encountered 26 large perahu near Cassini Island. The French expeditioners
ascertained that the Macassans had been visiting for centuries (Crawford 1968;
Russell 2004, 6 citing Serventy 1952, 15). The Government Resident of Camden
Harbour recorded a fleet of Makassarese sailing into the harbour from the south in
1865 (Crawford 1968).
Without exception, historical sources for the Kimberley area describe a hostile
relationship between the Indonesians and Aboriginal people. Baudin's men were told
that the Aborigines were 'extremely fierce' (Baudin 1974). According to Dramah, a
Macassan captain interviewed by Philip Parker King in 1818, Aboriginal people were
'treacherous and hostile' and the Macassan's small canoes were frequently stolen
(King 1822 vol 1, 136; see King 1969 [1827]). He concluded that a 'perpetual warfare
exists between them' [i.e. Aboriginal peoplee and Indonesians] (King 1822, vol 1,
138; see King 1969 [1827]). Vosmaer, in his 1839 article on Indonesian trade with
Australia, described the Arnhem Land relationship as generally friendly, with
Aboriginal people assisting the Indonesians and trading with them, whereas
Aboriginal people in the Kimberley were regarded as very hostile (Vosmaer 1839).
Aboriginal oral traditions also describe fights between Aboriginal people and
Indonesians, and like Dramah, they ascribe hostilities to the Aboriginal theft of
canoes. Aboriginal people living today recall stories about their grandfathers and
uncles stealing canoes from visiting Indonesian perahus. There are also oral accounts
involving culture heros like Wolaru, who was fed up with the Indonesian intrusion
and sank the whole fleet to the north of Wokuwoku island. In other versions of the
story, Wolaru is replaced by the Wanjina Jakulamarra. In retaliation, the Indonesians
shot Wolaru/Jakulamarra (Crawford 2001, 2009; pers. comm. K. Doohan, 2009).
To date, there is no evidence that Kimberley Aboriginal people worked for the
Indonesians, stored produce for trade, seeded pearl shell to produce pearls, or
volunteered as crew as recorded by Trudgeon (2000) regarding the Yolngu people's
interaction with the Macassans in east Arnhem Land (Crawford 2009). However,
Kimberley Aboriginal people did in time learn how to make their own canoes,
modelling them on Indonesian prototypes. These craft replaced the double log raft in
the some parts of the north Kimberley and allowed Aboriginal people to visit islands
far off the mainland, like Cassini Island (Crawford, 2009). A type of Kriol also
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developed that included some Indonesian words (Crawford 2001, Urry and Walsh
1981).
According to Crawford (2001, 2009) ten Indonesian trepang processing sites are
known along the north-west Kimberley coast from Cape Londonderry to Cape
Bougainville. Given the remote nature of the coast, only a few of these sites have
been investigated, including Tamarinda on the east coast of the Napier Broome Bay
(Crawford 1968) and Anjo Point 2, on the Anjo Peninsula (Morwood and Hobbs
1997). Stone and Morwood (Stone 1999) also identified a number of sites but the
locations of these are confidential at the request of the Traditional Owners. A trepang
processing site on Wokuwoku Island, adjacent to the Bougainville Peninsula, has also
been identified and described as possibly more extensive than the largest sites in the
Northern Territory, with evidence of a large number of hearths (T. Willing pers.
comm. June 2008). Crawford (2009) also notes the unusual nature of this site with
regards to its size and layout (two lines of hearths on either side of the point) and
suggests it may have been the place where the Indonesian fleet dispersed on arrival
and reassembled each season before returning to Indonesia. Rock paintings in the
region also depict what would appear to be Indonesians in canoes (Crawford 1968,
Walsh 2000).
According to Crawford (2009) the archaeological evidence is consistent with the
concept of hostilities between Indonesians and Aboriginal people. Sites appear to
have been selected with an eye to their defence. They are generally in open positions
where the Indonesians could easily see any approaching Aboriginal person. Musket
balls and flint from flint-lock guns found at the Macassan site known as Tamarinda
indicate a preparedness for defence.
Many questions remain about the nature of Indonesian contact with the Kimberley
region. Crawford (pers. comm. 4 Nov 2009) suggests that the contact may have been
different to that of Arnhem Land because of the Kimberley's closer proximity to
Indonesia allowing visitation by fleets from other ports, like Kupang and Roti. Most
of the earthenware pottery excavated at Tamarinda was derived from Flores, raising
the possibility that Flores may also have been a centre of trade (Crawford 2009).
The historical accounts and oral traditions of Aboriginal people suggest a very
different kind of relationship between Indonesians and Kimberley Aboriginal people
than that experienced between Macassans and Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land.
Few archaeological surveys have been conducted to investigate this important pre-
European contact..Those that have also support the view that something different was
happening in the Kimberley.
The west Kimberley coast from Cape Londonderry to the Lacepede Islands has
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for its potential to
yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Indonesian-
Aboriginal interaction in Australia's cultural history.
European explorers
In review of the exploration literature, two places, Karrakatta Bay and Careening Bay,
have been identified as having potential research value to the nation.
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Karrakatta Bay
Karrakatta Bay is a small bay situated on the northern most point of the Dampier
Peninsula, Western Australia. It opens onto the Indian Ocean at the entrance to King
Sound. It contains, in a cove on its north side a white sand beach with rugged
sandstone outcrops at either end (George 1999).
In 1688, the English ship Cygnet was careened for repair in 'a small sandy Cove' for
around two months (Dampier 1998 [1697]). The most probable site of this careening
is now considered to be a small cove on the north side of Karrakatta Bay, as described
above (Marchant 1988; George 1999; Pearson 2005). As such, Karrakatta Bay is
significant as a seventeenth century first contact site. One of the Englishmen on board
the Cygnet was William Dampier who, during the time spent in Karrakatta Bay, made
numerous observations of the natural history of the area and, more importantly, the
Aboriginal people he encountered. He published his journals on his return to England
in A new voyage round the world (1998 [1697]). Dampier became an instant celebrity
and his account of the voyage received wide European readership. The observations
he made influenced future generations of Australian explorers, including Banks and
Cook, particularly in relation to their attitudes towards Aboriginal people, and
inspired literary works such as Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (Mulvaney 1989;
Pearson 2005).
Archaeological evidence that can attest to the presence of the Cygnet and its crew may
be found at Karrakatta Bay. The length of the Cygnet's stay at Karrakatta Bay (up to
two months) increases the likelihood of the existence of such evidence.
Dampier's own accounts of his landing indicate what sort of archaeological evidence
could be found. He notes that the crew stayed in tents, mended their sails near the
camp and that they hunted turtle and manatee every day. This suggests that evidence
for the camp itself is not very likely, as tents and the mending of sails do not normally
leave a lasting impression on the landscape. Also, the crew are likely to take these
items with them when they leave. This leaves refuse pits/areas containing the remains
of their meals and activities, including the bones of the mentioned turtles and
manatees, as the most likely extant evidence of the crew's presence. Personal items
discarded or lost by the crew might also be found around the camp site. George
(1999) notes that Karrakatta Bay is on an Aboriginal reserve and remains relatively
undisturbed by modern development. He believes the Bay is little disturbed which is
promising for the preservation of any archaeological evidence.
This type of archaeological evidence could offer information on the lives of late
seventeenth century maritime explorers/buccaneers. Specifically, it can offer
information on how such men survived and occupied their time while ashore in
remote regions. It could indicate, among other things, what they ate, what sort of
conditions they lived in, what type of activities they undertook, and how they went
about repairing a careened ship.
A literature review was carried out to assess whether research material was likely to
be found within the Karrakatta Bay site.
Unfortunately, very little archaeological research at Karrakatta Bay appears to have
been done. The archaeology in this area tends to focus on shipwrecks and as the
153

Cygnet was careened, not wrecked, it has not been a focus of archaeological research
to date. A search of relevant databases and journals for any record of archaeological
work at Karrakatta Bay offered no results. The Department of Maritime Archaeology
(DMA) at the Western Australian Museum (J Green pers. comm. and S Cox pers.
comm. March 2010) indicated that very little archaeological fieldwork had been
undertaken along the Kimberley coast by their Department and that there was no
known archaeological evidence for the Cygnet or her crew at Karrakatta Bay. Ross
Anderson also from the DMA, claimed that recent fieldwork undertaken by the DMA
in the Kimberley area did not investigate this site in any further detail (R Anderson
pers. comm.). Careening sites are generally very ephemeral, leaving little evidence of
such activity. The Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the Western
Australian Museum advised that there were stonewall fish traps at Karrakatta Bay as
Dampier described in his journal (M Smith pers. comm. March 2010). Moira Smith at
this museum noted that she had hoped to find obvious evidence of the encounter
camps but did not find any in the course of her field work.
Thus, while it is possible there is archaeological evidence for the careening of the
Cygnet and her crew at Karrakatta Bay, most likely in the form of refuse pits/areas
and lost or discarded personal items, the necessary fieldwork has not been undertaken
to ascertain its existence.
For the Karrakatta Bay site to meet threshold under criterion (c), it is necessary for the
archaeological evidence to be demonstrable. As stated above, the necessary fieldwork
has not been undertaken to establish the existence of archaeological remains at
Karrakatta Bay. As such, Karrakatta Bay does not meet the necessary threshold for
listing under criterion (c).
Even if the necessary fieldwork was undertaken at Karrakatta Bay and the
archaeological evidence as described above was uncovered, it is not likely this
evidence would offer any greater insight into the period of the late seventeenth
century or the lives of maritime explorers/buccaneers. Dampier kept very detailed
journals of his voyages during this period which provide valuable information.
It is arguable that should evidence which adds to our knowledge of the period be
discovered at the site, it may still not be outstanding in a way which meets the
threshold of national importance.
In summary Karrakatta Bay is considered to be below threshold under criterion (c).
This is due to the lack of demonstrable archaeological evidence at the site. In addition,
the question remains as to whether the archaeological evidence, were it actually
found, would offer additional information of national significance.
Careening Bay
Careening Bay is a small bay situated at the base of Port Nelson, Western Australia. It
is protected at its northern end by a natural breakwater of black rocks. A white sandy
beach, a part of Prince Regent Nature Reserve, faces onto the bay.
In 1820, Philip Parker King careened his ship, the Mermaid, for crucial repairs at
Careening Bay over about a three week period. The repairs made to the Mermaid
enabled King to continue his survey of the Australian coast. This survey work would
154

complete what Matthew Flinders had begun, nearly two decades earlier, and led to the
production of maps which allowed for safely-navigable coastal shipping routes. These
maps were published as Admiralty charts and had a lasting influence, with several of
King's coastal sheets and plans of harbours and gulfs still in use in the mid-twentieth
century (Pearson 2005).
Archaeological evidence that can attest to the presence of the Mermaid and its crew
may be found at Careening Bay. The length of the Mermaid's stay at Careening Bay
(up to three weeks) increases the likelihood of the existence of such evidence.
An estimate of the archaeological evidence that can be expected to be found at
Careening Bay is gained from King's published journal, Narrative of a Survey of the
Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia (originally published in 1827). He
describes a boab tree that was carved by his crew with the words 'HMC Mermaid
1820'. This tree, he claimed on his return nearly a year later, 'seemed likely to bear the
marks of our visit longer than any other memento we had left' (King 1969 [1827]). He
also mentioned an inscribed copper sheet that was attached to a tree which had been
used to prop up the mess tent in their camp. He notes, however, that this was already
becoming detached from the tree, when they returned the following year.
Upon careening, King's crew found that extensive repairs to the ship were necessary.
Large iron bolts and brackets that had been salvaged from another ship, the Frederick,
were required to hold together a large rent in the Mermaid's keel. Chain plates, also
salvaged from the Frederick were forged into a large iron brace to help hold the ship
together. To do this, members of the Mermaid crew constructed a forge from local
stone and created their own charcoal from the plentiful trees nearby (Hordern 1997).
It is possible that evidence of this forge, refuse and charcoal remain at the site. While
repairing the ship, King states that they also found the iron nails in the ship's hull to
be severely decayed and in need of replacement. It is likely that these would have
been left where they fell after removal.
King included in his journal a sketch of Careening Bay which depicts the ship on the
beach and their camp nearby. The sketch shows that the crew stayed in tents. An area
of wooden crates/barrels is situated near their camp, which is very close to the highest
tide mark. It seems likely that little evidence of the camp would be left as the tents
and crate/barrels would have been taken with them when they left the bay. However,
it is safe to assume that a refuse pit/area would be found near where the camp was
located. Personal items of crew members, either lost or discarded, might also be
present in and around the camp site.
Archaeological evidence could offer information on the lives of nineteenth century
maritime explorers. Specifically, it offers a glimpse of how such men survived and
occupied their time while ashore in remote regions. It could indicate, among other
things, what they ate, what sort of conditions they lived in, what type of activities they
undertook, and how they went about repairing a careened ship.
A literature review was carried out to assess whether research material was likely to
be found within the Careening Bay site.
155

