Aurukun, Queensland: History
Kugu Mu'inh (also known as Wik Muinh, Kuku Muinh, Wik Muin, Kuku-Mu'inh) is a traditional language of the area which includes landscape within the local government boundaries of the Cook Shire.
The first recorded contact between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians was near Aurukun on the Janszoon voyage of 1605–06.
The Aurukun Mission (known then as the Archer River Mission Station) was established on 4 August 1904 for the Presbyterian Church of Australia by the Reverend Arthur and Mrs Mary Richter, two Moravian missionaries and managed under the provisions of the Queensland Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897. Aboriginal people were relocated from a large surrounding area, many against their will, to the mission settlement. Aurukun was "ruled" for 40 years by Reverend William Mackenzie, as the missions Chief Protector for the Aboriginal Protection Board. The town once had a cattle station, sawmill, butcher and bakery.
The settlement was expanded in 1922 to include Kendall River
The town was eventually called Aurukun, which is the Aboriginal name of a lagoon on the Watson River
Under the missionaries, children were confined to dormitories although they returned to their families during the vacations. Young adults were trained for servile work. MacKenzie's punishments were described as "harsh, unorthodox, and arbitrary - they included the use of banishment, corporal punishment, including flogging and beating, use of his fists, use of the 'electro magnet', binding the mouth to stop verbal abuse and swearing." In 1956, Victor and Isobel Wolmby were exiled from the camp because Victor had fathered a child with another woman. Victor was to become recognised as a leader and Isobel became a source of the group's verbal history.
However, many people remained outside the mission up until the 1950s.
Aurukun Post Office opened on 1 July 1972.
Wik woman Alison Woolla was the first female mayor of Aurukun, serving from 1983 to 1985, and again 1991–1994. She was largely responsible for establishing a women's shelter in the community, and was honoured by having an award named after her in 2020 (see below).In 1978, the Queensland government decided to take over the administration of both the Aurukun and Mornington Island missions. Both communities were against this, and protested, seeking the help of the Federal government. After lengthy negotiations, legislation for self-management of the two reserves was introduced into federal parliament and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Queensland Reserves and Communities Self Management) Act 1978 was passed on 7 April 1978. Further negotiations took place between State and Federal Ministers and on 22 May 1978, the Local Government (Aboriginal Lands) Act 1978 came into force, giving a 50-year lease to the Shire of Aurukun to be trustee for the land within the boundaries, with an elected Aboriginal Council. Aurukun and Mornington Shire remain the only Aboriginal communities in Queensland constituted as local authorities.
Following the Wik Peoples v Queensland determination in December 1996, the land reverted to native title held by the Wik people. The focal area of the Wik lies between the Archer and Edward Rivers of Western Cape York Peninsula and inland to Coen. Most Wik people still live in this triangle. …