Very little work has been done at the site of Careening Bay. A search of relevant
databases and journals for any record of archaeological fieldwork undertaken at the
site came up with the one result; a report entitled Wreck Inspection North Coast
(WINC). In this report Sledge (1978) noted that the boab tree, known as the 'Mermaid
Tree', still existed and its inscription is still readily identifiable. He also located the
fresh water pools King describes in his journal. However, no other archaeological
evidence is recorded. In his visit to the site of Careening Bay in 1993, Hordern (1997)
noted the presence of the 'Mermaid Tree'. He also stated that, while he actively
searched for the copper sheet and the tree it had been nailed to, he was unable to find
evidence for either.
The Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (December 2009 newsletter)
reported that no work had been completed by the Department of Maritime
Archaeology, along the Kimberley coast, since the 1978 WINC report. The
Department of Maritime Archaeology (DMA) at the Western Australian Museum,
confirmed this (J Green pers. comm. and R Anderson pers. comm. March 2010).
Susan Cox, also from the DMA, similarly confirmed that there was no known
archaeological evidence for the Mermaid or her crew at Careening Bay, apart from the
'Mermaid Tree' (S Cox pers. comm. March 2010). Ross Anderson also claimed that
recent fieldwork undertaken by the DMA in the Kimberley area did not include any
investigation of this site in any further detail.
Thus, while there is known archaeological evidence for the careening of the Mermaid
and her crew at Careening Bay, due to the continued existence of the 'Mermaid Tree',
the necessary fieldwork has not been undertaken to ascertain the existence of other
possible archaeological remains, such as refuse pits/areas, lost or discarded personal
items, the copper sheet which could be expected near where the camp was located,
and evidence for the repair of the ship itself, in this case a stone forge, charcoal and
decayed iron nails, might still exist.
The assessment guidelines (Australian Heritage Council 2009) for criterion (c) state
that for a site to be considered of outstanding significance, it must have the
demonstrable potential to yield information, not just the possibility. It is not enough to
identify that there may be archaeological evidence at Careening Bay and what form it
could take. As stated above, the necessary fieldwork has not been undertaken to
establish the existence of the archaeological remains that could potentially yield
further information. As such, the site of Careening Bay is below threshold under
criterion (c).
The assessment guidelines for criterion (c) also state that the potential information
offered by a site must make a contribution of national importance. It should offer a
greater understanding of one or more periods in the history of Australians or ways of
life or cultures characteristic of Australia. Even if the necessary fieldwork was
undertaken at Careening Bay and the archaeological evidence as described above was
uncovered, it is unlikely this evidence would offer any greater insight into the period
of the nineteenth century or the lives of maritime explorers. Many such individuals
kept detailed journals and as much, if not more information can be gained from these.
There are also a number of other sites with known archaeological evidence of a
similar nature from around this period. For instance, at Endeavour River (present day
Cooktown) in Queensland, Cook careened the Endeavour for repairs. At this site coal,
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and the remains of a forge was cited to have been found (R Anderson pers. comm.
March 2010). If similar artefacts were recovered at Careening Bay, they may not
provide more information than has already been gained from these other sites. As
such, it is unlikely Careening Bay would yield additional information of national
importance.
In summary Careening Bay is considered to be below threshold under criterion (c).
This is due to the lack of demonstrable archaeological evidence at the site and the
uncertainty as to whether the archaeological evidence, were it actually found, would
offer additional information of national significance.
On the basis of current evidence Careening Bay and Karrakatta Bay is below
threshold under criterion (c) for their potential to yield information that will
contribute to an understanding of Australia's natural or cultural history.
CRITERION (d) – The place has outstanding heritage value because of the place's
importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of
i. a class of Australia's natural or cultural places; or
ii. a class of Australia's natural or cultural environments.
ANCIENT LANDSCAPES, GEOLOGICAL PROCESSES
The Kimberley coast from the Helpman Islands in King Sound to Cambridge Gulf is
very intricate in plan form, with a rugged, deeply embayed, coastline including
sounds, narrow inlets and archipelagos, as well as inundated terrestrial (fluvial)
landscapes of the Pleistocene reflected in bathymetry. It is a ria coast – the result of
post-glacial flooding of a fluvial landscape which itself developed with strong control
by folding, faulting and jointing bedrock structures (Sharples 2009; Maher and Copp
2009). Consequently, much of the coastline, the archipelagos and the bathymetry are
strongly controlled by large-scale bedrock folding structures (for example, the
Buccaneer Archipelago region and Yampi Peninsula) or fault and joint structures (for
example, the Prince Regent River) which are the result of deformation, faulting and
metamorphism during the Hooper, Yampi and King Leopold orogenies in the
Proterozoic and earliest Palaeozoic eons (detailed separately below under criterion
(a)). The complex morphology of the modern coastal and subtidal seafloor landscapes
is inherited from these ancient earth movements (Sharples 2009; Wilson 2009a).
A ria coast is a four-dimensional entity with a modern form expressing both its
history and the processes that have shaped it. Along the Kimberley coast over the last
two million years, sea level changes during each Pleistocene glacial/interglacial cycle
inundated ranges, upland valleys and river gorges to form narrow peninsulas, long
inlets, deep embayments and submarine canyons, and the hills that once rose above
lowlands are now islands and submerged rises, in a repetition of earlier sea level
changes (Maher and Copp 2009).
Specialist coastal geomorphologists attending a workshop examining the heritage
values of Australian rocky coasts, organised by DEWHA in July 2009, established
that the Kimberley ria coast is among the top six rocky coasts (because of the
processes that shaped and continue to shape it) and arguably the most important ria
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coast in the country (DEWHA 2009c). Although the Proterozoic rocks of Cape
Leveque at the tip of Dampier Peninsula are roughly contemporaneous, they do not
form part of the drowned riverine system which characterises the coast from the
Helpman Islands north and east to Cambridge Gulf. Ria coasts are a major regionalscale
coastal landform type internationally (Bird 2000, p. 221). The north-west
Kimberley coast is the most extensive region of well expressed ria coast and also the
longest stretch of predominantly rocky coast in Australia (Short and Woodroffe
2009). Short and Woodroffe calculated in 2009 that the mainland Kimberley coast is
approximately 2,500 kilometres long and 80 per cent of this length is rocky. Inlets
(particularly estuarine) with muddy tidal flats, mangroves and backing salt pans are
the most important subordinate coastal landform type in the Kimberley region. Sandy
beaches are not uncommon, but most are very short (Short 2006, Sharples 2009;
Sharples et al. 2009). With the exception of localised sites such as the Cockatoo –
Koolan Island mines, there is little high-density disturbance or infrastructure on the
Kimberley ria coast. As a result long stretches of this coast exhibit coastal landforms
and processes in a mostly unmodified condition.
Bathymetric mapping has identified submarine features on the continental shelf
fringing the Kimberley coast which are evidently drowned hills, plateaux, river
valleys and gorges (for example, in the King Sound – Buccaneer archipelago region),
and hence are part of the drowned fluvial landscape which gives distinctive character
to the Kimberley coast (see for example Tyler et al. 1992). Taking a four-dimensional
perspective, the Kimberley ria coast is more than the modern shoreline. It includes
areas that have been significantly shaped by fluvial, terrestrial and marine (coastal)
geomorphic processes. These processes alternated and interacted during the
glacial/interglacial climatic phases of the Pleistocene; and over longer timescales, the
extended coast records processes affecting the ancient shores of the Proterozoic
Kimberley craton. The point of highest sea level at the Last Interglacial occurred
roughly 125,000 years ago. The point of lowest sea level at the last glacial maximum
(LGM) occurred around 20,000 years ago. Note these levels are assumed to be
indicative of high- and low-sea stands during earlier glacial and interglacial phases,
for which direct evidence is not as well preserved. However, taking the longer
timescale of the Phanerozoic eon, the 30 metre bathymetric line represents the extent
of the coast for much of the last 500 million years.
At the last interglacial high stand, global eustatic sea levels generally were less than
six metres above present sea level (APSL), although uncertainty about uplift, hydroisostatic
deformation and the erosion of evidence makes it difficult to pin down
precisely, and it varies regionally. The highest last interglacial stand recorded along
the Western Australian coast is at Lake MacLeod, which has palaeo-shorelines up to
ten metres APSL, but this and nearby sites at Cape Cuvier and Cape Range show
evidence of regional warping. There are few reliably dated north-western Australian
sites (Murray–Wallace and Belperio 1991; Kendrick et al. 1991). Because of this
uncertainty, the Kimberley shoreline at the Last Interglacial is considered to extend
inland to the six metre contour. At the LGM, the Kimberley ria coast was up to 130
metres below present sea level (BPSL), meaning the coast was a long way seaward of
its present position. Before the marine inundation following the LGM, people, flora
and fauna would have lived in an ancient riverine landscape that is now drowned
(Wilson 2009a; Sharples pers. comm. 2009; Maher and Copp 2009). This appears to
be an extraordinary sea level retreat, and to reflect processes of uplift and subsidence
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as well. Taking a longer perspective on the coast, this seaward boundary can be
refined to reflect dominant marine and terrestrial processes throughout Phanerozoic
time, due to the extraordinary stability of the Kimberley craton over the last half
billion years.
A report prepared for the Australian Heritage Council in 2009 by the Western
Australian Marine Science Institution confirms that the western margin of the
Proterozoic Kimberley craton 'lies 50 kilometres or more seaward of the
contemporary coast where the seabed is at least 30 m deep. Thus, the western margin
of the Kimberley Plateau is today inundated by the sea and the nearshore seabed is an
inundated terrestrial land surface.' (Wilson 2009a; Wilson 2009b) The seabed
topography of the submerged margin of the Kimberley craton during the Phanerozoic
eon is largely the result of terrestrial landform development rather than marine
processes to at least the 30 metre bathymetric line (Wilson 2009b). The modern inner
continental shelf of the Kimberley coast is characterised by these 'seabed landscapes'.
For example, recent imagery of the sea floor near Montgomery Reef clearly shows a
broad valley and the beds of ancient streams (Wilson 2009a) and Montgomery 'Reef'
itself is interpreted as a drowned flat-topped mesa of Proterozoic rocks encrusted with
modern coral communities (Wilson 2009b).
However, the distance inland from the shoreline that is affected by coastal processes
is subject to a number of variables apart from sea level, including climate and
topography and there is no simple metric to determine the inland extension of a ria
coast. A ria coast is the result of interaction between fluvial (river) and marine
(coastal) processes. Over long periods, the interaction between persistent fluvial
processes and persistent coastal processes produces its distinctive topography. Thus, a
ria coastal zone is best defined as that zone in which marine processes (waves and
currents) and fluvial processes (runoff and river discharges etc) have both had
substantial persistent impacts that have shaped the landscape we see today. In practice
since the Proterozoic, that means the zone from about 30 metres BPSL (LGM
shoreline) and about four to six metres above present sea level (last interglacial
shoreline), with a further one kilometre distance inland allowing incorporation of a
portion of the fluvial landscape above the limit of known marine influence.
The Kimberley coast is a tide dominated macrotidal coast which, partly due to the
extensive shallow continental shelf, has the highest tidal range in Australia (more than
10 metres in parts; Short and Woodroffe 2009). This, together with the particularly
intricate, hard-rock shore plan forms, produces rocky coast tidal current processes on
a magnitude not found elsewhere in Australia, including 'horizontal waterfalls' and
common coastal whirlpools. In comparison, on a soft-sediment coast the shore would
adjust its plan form to damp or absorb the tidal current energy; on a hard rock coast
like the Kimberley, the shoreline resists changing according to tidal currents, and so
whirlpools and horizontal waterfalls occur at narrow choke points (Chris Sharples
pers. comm. 2009). Thus, the Kimberley region's rocky coast exhibits a distinctive
and very well-expressed, tide dominated, rocky coastal, geomorphic process regime.
Comparably extensive rocky coasts:
All other stretches of Australian coast of comparable length to the Kimberley have
much higher proportions of soft sediment coast (sandy or muddy) than the Kimberley.
Other significantly rocky coastal lengths include the Albany region of southern
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Western Australia, the Eyre Peninsula–Kangaroo Island coastal stretch, western
Victoria and south-western Tasmania, but these are all much shorter in total length
and all include significantly higher proportions of sandy beaches than the Kimberley
coast.
Other long dominantly-rocky coast sections include the Zuytdorp Cliffs of Western
Australia and the Bunda and Baxter Cliffs of the Great Australian Bight; however
these are much shorter coastal stretches than the Kimberley (Short and Woodroffe
2009). They also take a very different plan form, being straight or at most gently
curvilinear, with internally draining limestone hinterland areas resulting in a lack of
fluvial system controls on coastal forms (DEWHA 2009c; Sharples et al. 2009;
Sharples 2009; White 2009).
Comparably well-expressed and extensive ria coasts in Australia include:
- Arnhem Land coast: intricate fold and joint-controlled rocky quartzite coasts
of at least partly ria character, including the Wessell Islands. The Arnhem Land coast
is similar in some respects to the Kimberley but is much less extensive (Sharples et al.
2009; Sharples 2009).
- The east coast of Australia (New South Wales) contains many very wellexpressed
rias, for example, the drowned river valleys of Sydney Harbour and the
Hawkesbury River, but these are mostly individual flooded river valleys separated by
long stretches of sandy, swell-aligned coasts. They do not form a long integral
dominantly-ria rocky coast as does the Kimberley (DEWHA 2009c; Sharples et al.
2009; Sharples 2009.
- Southern Tasmania demonstrates a well developed complex ria coast, but is
much less extensive than the Kimberley coast, with a much higher proportion of
sandy embayments. Its wave-dominated environment is not comparable to the
Kimberley in terms of tidal processes. Many of its narrow inlets are extensional
faulted graben structures formerly occupied by rivers but are different in structural
origin to the Kimberley coast. This reflects a different set of processes and results in
different bathymetry and expression from the Kimberley (DEWHA 2009c; Maher and
Copp 2009; Sharples 2009).
Comparable tide-dominated Australian coasts:
The Kimberley coast has the highest tidal ranges of the Australian coast (Short and
Woodroffe 2009). Similarly high tidal ranges occur south-west of the Kimberley
(Eighty Mile Beach region) and in the eastern Bonaparte Gulf region, however these
coasts are of very different character to the Kimberley rocky coast, comprising mainly
sandy beaches and tidal mudflats. Without the complex rocky coastal plan forms
constraining coastal response to tides, these regions do not exhibit the dramatic tidal
current phenomena of the Kimberley. Comparably intricate rocky coasts elsewhere
(e.g., Arnhem Land, south-east Tasmania) have much lower tidal ranges with
consequently much less pronounced tidal current processes (DEWHA 2009c;
Sharples 2009; Sharples et al. 2009; Chris Sharples pers. comm. 2009).
Comparable coasts with reduced high-density coastal infrastructure:
There are no comparably long stretches of the Australian coast with equivalently lowdensity
near coastal infrastructure (including roads) or physical disturbance. The two
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coastal regions which may exhibit similarly low-density coastal infrastructure are
probably south-western Tasmania (but this is a much shorter length of coast whose
form is not dominated by fluvial processes apart from one ria inlet at Port Davey –
Bathurst Harbour) and possibly parts of Cape York. The coasts of Cape York are not
well documented but they are clearly different to the Kimberley in many respects. For
example, they are not dominated by intricate, fold and joint-controlled rocky ria coast
(DEWHA 2009c; Sharples et al. 2009; Sharples 2009).
Nowhere else in Australia, or possibly the world, provides the opportunity to study
the effects of macrotidal tide-dominated rocky coast processes, and repeatedly
interacting sea level changes and fluvial landform processes through time, on an
extensively rocky coast that lacks the disturbance caused by extensive high-density
coastal infrastructure (Sharples 2009). There are many ria coasts in the world, and
other ria coasts in Australia, but the Kimberley rocky coast is unique in Australia and
rare in the world for preserving a continuous and intricate dominantly-rocky fluvial
and drowned fluvial landscape over a length of more than 2500 kilometres. As such, it
is the best expression in the country of this type of landscape and the processes that
have shaped and continue to shape it during the Phanerozoic eon.
The west Kimberley coast from Helpman Islands in King Sound to the western
shore of Cambridge Gulf, including islands, peninsulas, inlets and inundated
features, has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) for
demonstrating the principal characteristics of a major coastal landform type,
namely a very well-expressed and extensive rocky ria coast, in an extensive
region without significant modification by coastal infrastructure.
A Late Devonian tropical carbonate ramp on an ancient continental shelf can be
reconstructed from the calcareous sediments and geomorphology of the Lennard
Shelf. These limestone complexes lie off the palaeomainland represented by the
folded and faulted, granitic and metamorphic Kimberley Block to the north (described
under criterion (a) as the rocks of the King Leopold orogeny). Present Lennard Shelf
topography 'strikingly resembles' Devonian seafloor (Playford 1980). A multitude of
features and their spatial relations provide an integrated picture of a proto-Australian
tropical continental shelf environment from 390–360 million years ago (Playford and
Lowry 1966; Playford 1980; Webb 2001; Johnson and Webb 2007; Playford et al.
2009). These features include palaeoshores, palaeoinlets, platforms, atolls, interreef
basins, debris flows, islands and archipelagos with fringing reefs (including the
superbly preserved Mowanbini Archipelago of the Oscar Range). The remains of a
barrier reef, including the forereef accumulations, lagoon deposits, patch reefs,
bioherms (mud mounds) that grew on pinnacle reefs rising from the shallow sea floor
of the backreef lagoon are also found here. Limestone nodules found in the lagoons
and on the forereef slope as it grades into shelf sediments preserve entire fish and
crustaceans at the Gogo fossil localities. Classic reef sections are exposed as cross
sections in river gorges, most notably at Windjana Gorge in the Napier Range, and in
Geikie Gorge. The Lennard Shelf complexes probably represent an epicontinental
shelf, separating two emergent parts of a continental shelf, covered by a shallow
inland sea.
A suite of diverse environments is represented on the Lennard Shelf, allowing
reconstruction of a complex, large scale shallow marine environment. The minimal
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post-deposition deformation and lack of dolomitisation that the area has experienced
is integral to this reconstruction (Johnson and Webb 2007; Playford et al 2009). As
noted by Playford et al. (2009) 'the present-day topography mimics that of the
Devonian sea floor, so that from the air it might appear that the sea has only recently
withdrawn from the area'. This allows interpretation at multiple scales. From the air or
in plan view, the topography preserves regional spatial relationships of the ancient
tropical ramp environment, from deeper water pinnacle reefs on the outer shelf,
through basins and platforms, slopes and reef margins to fringing reefs, islands and
lagoons. Finer resolution allows the reconstruction of detailed local palaeoecologies,
as demonstrated by John Long and others at the intrabasin Gogo localities, which
occur as deeper water slope communities. Johnston and Webb (2007) reconstructed
hydrodynamics, prevailing wind directions and local faunas from sediments and
spatial relationships around the palaeoislands of the Mowanbini Archipelago to yield
'a multifaceted and unparalleled portrait of marine biofacies dispersal in an ancient
tropical island group'.
Around the world, such long term preservation of large scale geographic relationships
in the rock record is rare (Johnson and Webb 2007). Relics of former shorelines are
more common, but tend to be very limited in exposure, and often subject to later
deformation. Devonian rocky shores are poorly documented in the literature.
Palaeoislands have been noted at several sites in North America but the retention of
rocky shores circumscribing entire archipelagos, as in the Mowanbini Archipelago
(represented by the palaeoproterozoic rocks of the Oscar Range) and intervening
undisturbed Pillara Limestone strata, is extraordinary and provides an exceptional
opportunity to reconstruct the spatial relationships of fossil communities and features
under the influence of a variety of depositional, mechanical and climate factors.
The much more recent Pliocene Loxton–Parilla sands (approximately 5,000,000–
2,000,000 years ago) in the upper part of the Murray Basin sequence are part of a
prograding shelf environment which formed as 400 kilometre long barrier complexes
in the Miocene 'Murravian Gulf' under the action of long-period ocean swell waves.
The sequence preserves a series of shore line ridges, formed in response to sea level
fluctuations linked to Milankovitch cycles in the Pliocene epoch. These strand lines
can be used to date and reconstruct sea level advance and regression in response to
climate forcing and demonstrate inshore hydrodynamics at a gross level. Although
minimally deformed (aside from localised uplift), in most areas, the resulting 400
kilometre wide barrier strand plain is now entirely overlain by fluvial, aeolian, and
lacustrine deposits and does not provide the same resolution, variety of shelf
environments or possibilities for elucidation of former spatial/geographic
relationships as the Lennard Shelf complexes (Roy et al. 2000). They are also 370
million years younger. The Ediacara sites at Nilpena, South Australia, are thought to
represent an ancient sea floor on the edge of a submarine canyon, undisturbed enough
to preserve the softbodied organisms that make up the fauna at that time in life
positions. This site, however, preserves a single environment at a much older time
than that represented in the Kimberley and on a smaller scale. At the only comparable
Devonian shelf environments in Australia, the Devonian Wee Jasper/Taemas (New
South Wales) and Buchan (Vic) reef sites, the tropical ramp environments preserved
have been deformed by later tectonic events and only biohermal and bistromal reefs
are preserved, without the excellent preservation and the suite of shelf environments
represented in the Kimberley (Yeates 2001).
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The Devonian carbonate complexes of the Lennard Shelf have outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) for demonstrating the principal
characteristics of a very well preserved proto Australian carbonate ramp
environment on an ancient continental shelf.
ECOLOGY, BIOGEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION
The ichnofossils (trace fossils including dinosaur tracks) preserved in the Broome
Sandstone exposed in the intertidal zone along the Dampier Coast represent up to 15
different types (Thulborn et al. 1994; Thulborn 1997; Long 1998; Tyler 2000; Long
2004; Thulborn 2009). Described from this unit is the ichnospecies Megalosauropus
broomensis Colbert and Merrilees 1967 and also found here is Wintonopus, an
ichnogenus known from Lark Quarry in Queensland (Molnar 1994; Cook 2004). As
described by Thulborn et al. (1994) and figured in Long (1998) the Broome Sandstone
fauna is thought to include not just this ichno-theropod and ornithopod, but also
thyreophorans (possibly stegosaurians) and sauropods. The thyreophoran tracks, if
stegosaurian affinity is substantiated, are the only record of stegosaurs in Australia –
the only other thyreophoran discovered within Australia is the ankylosaur Minmi
paravertebra Molar 1980 (Long 1998). Further, these would be the world's first
stegosaurian prints discovered. Some of the sauropod tracks appear to be referrable to
Brontopodus but three or four different types of track are also present, implying a
diverse sauropod fauna (Thulborn et al 1994; Thulborn 1997). The Broome Sandstone
tracks are therefore one of the most taxonomically diverse dinosaur track sites known
anywhere in the world and certainly the most diverse in Australia.
As well as the tracks, sedimentological and palaeobotanical features of the Broome
Sandstone allow the palaeoecology of the area during this time period to be
reconstructed. Plant macrofossils from this unit were preliminarily described by
White (1961) and were reviewed by McLoughlin (1996), though much work remains
to be done (Thulborn 2009). The plant and sedimentological evidence allows
reconstruction of the environments in which the dinosaurs found here lived and fed,
providing a fuller palaeoecological picture of a suite of Cretaceous coastal
environments. These range from lagoonal to fluvial/deltaic, with even an estuarine
and a swamp/forest region. The dinosaur tracks that occur in each of these differ – the
sauropods appear in most environments, though there are different morphological
types of sauropod tracks in some. The theropods and larger ornithopods only occur
occasionally in the lagoonal environment, the smaller theropods and sauropods not at
all. In the more sheltered, forested environments the most diverse fauna is found
(Thulborn et al. 1994). The Cretaceous landscapes that occurred here were buried
intact and reveal original topography, with soils, leaf litter and even fossils of plants
in their growth positions (roots can be seen descending into the substrate). Dinosaur
tracks meander around these plants so that one may walk across these ancient
landscapes following their paths through clumps of vegetation (Thulborn pers. comm.
2009). The Broome Sandstone coastal exposures of dinosaur tracks and associated
fossils therefore tell an integrated story of the animals, plants and physical
environment of this area during the Early Cretaceous period, approximately 132
million years ago.
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The National Heritage listed Lark Quarry site in Queensland preserves a 'dinosaur
stampede' and was among the best-preserved dinosaur trackways in the world, though
a recent accident may have damaged the bedding plane. As many as 4000 footprints
are preserved here, representing the tracks of as may as 150 dinosaurs (Thulborn
2009). Elsewhere in the Winton Formation, in which Lark Quarry is located, plant
micro– and macrofossils are also found, but the landscape preservation of in situ
plants that occurs in the Broome Sandstone is not matched. The taxonomic diversity
of the Lark Quarry tracks is low – the site preserves prints of groups of ornithopods
and small theropods running from a larger theropod predator at a single point in time.
By contrast, the Broome tracks originate from several stratigraphic horizons within
the Broome Sandstone so may represent slightly different time periods (Long 2004;
Thulborn 2009). No other track site in Australia provides the range of environmental
settings that are preserved in the Broome Sandstone – each with its own characteristic
ichnofauna (Thulborn 2009).
The Broome Sandstone exposed in the intertidal zone of the Dampier Coast provide a
glimpse of the places in which sauropods were living, and also records their
interaction with other dinosaur taxa in ways that body fossils cannot. Further, it
contains information about Mesozoic ecology that simply isn't preserved anywhere
else in the world. Tracks are particularly valuable as sources of behavioural data about
extinct animals. Body fossils of dinosaurs are invariably transported from the
environments in which the animals lived and as such palaeoecological reconstructions
based on these remains are usually focussed on characteristics such as body size and
diet. Footprints, especially those found in the Broome Sandstone, which in places
weave around fossilised plants still in their life positions, give us the opportunity to
glimpse the lives of these animals
The dinosaur tracks and associated ichnofossils, plant macrofossils and
Cretaceous depositional environments of the Broome Sandstone exposed in the
intertidal zone of the Dampier Coast have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (d) for preserving snapshots of the ecology of the
Mesozoic.
WEALTH OF THE LAND AND SEA
Camden Sound humpback whale calving area
The Kimberley is the northern migration destination and calving ground for the
largest population of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the world (DEC
2009). Humpback whales travel thousands of kilometres to warm tropical waters to
mate and to calve. Two separate populations of humpback whales occur in Australian
waters: Group IV migrates along the west coast and Group V along the east coast.
Group IV is regarded as a single population while Group V consists of three subpopulations
whose migration destinations are eastern Australia, New Caledonia and
Tonga/Fiji (IWC 2005). All age classes participate in the migration, with pregnant
females the last to leave Antarctica, arriving at the calving grounds as some of the
earlier arrivals are preparing for the return migration south (Chittleborough 1965;
Dawbin 1997). Camden Sound may be the largest humpback whale nursery in the
world, with up to 1,000 whales recorded (Costin and Sandes 2009a, 2009b; DEC
2009). It is ecologically significant as one of many staging posts during the cyclical,
seasonal, continuous migration of the west coast (Group IV) humpbacks between their
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Antarctic feeding grounds and breeding grounds in north-western Australia. However,
in this report the ecological process or natural environment 'represented' by the
migration is considered to be the migration itself, not disconnected elements of it.
If humpback whale calving grounds or whale migrations (as opposed to other
cetaceans, or other migratory species) have outstanding heritage value to the nation,
there is insufficient evidence to suggest that the Group IV population, or any
aggregation of it, is more important than the Group V (east coast) populations. The
east and west coast populations are distinct. Group IV appears to contain about twice
as many individuals as the Group V populations. Therefore smaller calving grounds
on the east coast may be as important as the larger Camden Sound calving ground for
preserving genetic diversity in humpbacks (DEWHA 2009a). Every humpback whale
population is important for the species' survival and recovery (DEWHA 2009a).
Furthermore, migration is composed of many component locations, and many
biologically important activities. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that calving
is more or less important to the survival of humpback whales than feeding, mating,
socialising, nursing or resting. Other important humpback whale habitat occurs along
the Australian migratory routes. Usually these are corridors and bottlenecks which
result when a large proportion of a population passes within 30 kilometres of the
coast, and encounters barriers. Some of these corridors and staging posts include
Geraldton and the Abrolhos Islands in Western Australia; east of Stradbroke and
Moreton Islands in Queensland and Cape Byron in New South Wales (DEWHA
2009a). During the southern migration, cow/calf pairs and attendant males take
opportunistic advantage of resting areas – usually sheltered bays on the way to the
Antarctic feeding grounds. These resting areas include Exmouth Gulf, Shark and
Geographe Bays in Western Australia; the Whitsundays, Hervey and Moreton Bays
and the Palm Island Group in Queensland; and Twofold Bay in New South Wales
(DEWHA 2008a).
Breeding and nursery aggregations of other marine fauna occur at many locations
around the Australian coast. For example, Shark Bay shelters a population of 12,000
dugongs. The Ningaloo Reef and Exmouth Gulf also provide important dugong
habitat, with a more or less permanent population of 1,000–2,000 animals (Preen et al.
1997). Rare marine turtles are another group that could be considered comparable in
terms of breeding/nesting sites, of which there are many found around the Australian
coast. Just one species alone, the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), has significant
nesting sites throughout the Great Barrier Reef, the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Monte
Bello Islands, Barrow Island and the Lacepede Islands within the Kimberley
(DEWHA 2009d). Migratory pathways are not well known for another iconic
cetacean species, the endangered southern right whale (Eubalaena australis). The
species is seasonally present in Australian waters from May to November. They have
been recorded in coastal waters of all states except the Northern Territory. Within this
wider geographic range, they regularly concentrate in certain areas to breed. Major
calving areas are located in Western Australia at Doubtful Island Bay, east of Israelite
Bay; and in South Australia at Head of Bight, and in smaller numbers at Twilight
Cove, Flinders Bay; and in Western Australia in the Albany/Cape Riche and Yokinup
Bay/Cape Arid areas. Smaller numbers of calving females also regularly congregate at
Warrnambool in Victoria and South Australia's Encounter Bay and Fowlers Bay.
Other areas along the southern and western coast, often between regular calving
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grounds, are used intermittently (DEWHA 2009b). Visually splendid and perhaps of
greater national and international significance is the spawning aggregation of the giant
cuttlefish Sepia apama in Spencer Gulf each winter. The gulf is the only known
spawning aggregation of cuttlefish in the world and represents an exceptional
cuttlefish mating system (Hall and Hanlon 2002).
There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that Camden Sound, or any other
calving ground, spawning ground, or particular staging point, for a single
marine species has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as
a particularly important element of an ecological process, criterion (b) as
uncommon, rare or endangered or criterion (d) for its importance in
demonstrating the characteristics of a migratory staging post. Humpback whales
and other charismatic marine fauna may warrant consideration under criterion
(e) or criterion (g) for aesthetic and social value, but currently there is
insufficient comparative data or a systematic mode of analysis.
Roebuck Bay is a hotspot for migratory birds because of its location, climate, its
physiographic features, including low gradient mudflats and a high tidal range and its
invertebrate biodiversity (Ramsar 2008; Brunnschweiler 1957; Graham 2001a). The
many different species and the huge number of individual birds seasonally present
indicate that Roebuck Bay might exhibit the principal characteristics of a migratory
hub or staging post for international migratory shorebirds and birds that migrate from
other parts of Australia.
The presence of a high concentration of invertebrates in a relatively stable
environment draws significant numbers of international migratory shorebirds to
Roebuck Bay (Broome Bird Observatory 2006; DCLM 2003). Spring tides of eight to
10.5 metres repeatedly expose and inundate the low gradient mudflats to a degree not
experienced elsewhere in Australia with the exception of King Sound. Recent surveys
of these mudflats have uncovered a rich benthic invertebrate fauna, including 40
different bivalve species, 26 gastropods, seven echinoderms and 17 crab species (de
Goeij et al. 2003; Piersma et al. 2006). Worms are the most abundant and diverse
animal on the flats, most belonging to the bristle worms (class Polychaeta). These
provide a relatively reliable seasonal food source.
Sixty four waterbird species have been recorded at Roebuck Bay, 34 of which have
been listed under international treaties (JAMBA, CAMBA and ROKAMBA).
Roebuck Bay, in terms of visitation, has the highest number of waterbird species of
international importance, including pied oystercatchers (Haematopus longirostris),
Mongolian plovers (Charadrius mongolus), ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres),
red-capped plovers (Charadrius ruficapillus) and black-winged stilts (Himantopus
himantopus). Sites are classified by the Ramsar Convention Bureau as being of
international significance to a species if they are used by more than one percent of
total flyway population. In the case of a species with a population estimate of more
than 2,000,000 the 1 per cent threshold is set at 20,000 (Bamford et al. 2008; Ramsar
Convention Bureau 2000). The Gulf of Carpentaria is a close second (19) and nearby
Eighty Mile Beach is third (15) (Watkins 1993). Roebuck Bay and Eighty Mile Beach
are 'wintering' (Australian summer) destinations for birds migrating within the East
Asian – Australasian flyway zone (Rogers et al. 2003).
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Additional to international visitors, Australian resident non-migratory breeding
shorebirds also make Roebuck Bay home for part of the year. Birds such as the rednecked
avocet (Recurvirostra novaehollandiae) use Roebuck Bay as a seasonal
refuge, flying to the site from inland Australian wetlands as they dry out.
ANHAT analysis returned the second highest score for Charadiiformes (waders)
richness at Roebuck Bay (61 species), close behind the Darwin region (64). These
high wader species numbers demonstrate the importance of the two regions as part of
the migratory pathway between the northern hemisphere and Australia. Along with
international visitors, Roebuck Bay also returned nationally high endemism scores for
a collection of bird groups, including Passeriformes (perching birds), Meliphagidae
(honeyeaters), and Pittidae (represented by the rare Asian visitor the blue-winged pitta
(Pitta moluccensis)) and to a lesser extent Sylviidae (old world warblers). The high
number of wader species present combined with high endemism scores for a range of
bird families supports the claims of Roebuck Bay's significance in the literature. The
endemism significance can in some cases be explained by the presence of a number of
bird species, such as the common redshank (Tringa totanus) and the Asian dowitcher
(Limnodromus semipalmatus), who within Australia, almost exclusively visit the
Canning coast area, before returning to other countries found within their flyway
zone. This has the effect of producing high endemism scores for these species, despite
their widespread international distribution. This statistical feature in no way reduces
the significance of these species' reliance on Roebuck Bay and Eighty Mile Beach.
In terms of abundance (absolute numbers) Roebuck Bay is the fourth most important
site for waders in Australia (Bennelongia 2008). The highest number of shorebirds
counted at the site was 170,900 in October 1983 and allowing for turnover, the total
number of shorebirds using the site may exceed 300,000 annually (DCLM 2003a).
Eighty Mile Beach has greater absolute numbers of birds with over 472,000 being
recorded over a month in 2001, albeit over a much larger area.
Eighty Mile Beach is on current data less significant than Roebuck Bay in terms of
species richness, endemism, and importance for international migratory shorebirds
although it appears to have a greater abundance of individual birds. It is considered
here that Eighty Mile Beach may be of outstanding significance to the nation and may
warrant further investigation against the National Heritage List criteria as part of a
future assessment.
Roebuck Bay has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d)
due to the place's importance as a class of avian habitat (a migratory hub or
staging post), and for the regular presence of migratory, protected or
endangered avifauna.
CONTACT, CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
European settlements
The west Kimberley region was settled by Europeans in the later half of the
nineteenth century with the pioneer towns of Broome and Derby established initially
to serve the pastoral industry. Due to their isolation they were reliant on sea
communication in their early years and the focus of both towns was their jetties, a
characteristic typical of port towns.
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Derby initially developed as service and export centre for livestock, and then later as
an export centre for zinc and lead, servicing the nearby Fitzroy Crossing mines.
Research on these towns demonstrates that neither Derby or Fitzroy Crossing meet
threshold for National Heritage listing.
The town site of Broome at Roebuck Bay was gazetted in 1883. By 1884 Broome was
connected to the outside world by a steamer service and by 1890 the town had some
buildings and services for the pearl shell industry, a police station and a customs
house.
Before the First World War, Broome was well established as a town with a mosque,
state and convent schools, a government hospital, a hospital for Japanese and by 1921
it was connected to Perth by an air service. The dominant industry in Broome was the
pearl shell industry. The function of Broome as a pearling port influenced the town's
characteristics. In particular the alignment of the town's road grid with Roebuck Bay
and the segregation between worker and manager housing is evident. The use of
corrugated iron buildings (mostly pre-Second World War) with verandahs and
balconies is also a noticeable town feature. This character continues to be reinforced
by modern infill development.
The Urban and town planning thematic heritage study (City Futures 2007) notes that
regional Western Australian towns of the late nineteenth century tended to be
'piecemeal', lacking originality in terms of town planning. Of the towns Broome,
Derby and Fitzroy Crossing, Broome has an evolved visual character based on the
dominant architecture of the town which is formed from a corrugated iron
architectural style. Of particular note in Broome are a number of small scale workers
cottages and shops illustrating this style. These buildings have now become gentrified
in response to the increasing tourism to the area. More recent infill development
within the town is also modelled on the corrugated iron character of architecture.
Research indicates that Broome's historic streetscape areas could be important as
many of the corrugated iron urban landscapes have been lost elsewhere in Australia.
Corrugated galvanised iron as a material was introduced into Australia by about 1850.
Portable iron buildings were also imported for use in the gold mining towns of
Victoria in the 1850s.
Curving and corrugating of iron sheets was undertaken in Australia in the latter half of
the nineteenth century. The metal was a popular material used in the construction of
rainwater tanks and verandah roofs. It became commonplace in vernacular and
industrial architecture in the second half of the nineteenth century and from 1890-
1910 improved steel making methods led to the replacement of iron by steel. Its use in
remote areas is also noted.
Galvanised iron buildings in many towns were replaced after the Second World War
and the material was recycled for other purposes. Some places do however still retain
some of this built fabric. Pine Creek (Northern Territory), the Oxide Street Precinct
(Broken Hill) and areas of workers cottages in Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie, for
example, retain corrugated iron housing, often referred to as 'tinnies' or 'tin towns'.
Some of these areas are conservation precincts.
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In summary, within the context of the analysis topic of settlement, neither Fitzroy
Crossing nor Derby demonstrate town characteristics of significance at the national
level. The layout of Broome is not exemplary in terms of town planning and the
townscape has changed in response to tourism. The corrugated iron architecture in
Broome has some potential rarity value, however it lacks the ability to demonstrate
this style of architecture because of the extent and nature of modern redevelopment or
adaption. In this case, lack of integrity is a sufficient reason to conclude that Broome
is below threshold under criterion (d).
On the basis of current evidence the town settlements of Derby, Fitzroy Crossing
and Broome are below threshold under criterion (d) for their importance in
demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural place or cultural
environment.
The Fitzroy River (Martuwarra/Mardoowarra) 'river of life': the meeting place of
four contiguous and distinctive traditions of the Rainbow Serpent
The Fitzroy River, known to its Aboriginal Traditional Owners as
Martuwarra/Mardoowarra, 'River of Life' is one of the longest and largest river
systems in tropical north Australia (Larson and Alexandridis 2009). The cultural
systems and languages of ten Aboriginal groups whose traditional country principally
falls within the Fitzroy catchment area include the Kija, Wurla, Andajin, Ngarinyin,
Gooniyandi, Bunuba, Unggumi, Walmajarri, Nyikina and Warrwa people. According
to Pannell (2009), these Aboriginal Traditional Owners continue to maintain
traditions and observe the ways of life intrinsic to an Indigenous riverine-based sociocultural
system, which the anthropological record indicates is now rare, threatened or
no longer apparent as intact in other parts of Aboriginal Australia.
Traditions associated with the Rainbow Serpent or Water Snake acknowledged as
having been once pervasive in Aboriginal Australia are now severely impacted by the
'tides of history' (Pannell 2009, 31). In his seminal article on the Rainbow Serpent
tradition in Australia, the anthropologist, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown (1926, 24) linked the
phenomenon and distribution of the tradition to the arid nature of the continent. The
Fitzroy River provides a rare living window into the diversity of the traditions
associated with the Rainbow Serpent that are intrinsically tied to Indigenous
interpretations of the different way in which water flows, rather than to the scarcity or
absence of water, as proposed by Radcliffe-Brown (Pannell 2009). In the jila-kalpurtu
domain (wherein the term, jila, refers to permanent sub-surface water sources, and
kalpurtu are the rain-giving snakes) of the Fitzroy catchment on the northern edge of
the Great Sandy Desert, water flows are principally underground and the water snake
is said to exist in the underground structure of the channels, linking excavated
waterholes and other water sources of significance. The phenomenon of Galaroo, on
the other hand is linked to flowing surface water, in the form of major rivers, and to
long and deep permanent waterholes in broad river channels. The Rainbow Serpent of
the Wanjina-Wunggurr belief system, known as Wunggurr or Ungud, is associated
with discrete pools of water and also exhibits strong associations with the sea. The
Woonyoomboo-Yoongoorroonkoo narrative is also linked to the sea, and primarily
tells the story of the creation of the lower Fitzroy River and its floodplains.
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Martuwarra encompasses four contiguous and distinctive freshwater-based Aboriginal
cultural domains, focused upon the tradition of the Rainbow Serpent, as exemplified
by the religious tradtions of Galaroo, Woonyoomboo-Yoongoorroonkoo, Wanjina-
Wunggurr, and the jila-kalpurtu cultural systems. A song line known as
Warloongarriy (Walungarri) serves to unite Aboriginal people and their Rainbow
Serpent traditions along the Fitzroy River as part of one regional ritual complex,
called Warloongarriy Law or 'River Law'.
Rainbow Serpent traditions in Australia
Australia is the most arid inhabited continent on earth (Rose 1996, 51). Water is life
and throughout Australia, Aboriginal people hold detailed ecological and cultural
knowledge about water sources transmitted from one generation to another over
millennia. Images of and belief in the Rainbow Serpent are found across Aboriginal
Australia. The concept recurs in Aboriginal art, religion, ritual, and social and
economic life.
According to Radcliffe-Brown (1926, 19; 1930, 342) there are a number of common
elements to the Rainbow Serpent tradition found throughout Australia including: the
belief that rainbow snakes live in deep and permanent waterholes; they are visible to
humans in the form of a rainbow; they are associated with rain and rain-making; they
are often associated with quartz crystal; and in many parts of Australia, as a result of
this later connection, they are linked to medicine men and the practice of magic.
While belief in the Rainbow Serpent may once have been pervasive across Australia,
a survey of the literature as noted by Pannell (2009) suggests that the tradition
survives in some places mostly in a fragmentary form or is referred to only in
perfunctory ways. David McKnight is one of the few anthropologists in Australia to
write a detailed ethnography explicitly based around Aboriginal traditions concerning
the Rainbow Serpent. McKnight (1999) provides a detailed account of the
significance of the Rainbow Serpent (Thuwathu) to the Lardil people of Mornington
Island. For the Lardil, the Rainbow Serpent is credited with creating the Dugong
River: 'Writhing, turning and twisting he travels up the Dugong River which he forms
as he goes along…in making Dugong River he thrusts in and out of places, finally
doubling back to the main stream' (McKnight 1999, 196).
Thuwathu is said to dwell in wells and water holes. The environment the Rainbow
Serpent is said to favour the most are the mangroves located along the tidal flats and
mud coast, and at the mouth and banks of rivers and creeks (McKnight 1999, 194-
195). The setting of the main Lardil story about Thuwathu is near the mouth of the
Dugong River. This narrative equates to the Nyikina story about Woonyoomboo-
Yoongoorroonkoo and the creation of the lower Fitzroy River.
Beckett and Hercus (2009) have recorded a mura (Dreaming or Creation Being track)
about the Two Rainbow Serpents (Ngatyi) from 'Corner Country', where the
boundaries of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia come together. This
is sandhill country which continues into South Australia and has links with the
Strzelecki Desert. Like the Fitzroy River, Aboriginal people of Corner Country are
connected together over a wide area by a shared narrative focused on the creation and
movement of water by Rainbow Serpents. Speakers of four different language
affiliations – including the Karnic languages of the Lake Eyre Basin (Wangkumara
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people); Paakantyi, Darling River languages (spoken by Wanyiwalku/Pantyikali
people); Yarli languages (spoken by Malyangapa, Wadigali and Yardliyawara people)
and Karlali and Bidjara dialect speakers from Bulloo share this narrative (Beckett and
Hercus 2009, 2). The two Ngatyi mura covers a vast distance through underground
channels from the Paroo River to the Flinders' Ranges, returning to a midway spot
near the present day town of Tibooburra, or in one version of the narrative, all the way
back to the Paroo. The line of travel of the two Rainbow Serpents is by subterranean
channels, which are marked by the kamuru (willow trees) (comment by a senior
Aboriginal custodian quoted in Beckett and Hercus 2009, 32). The Snakes travelled
from one waterhole to the next, naming the places and animals as they went. Beckett
and Hercus (2009) recorded four different versions of this narrative from senior
Traditional Owners during their fieldwork in the 1950s and note the differences in the
narrative are largely as a result of the breakdown in cultural practices:
* * * *
'[H]ad the culture of which these mura stories were a part been still active, the telling
of them might have been subject to a degree of standardisation, and it may be that no
one would have been allowed to tell them on his or her own; however ceremonial life
had fallen away in the early years of the twentieth century, and the senior men
complained that the younger generation had no interest in such things'.
* * * *
Regarding the association between the Rainbow Serpent and the creation of deep
pools like those created by Wunggurr in the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland, Merlan
(1998) refers to the association of Bolung (Rainbow Serpent) with deep rock pools in
the Katherine area of the Northern Territory. Gunlom, in Kakadu National Park and
Leliyn (Edith Falls) near Katherine are both said to have Rainbow Serpents residing
in the deeper parts of their waters. Aboriginal people did not camp out at Gunlom,
preferring the safety of the nearby South Alligator River. At Leliyn, the Rainbow
Serpent was also considered dangerous. It has an aversion to the foreign sweat and
smell of persons it does not recognise and makes a stormy response to intrusions by
unknown persons (Merlan 1998). Like Beckett and Hercus, Merlan concludes that the
'stories of the Rainbow Serpent do not have currency with her [Aboriginal
informant's] children's generation' (ibid: 75).
Like the Bunuba traditions associated with Galaroo in the long deep permanent pools
of Geikie Gorge, the Nyungar community in Perth believe the great snake spirit or
Waugal (Wagyl, Waughyl) formed the rivers, wetlands and lakes within the Swan
Valley as it moved across and under the landscape. The Waugal lives in a deep
section of the Swan River known as Gooninup, and travels up and down the river.
Gooninup was also the site of an important freshwater spring for Swan Valley
Nyungar people. The Waugal's presence at Gooninup was marked by several large
round stones which were treated ceremonially as the eggs of the Waugal (Ansara
1989). Moore (1842) also recorded the presence of the Waugal in the 'deep, dark
waters of the Swan River, and he noted how the mythic snake emerged at Mt Eliza
and crawled its way to the sea, creating the Swan River.
Similarly, McConnel (1930) provides some details about an eel or serpent-like
creature called yero by the Koko-Yalungu people who have been living in the
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Bloomfield River region of north Queensland for thousands of years. According to the
Koko-Yalungu, the chief dwelling place of the yero is in a long, deep stretch of water
just above 'The Roaring Meg' falls. During times of flood, the large volume of water
going over the falls creates a rainbow – said to be a visual expression of the Rainbow
Serpent. In the Daintree River area, McConnel (1930) found that the traditions
associated with the Rainbow Serpent had already faded from memory.
Four contiguous and distinctive expressions of the Rainbow Serpent in a single
freshwater hydrological system
The Fitzroy River encompasses four contiguous and distinctive freshwater-based
Aboriginal cultural and ecological domains, focused upon the tradition of the
Rainbow Serpent, as exemplified by the cults of Woonyoomboo-Yoongoorroonkoo,
Galaroo, Wanjina-Wunggurr, and the jila-kalpurtu cultural systems. Each tradition is
intrinsically tied to Indigenous interpretations of the different way in which water
flows within the one hydrological system, and all four expressions converge into one
regional ritual complex, called Warloongarriy Law or 'River Law' that serves to unite
Aboriginal people and their Rainbow Serpent Traditions.
The Woonyoomboo-Yoongoorroonkoo narrative is associated with the flood plains
and wetlands of the lower Fitzroy River, while Galaroo is connected to the gorges, the
permanent waterholes which characterise the Fitzroy River in the dry season, and the
karst system of the middle to upper reaches of the river. The region of the Wanjina-
Wunggurr is roughly bounded by the King Leopold Ranges, the Drysdale River and
the sea and thus includes the ranges of the Kimberley crumple zone, the permanently
flowing waters of the rivers that course through these ranges, and the islands and
peninsulas of the Kimberley coast. The jila-kalpurtu cultural system, on the other
hand, is synonymous with the semi arid hinterlands of the southern Fitzroy River
basin, which mark the transition zone between the primarily surface-watered drainage
of the Fitzroy and aquifer-dominated arid environment of the Great Sandy Desert – an
immense area of uncoordinated drainage. Both the Wanjina–Wunggurr and the jilakalpurtu
cultural systems extend beyond the drainage system of the Fitzroy River,
particularly in the case of the jila-kalpartu system, which extends south into the Great
Sandy Desert region.
The upper reaches of the central drainage channel of the Fitzroy River (including the
Margaret River and Mt Pierre Creek) flows through an area in which the Rainbow
Serpent is known as Galaroo (Galuru, Kaleru). The Gooniyandi, Bunuba and Kija
speakers comprise the principal observers of the Galaroo tradition. In this area,
Galaroo is credited with amongst other things, the creation of the rivers and
permanent water sources and is said to be present in watery locations. Galaroo is
linked to the flooding of the river and the creation of rain, clouds and wind. While
painted rock art, including motifs of an 'All Father' being are found in this area, the
distinctive practice of re-painting these images to make rain and increase species, as
occurs in the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland to the north is largely absent in the lands
of Galaroo (Vachon 2006, 341). According to Kaberry (1935) Playford (1960) and
Capell (1971) rain-making is associated with the use of 'rain stones'. Kaberry (1939,
207) notes that amongst the Gooniyandi, a 'single headman' takes stones linked to
Kaleru, breaks them up, wraps them in grass and puts them in a waterhole. In
addition, Kaberry notes that Kaleru can only be approached by older men and women
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knowledgeable about 'magic' (which is obtained from Kaleru). Certain foods, such as
white-ant larvae, and objects, including pearl shell are tabooed items; they 'belong to
Kaleru' and they were carried inside him until he ejected them. According to Kaberry
(1939) failure to observe these prohibitions results in violent storms and severe
flooding brought on by the wrath of Kaleru. Like Ungud, the powerful water snake of
the Wanjina-Wunggurr people, Kaleru also places spirit children in the water holes.
Geikie Gorge (Danggu) is an exemplar of the Galaroo narrative. Extending north from
the 'Old Crossing' in Fitzroy Crossing to Dimond Gorge (Jijidu), Danggu is the name
given to the gorge by Bunuba people. Danggu is also the name given to the large
limestone boulder (another name is Linyjiya) located in the middle of the gorge. This
boulder is associated with a resident Rainbow Snake that contributes to the status of
Danggu as a place of 'living water' (i.e. a permanent and sentient water source,
traditionally utilised by Aboriginal people: see Pannell 2009, 4). The boulder is also a
malay ('increase') place for fish, and when rubbed with barramundi fat (mingga
balga), the rock produces an abundance of fish. The northern reaches of the gorge are
associated with a permanent spring which is also occupied by Rainbow Snake and is
an important ceremonial place.
The south eastern section of the Fitzroy River system and its tributaries, Christmas
Creek and Cherrabun Creek are traditionally associated with the Pama-Nyungan
speaking Walmajarri people (see Tindale 1974), who together with the desertdwelling
Mangala, Juwaliny, Wangkajungka, Warman, Yulparija, and Manyjilyjarra
people, subscribe to what has been termed the jila-kalpurtu complex, wherein the
term, jila, refers to permanent sub-surface water sources, and kalpurtu are said to be
the rain-giving snakes occupying these sites (Vachon 2006). As Vachon points out,
the defining characteristics of the Rainbow Serpent for these Aboriginal groups
includes the kalpurtu's association with the original human occupants. Group rainmaking
is conducted at kalpurtu-occupied jila. The jila are often many metres
underground and are excavated by people in conjunction with the performance of
rain-making ceremonies. Like other mythic beings, kalpurtu retain benevolent and
malevolent qualities; a kalpurtu can bring misfortune or death if it is disturbed. For
this reason, it is important to approach the kalpurtu singing the correct song for the
particular kalpurtu and his jila (Toussaint et al. 2001). Sacred objects associated with
rain-making are located within the physical confines of the jila. Unlike the Rainbow
Serpent traditions of the upper and central Fitzroy River, there is a complete absence
of material representations of kalpurtu, in the form of rock art images (Pannell 2009).
There also appears to be an absence of 'increase' sites in jila country. Unlike the
traditions associated with Galaroo, Wanjina-Wunggurr and Woonyoomboo-
Yoonggorroonkoo, the people of the northern fringes of the Great Sandy Desert refer
to the kalpurtu as providers of food. Kalpurtu 'give all the tucker' and the only places
of ritual reproduction are the associated jila. Kalpurtu, in its connection with rain,
makes the ground soft and from this the various plant and animal foods appear
(Vachon 2006).
As the Fitzroy River flows south west out of the ranges and gorge country associated
with Galaroo, and adjacent to the jila country of the Great Sandy Desert, it begins its
journey across the wet season flood plains and finally flows into King Sound. It is
here that the river enters the narrative domain of Woonyoomboo -Yoongoorroonkoo.
In the traditional Bookarrarra ('Dreaming') narrative of the Nyikina-Mangala people,
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the Traditional Owners of the lower reaches of the river, the floodplain country of the
Fitzroy River is associated with the actions of Woonyoomboo (Wunyumbu) the 'first
man', and Yoongoorroonkoo, the 'giant serpent'. In the Warloongarriy song which
recalls the travels of Woonyoomboo and his family along the river, Woonyoomboo
rode on the back of the Yoongoorroonkoo to the area along the river near
Noonkanbah known as Mijirrikan (Mijirayikan). As he moved through the landscape
he speared the Yoongoorroonkoo with his majaribal ('spear'), resulting in the splitting
of the Fitzroy River into two, as is evident in the river landscape today (Toussaint et
al. 2001; Pannell 2009; Poelina 2010)
In the tradition linked to Woonyoomboo, the Rainbow Serpent is said to be
represented by two jilbidijati ('black-headed pythons'). Yoongoorroonkoo is also
credited with the creation of increase sites (known as maladji in the Nyikina
language) located on both sides of the main channel of the Fitzroy River (VAchon
2006 citing Arthur 1983; Kaberry 1936; Kolig 1982). Arthur (ibid) describes these
sites as having 'power or influence'. Natural features such as trees and rocks 'contain
the essence of animal or plant species', or the 'essence of sickness' (Kolig 1982, 4).
The sites can be used ritually 'to stimulate the occurrence of a species in a certain area'
or 'for the purposes of practicing death or sickness magic' (Kolig 1982b, 4). The
Woonyoomboo story is regularly re-enacted in Walungarri (Warloongarriy) rituals
associated with river country and the initiation of young men. Songs sung during
ceremonial activity recount the creation of the river and surrounding country. In the
song-cycle, Woonyoomboo calls the metaphysical water snakes (Yoongoorroonkoo)
to create the tributaries, such as Jikarli/Geegully Creek (Touissant et al. 2001).
Walmajarri, Wangkajunga, Nyikina, Ngarinyin and Mangala speakers emphasise that
not just any song can be sung. It cannot be a made up song or a 'dreamed song' that
may be appropriate in another context. Specific songs are given to the people from the
Dreamtime, and it makes the Rainbow Serpent happy to hear because he knows he
has not been forgotten (Touissant et al. 2001).
At the northern end of the Fitzroy River watershed there is a cultural transition zone
in which the belief system and customs associated with Galaroo gives way to the
Wanjina-Wunggurr of the northwest Kimberley. Speakers of Ngarinyin, Wurla,
Wunambal, Wilawila, Gaambera, Worrorra, Yawijibaya, Unggarrangu, Unggumi and
Umida languages are members of the Wanjina-Wunggurr community (Blundell et al.
2009). At the headwaters of the Hann River, the Ngarinyin people believe that the
river was created by water snakes. Based on the work of Elkin (1930), Capell (1939),
Petri (1954) and Lommel (1997 [1952]) the concept of Wunggurr is associated with
the Rainbow Serpent. Both Wanjina and the Wunggurr or Ungud Snake are believed
to be manifestations of a life force, also called Wunggurr, which permeates the
Wanjina-Wunggurr cosmos and is imbued in all living forms. Moreover, traditional
owners of the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland report that the Wunggurr Snake 'worked
with' the Wanjina to make their country. And, along with Wanjina, the Wunggurr
Snake is responsible for the supply of child spirits found at conception sites across
Wanjina-Wunggurr country. Wunggurr is linked to deep pools of water and the
movement of sea water. It is also associated with rain and fertility in the form of
'increase' sites. Rain-making is intrinsically linked to the re-painting of the Wanjina.
Ngarinyin believe that all permanent pools, whilst being inhabited by the Wunggurr
Snake, also have Wanjina who reside in and create caves next to each Wunggurr
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(Mowaljarlai and Malnic 1993). Other manifestations of the Wunggurr Snake include
rock formations, islands, reefs, and waves in the sea (Blundell et al. 2009).
Within the Fitzroy River catchment there are four distinct expressions of the
Australia-wide Rainbow Serpent tradition. In the jila-kalpurtu domain of the Fitzroy
catchment on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert, water flows are principally
underground and the Rainbow Serpent (kalpurtu) is said to exist in the underground
structure of the channels, linking excavated waterholes and other water sources of
significance. Places like Kurrpurrngu (Cajibut Springs), Mangunampi and Paliyarra
are exemplars of this expression of the Rainbow Serpent. The phenomenon of
Galaroo, on the other hand is linked to flowing surface water, in the form of major
rivers, and to long and deep permanent waterholes in broad river channels, like Geikie
Gorge (Danggu). The Rainbow Serpent of the Wanjina-Wunggurr belief system has
an especially strong association with discrete pools of water, and is also associated
with the sea and Wanjina in religious narratives and painted rock art sites. The
Woonyoomboo-Yoongoorroonkoo narrative of the lower Fitzroy primarily tells the
story of the creation of the lower Fitzroy River and its floodplains and its links to the
sea.
The Fitzroy River and a number of its tributaries, together with their floodplains
and the jila sites of Kurrpurrngu, Mangunampi, Paliyarra and Kurungal,
demonstrate four distinct expressions of the Rainbow Serpent tradition
associated with Indigenous interpretations of the different ways in which water
flows within the catchment and are of outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (d) for their exceptional ability to convey the diversity of the
Rainbow Serpent tradition within a single freshwater hydrological system.
CRITERION (e) – The place has outstanding heritage value because of the place's
importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community
or cultural group
WEALTH OF LAND AND SEA
Inspirational landscapes
The Kimberley is promoted in tourist literature as an iconic outback destination with
'some of Australia's most spectacular and remote scenery' (Vaisutis et al. 2009). The
distinctiveness and high aesthetic value of the Kimberley's landscapes has also been
recognised by their incorporation into Tourism Australia's National Landscapes
Program (Tourism Australia 2010). This program promotes Australian landscapes
which have an iconic and very high aesthetic appeal. These aesthetic characteristics
are used to powerful effect in travel destination branding and marketing.
The Kimberley region of Western Australia makes a powerful contrast with the places
experienced by most Australians in their daily lives, who live in the temperate, more
densely populated south and east of the continent.
The Kimberley is part of the tropical savanna region of northern Australia. This area
has a tropical climate with a distinctive monsoonal wet season lasting up to five
months of the year between November and March. The region is remote with a very
low population density with 75 per cent of the population living in three major
175

centres. While the beef cattle grazing industry is the major user and manager of the
land, pastoral leases only cover approximately 50 per cent of the region, 20 to 25 per
cent of which are owned by Indigenous landholders (Australian Natural Resources
Atlas Kimberley Profile 2009). The Kimberley region's natural landscapes are also
recognised for their high level of intactness (Australian Natural Resources Atlas
Kimberley Profile 2009).
In relation to the appreciation of the Kimberley there are some distinctive aspects to
note in comparison to the better known areas of southern and south-eastern Australia.
These are presented to provide context for the aesthetic assessment of the area.
The landscape of the Kimberley has many dimensions and is described in detail in this
report's history and description. Of particular note in relation to aesthetic values of the
place under assessment, is the clear expression of geological features which gives the
landscape an ancient, rugged and in parts a dramatic appearance. The Indigenous
cultural landscape also has deep connections to an ancient past and has significant
contemporary Indigenous cultural heritage values. Today the rock art of the region
attracts many non Indigenous visitors and for some these images signify an ancient
land. Further information and evaluation of rock art is included in this place report
under criterion (e).
Common aesthetic characteristics noted for the west Kimberley include the colour in
the landscape (reds, yellows, intensity and variety of hues), the substantially
unmodified nature of the natural landscapes, the experience of remoteness and the
inspirational nature of the landscapes commonly described by words such as majesty,
ancient, remarkable, awesome, endless vistas, jewel like sources of water, wild,
spectacular, magnificent, iconic, scenic splendour, outback and grandeur.
Often referred to as Australia's last frontier, the Kimberley was explored and settled
by Europeans late in the nineteenth century. The diaries and stories of explorers and
settlers are similar to other colonial records in their descriptions of impressions and
perceptions of the landscape. Elements of alienation and growing appreciation are
evident as they are in other commentaries on landscape appreciation from the colonial
periods. More modern commentary about the appreciation of the Kimberley is more
textured, complex and diverse within the Australian community and from visitors
from other countries. Some comments are included here as a snapshot of people's
responses or relationships with Kimberley places.
* * * *
'[T]here is little evidence… of a genuine understanding of, or an intuitive sympathy
with the climatic and territorial environments of the North. We were southerners, and
Europeans, and never really got over the sense of being in a somewhat alien and
hostile environment… There was an almost complete disregard for the character and
potential of the natural flora and fauna of the north' (Nugget Coombs 1977.
Commenting in retrospect on his Northern Australia Development Committee (1946-
1948) study of Northern Australia. (Quoted in Woinarski et al. 2007).
* * * *
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* * * *
'[I]t was the feeling of exuberance that amazed me' Sidney Nolan 1948. Commenting
about the Kimberley while on a visit to the region (Crocker et al. 2009).
* * * *
* * * *
'the striking, unfamiliar country of enchantments' Artist commenting about the
Kimberley while on a visit to the region quoted inCrocker et al. 2009.
* * * *
* * * *
'[T]o those accustomed to temperate Australia, it has a strange character. Fires seem
too pervasive and frequent, many of the native trees are at least semi deciduous, there
is too much grass….the Eucalypts do not have that familiar evocative, reassuring
smell, even the colours seem somewhat harder. Parts of the landscape seem decidedly
African in flavour with the boab trees'. Scientist commenting about northern
Australia. (Woinarski et al. 2007).
* * * *
* * * *
'Personally, I felt insignificant and shy in the Kimberley. What I saw was almost
beyond understanding, it has spoilt my emotions for the man-made environment, and
left me with a fear of not experiencing the same level of emotion again. After my
Kimberley experiences, Italy – a painter's paradise – felt small, decadent and
overworked'. Mayo, Robyn, Kimberley Odyssey quoted in Kimberley News, Aurora
Expeditions, July 2000 (Crocker et al. 2009).
* * *
* * * *
'During Lalai, the natural and human worlds were formed by powerful supernatural
beings that continue as active forces in Aboriginal people's lives today. Wunggurr, the
powerful snake and Wallanganda the 'big boss' Wanjina together created the earth and
all living things. The Wunggurr Snake is manifest in a number of ways; seen as a
giant Sky Snake or Rainbow Serpent and also comprising Earth's foundation. The
snake's presence is especially potent at places associated with life-giving water'.
Description of country held by Aboriginal people in the Wanjina-Wunggurr
community (Blundell 1982; Mowarjarli and Malnic 1993; Blundell et al. 2009).
* * * *
* * * *
'Barrkana (September): Warimba flowers dry up, and kardookardoo (whitewood)
begins to flowers. Crocodiles and snakes are laying eggs and soon their young will
hatch. Kardookardoo flower is the main food for cockatoos while they're nesting. The
pods on the warimba tree go red, and when they start to dry that's the start of Lalin'.
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Description of a Kimberley season by Nyikina people in the Kimberley region (see
above on page 9).
* * * *
* * * *
'Mitchell River Falls landscape has instilled a sense of awe, reverence and landscape
attachment in human beings for thousands of years and continues to be a source of
spiritual interest and refreshment today….. Mitchell River Falls is a significant feature
in a landscape of exceptional scenery, cultural sensitivity and majesty. Punamii-unpuu
is one of the most scenic and biologically important areas in Western Australia and is
a 'creation place' of great importance to the Wunambal people'. Description of
Mitchell Falls Landscape by Visual planner Richard Hammond (Crocker et al. 2009).
* * * *
A study (Crocker et al. 2009) was commissioned to assess the west Kimberley study
area for potential National Heritage values against criterion (e).
The scope of this report was focused on natural landscapes because of the high
likelihood of these features having potential National Heritage aesthetic values.
Accordingly, the aesthetic characteristics relating to architecture generally were not
included in the aesthetic assessment. Some assessment was however undertaken on
Broome under criterion (d). The aesthetic characteristics of underwater features like
coral reefs was also excluded on the grounds of insufficient information in relation to
comparative type data and assessment methodology.
The report brief excluded the assessment of potential values which may be identified
by Indigenous communities or cultural groups. These values are evaluated and
addressed elsewhere in the overall place analysis.
The report brief specified the use of the inspirational landscapes method. This method
has been used to identify those landscapes which have an inspirational quality and this
quality is used as a means of identifying landscapes which are exceptional in nature
not just landscapes which are of high scenic quality.
The aesthetic analysis has been applied to the west Kimberley study area, an area of
approximately 22 million hectares extending from Broome and the Fitzroy
River/Fitzroy Crossing in the south to Cape Londonderry and King George River in
the north.
The report identified six places as having a high likelihood of National Heritage value
under criterion (e). These places include the Kimberley Coast, Mitchell River
National Park, King George Falls and River, Geikie Gorge Conservation Park and
National Park, Windjana Gorge National Park and the King Leopold Ranges
Conservation Park.
These 'top' six places were identified by a process of short listing against each place's
indicated level of aesthetic value, the strength of evidence supporting the description
of an area's aesthetic value and the indicated community ranking of a place's aesthetic
value. Remoteness of a place was also considered in the ranking process. Some places
178

were removed from a preliminary list because there was insufficient data to draw
conclusions about their aesthetic value or community value.
The report first identified 115 places with evidence of aesthetic value within the west
Kimberley. This list was shortened to 51 places with evidence of high aesthetic value.
Detailed place reports using the inspirational landscape indicators were then prepared
for each of these 51 places which were then evaluated and ranked against the three
measures outlined above. The ranking of the 51 places was carried out on the basis of
aesthetic value only (high to low). The top six of this list of 51 were deemed to be
most likely to have outstanding National Heritage value.
The top six places were distinguished from the remaining 45 (out of 51) places in that
they were the only places which had been highly ranked (4 or 5) for their indicative
aesthetic value.
The top six places were compared with similar places in Australia and with a place
which was found to be below National Heritage threshold. All six places were found
to be above the threshold measures established in the report as being sufficient to
meet National Heritage list thresholds.
It should be noted that the comparative assessment undertaken for this assessment
also refers to and considers the comparative landscape assessment work undertaken in
the Crocker and Davies (2009a & 2009b) assessment report on inspirational
landscapes. This work was undertaken at a national level.
In summary, based on the current methodology for assessing aesthetic value, the
particular aesthetic characteristics in six landscapes within the west Kimberley, and
valued by the Australian community are above National Heritage thresholds under
criterion (e).
Kimberley coast from the Buccaneer Archipelago to King George River
Particular aesthetic characteristics of the Kimberley coast valued by the Australian
community include its rugged sandstone coast with rocky headlands, prominent peaks
and striking landforms, sandy beaches, pristine rivers and drowned river valleys with
rich flora and fauna, off shore reefs and numerous islands in extensive seascapes in a
sea supporting diverse marine life. Appreciation from land, sea and air make up the
aesthetic experience.
The boundary of the aesthetic area named here 'Kimberley Coast' was established
from data collected in the aesthetic assessment report of the study area (Crocker et al.
2009), supported by the expert opinion of the Australian Heritage Council. The
boundary is not simply a statement about the extent of that area's scenic quality, but
also a reflection of evidence of community attachment. While the Crocker et al (2009)
report noted some difficulty in determining the eastward extent of the boundary
beyond Cape Voltaire, the Australian Heritage Council determined that the boundary
for the aesthetic value of the Kimberley coast should extend from the Buccaneer
Archipelago to King George River.
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The Kimberley coast from the Buccaneer Archipelago to King George River has
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for its aesthetic
characteristics valued by the Australian community., including its rugged sandstone
coast with rocky headlands and prominent peaks and striking landforms, sandy
beaches, pristine rivers, waterfalls and drowned river valleys with rich flora and
fauna, off shore reefs and numerous islands in extensive seascapes in a sea
supporting diverse marine life. The unusual effect of tidal movement is also part of
the aesthetic appreciation of some areas like the Horizontal Waterfall.
Mitchell River National Park
Particular aesthetic characteristics of the Mitchell River National Park valued by the
Australian community include the rugged Kimberley Plateau, Mitchell River,
Mitchell Falls (Punamii Unpuu), rocky features around Mitchell Falls and the
Surveyors Pool (Aunauyu) and its falls.
The Mitchell River National Park has outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian
community.
King George Falls and King George River
Particular aesthetic characteristics of King George Falls and King George River
valued by the Australian community include the rugged sandstone gorge of the King
George River between the Falls and the ocean, the high colourful cliffs of the river
gorge and the spectacular twin waterfalls cascading into the river.
King George Falls and King George River have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (e) for their aesthetic characteristics valued by the
Australian community.
Geikie Gorge Conservation Park and Geikie Gorge National Park
Particular aesthetic characteristics of Geikie Gorge Conservation Park and Geikie
Gorge National Park valued by the Australian community include Geikie Gorge
(Danggu), its colourful gorge cliffs and sculptured rock formations carved by water
through an ancient limestone reef, the lush riverine vegetation along the gorge, the
fossil decoration on the gorge walls and the deep permanent waters. Appreciation
from land, river and air make up the aesthetic experience.
Geikie Gorge Conservation Park and Geikie Gorge National Park have outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for their aesthetic characteristics
valued by the Australian community.
Windjana Gorge National Park
Particular aesthetic characteristics of Windjana Gorge National Park valued by the
Australian community include the narrow gorge of the Lennard River, the colourful
cliffs of the gorge and the fossil decoration on the gorge walls. Appreciation from
land, air and river make up the aesthetic experience.
Windjana Gorge National Park has outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community.
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King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park
Particular aesthetic characteristics of the King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park
valued by the Australian community include the Lennard River Gorge, Bells Gorge,
the rugged mountain ranges, the fault lines and twisted topography, spectacular
gorges, waterfalls, rock pools and their fringing vegetation. Appreciation from land
and air make up the aesthetic experience.
The King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park has outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian
community.
On the basis of current evidence the west Kimberley has outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (e) because of its importance in exhibiting
particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community
exemplified by the following areas: Mitchell River National Park, King George
Falls and River, Geikie Gorge Conservation Park and National Park, Kimberley
Coast, Windjana Gorge National Park and King Leopold Ranges Conservation
Park.
Boab trees
Boabs have been given special consideration because they have characteristics which
may be valued by Indigenous groups in the Kimberley. This consideration is
additional to the study undertaken by Crocker et al. (2009),which found that Boab
trees had important aesthetic characteristics valued by a community group but these
trees were ranked below the top 15 aesthetic 'places' within the west Kimberley.
Boab trees are also valued for reasons associated with Indigenous tradition and may
be appreciated for their beauty by some Aboriginal people. Evidence to show that this
appreciation (Boabs as beautiful characteristics of the study area) is held more widely
by an Indigenous community or cultural group has not been cited.
In summary no evidence was cited to establish that an Indigenous community or
cultural group valued Boab trees as beautiful features. Consequently it is considered
that there is insufficient information to reach a conclusion on whether Boab trees in
the west Kimberley might have National Heritage values under criterion (e).
On the basis of current evidence there is insufficient information to conclude
that Boab trees have National Heritage value under criterion (e).
The aesthetic value of rock art
One of the most renowned aspects of Aboriginal culture in the Kimberley is the 'rock
art' comprising painted images of Creation Beings, ancestors, plants and animals;
powerful images that are of deep religious significance to Kimberley Aboriginal
people. Located throughout the Kimberley, in particular the Wanjina-Wunggurr
homeland, these painted images are key components of the Indigenous cultural landscape.
Seen in a secular and scientific way, 'rock art' is abstracted and treated as the subjectmatter
of archaeological and art-historical studies. While these are valid approaches to
the study of images on rock, all of them within the western tradition of 'art as object'
181

including the corresponding western aesthetic value of beauty. Aboriginal people
consider art as a process, in which the active practice of making the art, the uses to
which it is put, and the place in which it is made or used, are of paramount
significance (Mowaljarlai et al. 1987, 691 citing Forge 1973; Layton 1981).
Moreover, in the case of rock paintings, the images are seen – quite literally – as
visible manifestations of ancestral Creator Beings, among them Wanjina and the
Wunggurr Snake.
As David Mowaljarlai (1987, 691) states:
* * * *
'We have never thought of our rock paintings as 'Art'. To us they are images. Images
of energies that keep us alive – every person, everything we stand on, are made from,
eat and live on. Those images were put down by our Creator, Wandjina, so that we
would know how to stay alive, make everything grow and continue what he gave to us
in the first place…'
* * * *
Rock paintings are meaningful texts, they were not produced as just beautiful images
(Blundell 2003). For the Wanjina-Wunggurr community of the north Kimberley
region, the Wanjina (also spelled Wandjina) figures are the visible manifestations of
primordial supernatural beings who have transformed themselves into paintings at
caves and rock shelters located in their country. The Wanjina are their spirit ancestors
and are the source of some of their most significant laws and customs (Blundell et al.
2009). However, while their Traditional Owners do not consider these ‘paintings’ to
be ‘art’ in the Western sense, they are nonetheless a source of inspiration, admiration
and awe for Wanjina-Wunggurr people (Blundell 2003; cf. Geertz 1976). Like other
features of their cultural landscape, paintings make visible the events of the Dreaming
which are also conveyed in complex and nuanced religious narratives. They are forms
of visual culture based on an Indigenous aesthetic that gives material expression to the
way in which Wanjina-Wunggurr people understand their world. As noted by
Robinson (1986, 203) '…failure to recognise the Aboriginal perception would risk the
omission of an important aspect of the painted images – one of the world's longest
unbroken painting traditions'.
The west Kimberley has some incredibly large, colourful and varied rock paintings,
which are considered amongst the most spectacular examples of 'rock art' in the world
(Flood 1990, 70) and have been judged as having likely World Heritage value (Clottes
2002). Crawford (1968, 28) notes that:
* * * *
'[T]he most famous of the Kimberley paintings are the Wandjina figures, huge manlike
beings which are sometimes over twenty foot long. These are spectacular
paintings, because of their size, and for their colours, as the figures are depicted in
black, red or yellow over a white background'.
* * * *
So visually powerful are the Wanjina images that the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
organisers, with the permission of the senior Traditional custodian, used a giant
Wanjina image called Namarali as the 'Awakening Spirit' in the opening ceremony of
the Games. The extraordinary fabric sculpture rose from amongst a barrage of
182

flickering light and was joined by performers on stilts whose ceremonially attired
figures echoed the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro figures (Blundell et al. 2009) – the other
aesthetically striking painted image in the region.
From the first time Wanjinas were seen by Europeans in the nineteenth century, they
have fascinated all who have set eyes on them. George Grey was the first European to
record and publish painted Wanjina figures in the Glenelg River area during his
expedition to the Kimberley in 1837–1839. Grey's reproduction 'was to become the
most historically significant Aboriginal rock painting recorded by Europeans in the
nineteenth century' (McNiven and Russell 2005). These Wanjina images fascinated
Europeans; they were recorded and circulated at a time when the cave art of Europe
had not yet been discovered in France, 'Bushman' art in South Africa was still
unknown, and the most spectacular tombs of the Egyptian Pharoahs had not been
excavated (Edwards 1991). Early European observers interpreted the Wanjina figures
as representations of foreign visitors to the Kimberley coast. Theories about who
these visitors may have been pointed to the Japanese, eleventh–century Moors, and
south–east Asian fishermen. It was not until the 1930s that the significance of these
figures to Aboriginal people began to be better understood by the wider Australian
community through the work of Rev. J R B Love and A P Elkin (McNiven and
Russell 2005). Elkin (1930) noted that 'there do not seem to be any features of the
wandjina and associated paintings that might be supposed foreign to the ideas and
practices of the natives.'
The Aboriginal cosmology associated with the Wanjina was not revealed to the non-
Indigenous audience until the early 1920s and 30s and it was not until Ian Crawford
published his definitive book 'The art of the Wandjina' (Crawford 1968) that this
knowledge became available to a wider audience (Donaldson 2007, 13).
As noted above, Wanjina figures are often imposingly large, usually depicted front-on
with round white faces, black staring eyes and no mouth, and what appears to be a
halo-like ring encircling the head (Vinnicombe and Mowaljarlai 1995b, Blundell et al.
2009). As noted by Taçon (2000), Wanjinas are often shown horizontally, as if lying
down, so as to make them as large as possible on a rock shelter's available surface.
Sometimes only the head or the head and upper body are shown and they are made
strikingly eye-catching by combining shades of red, yellow and white into patterned
infill with dashes and stripes (Taçon 1999).
To the Traditional Owners, the Wanjina image is a very powerful one, perpetuating
life through the metaphors of rain, regeneration and the symbolic acts of repainting
(Vinnicombe and Mowaljarlai 1995a). During the wet season when the air is saturated
in moisture, the painted images take on a new life as the white huntite and other kinds
of ochre absorb moisture enriching the colour and giving them a vividness, a glow
that reflects the power of the images (Redmond 2001).
The potent sacred snake known as Wunggurr (or Ungud) is often also depicted
alongside the Wanjina and naturalistic animal paintings of kangaroos, snakes,
goannas, birds, tortoise and fish are commonplace. There are also representations of
thylacines which are believed to have become extinct on the mainland at least 4,000
years ago and depictions of megafauna including the marsupial lion, Thylacoleo
carnifex (Donaldson 2007, Willing et al. 2009).
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The other well known painted images in the study area are the Gwion Gwion (also
known as Gyorn Gyorn, Giro Giro, Kuyon, Kiera-Kirow – Norval and Shiel 1999;
Welch 2007, Girrigorro – Blundell et al. 2009). These diminutive, elegant figures
have captured the wider population's imagination with their stylistic and enigmatic
accoutrements including elaborate head-dresses, bangles, tassels, sashes, bags and
weapons (Donaldson 2007). The more spectacular Gwion Gwion sites are large panels
with many lithe figures painted in fine detail that '…sort of float on the roof of the
cave' (Donaldson 2007, 15). They are typically painted in a single colour which
depending on the individual site ranges in hue from red to mulberry purple and orange
brown (Donaldson 2007).
While the Wanjina and Gwion Gwion images are the most well known rock paintings
in the study area, there are many other beautiful and unusual images painted on rock
surfaces across the region, including the Napier and Oscar Ranges, that provide
important evidence of the movement of people and ideas between the coast, the
hinterland and the desert country (Playford 2007).
Stylistically, the Gwion Gwion figures are similar to the Mimi or Dynamic figures of
the Kakadu region and West Arnhem Land (Schultz 1956; Berndt and Berndt 1964;
Crawford 1968; Chaloupka 1988; Ryan and Akerman 1993b – cited by Blundell et al.
2009; Lewis 1988, 1997; Morwood 2002; Welch 2007). Lewis (1988) hypothesised
that the Kimberley and Arnhem Land were once part of a single late Pleistocene/early
Holocene information network which led to the styles in each region sharing similar
attributes, though having a regionally distinctive character. Both the Gwion
Gwion/Girrigirro and Mimi figures are often depicted with large headdresses with
arm decorations carrying boomerangs and multi-barbed spears.
The Gwion Gwion / Girrigirro figures are found in Wanjina-Wunggurr and Balanggarra
country. Unlike the Wanjina-Wunggurr community, Balanggarra people do not
consider that the paintings were 'put there' by spirit beings during the Dreaming.
Instead, they believe that the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro paintings were produced by
their own human ancestors and that they depict aspects of their everyday life
So while the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro images may represent a pan-northern Australia
tradition, the striking image of the Wanjina is found nowhere else. Images of Wanjina
and Gwion Gwion have become widely recognised across Australia. They are
featured in the broadcast and print media and in travel advertisements used to promote
the Kimberley region for national and international tourism. The use of the Wanjina
Namarali as an iconic image of the Australian nation in a dramatic moment at the
opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games was viewed by millions in Australia
and around the world (Blundell et al. 2009).
The 'X-ray' rock art of the Kakadu region and West Arnhem Land region depicting
naturalistic images of animal species showing their internal organs is probably the
only other painting style in Australia that is on par with the Wanjina images in terms
of national recognition. However, there is no single iconic 'X-ray' entity, nor do the
Mimi figures of the Kakadu and West Arnhem Land region figure as prominently in
the Australian imagination as the elegant, finely executed Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro.
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Aboriginal rock art paintings in the west Kimberley, particularly in the
Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland and Balanggarra native tile claim area and the
Devonian reef, are both powerful and of deep religious significance to Kimberley
Aboriginal people and have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (e) as they represent a stunning visual record of an ongoing Aboriginal
painting tradition in a substantially unmodified landscape.
CRITERION (f) – The place has outstanding heritage value because of the place's
importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at
a particular period
DESIGN AND INNOVATION
Exceptional creative diversity and fine technical detail of painted rock images
One of the most renowned aspects of Aboriginal culture in the Kimberley is the 'rock
art' comprising painted images of Creation Beings, ancestors, plants and animals;
powerful images that are of deep religious significance to Kimberley Aboriginal
people.
Painted images of exceptional creative diversity and fine technical detail are located
in rock shelters on the traditional homelands of the Wanjina-Wunggurr community
and on the traditional lands of the Balanggarra people. The homeland of the Wanjina-
Wunggurr community has been the subject of three native title determinations made by
the community, each of which recognises that the Wanjina-Wunggurr people hold the
native title rights and interests in their traditional country. These three determinations are
the Wanjina-Wunggurr-Wilinggin Determination, the Wanjina-Wunggurr-
Dambimangari Determination and the Wanjina-Wunggurr-Unnguu Determination.
The Balanggarra traditional lands adjoin the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland stretching
east of Kalumburu to Cambridge Gulf and are subject to two separate native title claims
made on behalf of the Balanggarra people.
The ranges of the Devonian reef complex further south, also contain a large number
of caves and rock shelters whose surfaces are decorated with an extraordinary
diversity of painted motifs. The Bunuba, Gooniyandi and Unggumi people are the
Traditional Owners of this country. A rock shelter known as Jambarurru to Bunuba
people (S. Pannell pers. comm. 5 May 2010); Tangalma to the Unggumi (Playford
1960, 2007) and Carpenter's Gap 1 to archaeologists, is located in the Napier Range
and is thought to contain perhaps the oldest evidence of 'art' in Australia. Little has
been published on the painted rock art in this part of the Kimberley, especially when
compared to the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland. Playford's (1960, 2007) record of
some of the rock art sites shows a diversity of images in a variety of different styles –
Creation Beings including Rainbow Serpents, animals and plants, anthropomorphs,
stencils of tools, weapons and boomerangs. While not as prolific as the painted
images of Wanjina and Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro further north, the exceptional
diversity of painted rock images in the limestone ranges reflects the movement of
people, material and ideas between the coast and the desert regions through systems
of exchange that have been operating for thousands of years. [see Criterion (a)
regarding the long distance movement of marine shell beads by Kimberley Aboriginal
people some 30,000 years ago].
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For the Wanjina-Wunggurr community, the rock paintings are a visual testimony of a
complex association of socio-religious beliefs that continue to be central to the laws
and customs of members of the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, Unggumi, Umida, Unggarrangu,
Wunambal and Gaambera language groups. Collectively, the members of this
community believes that they are themselves descendents of a single creator being
called Wanjina, depicted as a painted image across the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland
(Blundell et al. 2009). Some of the Wanjina figures are of monumental proportions
(up to six metres in length – Blundell & Woolagoodja 2005). They typically have
large faces dominated by black eyes and no mouth. The Wanjina's head is often
surrounded by a ring, or number of concentric rings, and a narrow dark plaque is
regularly represented in the middle of the chest. Painted in natural earth pigments on a
white background that is typically a wash made of the mineral huntite, Wanjina
figures usually face forward; sometimes the whole figure is shown with a decorated
body, but often only the head and shoulders, or just the face is represented (Flood
1990; Mowarjarlai and Malnic 1993; Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005; Blundell et al.
2009). Wanjina are usually accompanied by animals and plants and other supernatural
beings of the Lalai (the Dreaming) including the Wunggurr Snake (Blundell and
Woolagoodja 2005; Blundell et al. 2009). Some paintings have clearly been executed
by using a fine brush; others are cruder with the paint having been applied with
coarser materials such as sticks or fingers (Donaldson 2007). The Wanjina rock art
tradition is probably the Kimberley's best known, developed over the last 5,000 years,
and continues to have strong and direct religious and cosmological association for
Traditional Owners today.
Gwion Gwion painted images (also spelled Guyon, Djorn and Gjorn) paintings are
also found in rock shelters across the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland, as well as on
Balanggarra country. According to Lommel (1996 [1952]); Worms (1965); Ngarjno et
al. (2000); Blundell and Wooladgoodja (2005); and Blundell et al. (2009) the Gwion
Gwion are a significant component of the religious and cosmological belief system of
the Wanjina-Wunggurr people. These paintings are also an important way in which
Balanggarra people understand their history (Blundell et al. 2009). Gwion Gwion or
Girrigirro (the Balanggarra name for these painted images) are found across both
groups of Aboriginal people. Examples of this type of painted motif have also been
located in the Victoria River Downs region of the Northern Territory (Taçon et al.
1999; Morwood 2002). Some rock art specialists suggest that the Gwion
Gwion/Girrigirro motifs are the western-most variant of a style of painted rock art
called Mimi or Dynamic figures that exists in Arnhem Land and Queensland (Ryan
and Akerman 1993; Lewis 1997).
The highly diverse and finely detailed Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro painted motifs are
usually diminutive (25–30 centimetres in height) monochromatic figures often
depicted in large groups that appear to 'float, glide, hover or fly as if they are
somehow suspended in air' (Taçon 1999). They generally 'consist of dark-purple to
red ochre pigment applied as fine lines, which have been incorporated into the
sandstone surface' (Ryan and Akerman 1993, 14). A feature of the Gwion
Gwion/Girrigirro figures is the wealth of material culture items depicted. Figures
adorned in elaborate headdresses, skirts, tassels, bracelets and belts carry bags,
double-barbed spears, spear throwers, boomerangs and clubs (Lewis 1988, 1997;
Welch 1993; Walsh and Morwood 1999).
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There is also a high degree of variation in the style of the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro
figures. While some have fine limbs, others are more bulbous; some figures have
what appear to be tassels or feathers around their arms, others do not; some figures
appear to be dancing, whilst others wield spears, as if in battle. Images of animals
have also been painted in the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro tradition. The fine illustrative
detail allows researchers to identify these animals down to species level, including
species not found on the Australian continent today. In this regard, Walsh and
Morwood (1999: 46) note that: 'the visual specificity allows subjects to be identified
in a way not possible for much of (Australian) rock art'. [see Criterion (c) for further
discussion on the rock art's potential to yield information about extinct species and
developments in technology and material culture].
Wanjina-Wunggurr people locate the Gwion Gwion paintings in the 'everywhen' of
Lalai (the Dreaming) and say that a small Lalai bird painted its image in rock shelters
with its beak (Vinnicombe and Mowarjarlai 1995a; Ngarjno et al. 2000; Blundell et
al. 2009).
* * * *
'The first man Gwion Gwion created by the Wanjina from the grass making the limbs
and body by tying the grass together then the Wanjina make the grass figure alive by
putting it in the black soil mud around the spring water country' (Nyawarra in
Ngarjnoet al. 2000).
* * * *
One Wanjina is said to have a Gwion Gwion as a wife, and Gwion Gwion are known
to 'visit' people in their dreams (Blundell et al. 2009). Ngarinyin people, members of
the Wanjina-Wunggurr community, also attribute the discovery of the practical use of
fire to the Gwion and credit them with the invention of much hunting technology, in
particular advances in pressure flake stone tools. Gwion Gwion remains a hereditary
name currently carried by young women of the Brrejirad dambun (clan estate)
(Ngarjno et al. 2000).
The meanings of these paintings for contemporary Wanjina-Wunggurr people are
comparable to the meanings that their forebears attributed to them, as recorded by a
number of ethnographers who have worked with Wanjina-Wunggurr people since the
1930s. Lommel's work with the Wunambal connected paintings of Gwion Gwion with
a Lalai bird called Kujon [Gwion]. Schultz (1956, 15 quoted in Layton 1992, 84) also
recorded that 'long ago Kujon, a black bird, painted on the rocks. He painted no
animals, only human-shaped figures'. More recently Crawford (1968, 85) reported the
association of these figures with the Lalai bird on the part of Aboriginal people at
Kalumburu. According to another version, '…the bush spirits (Koion or Djimi) see the
men and spirits and ask the bird to paint the sight for them. Because the bird can see
spirits which are invisible to humans, the Aborigines say that they cannot interpret the
meanings of the paintings' (Crawford 1968, 85).
Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro painted images are also an important component of the
Balanggara people's contemporary belief system (Blundell et al. 2009). Unlike the
traditional owners of the Wanjina-Wunggurr country, the Balanggara people do not
associate the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro with Wanjina. Few paintings of Wanjina are
found in Balanggarra country, and according to Blundell et al. (2009) Aboriginal
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people say that those that are, are considered 'lost'. Unlike the Wanjina-Wunggurr
people, Balanggarra people do not consider that the paintings were 'put there' by spirit
beings during the Dreaming. Instead, they believe that the Girrigirro paintings were
produced by their own human ancestors and that they depict aspects of their everyday
life.
The only other rock art provinces in Australia with comparable figurative painted art
are Arnhem Land/Kakadu region in the Northern Territory and south-east Cape York
Peninsula in Queensland. Like the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland, the Arnhem Land
plateau and escarpment is best known for two distinct phases of rock art tradition, the
Mimi or Dynamic figures and the 'X-ray' art. The Mimi style is characterised by
'small red naturalistic figures', in which movement is skilfully portrayed (Morwood
2002). Some rock art specialists suggest that the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro motifs are
the western-most variant of this style that exists in Arnhem Land and Queensland
(Ryan and Akerman 1993; Lewis 1997). The 'X-ray' art of Arnhem Land and the
Kakadu area feature large, multi-coloured images of humans, macropods, birds, fish
and reptiles with decorative or descriptive infill depicting internal organs (Morwood
2002). The Quinkan rock painting style of southeast Cape York is also a bold
figurative style that depicts anthropomorphs, animals and plants. Figures tend to be
stiff, static and stereotyped, with many similarities to Sydney-Hawkesbury figurative
art, i.e. human figures are depicted frontally, animals from the side and reptiles from
above (Morwood 2002).
The west Kimberley painted 'rock art' sequence is likely to prove one of the longest
and most complex anywhere in the world (Morwood 2002). Rock shelters and caves
located across the traditional homeland of the Wanjina-Wunggurr community; the
Balanggarra Native Title claim area and within the Devonian reef complex, including
the traditional country of the Bunuba, Gooniyandi and Unggumi people, collectively
hold an outstanding assemblage of painted images and motifs that has been judged as
having likely World Heritage value (Clottes 2002). The hardness and stability of the
King Leopold and Wharton sandstones used as the 'canvas' for most of the painted
images in the region has assisted in their preservation. These sandstones are typically
very clean and white (Donaldson 2007). Painted images are also found on the smooth
limestone surfaces of rock shelters and caves in the ranges of the Devonian reef. The
variety of figurative images and motifs in this region reflect the cultural interplay
between the Aboriginal groups of the Fitzroy River area, including the Unggumi,
Bunuba and Gooniyandi, with those from the desert to the south and the east, and the
Wanjina-Wunggurr people to the north (Playford 2007).
The painted images found in rock shelters and caves across the Wanjina-Wunggurr
homeland, the Balanggarra native title claim area and in the limestone ranges of the
Devonian reef provide an exceptional record of painted rock art that is extraordinarily
diverse and technically very detailed.
Considered one of the longest and most complex painted 'rock art' sequences
anywhere in the world, (Morwood 2002, 143) the west Kimberley complex of
painted images is a creative achievement by Aboriginal people that has
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (f).
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Ingenuity, resourcefulness and cooperation
The Sacred Heart Church
The Sacred Heart Church is located at Beagle Bay mission, some 60 kilometres north
of Broome on the west coast of the Dampier Peninsula. The mission was established
in 1890 by Trappist monks from France. In 1901, German Pallottine missionaries
took over the mission. The church was built by the Pallottine brothers and the
Aboriginal residents of the mission between 1915 and 1918.
The establishment of the mission was initially opposed by pastoralists and the
Aborigines Protection Board as it was feared that it could result in a withdrawal of
Aboriginal pastoral workers vital to the viability of their enterprises in the region. The
Trappist monks established the first school in the Kimberley at Beagle Bay in 1892
teaching in French, Latin and in the local Nyul Nyul language. Not long after the
Pallottine brothers' arrival, hundreds of Aboriginal children were rounded up from all
over the Kimberley and sent to Beagle Bay to be educated and civilised away from
the influence of their parents and families. In 1907, the St John of God sisters arrived
from Ireland to assist with the care and education of the children at the mission.
The outbreak of World War One resulted in an immediate and intense anti-German
feeling all around Australia and moves were made to close the Beagle Bay mission
and intern the priests. However, Archbishop Clune and Bishop Gibney in Perth,
together with Bishop Kelly in Geraldton, were able to convince the authorities of the
value of the Pallottines' work and their mission was allowed to remain in operation.
Confined to the mission, the priests continued their work watched over by police
stationed on site (Edwards 1983).
It was during this period of restriction that construction of the church began. There
had been previous churches built on the site, but all had been of flimsy bark and wood
construction unsuited to the rigors of a tropical climate.
The church was constructed entirely from local materials and was a combined effort
of the Pallottine brothers and the local Aboriginal people. A kiln was built to bake the
60,000 clay bricks and Aboriginal people collected thousands of shells from the
beaches in bullock carts to be burned for the lime mortar and render.
Pearl shell and other shells were also used to decorate the interior of the church. Some
of that pearl shell was supplied by Broome pearlers, Clarke and Co. (Nailon and
Heugel 2001, 40).
Mary Durack (1969, 198) describes the scene at Beagle Bay:
* * * *
'The design, a combined effort that was finally passed as practical, was shown to the
mission people as something that was to belong to them and of which they could be
proud. Perhaps to please the missionaries in their time of trial they began the task with
at least a show of interest but, as the building took shape, they worked with genuine
enthusiasm and unprecedented constancy. Day after day parties set off into the bush
or to the coast to cut timber, cart sand, dig clay and gather tons of broken shells for
lime. As the timber structure mounted, 60,000 double bricks were shaped and baked
in stone kilns and thousands of live shells, mother of pearl and many other varieties
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from small cockles, cones and trochus to giant clams and bailers for holy water fonts
were gathered in from a wide range of coastal waters and tidal reefs'.
* * * *
The roof was originally constructed of mangrove wood and brush and the ceiling was
painted blue and decorated with shells denoting the southern hemisphere
constellations. Unfortunately, this was destroyed by termites in the 1920s and was
replaced with flattened kerosene tins.
The style classification of the Sacred Heart Church is Inter-War Gothic (c.1915–
c.1940), although the church is a very simple form of Gothic design that reflects the
austere conditions and limited resources available at the time of construction (Apperly
et al. 1994). It is orientated on the traditional east-west axis, with the entry to the west
end of the building under a three-level bell tower crowned with a spire and crucifix.
The church retains a high degree of authenticity despite the original floor and ceiling
finishes being replaced. A twelve metre bell tower was added to the church in the
1920s. The tower houses the original bell provided by the Trappist monks and two
others donated by a German parish. The bell tower collapsed in September 2000 and
was restored in 2002.
The interior details of the church are quite extraordinary. The sanctuary and altar were
decorated by Father Droste, Sister Raymond and a number of skilled Aboriginal
people, including Joseph Neebery (Niada) and Joseph Gregory, who was still a young
boy at the time (Rosie Victor quoted in Nailon and Heugel 2001, 40). Hundreds of
pearl shell, cowries, volutes and olives were used. There are three inset mosaics on
the main altar: the Lamb of God is in the centre; a Greek cross with a snake is on the
right; and a Roman cross is on the left. The frame of the altar and the tabernacle is
inset with cowrie shell and the top of the altar is inlaid with pearl shell. Whole pearl
shell (Pinctada maxima) features in the sanctuary inlays and the light reflects off the
shimmering shell surfaces with great effect. For Aboriginal people, pearl shell is a
powerful and highly valued commodity representing transformation, life and renewal,
and is traded throughout the Kimberley and across two-thirds of Australia. The side
altars are inlaid with mollusc opercula and incorporate the Christian motifs of the
lamb, the fish and the shepherd's crook with Nyul Nyul, Bardi and Nimanborr tribal
symbols.
Shells, including broken pearl shell are also used in the depictions of the twelve
Stations of the Cross, and the floor inlays, which feature Aboriginal motifs including
stone axes and local fauna and flora. The various artistic designs in shell and other
media are beautifully conceived and executed with great finesse.
The All Saints Anglican Church built in 1919 on Darnley (Erub) Island in the Torres
Strait is similarly constructed out of locally sourced material, including locally
produced lime from burnt coral. Like the Sacred Heart church, it was also built
predominately by local labour using locally sourced material (QLD Heritage Register
2009). However, the internal decoration of the All Saints Anglican Church is much
simpler than the Sacred Heart Church and does not include the same high level of
artistic detail and technical finesse (Lawrence 1995 – photos N6091-N6092).
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Built in a remote location from locally sourced material, the Sacred Heart
Church is a testimony to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Pallottine
brothers and the Aboriginal residents of the mission who built and decorated it.
The use of pearl shell and other locally sourced media to decorate the interior of
the church, particularly the sanctuary, demonstrates a high degree of artistic
excellence and technical finesse. The place continues to be highly valued by the
Beagle Bay Aboriginal community today because of the considerable Aboriginal
involvement in its construction and decoration.
The Sacred Heart Church at Beagle Bay mission has outstanding heritage value
to the nation under criterion (f) for the high degree of creative and technical
achievement in the use of pearl shell and other locally sourced media to decorate
the interior, combining western religious and Aboriginal motifs.
TECHNICAL RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS
The double log raft - a technical adaptation in response to the massive tidal variation
of the west Kimberley
Aboriginal people built strong, light rafts to navigate the treacherous waters of the
west and north Kimberley coast. Rips, whirlpools and overfalls created by the massive
twelve metre tides make navigation through the maze of islands and passages a
hazardous undertaking. While dugout canoes can easily fill with water in these rough
conditions, the double raft was virtually infallible (Smyth 2007).
The Bardi, Jawi (Djawi), Mayala, Worrorra, Uwini, Wunambal, Ungarrangu,
Yawijibaya, Umida and Gaambera are known to have built and used the double log
raft (Vachon 2009 citing Love 1939 and Tindale 1974). The Bardi name for the
double raft is kalwa or galwa; the Jawi call them biel biel and the Worrorra name is
kawlum (DAA 1987; Vachon 2009).
Double log rafts are typically made of seven to nine pieces of mangrove wood,
Rhizophora stylosa, a light timber much like balsawood (M. Smith pers. comm. 9 Nov
2009). Special journeys of great distances were made in order to harvest suitable
wood from restricted localities (Smyth 2007 citing Green 1988 and 1998). According
to Akerman (1975) the Worrorra, Bardi and Jawi unanimously agreed that the best
mangrove wood for raft construction purposes is found in the Kimbolton-Dugong Bay
area about 100 kilometres north of Derby. According to Akerman's informants this
area was still often visited for the purpose of obtaining suitable poles in 1975.
After felling suitable trees, the mangrove logs are lashed and nailed together using
wooden pegs made from a hardwood such as red wattle (Acacia monticola). The rafts
are then constructed from these two layers of lashed mangrove logs, hence the name
'double' raft. The bow layer, tjuntjal, is constructed using seven to nine tapered
mangrove poles between 1.5–2 metres in length. The stern section, njiengorol, is
similarly constructed with the thick ends at one end and tapered ends at the other.
Sometimes the two layers are joined together by pegs called mundu (Akerman 1975).
Both layers of the raft are fan-shaped as a result of the tapering nature of the logs
used. The stern section is wider than the bow and the raft sits fairly low in the water,
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sometimes even partially submerged. A circle of pegs, tjumundu, on the stern section
of the raft was used to hold the seafarer's possessions (Akerman 1975, Love 1939;
DAA 1987; Smyth 2007; Vachon 2009). There are many oral accounts about the raft's
manufacture (Vachon 2009).
Family groups often travelled on one raft and groups of families travelled together
from one locality to another. According to Love (1939) the Worrorra are known to
have travelled up to 50 kilometres offshore on this type of watercraft. Baler shells
were used to carry water on these long voyages. While the rafts could be propelled
forward by hand or paddle, it was principally the tidal variation that was used to travel
long distances. Bardi people say that the paddles were made of an aromatic native
Cyprus wood to repel sharks and that they were used principally to steer the craft,
rather than propel it forward (Moya Smith pers. comm. 9 Nov 2009). Neap tides were
the optimum tides used to island hop, with people planning voyages around their
comprehensive knowledge of the currents and winds.
These strong, light rafts also allowed people to exploit a diversity of marine resource
depending on the season. These included the hunting of dugong and turtle; turtle and
sea bird egg collection; the spearing, poisoning and trapping of fish; and the gathering
of shellfish (Smyth 2007 citing Green 1988; Berson 2004; Rouja 1998). With the
introduction of the harpoon and line, the bow section of the double raft served as a
detachable float when a large animal like a dugong was speared (DAA 1987; Vachon
2009 citing Akerman 1975).
Rafts of similar design, but using a single layer of lashed mangrove poles were
manufactured by the saltwater people of the Wellesley Islands in the Gulf of
Carpentaria (including the Kaiadilt, Lardil, Yangkaal, Gangalidda, Gayardilt and
Garawa people). The sea conditions under which these rafts were used were nowhere
near as extreme as those experienced in the north and west Kimberley. According to
Rouja (1998), Bardi fishermen have been using the double layer raft technology to
take advantage of the huge tides for millennia with few recorded incidents. Bunuba
and Gooniyandi people living along the length of the Fitzroy River also made a
double log raft using melaleuca logs rather than mangrove (Pannell 2009).
Dugout canoes were also used by Aboriginal people along the north Kimberley coast
and elsewhere in northern Australia; a technology introduced by the visiting
Macassans. While west Kimberley Aboriginal people regarded these canoes as more
manoeuvrable and less susceptible to the influences of wind and tide, the double log
rafts were more stable and unsinkable (Smyth 2007 citing Crawford 2001).
The strong tidal currents, while a navigational hazard, provided opportunities for
skilled and knowledgeable Aboriginal people to travel long distances to hunt, to trade
and to maintain social and cultural obligations. These light, unsinkable log rafts,
described as 'one of the world's most peculiar watercraft' (Davidson 1935) are a
unique marine technical innovation developed by the Aboriginal people of the west
Kimberley coast to take advantage of the largest tides in the world.
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The manufacture of the double log raft from mangrove logs (particularly
Rhizophora stylosa) is a unique adaptation to the massive tidal variation of the
west Kimberley and has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion
(f) for demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement by Aboriginal
people in the course of Australia's cultural history.
CRITERION (g) – the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because
of the place's strong or special association with a particular community or cultural
group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.
CONTACT, CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
European pearling
Port of pearls
Broome has been associated with Australia's pearling industry for most of the last 120
years. This history and its legacy in the area creates a distinctive place and forms the
basis of the area's attraction for Australians and international tourists. The average
visitation to Broome is approximately 216,300 people per year including international
and domestic visitors (Shire of Broome 2010). Sixty three per cent of this visitation
has been attributed to visits for holiday purposes. This compares to Townsville with
visitor numbers of 899,000 (46 per cent for holiday purposes) and the Whitsunday
region which has a visitation of 627,000; 77 per cent of which relates to people
visiting for holiday purposes (Tourism Queensland 2010).
This attractiveness as a tourist destination is reinforced by Broome's location on a
remote, tropical coast which is closer to parts of Indonesia than Perth, which is 2,185
kilometres to the south. An added element of attraction is Broome's location and
function as the gateway to the Kimberley. The vast natural landscapes of the
Kimberley, the Buccaneer and Bonaparte archipelagos along a rocky coast with
pristine beaches are noted in particular. The large variation in tidal movement (10
metre tides) and other unusual features like Roebuck Bay's bird migration,
Gantheaume Point's dinosaur footprints and the off shore whale migration are also
elements of visitor attraction.
In comparison with other tourist destinations along the tropical coasts of Australia
these elements of history and nature are similar in their ability to attract visitation to
these areas.
Fabled place
The Australian community's association with Broome becomes more distinctive when
considering the literature inspired by Broome and the surrounding region; including
parts of the Kimberley and northern pearling coast. Tim Winton (2001) writes about
Broome as being the fabled town.
Some examples of books written about the place include A pearling master's journey
(Norman 2007), The master pearler's daughter (Hemphill 2005), Beyond the lattice:
Broome's early years (Sickert 2003), Broome oral history project: Pearl Hamaguchi
(2006), Broome: saltwater cowboys: the people and the place (Ainslie 2002),
Broome: through the lens of master photographer Fernande Kuypers (Kuypers 2002),
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Broometime (Coombs 1956), A scattering of the pearls: a new novel set in Broome
(Campbell 2006) and Forty fathoms deep (Idriess 1947).
In the past Broome has also been given various titles which express its prominence
and place in the pearling history of Australia. During the early twentieth century
Broome was widely recognised as the pearling capital of Australia and during a boom
period when production of pearl shell was at a peak (1900s) Broome was known in
Australia and throughout the world as the pearling capital of the world.
As a result of this history, Broome is still remembered with some romance. 'Its
luggers, icons of a bygone era, were once a feature of Broome's thriving pearling
industry, and gave rhythm and romance to the town when, during 'lay up', they were
moored in the part of Chinatown that was known as Morgan's Camp' (Kaino 2005).
The multicultural character of Old Broome, the stories about the distinctive social
milieu at the time and its connections with Asia are important aspects of the literature
associated with Broome and surrounding areas.
In the late nineteenth century many people came to Broome as indentured workers on
the pearl luggers including Chinese, Filipinos (Manila men), Malays, Japanese and
Koepangers (from Timor). While the population of Broome has quadrupled since
1970 (Kaino 2005) this multicultural aspect of the Broome community is still evident
today.
Since the early establishment of the pearling industry in Broome a rich Asian-
Australian society built up around the pearling industry: there were Asian storekeepers
and noodle-shop owners, Asian doctors and market gardeners. The Asian
population settled in the part of town now called Chinatown, which was originally
called Japtown and was reminiscent of villages in China and Japan. Chinatown was
where many Asians established retail stores, boarding houses, import agencies,
laundries, market gardens, brothels and hotels. During the wet season, when luggers
returned to shore, the indentured workers moved into Chinatown and Broome became
a bustling town, full of activity, festivals and excitement. This part of Broome looked,
smelled and sounded like Asia. Some say that during the pearling days, visitors to
Broome had to check whether they were even still in Australia (Sickert 2003).
Over time, representative community organizations emerged such as the Broome
Chinese Association, Japanese Club, and Malayasian Association (Akerman et al.
2010).
These memories of Broome time are still held by many in Broome. 'Old Broome
residents still have fond memories of…balmy nights under tropical palms decorated
with Japanese lanterns. Here they were treated to kamaboko fishcakes made by
Japanese from freshly caught north west Spanish mackerel, sushi, sashimi and other
delights, such as shishimet, the traditional Japanese folk dancing and enka, the solo
performances of traditional folk songs'. (Kaino 2005).
Up until the 1970s Broome's Asian communities also maintained their traditions in
relation to special days in the calendar year; including the Chinese Hung Seng; the
Japanese O Bon and the Malaysian community Mederka (Kaino 2005). These
traditional festivals were opened to the wider community under the over arching
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Shinju Matsuri Festival which continues today. Some traditions have not continued
but may still inform, through memory or writing. The traditional lugger race is an
example of these changes.
The Australian play and film Bran Nue Dae also features aspects of the region's
distinctive character, beauty and history.
The history of Broome is an important anchor for the Australian community's
association. There is also the 'flip side' (Kaino 2005) to the romanticism associated
with the place because the history of pearling also has a harsher side including
extensive hardship and abuse in the pearling industry, the deeply embedded
segregation and the tragedies experienced by many as a result of deaths at sea, diving
accidents or cyclones. The Japanese Cemetery in Broome is particularly moving in
this regard.
Further evidence of the Australian community's association with the Broome region
can also be measured by the heritage listings within the area. Broome has 17 places
associated with the pearl shell period (1880-1940) which are listed on the Western
Australian State Heritage Register. The State heritage protection and recognition of
these places indicates that they are valued by communities beyond the local area and
as such can be used as a proxy indicative measure of the Australian community's
association for social value. Similarly 17 out of 20 registered historic places on the
Register of the National Estate (in Broome) are listed for their associations with the
pearling history of Broome. The value statements reflect the social value these places
have for both the Broome community and the wider community of Western Australia.
In particular these pearling places are noted for their ability to provide a sense of
place and mark a link with the past.
In summary, the Australian community has a special association with Broome as an
iconic place, once the pearling capital of Australia. This association has in part an
idealised aspect relating to the romance of Old Broome, its pearling luggers and its
location on a remote and beautiful coast. Today the Australian community continues
to be drawn to Broome and the nearby region because of the romance of Broome, its
pearling history, its remote and beautiful location at the gateway to the Kimberley's
outback and pearling coast, its association with pearls and the town's stories
associated with the development of a unique Australian community with a distinctive
cultural diversity. The people of Broome celebrate and recognise their pearling history
and diverse cultural heritage today in the annual Shinju Matsuri Festival.
Definition of signficant elements
The literature reviewed for this assessment has not revealed any social values survey
reporting to identify specific features within Broome and the wider region which
represent the Australian community's iconic and idealised association with the place.
While heritage fabric relating to the pearling history within Broome illustrates in part
the history associated with this social value there is no evidence to clearly identify
which elements, if any (in Broome and along the pearling coast) are recognised by the
Australian community as symbolic references. It is noted in this regard that the
Australian community's recognition of Broome as a pearling capital is more likely to
be based on historical writing about Broome. The more iconic and idealised aspect of
the Australian community's contempory association is also expected to be shaped in
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part by knowledge of the place gained from tourism promotion, contemporary
photography and other print or visual media relating to Broome and the pearling
coast.
Nevertheless tourism literature provides some guide to identify possible significant
elements. This literature includes images of beaches, sunsets, pearl luggers and pearls.
While these features are considered to be indicative of the association, reliance on
promotional material alone is considered insufficient evidence to identify significant
elements because of the tendency of this literature to only present material which is of
high marketing utility. The greater prominence of Cable Beach in tourist promotions
of the area however are noted in comparison to other features. This greater
prominence may indicate that Cable Beach is a representative feature of the
Australian community's association with the Broome region. This matter is evaluated
further by considering comparative sites.
Firstly, as a beach, Cable Beach can be compared with other Australian beaches.
Contemporary photography of Cable Beach indicates that it fits into the Australian
iconography of 'the beach'. However, as a beach, the strength of association is weaker
than the Australian community's association with Bondi Beach which has a longer
community association and is informed by other community relationships such as the
historical development of beach culture and the surf lifesaving movement. Cable
Beach can also be compared with Whitehaven Beach in Queensland, which is profiled
in many contemporary photo essays and is promoted as a signature beach site in
regional/state tourism promotions. In this regard Cable Beach and Whitehaven Beach
are similar in their associative social values.
In relation to the Australian community's association with the Broome region Cable
Beach is considered to be valued mainly for its aesthetic characteristics and beach
iconography which do not entirely represent the idealised, romantic qualities of the
association the Australian community has with the Broome area as the pearling capital
of Australia. Cable Beach is also outside the Old Broome area.
In consideration of these matters and because of its relatively minimal connection
with Broome's historic pearling period, Cable Beach is considered to be insufficiently
representative of the Australian community's special association with the Broome
region.
The stair case to the moon feature (reflection of the full moon at night across
Roebuck Bay at low tide) has also been considered as a potential significant element
which may represent the Australian community's special association with the Broome
region.
This feature is thought to be unique in Australia because of the rare combination of
physical elements (location, 10m tides) which give rise to this phenomenon. This
feature resembles beach sunsets and, like Cable Beach fits into an iconography of
tropical or romantic places. However, representative elements should have more than
just a 'sunset' feature. As the stair case to the moon lacks a strong connection with the
pearling history of the Broome region it is considered to be insufficiently
representative of the Australian community's special association with the Broome
region.
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In summary, evidence for the identification of significant elements which are
representative of the Australian community's special association with the place, is
insufficient to identify representative features. It is also noted that the central aspects
of the associative value (relating to the Australian community's association with the
Broome region) are iconic and idealised in nature. Significant elements may
nevertheless be able to be identified in the future by the use of community surveys.
Acknowledging that the Australian community's associative value (relating to the
Broome region) is iconic and has idealised aspects, the value can be recognised as an
intangible value.
Broome and the nearby region has outstanding (intangible) heritage value to the
nation under criterion (g) as a place which has a special association with the
Australian community because of the romance of Broome, its pearling history, its
remote and beautiful location at the gateway to the Kimberley's outback and
pearling coast, its association with pearls and the town's stories associated with the
development of a unique Australian community with a distinctive cultural diversity.
CRITERION (h) – the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because
of the place's special association with the life or works of a person, or group of
persons, of importance in Australia's natural or cultural history
ECOLOGY, BIOGEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION
A nominator cites a number of scientists as having been involved with working at the
site since its discovery in the early 1940s. These are Dr Curt Teichert of the
University of Western Australia and Mr. Harry Toombs who led joint expeditions to
the site in 1963 and 1967 with the Western Australian Museum, Natural History
Museum (London) and the Hunterian Museum (Glasgow).
The Gogo fossil sites were discovered in the 1940s by Dr Curt Teichert, an
invertebrate palaeontologist and geologist who had left Germany and been resettled in
Australia in the lead-up to the Second World War. Teichert became an important
figure in Australian geology and palaeontology. He was among the fifty or so
founding members of the Geological Society of Australia and reportedly one of four
authors of the Australian Code of Stratigraphic Nomenclature (Crick and Stanley
1997). Having originally settled in Perth at the University of Western Australia, he
later moved to Melbourne University, where he was awarded the David Syme Prize
for scientific research. In 1952, Teichert left Australia and continued his career in the
USA, where he died in 1996. He is well known in the international palaeontological
community for his Treatise on invertebrate paleontology. While Teichert collected a
number of fossil fish from Gogo, he never described or published any of them (Long
2006). Thus, while Teichert may be of importance in Australia's natural history for his
long and productive work in Australian geology and palaeontology, he does not have
a strong association with the Gogo fossil site.
The nominator also mentions the early collaborative expeditions to the site by the
Natural History Museum (London), Hunterian Museum (Glasgow) and the West
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Australian Museum in 1963 and 1967. These were headed by Harry Toombs a worker
at the Natural History Museum of London. Toombs refined the acetic acid method of
preparation of the Gogo fossils that successfully reveals the finely detailed 3D
preservation of the specimens. The joint expedition of the three museums in 1967 is
remarkable for the number of specimens it recovered, which fuelled research,
conducted mostly in Britain, for the next 40 years or so (Long 2006). Toombs and the
1967 expedition are well known to those who work with the Gogo site or at the
Natural History Museum (London) but are obscure to those outside of it. This
association is therefore not considered of outstanding heritage value to the nation.
The Gogo fossil sites do not have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (h) for special association with the life and works of Curt Teichert,
Harry Toombs or for the joint museum expeditions carried out in the 1960s.
CONTACT, CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
William Dampier (Cygnet) l688 landing place
As outlined under criteria (a) and (b) analyses, William Dampier is recognised as a
significant European explorer and an important figure in Australian history.
Dampier's ship, the Cygnet, was careened at Karrakatta Bay over a period of two
months in early 1688. He stayed at Karrakatta Bay longer than any previous
navigator, and as a result of the observations of Australia and its Indigenous people he
recorded in his journal and subsequently published, he came to be regarded as an
expert on the Pacific and Australia, was consulted by the British Government, and
was influential in fostering further exploration. Through the publication of his
journals of the voyage on the Cygnet, Dampier provided Europe with the first real
information on the new continent and commenced the process of revealing the
Australian continent in European consciousness. His travel experiences described in
his writing stimulated eighteenth century European exploration of the Pacific and
Australia and foreshadowed the later voyages of Cook.
Phillip Parker King
As outlined under criteria (a) and (b) analyses, Phillip Parker King is recognised as a
significant nineteenth century hydrographer and an important figure in Australian
history.
The Mermaid tree is one of a very few physical reminders of Phillip Parker King's
surveying expeditions (Pearson 2004). The assessment guidelines (AHC 2009)
indicate that under criterion (h) the association of a person to the place must be such
that the place greatly affected the person's philosophy or the place is associated with
an event or achievement which is significant in the course of the person's life or work
of significance to nation. Careening Bay and the Mermaid tree are not considered to
have greatly affected the course of King's life, career or work. In addition, while the
careening of his ship at Careening Bay was part of his 'great work' the place does not
comprehensively demonstrate his significance as an important figure in Australian
history.
In summary Careening Bay and the Mermaid tree has a special association with the
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life and works of Phillip Parker King, a person of importance in Australia's cultural
history. These places however do not have National Heritage value because they do
not demonstrate in a comprehensive or other critical way his significance as an
important figure in Australian history.
George Grey
George Grey is listed in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. His biographical
entry outlines his historical legacy as a governor. He acted for periods as the
Governor of South Australia, Cape Colony (in South Africa) and New Zealand.
Grey explored parts of the Kimberley coast in 1837–1839. He explored areas around
Hanover Bay, Glenelg River and the Prince Regent River. During his expedition, in
the Glenelg River region, he recorded painted Wandjina figures which he saw in rock
shelters (Ryan Akerman 2003). He was the first European to record and publish the
Wandjina image. His interpretations of these painted images led to many speculative
theories about their origin. It was not until the 1930s that the significance of these
figures to Aboriginal people began to be better understood by the wider Australian
community through the work of Rev. J R B Love and A P Elkin (McNiven and
Russell 2005). Elkin (1930) noted that 'there do not seem to be any features of the
wandjina and associated paintings that might be supposed foreign to the ideas and
practices of the natives.'
On the basis of current research it is unlikely that Grey's expedition will be shown to
have a more substantial or special impact on the life or historical legacy of George
Grey than other places outside the study area associated with his work as a governor.
George Grey's interpretation of the painted Wandjina figures is one of many
interpretations of the region's rock art and its associated traditions.
The William Dampier (Cygnet) 1688 landing place has outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (h) for its special association with the life and
work of William Dampier.
Careening Bay and the Mermaid tree do not have outstanding heritage value to
the nation under criterion (h) for their special association with the life and works
of Phillip Parker King, a person of importance in Australia's cultural history.
The west Kimberley does not have outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (h) for its special association with the life and works of George
Grey, a person of importance in Australia's cultural history.
Jandamarra - a 'magic man' and clever military strategist
Throughout Australia, Aboriginal people resisted European occupation. Competition
for land and water, increased population pressures, European brutality and
encroachment on, or violation of, significant sites were all catalysts that contributed to
the onset of hostilities between Aboriginal people and European settlers. Jandamarra
(aka Pigeon) led the last great campaign of what some call the Hundred Years War –
the defence of the Australian continent (Lowe 1994). In the west Kimberley, the
Bunuba people successfully resisted the expansion of European pastoralist activities
from 1884 until 1897. For 13 years the Bunuba blocked the rolling advance of
European settlement by using the natural fortress-like qualities of the Napier and
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Oscar Ranges [also see criterion (a) for further discussion]. Jandamarra (aka Pigeon)
led the Bunuba resistance from 1894–1897. The timing of the last wave of European
settlement and the impenetrable nature of the place itself helped create the man and
the legend of Jandamarra - a man brought up in two worlds, whose detailed
knowledge of European settlers and capacity to train his Bunuba countrymen and
women, severely threatened the colonising project. While Jandamarra did not act
alone, his abilities to disappear and avoid capture, and to appear to even cheat death
itself, made him a much feared adversary to European settlers and a powerful leader
amongst his own people. His success brought a severe response from authorities who
threw enormous resources into efforts to capture Jandamarra. His death in 1897
marked the end of large-scale organised violent resistance by Aboriginal people in
Australia's cultural history (Lowe 1994).
For Dillon Andrews, a senior Bunuba man: 'Jandamarra will always be a hero to the
Bunuba people. Doesn't matter how people see it as good or bad, he'll always be a
hero…who fought for the Bunuba People and for his country' (Andrews quoted in
Kinnane 2008, 234–235). But to the Western Australian Government authorities and
the pastoralists of the time, Jandamarra was a serious threat to the colonising project.
Jandamarra – a man between two worlds
Jandamarra was born in 1873, just as the rolling frontier of European settlement was
about to arrive in the northwest. Ten years later, Jandamarra and his family were part
of that first wave of settlement, living as part of a station mob on Lennard River
station. Jandamarra picked up pastoral skills extraordinarily fast, and by his mid-teens
he was already considered one of the fastest shearers and best horsemen in the district,
and a 'deadly rifle shot' (Lowe 1994; Nicholson 1997; Newbury 1999). He could
speak English confidently, had a 'gregarious' sense of humour and became popular
with the Europeans, including William Lukin, the station owner who named him
Pigeon (Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995; Grassby and Hill 1988; Lowe 1994).
At the age of fifteen, Jandamarra was taken by his Bunuba elders for initiation and did
not return to Lennard River station, instead joining his uncle, Ellemarra and other
Bunuba in a campaign that saw over 4,000 sheep killed at Lillimooloora station and
more than 2,000 sheep on William Lukin's station, the place where Jandamarra had
spent the previous five years. (Lowe 1994). Jandamarra was growing up in two
worlds: Bunuba and European. As Pedersen (quoted in Kinnane 2008, 235) notes:
'Jandamarra was getting to know two things here. He was getting to know the magic
of his own country and at the same time getting to know the white fellas, and he was
very good at knocking around with the white fellas. He was noticed very early for
being something different'.
In 1889, at the age of 16, Jandamarra was arrested with his uncle, Ellemarra, on a
charge of stock killing. While Ellemarra was sent to Roebourne prison to serve out his
sentence, Jandamarra was imprisoned in Derby for a year where he was put into
service looking after the trooper's horses. He then returned to work for William Lukin,
but this did not last and he ended up back in the protection of the limestone ranges of
Bunuba country. However, the Bunuba elders did not welcome him there because of
his continuing cultural transgressions, including inappropriate relations with Bunuba
women. To escape tribal punishment, Jandamarra left the ranges and began working
at Brooking Springs station. But this did not last either. Before his elders had a chance
200

to catch up with him, Jandamarra was again captured by police for absconding bonded
service and ended up serving out the rest of his sentence as a black tracker away from
his country (Allbrook 2009).
Jandamarra was assigned to the remote Robinson River police station, 130 kilometres
north of Derby under the charge of Police Constable William Richardson. He and
another Aboriginal tracker from the south worked with Richardson and the three
formed a close bond. Together they captured many Aboriginal people, and on at least
one occasion Jandamarra saved Richardson's life while under attack (Lowe 1994).
Because of their success, the three man team were then transferred to Bunuba country,
despite the long-standing policy of never using Aboriginal trackers against their own
people.
Jandamarra's role in the Bunuba resistance from 1894-1897
Shortly after setting up the police station at the abandoned Lillimooloora homestead,
Richardson and his two black trackers captured sixteen Bunuba people, including
known stock-spearing ringleaders, ex-police trackers and escapees from Derby prison.
Some of the prisoners were relations of Jandamarra. The prisoners were held for
nearly seven days, during which time Ellemarra and the other captured Bunuba tested
the loyalties of Jandamarra, who in the end shot Richardson dead and released his
countrymen (Kinnane 2008, Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995). Collecting all the
firearms and ammunition stored at the police station, Jandamarra with the released
prisoners and others then ambushed two cattlemen who were attempting to move
cattle and weapons through nearby Windjana Gorge, a natural opening in the bastionlike
Napier Range. Both the cattlemen were shot dead and the following wagon
containing an armoury of firearms and ammunition was captured (Lowe 1994;
Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995).
When news of the murders at Lillimooloora Station and Windjana Gorge became
known, Sub-Inspector Drewry immediately mobilised all the police in the district and
commissioned settlers as special constables (Lowe 1994). A force of some 30 police
attacked the Bunuba in Windjana Gorge. In the ensuing eight hour battle Jandamarra's
uncle Ellemarra, who was also the leader of the Bunuba resistance, was shot and
seriously wounded. It is unclear whether he died that day from his injuries or was later
hanged in Derby, but he certainly is not recorded as being part of the resistance from
that time (Lowe 1994; Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995). Jandamarra was also
seriously wounded during the gunfight whilst providing cover fire to allow Bunuba
men, women and children to retreat through the interconnecting tunnels and
passageways to the Napier Range plateau. The police followed the retreat for three
days but claimed few Bunuba lives.
The Bunuba resistance caused great concern in the colony. Settlers and the press
blamed the government for the recent deaths, citing government inaction in dealing
with Aboriginal resistance (Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995). Sub-Inspector
Drewry's superiors were not happy with his management of the resistance: 'Although
he had the largest fighting force since Stirling led his murderous army against the
[unarmed] Nyoongars at Pinjarra in 1834, he still could not claim victory' (Pedersen
and Woorunmurra 1995, 131). The settlers and Premier were fearful but determined to
quash the uprising as quickly as possible. New forces under the command of Police
Inspector William Lawrence and ammunition arrived by boat a month later.
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Jandamarra's notoriety and the success of the Bunuba's resistance in foiling capture
had forced the Western Australian Government to send a quarter of its police force to
the Kimberley, where only one percent of the European population lived (Pedersen
2007). Special Constables Blythe, Pilmer and Lawrence's campaign was '…brutal in
it's execution and devastated many innocent Aboriginal groups between Derby and
Halls Creek' (Green 2008, 41). Police mounted several reprisal ambushes against
innocent Nyikina, Mangala, Worrorra and Gooniyandi people. The Western
Australian parliament and the Colonial Office in London launched an independent
inquiry into the campaign which largely exonerated the colonial authorities from
charges of excessive violence (Allbrook 2009).
Magic powers and a clever military strategist
Jandamarra's recovery from his wounds and his ability to evade police capture and
disappear into the limestone landscape gave him legendary status among his own
people and the colony. Aboriginal people believed he had Jalnggangurru (magic)
power. Contemporary accounts say he could '[f]ly like a bird and disappear like a
ghost…he was two separate beings. His body was a physical manifestation of a
hidden spirit living secretly in a small water-soak near his Tunnel Creek sanctuary'
(Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995, 152-3). The Bunuba regarded Jandamarra as
'blessed with qualities owned by spiritually empowered people, allowing him to defy
police bullets, escaping human mortality' (Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995, 9). The
spirit of his 'life' could only be destroyed by another person of similar magical power
with murderous intent. The black troopers were also known to be fearful of
Jandamarra's alleged powers.
These references to Jandamarra's ability to appear and disappear relate closely to his
intimate knowledge of the Napier and Oscar Ranges. The place is riddled with narrow
passages, chimneys and caves that allowed Jandamarra and others to repeatedly avoid
capture. This twisted, convoluted terrain of the limestone ranges also prevented the
police and pastoralists on horseback from physically entering. The unusual nature of
the landscape, coupled with the accounts of Jandamarra's 'magic power' created both a
physical and psychological barrier for new settlers and the police. Sub-Inspector Ord
later wrote that 'it would not matter if the whole British army were sent here,
[Jandamarra] would still laugh at them from the top of the range' (Pedersen and
Woorunmurra 1995).
Following the Battle of Windjana Gorge, Jandamarra laid low for almost a year,
hiding in the hidden recesses of Tunnel Creek protected by his mother while he
recovered from his wounds (Wilson 1980). This extraordinary place, then unknown to
the police, is located in what is today the Devonian Reef Conservation Park.
Thousands of tourists visit the park each year to walk through the 700 metre tunnel
that runs through to the other side of the range – that no doubt facilitated the
movement of Jandamarra and other Bunuba through their country without police
knowledge (Lowe 1994).
In November 1895, the 'Terror of the Kimberleys' began a new phase of psychological
warfare to confuse, ridicule and exhaust police patrols without violence (Pedersen and
Woorunmurra 1995). Jandamarra's cat and mouse games were an important part of his
strategy to create fear amongst settlers and demoralise the police force desperate for
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his capture. His tracks were often sighted but he was nowhere to be seen. He raided
the store house of the Lillimooloora police quarters leaving his footprints in white
flour that had been deliberately scattered on the floor. Jandamarra's theft of food and
arms, and the use of harrying to confuse, exhaust and ridicule his opponents was a
'unique brand of guerrilla warfare without violence' (Pedersen and Woorunmurra
1995: 150).
Jandamarra's ability to understand European settlers and the tactics of the
constabulary provided him with many skills that contributed to his perceived magic
powers. These skills he passed on to his own people creating an effective defensive
force, including men as fighters and women as observers, suppliers of food and
assistants in battle. Jandamarra provided 'intensive training' in the use of weapons,
using 'boab trees for target practice' (Pederson and Woorunmurra 1995, 121). His
ingenuity with European firearms even went as far as binding the leg sinews of
kangaroo around .44 cartridges to make them fit the Enfield rifles that they carried
(Lowe 1994.) He also trained the Bunuba in tactics to pre-empt and counter European
advances, and strategies to ambush parties and capture weapons.
They travelled in small groups knowing that the police located the Bunuba camps at
night 'through seeing the smoke from a cluster of camp fires or by noticing the
intersecting foot tracks leading to the larger gatherings' (Pederson and Woorunmurra
1995, 146). Jandamarra's intimate knowledge of police operations and the uneasiness
of the Aboriginal trackers working in another's country led many trackers to abandon
their posts and provide Jandamarra with information and supplies that also facilitated
the Bunuba's successful campaign (Pederson and Woorunmurra 1995). Many Bunuba
and other Aboriginal people, often men of similar background of involvement with
Europeans to Jandamarra, joined the Bunuba resistance inspired by Jandamarra's
leadership and reputation (Allbrook 2009).
The death of Jandamarra at the hands of another recognised marpan
Early in 1896, a police patrol followed Jandamarra to the entrance of Tunnel Creek.
While the police guarded the entrance to the cave, thinking that they were blocking
his escape; Jandamarra had exited the tunnel and raided the unattended police station
back at the foot of the ranges. Yet again, another 'magic' feat. Attacks on pastoralists
and raids on police continued despite the increase in police numbers. After attacking
the Oscar Range Station and allegedly killing an employee, Jandamarra and a fighting
force of about 20 were pursued by the police, in which two of his men were killed.
Four parties of police were in pursuit in an attempt to track Jandamarra down before
he could get back to the safety of the limestone ranges. He was eventually tracked
down by Micki, an Aboriginal tracker from the Pilbara region and shot. Micki was
considered a marban (possessor of powerful magic) of high degree, someone of
similar skill and ability to Jandamarra (Pedersen 2007). Despite his wounds,
Jandamarra managed to escape and attempted to reach the safety of Tunnel Creek
with Micki in pursuit. After a running duel, Jandamarra was shot dead by Micki on
1 April 1897.
Jandamarra's campaign was unprecedented in Western Australian history as was the
ferocity of the police and settler response. Following his death, pastoralists were able
to move their cattle to occupy Bunuba lands that had previously been out of bounds.
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The rolling frontier had finally broken through the impenetrable limestone ranges of
the Devonian reef with the death of one of the Bunuba's finest warriors.
Other resistance fighters
Conflict between Europeans and Aboriginal people was endemic on the frontier of
European settlement (Reynolds 2003). As the wave of European settlement moved
south and north from the colony of New South Wales it took many forms from
passive resistance through to large-scale violent action, and was highly influenced by
the terrain on which it occurred (Reynolds 1982; Pedersen 2000; Grassby and Hill
1988; Connor 2002). Jandamarra is one of 11 Aboriginal resistance fighters identified
in the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB). Others include: Pemulwuy,
Windradyne and Musquito (New South Wales); Dundalli (Queensland); Eumarrah
and Tarenorerer (Tasmania); Yagan and Calyute (Western Australia); Nemarluk and
Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda (Northern Territory).
The rolling frontier of European settlement in the west Kimberley was very different
to that experienced in the south and east over the preceding 100 years. The place's
remoteness and lawlessness; the new developments in weaponry and the new ideas
about the inevitability of the colonising project in which Indigenous people were
deemed to be 'inferior' and doomed to die out, contributed to a different colonising
frontier. Jandamarra grew up in this new and different frontier, combining his intimate
knowledge of both European and Aboriginal worlds creating a formidable adversary
and powerful Aboriginal resistance leader. His skills in using the new, more accurate,
multi-shot, rapid-fire weapons and his understanding of military tactics developed as a
police tracker were shared with his countrymen and women creating a resistance force
much feared by the colonising project.
Aboriginal people believed Jandamarra had Jalnggangurru (magic) power that
allowed him to 'to defy police bullets, escaping human mortality (Pedersen and
Woorunmurra 1995, 9). The spirit of his 'life' could only be destroyed by another
person of similar magical power with murderous intent. His successes attracted other
like-minded Aboriginal people to join the resistance and brought a severe response
from authorities who threw enormous resources into efforts to capture Jandamarra. A
quarter of the State's police force were sent to the northwest to put down the
Jandamarra-led Bunuba resistance, where only one per cent of the European
population lived (Pedersen 2007). Lowe (1994) describes Jandamarra's campaign as
the last large scale violent resistance in Australia's cultural history.
Pemulwuy, a Kamay (Botany Bay) Eora leader; Musquito, also an Eora man from the
north side of Port Jackson and Windradyne, a Wiradjuri resistance fighter, all listed in
the ADB, fought a dispersed settlement frontier in the early days of the New South
Wales colony. All of the men used traditional weapons in their attacks on settlers.
Windradyne led one of many raiding Wiradjuri parties that attacked setters across a
wide area west of the Blue Mountains. As the British advanced through the vast
Wiradjuri lands, each group fought the invasion in their turn, 'country by country'.
There is no record of either the Eora or Wiradjuri leaders using firearms in their
conflict with settlers. The Wiradjuri resistance was short lived.
Tarenorerer, a Tommeginne woman led a resistance movement in Tasmania for a
short time. She is the only other listed resistance fighter in the ADB who is recorded
204

using European weapons against the colony. She taught her people '…to load and fire
off a musket, and to strike between discharging and re-firing' (G. A. Robinson quoted
from Australian Dictionary of Biography). Tarenorerer gathered a small group of men
and women from many bands to form a resistance group (Lowe 1994). Between 1828-
1830 they attacked settlements, killing sheep often with spears. Eumarrah, chief of the
Stony Creek people, is noted in the ADB as being a 'dynamic leader' who displayed
'mighty bushcraft' who led a number of raids against settlers in the Campbell Town
area between 1826-1828. Musquito, the Eora man from New South Wales was sent to
Tasmania as a government tracker but ended up joining a local Aboriginal group in
attacks on European settlers during the 1820s.
Dundalli, a Ningy Ningy man whose traditional land included the Bunya Mountains
in southeast Queensland conducted acts of retribution for tribal elders during the
1850s against an already dispersed European settlement. Rather than preventing the
frontier moving forward, Dundalli's actions were mainly in retribution for earlier
killings of Aboriginal people by Europeans. Using traditional weapons, he attacked
and killed some settlers and raided stocks and supplies, threatening the economy of
the colony rather than preventing its spread (Connors 2005).
Yagan, a Nyungar man raided properties in the Swan Valley colony using traditional
weapons, and Calyute, the other ADB-listed resistance fighter in the west, was
instrumental in the 'Battle of Pinjarra' , south of Perth in 1834 (Grassby and Hill
1996). In the Northern Territory, Nermaluk led a small band of men in the Port Keats
area spearing cattle, horses and attacking isolated travellers during the 1930s and
Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda, a Yolngu man, was arrested for the murder of a police
constable he speared whilst resisting arrest in 1933 (Carment et al. 1990).
Perhaps the most defining element of Jandamarra's success as a resistance fighter,
when compared to all of the above, was his intimate knowledge of European tactics
and weaponry, and his ability to pass on these skills to his countrymen and women.
As noted earlier, the circumstances of the late settlement of the northwest created a
different kind of frontier to the one that most of Australia's Aboriginal resistance
fighters had experienced in the previous 100 years. Ironically, the superior weaponry
of the late 1800s, that made the rolling frontier so deadly for Kimberley Aboriginal
people, also provided Jandamarra with the technology to meet his adversaries on an
equal footing. A similar claim could not be made for any of the other Aboriginal
resistance fighters listed in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
A rich historical, oral and contemporary record
The importance of Jandamarra's life and resistance nationally is exemplified by the
number of books written about him including: Ion Idriess's 1952 book 'Outlaw of the
Leopolds'; Colin Johnson's 1979 book 'Long Live Sandawarra'; and Howard
Pedersen's 1984 book 'Pigeon: An Australian Aboriginal Rebel'. Pedersen later
collaborated with Bunuba elder, the late Banjo Woorunmurra, to produce a definitive
history of Jandamarra in 1996, called 'Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance', which
gives prominence to oral tradition together with a re-reading of the archival record.
Jandamarra is one of 11 Aboriginal resistance fighters recognised in the Australian
Dictionary of Biography. His unusual life has also been recognised in the recent
documentaries 'First Australians: the untold story of Australia' (Perkins and Dale
2008) and 'Two in the Top End' (Doyle and Flannery 2008).
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The late timing of the settlement and the impenetrable nature of the Devonian
Reef helped create the man and the legend of Jandamarra - a man brought up in
two worlds, whose detailed knowledge of European methods to contain
Aboriginal resistance and his capacity to pass those skills on to his Bunuba
countrymen and women, severely threatened the colonising project. While
Jandamarra did not act alone, his capacity to disappear and avoid capture, and
even to appear to cheat death itself, made him a much feared adversary to
Europeans and a powerful leader amongst his own people.
The limestone ranges of the Devonian Reef, known to the Bunuba as Barlil, have
outstanding value to the nation under criterion (h) for their association with
Jandamarra, whose campaign of resistance was unprecedented in Australian
history, as was the ferocity of the police and settler response. Jandamarra's
death in 1897 ended the last large-scale organised violent resistance by
Aboriginal people in Australia's cultural history.
WEALTH OF LAND AND SEA
Pastoralism
Pastoral families in the Kimberley
On the basis of the pastoralism literature potential values against criterion (h) have
been identified in relation to prominent and well known pastoral families within the
Kimberley.
The Durack family is recognised for its role as a pioneering family associated with the
development of the Kimberley region and the cattle industry. It is noted that the
pastoral stations associated with the Durack family are located outside the west
Kimberley.
Sir Sidney Kidman was also noted as having some involvement within the pastoral
development of the west Kimberley. However, his chain of stations in other states are
considered to have more outstanding associations with his life and works.
Other families such as the Emanuels, MacDonalds and the McKenzies have been
noted in the review of histories associated with the Kimberley region. The theme
study on pastoralism (Pearson and Lennon 2008) did not develop national indicators
for assessing people or groups of importance under criterion (h). A peer review of the
theme study also indicates that the pastoral entrepreneurs are not the only people to
consider against criterion (h) (Forrest and Forrest 2009).
On the basis of current evidence the west Kimberley does not have outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (h) for special associations with the
life or works of pastoral families or individuals who are important in Australia's
cultural history.
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CRITERION (i) – The place has outstanding heritage value because of the place's
importance as part of Indigenous tradition.
WANJINA–WUNGGURR TRADITION
The traditional homeland of the Wanjina–Wunggurr community in the north
Kimberley includes members of the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, Unggumi, Umida,
Unggarrangu, Wunambal and Gaambera language groups. Collectively, this
community believes that they are themselves descendents of a single creator being
called Wanjina (Blundell et al. 2009). Thousands of images of Wanjina occur in rock
shelters across the region; a visual testimony of a complex association of socioreligious
beliefs that continue to be central to the laws and customs of the Wanjina–
Wunggurr community. In no other Indigenous society in northern or central Australia,
indeed anywhere in Australia, does a single class of Creator Being, depicted as a
distinct rock art motif, have such a significant and multifaceted role or set of
associated meanings and practices (Blundell et al. 2009, 66).
As an embodiment of the sacred Wunggurr life-force that permeates the cosmos, the
Wanjina evoke the primordial but continuing era of creation called Lalai (the
Dreaming). During Lalai, the Wanjina worked with the Wunggurr Snake and other
animal helpers to make the country. The Wanjina gave their human descendents their
laws and customs, and continue to instruct people in their dreams. As part of the
ongoing reciprocity between the Wanjina spirit ancestors and their human
descendents, senior law-men renew the Wanjina paintings in order to keep them
'fresh' (Blundell et al. 2009, 54).
Wanjinas take the form of anthropomorphs, animals and plants and play a crucial role
in the society's ongoing social, economic and cultural life. Paintings of the Wanjina
play a fundamental role in specifying the geographical location of the homeland and
in specifying the nature and basis of the citizenship of its members. Each member of
the Wanjina–Wunggurr society 'belongs to' a local country within the overall
Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland. These local countries which anthropologists call 'clan
estates' (dambun in Nyaringyin, dambima in Worrorra and gra in Wunambal and
Gaambera) were formed when certain Wanjina became localised in them as
'paintings'.
Wanjinas guide social relationships and the order of exchange amongst the members
of these local (clan) groups within a regional system of law known as the wurnan
(wunnan, wunan) (Blundell and Layton 1978; Deakin 1978; Mowaljarlai and Malnic
1993; Redmond 2001; Ngarjno et al. 2000; Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005; Doohan
2008; Blundell et al. 2009).
* * * *
'Wunan is created from beginning to share everything in life. It's total care of life that
Wunan' (Banggal, also known as David Mowaljarlai (dec) in Ngarjno et al. 2000).
* * * *
According to Wanjina-Wunggurr tradition, in Lalai, the moieties or skin groups were
established by two nightjars known as Wadoy (Wodoi) and Junkun (Djingun). Clan
estates are either Wadoy or Junkun. These skin laws created two channels in the
207

wurnan ensuring members of Wadoy marry the sisters of Junkun and vice versa. The
wurnan also requires people to share their resources with one another, and a man is
said to be following the wurnan when he honours his responsibility to look after his
wife's family. In its expression as a regional sharing system and trade network, men
pass items (both sacred and secular) to men whose local countries are 'side by side'
with theirs in the wurnan. The passage of trade goods along the wurnan is viewed as
the passage of goods in space from Wanjina to Wanjina (Blundell et al. 2009).
* * * *
'Wodoi and Djingun, one a colourful and one a grey Nightjar Man, symbolically
defined and enacted the basic, and the most important social law, the Law of Wunnan.
The marriage and sharing rules in this law ensured sound breeding, peaceful sharing
of resources and cultural knowledge' (Mowaljarlai and Malnic 1993, 143)
* * * *
In order to maintain their traditions and sustain the ongoing cycle of life, members of
the Wanjina-Wunggurr community engage in a range of ritual practices established in
the Lalai. While members of the Wanjina-Wunggurr community believe that the
Wanjina 'put' themselves onto rock surfaces as paintings, they also believe that as the
human descendents of these Wanjina, it is their duty to maintain the 'brightness' or
'freshness' of the paintings by 're-touching' them with charcoal and pigments
(Mowarjarli and Malnic 1993; Redmond 2001; Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005;
Blundell et al. 2009). By keeping the paintings 'fresh' the world will remain fertile –
the annual rains arrive, plants and animals will reproduce, and child spirits will
remain available in whirlpools and waterholes throughout the Wanjina-Wunggurr
homeland.
Referring to Western views of the Wanjina paintings as ‘art’, the late Ngarinyin man,
David Mowaljarlai has written that:
* * * *
'Rock pictures… should be seen not as art, but as images with energies that keep us
alive. They were made during the Dreamtime, and it was necessary that the
community…look after the images so that life on earth will continue' (Mowaljarlai
1988, 8).
* * * *
By maintaining the paintings, senior men contribute their share to the maintenance
and reproduction of an ordered world (Blundell 1982). Visits to these places also
provide an opportunity for Traditional Owners to pass on their distinct cosmological
and religious belief system to the next generation. Capricious and harmful spirits who
also have their paintings at Wanjina rock art sites are a constant reminder of the
disorder that failure to follow traditional laws can bring (Blundell et al. 2009).
Contemporary works of art also provide the Wanjina-Wunggurr society with a vehicle
to maintain and transmit their belief system to younger members of their society.
There is a rich ethnographic record of the religious beliefs and traditions of the
Wanjina-Wunggurr people including the practice of re-touching Wanjina images,
beginning in the 1920s with Reverend J. R. B. Love who observed two senior
Worrorra men paint a 'fresh' Wanjina over some very faded paintings (Love 1930,
208

12). This is the same Wanjina, Namarali, that was repainted by Donny Woolagoodja,
the senior Worrorra custodian of the place in 2002 (Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005).
Elkin (1930, 261), Shultz (1956, 19) and Lommel and Lommel (1959, 33) all
recorded the re-touching or repainting of Wanjina images. During fieldwork between
1962–1966, Crawford (1968) also observed a range of Aboriginal artists painting and
re-painting sites. In the 1970s the filmmakers Michael Edols and Malcolm Douglas, in
collaboration with Traditional Owners, recorded the repainting of Wanjinas (see
Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005, Chapter 8).
The 'paintings' are not the only physical manifestation of Wanjina. The Wanjina-
Wunggurr people report that the Wanjina have made their mark across the country, by
carving out rivers, pushing up mountains and transforming themselves into boulders
and other features in the land and sea. Wanjinas defeated in battle at a place called
Langgi transformed themselves into unusual pillars of stone (Blundell et al. 2009).
Sometimes they leave their image on boab trees or even disguise themselves as a boab
tree (Redmond 2001, 233). The Wanjina are also seen as the cumulo-nimbus clouds,
especially during the wet (Crawford 1968, 28).
The Gwion Gwion (also known as Gyorn Gyorn, Giro Giro, Kuyon, Kiera-Kirow –
Norval and Shiel 1999; Welch 2007) painted images are also a meaningful component
of the Wanjina-Wunggurr socio-religious belief system. Wanjina-Wunggurr people
locate the Gwion Gwion paintings (also commonly referred to as Bradshaw paintings)
in the 'everywhen' of Lalai (the Dreaming) and say that a small Lalai bird painted its
image in rock shelters with its beak (Vinnicombe and Mowarjarlai 1995b; Ngarjno et
al. 2000; Blundell et al. 2009).
There is no other Indigenous society in northern or central Australia, indeed anywhere
in Australia, where a single class of Creator Being, depicted as a distinct rock art
figure, has such a significant and multifaceted role or set of associated meanings and
practices (Blundell et al. 2009, 66). Each member of the Wanjina-Wunggurr society
traces their descent to the Wanjina ancestral beings. Wanjina rock art sites serve as
geographical focal points for a system of territorial and social organisation that links
small groups of people (the clans of anthropological discourse) to named local
countries (clan estates) (Blundell et al. 2009, 56) and into a system of exchange called
the wurnan that extends throughout the Kimberley. The exchange of items between
local group members is viewed as the passage of items in space from Wanjina to
Wanjina.
The rock art makes visible the religious narratives of the Wanjina-Wunggurr people.
The painted images are a powerful component of what Blundell, Doohan and
Bornman (2009) describe as the Wanjina-Wunggurr 'culture-scape'. Together, the
Wanjina and the Wunggurr Snake are believed to be the manifestations of a life force,
also called Wunggurr, which permeates the Wanjina-Wunggurr cosmos and is imbued
in all living forms (Blundell et al. 2009, 60). The paintings both evoke and provide
visible evidence of the events of Lalai that have resulted in the creation of land, sea
and sky; they connect people to their conception sites and in ritual; and they reinforce
the reciprocal relationships that exist amongst members of the Wanjina-Wunggurr
society. Plant and animal species are maintained through their ritual repainting in
local countries symbolising the inter-dependence of these local country groups and
209

einforcing their commitment to engage in harmonious social relations as prescribed
by wurnan law (Blundell et al. 2009, 55).
Layton (1997) described the 'Wandjina cult' as an exceptionally fully integrated
association of rock art and religion, with the closest parallels probably only to be
found in the rock art of the Aranda and Warlpiri of Central Australia. Moreover, he
added that 'there is nowhere else in central or northern Australia where rock art is so
centrally linked with increase ceremonies as in the western Kimberley'
(Layton 1997, 47).
The Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland, where the painted images on rock and other
features in the land, sea and sky, including natural rock formations and manmade
stone arrangements, are manifestations of the Wanjina and the Wunggurr
Snake, are of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (i) because
of their importance as part of Indigenous tradition.
210

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259

West Kimberley National Heritage Assessment – Values Table
CRITERION VALUE RATING
A
The place has
outstanding
heritage value to
the nation
because of the
place's
importance in
the course, or
pattern of
Australia's
natural and
cultural history.
Assembling a continent
King Leopold orogen
The rocks of the King Leopold orogen represent the remnants of three major
orogenies (mountain building processes) that took place in the Kimberley
from c. 1870–560 million years ago (Ma). The King Leopold orogen
provides strong evidence of Palaeoproterozoic plate tectonic activity (from
about 2500–1600 Ma), at a period preceding formation of the
Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia, which came together around 1000–
850 million years ago. Rodinia was a giant landmass containing most or all
of Earth's continental crust at the time, centred south of the Equator. The
land that became Australia was probably in the north-east of the landmass.
The King Leopold orogen also preserves rocks from the Yampi and King
Leopold orogenies that occurred later in the Proterozoic, which record events
that helped build the modern Kimberley topography (Maher and Copp
2009b). The events of these three Proterozoic orogenies are preserved in the
spectacularly folded Proterozoic quartzites and sandstones of the Yampi
Peninsula and the granite domes, gneiss hills and schist ridges of the King
Leopold Range and the Fitzroy uplands province. There is little consensus
among geologists on plate tectonic activity in the early Earth: rocks from the
period from 2,700 Ma to about 700 Ma, such as those of the King Leopold
orogen, are very important in understanding the timing and nature of modern
plate tectonics (Witze 2006; Stanley 1999).
The King Leopold orogen is a significant geological record of past orogenic
processes which led to the Proterozoic assembly of Rodinia, representing
key tectonic events in the evolution of the Australian continent and a major
stage of Earth's history. This record is displayed in significant fault and fold
structures in rocks exposed along the coast of Yampi Peninsula, in the King
Leopold Range and the Fitzroy Uplands. These geological features highlight
the powerful tectonic forces and the physical geological structures formed
during orogenic processes (Maher and Copp 2010).
The King Leopold orogen of the west Kimberley has outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (a) for recording pre-Rodinian and
Proterozoic plate tectonic processes, key events in the evolution of the
Australian continent.
Ecology, biogeography and evolution
Devonian reef
The Devonian reef sequence preserved in the Oscar, Napier, Emmanuel and
Pillara ranges is a continuous record from the Frasnian to the Famennian
stage of the Late Devonian period (around 380 – 360 million years ago),
covering two significant marine mass extinction events. Famennian reefs are
rare throughout the world and none is present elsewhere in Australia. In
addition, valleys cut through the reef at Windjana and Geikie Gorges by the
Lennard and Fitzroy rivers provide sections through the deposit that give
palaeontologists and geologists a unique window on this sequence.
The Devonian Reef of the Kimberley has outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (a) because it is a continuous record of 20 million
Above
threshold
1

years of reef deposition and shows the response of a Late Devonian reef to
a mass extinction event.
Gogo fossil sites
The Gogo fish fossil sites of the late Devonian period are one of the world's
most important early vertebrate fossil localities. The deposits contain
specimens of fish ancestral to tetrapods (vertebrate animals with four legs or
leg-like appendages), fossils that clarify the anatomical transitions that took
place at the base of this radiation.
The Gogo fossil sites have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (a) for important transitional fossils that document the evolution
of early tetrapodomorph fish.
The biological significance of the west Kimberley
Biodiversity analysis using the Australian Government's Australian Natural
Heritage Assessment Tool (ANHAT), supported by the Australian Heritage
Council’s expert opinion, has shown the northern Kimberley coast and
islands, the Kimberley Plateau and the west Kimberley Devonian reefs are
nationally significant for species richness and endemism for many plant,
mammal, reptile, frog and invertebrate groups. Island populations of critical
weight range species such as the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), the
golden bandicoot (Isoodon auratus), the scaly-tailed possum (Wyulda
squamicaudata) and the golden–backed tree–rat (Mesembriomys macrurus)
are of particular importance due to their decline on the mainland caused by
an array of human–induced threatening processes.
The northern Kimberley coast and islands, the Kimberley Plateau and the
west Kimberley Devonian reefs have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (a) for plant, mammal, reptile, frog and invertebrate
species richness and endemism; and as refugia protecting against humaninduced
environmental changes.
Many of the small immobile invertebrate species endemic to the Kimberley
have only been recorded in its rainforest patches (vine thickets), including 90
per cent of the earthworms and 48 per cent of the land snails (Kenneally and
McKenzie 1991). Survey and taxonomic work by Solem (1979, 1981, 1984,
1985) and more recent research (Graham 2001b; Köhler 2010) have helped
highlight the national importance of the Kimberley Plateau and surrounding
islands for land snail richness and endemism. ANHAT analyses have
supported the findings of these researchers, showing the Kimberley Plateau
is exceptionally high in richness and endemism for Camaenidae (air
breathing land snails). This consistent spread of now locally restricted
species may reflect long-term evolution through isolation (Köhler 2009;
Köhler and Gibson in prep.). The west Kimberley was found to have the
second highest richness in the country for the family Pupillidae (minute, air–
breathing land snails).
Vine thickets of the northern Kimberley coast and islands and the
Kimberley Plateau, and the Devonian reefs of the west Kimberley, are of
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for their
evolutionary refugial role that has resulted in high invertebrate richness
and endemism.
The river systems of the north Kimberley serve as refuges to freshwater fish
species, with a consequently high endemism found in several families. With
2

18 species that are endemic to the region, the west Kimberley has the highest
number of endemic freshwater fish in comparison to any other region in
Australia (Allen et al. 2002, Morgan 2008, Unmack 2001). The highly
dissected nature of the landscape has served as an isolating mechanism
between species, with the numerous large and deep waterholes acting as
refugia, resulting in centres of speciation that have existed since the
fluctuating climate of the late Cenozoic (Allen and Leggett 1990). Rivers
that are important for endemism include the Drysdale River (six species), the
Prince Regent (six species), the Roe and Moran Rivers (four species),
Carson River (four species) and Isdell River (three species) (Morgan 2008,
Allen et al. 2002). The Mitchell, King Edward (including the Morgan and
Carson Rivers) and Drysdale River systems also provide habitat for a
number of endemic freshwater turtles (McCord and Joseph–Ouni 2007).
ANHAT analysis returned the second highest national Chelidae (side–
necked tortoises) endemism score.
The Drysdale, Prince Regent, Roe, Moran, Carson, Isdell, Mitchell and
King Edward Rivers are of outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (a) as areas of evolutionary refugia demonstrated by nationally
high values for freshwater fish and turtle endemism.
Wealth of land and sea
Movement of material (marine shell beads) by Aboriginal people
The occurrence of marine shell beads in occupation deposits at two inland
rock shelters, Carpenter's Gap 1 and Riwi, dated to 30,000 BP is exceptional,
providing testimony for the antiquity of long distance movement of material
by Aboriginal people, perhaps in some kind of system of exchange during
the Pleistocene period (McConnell and O'Connor 1997; O'Connor 1999;
Balme 2000; Balme and Morse 2006).
In historical times, Aboriginal trading networks criss-crossed the continent
moving valued commodities like pearl shell, ochre and stone tools over
thousands of kilometres. These extensive economic and social systems of
exchange are a characteristic feature of Aboriginal Australia.
Carpenter's Gap 1 and Riwi rock shelters have outstanding heritage value
to the nation under criterion (a) as they demonstrate the operation of
Aboriginal social and economic networks 30,000 years ago over distances
of 500 kilometres.
Symbolic use of ochre
Archaeological excavations at Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter recovered a
slab of roof material to which ochre had been deliberately applied. The slab
had fallen to the floor of the rock shelter some time before 39,700 years BP.
The ochre appears to have been blown onto the surface, probably in a similar
method used by Aboriginal people in Australia in ethnographic times
(O'Connor and Fankhauser 2001). This is the oldest trace of ochre
intentionally applied to a rock surface presently known in Australia, and is
one of the earliest examples on a world scale.
Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter has outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (a) as it provides evidence of the antiquity of the
symbolic use of ochre on a rock surface, the earliest 'art' in Australia's
cultural history.
3

Aboriginal trade in pearl shell
Kimberley pearl shell (Pinctada maxima) has associations with water, rainmaking,
ancestral Creator Beings, stories and songs. The significance of the
modified pearl shell changes as it is traded from its source, where it was
created by powerful Dreamtime Beings.
Highly valued by Aboriginal people as the 'emblem of life' with potent
correlations with water, and the power to regenerate, renew, and transform;
modified Kimberley pearl is the most widely distributed commodity in
Aboriginal Australia, covering two-thirds of the Australian continent.
Pearl shell beds at a number of identified sites from Bidyadanga to Cape
Londonderry, where in Aboriginal law and culture, the shell is believed to
have been created by Dreamtime Beings and is collected by Traditional
Owners, have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a)
as the source of the item most widely distributed by Aboriginal people in
the course of Australia's cultural history.
Contact, change and continuity
European explorers
In the sixteenth century long, dangerous and difficult voyages across
uncharted oceans began to shape ‘new worlds’ on the maps of European
navigators. In the pursuit of knowledge and wealth beyond the borders of
Europe, early expeditions by the Portugese, Spanish, Dutch, French and
British began to reveal the outline of the Australian continent.
The William Dampier (Cygnet) 1688 landing place
William Dampier stayed in the west Kimberley coast area for more than one
month, landing first at Pender Bay, then sailing and anchoring in Karrakatta
Bay. Dampier and the Cygnet crew lived at Karrakatta Bay, camped and
careened the ship on land, 'canoed' and fished in the nearby sea, met a group
of Aboriginal people on an island, observed Aboriginal people elsewhere
and swimming between islands. Dampier also notes in his account old wells,
low even land, sandy banks against the sea, rocky points, the careening
beach, the islands in the bay, the 'dragon' trees and the Aboriginal stone fish
traps described as 'weirs of stone across little coves or branches of the sea'. A
full description of his observations is included in his account of his voyages
around the world (Dampier 1697). The environment Dampier observed is
substantially unmodified since his 1688 landing and can be seen today.
William Dampier's published accounts of his voyages around the world,
which included his observations at Karrakatta Bay and nearby, were
significant in stimulating European exploration interest in the Pacific and
Australia which foreshadowed Cook's voyage to the Pacific and eventual
establishment of a British colony in Australia in 1788. Dampier's
observations at Karrakatta Bay and nearby were also influential in shaping
late seventeenth and eighteenth century attitudes towards Australia and its
Indigenous people. His observations made at Karrakatta Bay were also
influential in the British Government's sponsorship of another voyage to
Australia in 1699 during which Dampier collected some Australian plants,
foreshadowing the birth of Australian botany.
The Kimberley coast is recognised for its association with early European
exploration of the continent. The William Dampier (Cygnet) (1688)
landing place, around Pender Bay, Karrakatta Bay, King Sound, the
4

Buccaneer Archipelago and nearby coast, has outstanding heritage value
to the nation under criterion (a) for its association with William Dampier
and the influence of his published observations. The environment observed
by Dampier is substantially unmodified since his 1688 landing and can be
seen today.
Fossil Downs station
Fossil Downs station is outstanding for its association with the longest
droving journey in Australia. Undertaken over three years in the late
nineteenth century the MacDonald brothers drove cattle from Goulburn,
New South Wales to what is now known as Fossil Downs Station in the
Kimberley. This journey of 5,600 kilometres ended near a tree marked F136
by explorer Alexander Forrest on 3 June 1886.
The place where the tree marked F136 once stood has outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for its association with the
pioneering overlanding journey undertaken by the MacDonald brothers in
1883-1886.
Bunuba resistance to the rolling frontier of European settlement
Conflict between Europeans and Aboriginal people was endemic on the
frontier of European settlement (Reynolds 1976). As the wave of European
settlement moved south and north from the Sydney colony it took many
forms from passive resistance through to large-scale violent action, and was
highly influenced by the terrain on which it occurred. (Reynolds 1982;
Pedersen 2000; Grassby and Hill 1988; Connor 2002).
The Bunuba resistance would not have been a success without the
impenetrable fortress-like qualities of their traditional country. The
limestone landscape of the Napier and Oscar Ranges provided the Bunuba
people with a refuge from which to defend their country and a fortress to
attack would-be settlers and the police. Control of the Devonian Reef was
crucial for the rolling frontier of European settlement to move forward.
The limestone ranges of the Devonian Reef have outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (a) as the place where Bunuba
resistance held back the advance of European settlement for 13 years, an
unusual achievement by Aboriginal people in the history of Australian
frontier conflict.
Treatment of Aboriginal people after European settlement
The buildings and landscape elements of Bungarun (Derby Leprosarium),
together with the area of the former residential units, the cemetery and the
state listed Aboriginal heritage sites, tell the poignant story of the isolation of
Aboriginal people during a period of Australia's history when government
policy makers were dominated by the fear of disease and its spread into the
Australian populace to the south. Aboriginal people from across the
Kimberley were isolated at Bungarun, some for a few weeks, and others for
up to forty years.
The place highlights the government's rationale at the time, merging the
logic of penal, quarantine, therapeutic and racial segregation into policies to
manage disease amongst Aboriginal people. The place provides an ongoing
testament to Aboriginal people's resilience and capacity to resist, adapt and
survive despite the difficulties and personal suffering imposed by leprosy,
separation from country and family, and the government's isolationist
5

B
The place has
outstanding
heritage value to
the nation
because of the
place's
possession of
uncommon, rare
or endangered
aspects of
Australia's
natural and
cultural history
policies of the time.
Bungarun (Derby Leprosarium) has outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (a) as the only extant facility to tell the national
story of leprosy treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia's cultural
history.
Aboriginal rights to practice law and culture
When Aboriginal people speak about 'Noonkanbah' they are referring to a
series of events which took place on Noonkanbah station between 1978 and
1980. These events drew the attention of the nation to the struggle of
Aboriginal people to protect their rights to practice traditional law and
culture.
Noonkanbah is one in a series of important steps in the national struggle of
Aboriginal people to have their rights to practice traditional law and culture,
and have their rights to traditional land ownership recognised. In addition,
Noonkanbah brought about significant change to resource company policies
and practices in relation to consultation and negotiation with Aboriginal
people and in the protection of Aboriginal heritage.
Yirrkala, Wave Hill, Noonkanbah and Mer Island each assume their own
symbolic importance in the long, slow path towards the recognition of
Aboriginal rights and the protection of Aboriginal heritage.
The areas of Noonkanbah station encompassing the station gates, the
crossing at Mickey’s Pool, Pea Hill and the unsuccessful exploration well
have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as
the site of the Noonkanbah dispute, an important event in the
national struggle of Aboriginal people to have their rights to practice
traditional law and culture recognised, and to protect their heritage
for future generations.
Ecology, biogeography and evolution
Gogo fossil sites
At the late Devonian Gogo fish fossil sites, near–complete, articulated fossil
fish are often found in limestone nodules and up to 50 different species are
preserved. The spectacular Gogo fossils have recently been discovered to
preserve soft tissue structures along with bone. This has revealed evidence
for viviparity (live birth) and sexual dimorphism: embryos, an umbilical cord
and a possible yolk sac have been preserved. This represents the earliest
evidence for internal fertilization and live birth in vertebrates (Long et al.
2008). Extensive remains of soft tissue have allowed reconstruction of the
body musculature in a stem vertebrate (these fish being ancestral to
tetrapods) (Ahlberg 2009). The Gogo fossils are unique in preserving a
diverse fossil fish fauna, complete with soft tissue anatomy.
The late Devonian Gogo fish fossil sites have outstanding heritage value to
the nation under criterion (b) for remarkable preservation of a diverse
fauna of entire fossil fish skeletons complete with the rare preservation of
extensive soft tissue.
Dampier Coast
The early Cretaceous Broome Sandstone of the Dampier Coast contains the
only sauropod prints found in Australia – these are common in the
Above
threshold
6

discontinuous outcrops that stretch for up to 200 kilometres along the west
coast of the Dampier Peninsula (Molnar 1991; Thulborn et al. 1994; Long
1998). With some hind foot tracks as long as 1.75 metres, the Dampier Coast
tracks may be the world's largest sauropod prints. The world's smallest
sauropod tracks have also been found here, indicating a broader population
sample than that of any other known sauropod track site. It preserves rare
examples of the coexistence of sauropod and ornithopods. The Dampier
Coast is the only site with extensive evidence of western Australian
dinosaurs and the large number of tracks provides an otherwise unobtainable
census of dinosaur populations and communities.
The Dampier Coast dinosaur tracks have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (b) as the best and most extensive evidence of
dinosaurs from the western half of the continent, some of which are
unknown from body fossils; for the diversity and exceptional sizes of the
sauropod prints; and the unique census of the dinosaur community that
they provide.
Rare in Australia, fossil human tracks are important for both scientific and
symbolic reasons. There are three occurrences of fossil human tracks
documented in the literature. The Dampier Coast site is the only example yet
found in Western Australia. Less clearly documented accounts of human
tracks at other locations along the coast also appear in the literature (Mayor
and Sarjeant 2001; CNN 1996; Long 2002). The Pleistocene and Holocene
human record which the Dampier Coast tracks help to elaborate is very
patchy. Documenting track sites through human history can begin to reveal
population data across a continent and through time, to supplement other
kinds of archaeological and historical evidence. Tracks have the potential to
reveal data which is hidden from those who only study body fossils: about
gait, anatomy, stature, size, population and speed. In other words, they evoke
'the living behaviour of our ancestors' (Kim et al. 2008; Webb et al. 2006).
The fossil human footprint sites of the Dampier Coast have outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) as one of only three
documented human track sites in Australia and the only documented
evidence of human tracks from the west coast of Australia.
Wealth of land and sea
Botanical remains and Aboriginal plant procurement strategies
At Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter, also known as Jambarurru to Bunuba
people (S. Pannell pers. comm. 5 May 2010) and Tangalma to the Unggumi
(Playford 1960, 2007) in the Napier Range, a combination of protected dry
deposits and high alkalinity have combined to preserve an exceptional
collection of botanical materials including wood shavings, seeds and plant
fibres (O'Connor 2007).
Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter has outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (b) for its rare archaeological sequence of micro
and macro-botanical remains spanning 40,000 years that contributes to
our understanding of the impacts of climate change on flora composition
though time, and the rare evidence it provides of plant procurement
strategies used by Aboriginal people from the Pleistocene, through the last
glacial maximum, a period when many occupation sites were abandoned
across Australia, and into the Holocene.
7

C
The place has
outstanding
heritage value to
the nation
because of the
place's potential
to yield
information that
will contribute
to an
understanding
of Australia's
natural and
cultural history.
Contact, change and continuity
Careening Bay and the Mermaid tree
In 1820, during one of his coastal survey expeditions, Phillip Parker King
careened his ship the Mermaid in Careening Bay on the Kimberley coast of
Western Australia. Careening was an essential activity in the routine of
maintenance and care of the ship. On this occasion a boab tree was carved
with the initials HMC Mermaid to mark the crew's stay on what was then a
very remote area of the Australian coast. Within the Kimberley other early
land explorers made similar marks on trees which are still present in the
landscape. The Mermaid tree however is rare as the only known in situ,
physical reminder of King's survey expeditions along the Australian
coastlines of the Kimberley, Northern Australia, the northern coastlines of
Queensland and the Torres Strait.
The Mermaid tree within Careening Bay has outstanding heritage value to
the nation under criterion (b) as rare, in situ, physical evidence of
nineteenth century hydrographers and in particular the survey work of
Phillip Parker King, one of Australia's most important early marine
surveyors.
Ecology, biogeography, climate and evolution
Devonian coral reef
The fossil reef assemblages of the Lennard Shelf, including the Napier,
Oscar, Emmanuel and Pillara Ranges span the Givetian–Famennian stages of
the Devonian period from about 390–359 million years ago, including the
Frasnian–Famennian mass extinction. Studying this sequence can provide
information about how reef communities react to climate change and to
changes in sea level, both of which are key issues facing modern coral reefs
such as the Great Barrier Reef (Wood 2000; Wood 2002; Veron 2008).
The Devonian reef outcrops of the Lennard Shelf have outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) because of their potential to
yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the
climatological and biological processes that affect major reef systems.
Gogo fossil sites
The late Devonian Gogo fossil sites produce remarkable specimens with a
potential for study that increases with each new technological development.
The most recent advances use high–resolution scanning electron microscopy,
high–resolution computer tomography, X–ray and Synchrotron CT scanning
to reveal details of the soft tissue morphology that might otherwise be
obscured by bone and buried within the supporting matrix (Trinajstic and
Long 2009; Ahlberg 2009). Along with advancing studies of its own fossil
fauna, the Gogo sites provide a way to test new techniques in studying these
Devonian faunas, which may be applicable to other fossil types and sites in
the future.
The Gogo fish fossils have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (c) as they have significant potential to yield new information
about the natural history of Australia, the evolution of Australian
vertebrates and about new technologies that can be used to study fossils.
Human ecology and adaptation
Only a small number of archaeological surveys have been undertaken in the
west Kimberley region. Those few surveys have provided nationally
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8

significant evidence on the paleo-environment, human adaptation to climate
change, marine resource use, development of symbolic behaviour and the
antiquity of long distance exchange. Given the highly significant nature of
these investigations, coupled with the argument that the west Kimberley is
one of the most likely points through which humans first entered Australia,
future archaeological surveys in the region may reveal sites of even greater
scientific and archaeological significance. The exceptional preservation
conditions offered by the Devonian reef complex also support the likelihood
of further significant discoveries.
The coastline from Cape Londonderry to Cape Leveque and the Devonian
reef complex have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion
(c) for their potential to yield significant new archaeological information
contributing to an understanding of Australia's natural and cultural
history.
Rock paintings as a source of information about climate, ecology and
technology
The fine graphic detail of the painted motifs in the Wanjina-Wunggurr
homeland and the Balanggarra native title claim area provide invaluable
insights into a number of nationally important areas of research including
climate change and species extinction; early Aboriginal material culture and
technology development; and the interactions between Aboriginal people
and outsiders. The exceptional illustrative nature of the rock paintings has
the potential to provide information at a level of resolution currently absent
from the archaeology. Welch (1993, 29) supports this view, noting that early
Kimberley rock art 'gives us an enormous insight into the material culture of
early Australians'. While the rock paintings of Arnhem Land and the Kakadu
region are also highly informative, Morwood (2002, 162) suggests that the
Kimberley region may have greater potential in demonstrating changes in
weapons used, accoutrements and ideology.
The rock paintings of the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland and the
Balanggarra native title claim area have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (c) for their potential to yield information that will
contribute to an understanding of climate change and species extinction;
early Aboriginal material culture and technology development; and the
interactions between Aboriginal people and outsiders.
Natural disasters in the late Holocene
Recent research in the Kimberley linking comets and tsunamis to Indigenous
oral histories, painted rock images and stone arrangements provides exciting
opportunities for future collaborative investigations between archaeologists,
geologists and the Traditional Owners.
The west Kimberley coast between Cape Londonderry and Cape Leveque
has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for its
potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of
the nature and the effect of mega-tsunami events.
Contact, change and continuity
Asian–Australian interaction
Indonesian fishermen, commonly referred to as Macassans, have been
visiting the west Kimberley coast for perhaps hundreds of years to harvest
marine resources including pearl and trochus shell, turtle shell, clam meat,
shark fins and trepang, also known as sea cucumber or bêche-de-mer
9

D
The place has
outstanding
heritage value to
the nation
because of the
place's
importance in
demonstrating
the principal
characteristics
of:
(i) a class of
Australia's
natural and
cultural places;
or
(ii) a class of
Australia's
natural and
cultural
environments.
(Morwood 2002). The historical accounts and oral traditions of Kimberley
Aboriginal people, together with the limited archaeological evidence,
suggest that a very different kind of relationship existed between Indonesians
and Kimberley Aboriginal people than that experienced between Macassans
and Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land. In the Kimberley, the relationship
appears to have been one of hostility and distrust on both sides. Few
archaeological surveys have been conducted to investigate this important
pre-European contact.
The west Kimberley coast from Cape Londonderry to the Lacepede Islands
has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for its
potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of
Indonesian-Aboriginal interaction in Australia's cultural history.
Ancient landscapes, geological processes
The Kimberley ria coast
The Kimberley ria coast, from the Helpman Islands in King Sound to Joseph
Bonaparte Gulf is the most extensive region of well–expressed ria coast and,
at more than 2,500 kilometres, probably the longest stretch of predominantly
rocky coast in Australia (Sharples 2009; Woodroffe and Short 2009).
Nowhere else in Australia, or possibly the world, is there the opportunity to
study the effects of macrotidal tide–dominated rocky coastal processes, and
repeatedly interacting sea–level changes and fluvial landform processes
through time, on a predominantly rocky coast that lacks the disturbance
caused by high density coastal infrastructure (Sharples 2009; DEWHA
2009c). There are many ria coasts in the world, and other ria coasts in
Australia, but the Kimberley rocky coast is unique in Australia and rare in
the world for preserving a continuous and intricate dominantly–rocky fluvial
and drowned fluvial landscape over a length of more than 2500 kilometres.
Due to the stability of the Kimberley craton over time, the sea floor to
roughly the 30 metre bathymetric line has been a terrestrial land surface,
subjected to subaerial terrestrial landform development, more than it has
been subject to marine processes over the last half billion years. As such, it is
the best expression in the country of this type of landscape and the processes
that have shaped and continue to shape it during the Phanerozoic eon (the
last 545 million years).
The west Kimberley coast from Helpman Islands in King Sound to the
western shore of Cambridge Gulf, including islands, peninsulas, inlets and
inundated features, has outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (d) for demonstrating the principal characteristics of a major
coastal landform type, in an extensive region without significant
modification by coastal infrastructure.
Lennard Shelf
The Lennard Shelf contains the elements of a late Devonian carbonate ramp
on an ancient tropical continental shelf. These limestone complexes lie off
the ancient mainland represented by the folded and faulted, granitic and
metamorphic Kimberley Block to the north (described under criterion (a) as
the rocks of the King Leopold orogeny). An integrated picture of a proto–
Australian continental shelf environment in an epicontinental sea from 390–
370 million years ago is provided by a number of features and their spatial
relationships. These features include: palaeoshores, palaeoinlets, platforms,
atolls, interreef basins, debris flows, islands and archipelagos with fringing
reefs (including the superbly preserved Mowanbini Archipelago of the Oscar
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10

Range), the remains of a barrier reef, including the forereef accumulations,
lagoon deposits, patch reefs, bioherms (mud mounds) that grew on pinnacle
reefs rising from the shallow sea floor of the backreef lagoon and limestone
nodules preserving entire fish and crustaceans at the Gogo fossil localities
(Playford and Lowry 1966; Webb 2001; Johnson and Webb 2007; Playford
et al. 2009).
The Devonian carbonate complexes of the Lennard Shelf have outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) for demonstrating the
principal characteristics of a very well preserved proto-Australian
carbonate ramp environment on an ancient continental shelf.
Ecology, biogeography and evolution
Dampier Coast Cretaceous landscape
The ichnofossils (trace fossils including dinosaur tracks) preserved in the
Broome Sandstone exposed in the intertidal zone of the Dampier Coast
(from Roebuck Bay to Cape Leveque) represent up to 15 different types of
dinosaur (Thulborn et al. 1994; Tyler 2000; Thulborn 1997; Long 1998;
Long 2004). The Cretaceous landscapes that occurred here were buried
intact and reveal original topography, with soils, leaf–litter and even fossils
of plants in their growth positions (roots can be seen descending into the
substrate). In places, dinosaur tracks meander around these plants so that one
may walk across these ancient landscapes following their paths through
clumps of vegetation (Thulborn pers. comm. 2009).
The plant and sedimentological evidence allows reconstruction of the
environments in which dinosaurs lived and fed, providing a fuller
palaeoecological picture of a suite of Cretaceous coastal environments. The
Broome Sandstone coastal exposures of dinosaur tracks and associated
fossils therefore tell an integrated story of the animals, plants and physical
environment of this area during the Early Cretaceous period, approximately
132 million years ago.
The dinosaur tracks and associated ichnofossils, plant macrofossils and
Cretaceous depositional environments of the Broome Sandstone exposed
in the intertidal zone of the Dampier Coast have outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (d) for preserving snapshots of the
ecology of the Mesozoic.
Roebuck Bay migratory hub
Sixty four waterbird species have been recorded at Roebuck Bay, 34 of
which have been listed under international treaties (JAMBA, CAMBA and
ROKAMBA). Roebuck Bay has the highest number of species of
international importance visiting its shores of any site in Australia, including
pied oystercatcher (Haematopus longirostris), Mongolian plover
(Charadrius mongolus) and the ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres).
ANHAT analysis returned the second highest score for Charadiiformes
(waders) richness at Roebuck Bay (61 species). Along with international
visitors, Roebuck Bay also returned nationally high endemism scores for a
collection of bird groups, including Passeriformes (perching birds),
Meliphagidae (honeyeaters), Pittidae (pittas) and to a lesser extent Sylviidae
(old world warblers). The endemism significance can in some cases be
explained by a number of bird species, such as the common redshank
(Tringa totanus) and the Asian dowitcher (Limnodromus semipalmatus), that
11

E
The place has
outstanding
heritage value to
the nation
because of the
place's
importance in
exhibiting
particular
within Australia almost exclusively visit the Canning coast area, before
returning to other countries within their flyway zone.
Roebuck Bay has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion
(d) due to the place's importance as a class of avian habitat (a migratory
hub or staging post), and for the regular presence of migratory, protected
or endangered avifauna.
Rainbow Serpent traditions tied to Indigenous interpretations of the different
way in which water flows within the catchment
The Rainbow Serpent is an important Creation Being for Aboriginal people
across Australia and is closely linked to land, water, life, social relationships
and fertility. There are many stories associated with the serpent, all of which
communicate the significance and power of this Being within Aboriginal
traditions.
Within the Fitzroy River catchment there are four distinct expressions of the
Rainbow Serpent tradition. In the jila-kalpurtu domain of the Fitzroy
catchment on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert, water flows are
principally underground and the Rainbow Serpent (kalpurtu) is said to exist
in the underground structure of the channels, linking excavated waterholes
and other water sources of significance. Places like Kurrpurrngu,
Mangunampi, Paliyarra and Kurungal are exemplars of this expression of the
Rainbow Serpent.
The phenomenon of Galaroo, on the other hand, is linked to flowing surface
water, in the form of major rivers, and to long and deep permanent
waterholes in broad river channels, like Geikie Gorge (Danggu). The
Rainbow Serpent of the Wanjina-Wunggurr belief system, known as
Wunggurr, is typically found in discrete pools of water and is also
associated with the sea and with Wanjina Creator Beings at painted sites and
in religious narratives.. The upper Hann river is an exemplar of this aspect of
the Rainbow Serpent tradition, while the Woonyoomboo-Yoongoorroonkoo
narrative of the lower Fitzroy primarily tells the story of the creation of the
lower Fitzroy River and its floodplains and its links to the sea.
The Fitzroy River and a number of its tributaries, together with their
floodplains and the jila sites of Kurrpurrngu, Mangunampi, Paliyarra and
Kurungal, demonstrate four distinct expressions of the Rainbow Serpent
tradition associated with Indigenous interpretations of the different ways
in which water flows within the catchment and are of outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (d) for their exceptional ability to
convey the diversity of the Rainbow Serpent tradition within a single
freshwater hydrological system.
Wealth of land and sea
The West Kimberley, with its spectacular scenery and substantially
unmodified landscapes, has outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (e) for its inspirational landscapes, as exemplified by the following
places.
Common aesthetic characteristics noted for the West Kimberley region
include the colour in the landscape (reds, yellows, intensity and variety of
hues) , the substantially unmodified nature of the natural landscapes, the
experience of remoteness and the inspirational nature of the landscapes
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aesthetic
characteristics
valued by a
community or
cultural group.
commonly described by words such as majesty, ancient, remarkable,
awesome, endless vistas, jewel like sources of water, wild, spectacular,
magnificent, iconic, scenic splendour, outback and grandeur.
Kimberley coast from the Buccaneer Archipelago to King George River
Particular aesthetic characteristics of the Kimberley coast valued by the
Australian community include its rugged sandstone coast with rocky
headlands, prominent peaks and striking landforms, sandy beaches, pristine
rivers and drowned river valleys with rich flora and fauna, off shore reefs
and numerous islands in extensive seascapes in a sea supporting diverse
marine life.
The Kimberley coast from the Buccaneer Archipelago to King George
River has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for
its aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community., including
its rugged sandstone coast with rocky headlands and prominent peaks and
striking landforms, sandy beaches, pristine rivers, waterfalls and drowned
river valleys with rich flora and fauna, offshore reefs and numerous
islands in extensive seascapes in a sea supporting diverse marine life. The
unusual effect of tidal movement is also part of the aesthetic appreciation
of some areas like the Horizontal Waterfall.
Mitchell River National Park
Particular aesthetic characteristics of the Mitchell River National Park
valued by the Australian community include the rugged Kimberley Plateau,
Mitchell River, Mitchell Falls (Punamii Unpuu), rocky features around
Mitchell Falls and the Surveyors Pool (Aunauyu) and its falls.
The Mitchell River National Park has outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics valued by the
Australian community.
King George Falls and King George River
Particular aesthetic characteristics of King George Falls and King George
River valued by the Australian community include the rugged sandstone
gorge of the King George River between the Falls and the ocean, the high
colourful cliffs of the river gorge and the spectacular twin waterfalls
cascading into the river.
King George Falls and King George River have outstanding heritage value
to the nation under criterion (e) for their aesthetic characteristics valued
by the Australian community.
Geikie Gorge Conservation Park and Geikie Gorge National Park
Particular aesthetic characteristics of Geikie Gorge Conservation Park and
Geikie Gorge National Park valued by the Australian community include
Geikie Gorge (Danggu), its colourful gorge cliffs and sculptured rock
formations carved by water through an ancient limestone reef, the lush
riverine vegetation along the gorge, the fossil decoration on the gorge walls
and the deep permanent waters.
Geikie Gorge Conservation Park and Geikie Gorge National Park have
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for their
aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community.
13

F
The place has
outstanding
heritage value to
the nation
because of the
place's
importance in
demonstrating a
high degree of
creative or
technical
achievement at a
particular
period.
Windjana Gorge National Park
Particular aesthetic characteristics of Windjana Gorge National Park valued
by the Australian community include the narrow gorge of the Lennard River,
the colourful cliffs of the gorge and the fossil decoration on the gorge walls.
Windjana Gorge National Park has outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics valued by the
Australian community.
King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park
Particular aesthetic characteristics of the King Leopold Ranges Conservation
Park valued by the Australian community include the Lennard River Gorge,
Bells Gorge, the rugged mountain ranges, the fault lines and twisted
topography, spectacular gorges, waterfalls, rock pools and their fringing
vegetation.
The King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park has outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics
valued by the Australian community.
The aesthetic value of rock art
The stunning painted images of Creation Beings, ancestors, plants and
animals in rock shelters in the west Kimberley, including the powerful
Wanjina and intriguing Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro figures, are considered
amongst the most spectacular examples of 'rock art' in the world (Flood
1990, 70). Highly valued by non-Aboriginal people for their aesthetic values,
these images are both powerful and of deep religious significance to
Kimberley Aboriginal people.
Aboriginal rock art paintings in the west Kimberley, particularly in the
Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland the Balanggarra native title claim area and
the Devonian reef, are both powerful and of deep religious significance to
Kimberley Aboriginal people and have outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (e) as they represent a stunning visual record of an
ongoing Aboriginal painting tradition in a substantially unmodified
landscape.
Design and innovation
Painted rock images
The painted images found in rock shelters and caves across the Wanjina-
Wunggurr homeland, the Balanggarra native title claim area and in the
limestone ranges of the Devonian reef provide an exceptional record of
painted rock art that is extraordinarily diverse and technically very detailed.
Considered one of the longest and most complex painted 'rock art'
sequences anywhere in the world, (Morwood 2002, 143) the west
Kimberley complex of painted images is a creative achievement by
Kimberley Aboriginal people that has outstanding heritage value to the
nation under criterion (f).
Sacred Heart church, Beagle Bay mission
Built in a remote location from locally sourced material, the Sacred Heart
church at Beagle Bay mission is a testimony to the ingenuity and
resourcefulness of the Pallottine brothers and the Aboriginal residents of the
mission who built and decorated it. The use of pearl shell and other media to
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G
The place has
outstanding
heritage value to
the nation
because of the
place's strong or
special
association with
a particular
community or
cultural group
for social,
cultural or
spiritual
reasons.
decorate the interior of the church, particularly the sanctuary, demonstrates a
high degree of artistic excellence and technical finesse. The place continues
to be highly valued by the Beagle Bay Aboriginal community today because
of the considerable Aboriginal involvement in its construction and
decoration.
The Sacred Heart Church at Beagle Bay mission has outstanding heritage
value to the nation under criterion (f) for the high degree of creative and
technical achievement in the use of pearl shell and other locally sourced
media to decorate the interior, combining western religious and Aboriginal
motifs.
Technical response to environmental constraints
Double log raft
Aboriginal people built strong, light rafts to navigate the treacherous waters
of the west Kimberley coast. Rips, whirlpools and overfalls created by the
massive twelve metre tides made navigation through the maze of islands and
waterways a serious undertaking. While a navigational hazard, these strong
tidal currents, provided opportunities for skilled and knowledgeable
Aboriginal people to travel long distances to hunt, trade and maintain social
and cultural obligations.
The manufacture of the double log raft from mangrove logs (particularly
Rhizophora stylosa) is a unique adaptation to the massive tidal variation
of the west Kimberley and has outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (f) for demonstrating a high degree of technical
achievement by Aboriginal people in the course of Australia's cultural
history.
Wealth of the Land and Sea
European pearling
Broome has a special association with the Australian community as an iconic
place, once the pearling capital of Australia. This association has in part an
idealised aspect relating to the romance of Old Broome, its pearling luggers
and its location on a remote and beautiful coast.
Today the Australian community continues to be drawn to Broome and the
nearby region because of the romance of Broome, its pearling history, its
remote and beautiful location at the gateway to the Kimberley's outback and
pearling coast, its association with pearls and the town's stories associated
with the development of a unique Australian community with a distinctive
cultural diversity. The people of Broome celebrate and recognise their
pearling history and diverse cultural heritage today in the annual Shinju
Matsuri Festival.
Broome and the nearby region has outstanding (intangible) heritage value
to the nation under criterion (g) as a place which has a special association
with the Australian community because of the romance of Broome, its
pearling history, its remote and beautiful location at the gateway to the
Kimberley's outback and pearling coast, its association with pearls and the
town's stories associated with the development of a unique Australian
community with a distinctive cultural diversity.
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H
The place has
outstanding
heritage value to
the nation
because of the
place's special
association with
the life or works
of a person, or
group of
persons, of
importance in
Australia's
natural or
cultural history.
I
The place has
outstanding
heritage value to
the nation
because of the
place's
importance as
part of
Indigenous
tradition.
Contact, Change and continuity
European explorers
William Dampier (Cygnet) l688 landing place
William Dampier first made observations of Australia and its Indigenous
people at Karrakatta Bay and the nearby environment. His accounts of
Australia and his other voyages around the world established Dampier as an
expert, in his time, on the Pacific and Australia. His travel experiences
described in his writing stimulated eighteenth century European exploration
of the Pacific and Australia and foreshadowed the later voyages of Cook.
The William Dampier (Cygnet) 1688 landing place has outstanding
heritage value to the nation under criterion (h) for its special association
with the life and work of William Dampier.
Indigenous resistance: Jandamarra
The late timing of the settlement and the impenetrable nature of the
Devonian Reef helped create the man and the legend of Jandamarra - a man
brought up in two worlds, whose detailed knowledge of European methods
to contain Aboriginal resistance and his capacity to pass those skills on to his
Bunuba countrymen and women, severely threatened the colonising project.
While Jandamarra did not act alone, his abilities to disappear and avoid
capture, and to appear to even cheat death itself, made him a much feared
adversary to Europeans and a powerful leader amongst his own people.
The limestone ranges of the Devonian Reef, known to the Bunuba as
Barlil, has outstanding value to the nation under criterion (h) for its
association with Jandamarra, whose campaign of resistance was
unprecedented in Australian history, as was the ferocity of the police and
settler response. Jandamarra's death in 1897 ended the last large-scale
organised violent resistance by Aboriginal people in Australia's cultural
history.
Wanjina–Wunggurr Tradition
The Wanjina-Wunggurr tradition, with features including the painted images
of Wanjina and Gwion Gwion in rock shelters across the west Kimberley,
provides testimony of a complex association of socio-religious beliefs that
continues to be central to the laws and customs of the Wanjina-Wunggurr
people.
Together, the Wanjina and the Wunggurr Snake are believed to be the
manifestations of a life force, also called Wunggurr, which permeates the
Wanjina-Wunggurr cosmos and is imbued in all living forms. The creative
association of the Wanjina and the Wunggurr Snake is represented in the
religious narratives and manifested in the painted images on rock, and as
other features in the land, sea and sky including natural rock formations and
man-made stone arrangements.
Members of the Wanjina-Wunggurr society trace their descent to the
Wanjina ancestral beings. Wanjina 'rock art' sites serve as geographical focal
points for a system of territorial and social organisation that links small
groups of people (the clans of anthropological discourse) to named local
countries (clan estates) (Blundell et al. 2009) and into a system of exchange
called the wurnan that extends throughout the Kimberley. The exchange of
items between local group members is viewed as the passage of items in
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16

space from Wanjina to Wanjina.
In order to sustain the ongoing cycle of life, members of the Wanjina-
Wunggurr community continue to engage in a range of ritual practices
established in Lalai (The Dreaming). While Wanjina-Wunggurr people
believe that the Wanjina 'put' themselves onto rock surfaces as paintings,
they also believe that as the human descendents of these Wanjina, it is their
duty to maintain the 'brightness' or 'freshness' of the paintings by re-touching
them with charcoal and pigments (Mowaljarlai and Malnic 1993; Redmond
2001; Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005; Blundell et al. 2009). By keeping the
paintings 'fresh' the world will remain fertile – the annual rains arrive, plants
and animals will reproduce, and child spirits will remain available in
whirlpools and waterholes throughout the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland.
There is no other Indigenous society in northern or central Australia, indeed
anywhere in Australia, where a single class of Creator Being, the Wanjina,
depicted as a distinct rock art figure, has such a significant and multifaceted
role or set of associated meanings and practices (Blundell et al. 2009).
The Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland, where the painted images on rock and
other features in the land, sea and sky, including natural rock formations
and man-made stone arrangements, are manifestations of the Wanjina and
the Wunggurr Snake, are of outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (i) because of their importance as part of Indigenous
tradition.
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