- Placename
- Peninsula
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-16.82138889 Longitude122.8925 Start Date-50000 End Date3000
Description
People have lived here since bugarrigarra (the time before time) when Galaloong, travelled down the Peninsula, naming places and giving law. From an archeological perspective the first visitors, around 50,000 years ago did not encounter a Peninsula but an inland, dome shaped mountain rising some 210- 290 meters above sea level. Then it was cooler and wetter and sea levels were lower. The islands at the top of what is now King Sound would then have been a ridge of hills. This means the Fitzroy River flowed into a vast freshwater lake. Nyulnyulan, the language group of the area is spoken across the Peninsula and up the banks of the Fitzroy River.
- Placename
- Coastline 50,000 years ago
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-16.37277778 Longitude122.8958333 Start Date-50000 End Date3000
Description
There were two groups from the beginning, Saltwater People who lived on the coast and Wanangarrjak (mountain people) who lived on the dome.
- Placename
- Coastline 25,000 years ago
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-15.58333333 Longitude121.2338889 Start Date-25000 End Date3000
Description
By 25,000 years ago the Last Glacial Maximum caused a Great Drought across the country and sea levels were much lower. The dome is something of camel’s hump for the rocks and sediment that comprise it function as aquifers to a range of water bodies. Life was sustainable on the dome and, if there were shallows, sustainable on the coast.
- Placename
- Coastline 8,000 years ago
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-16.70777778 Longitude122.5911111 Start Date-8000 End Date3000
Description
The planet had warmed, rain systems returned, and the sea level rose to its current levels. Saltwater people rose with the coast. The freshwater lake was inundated and became a tidal inlet. People were now in a number of distinct groups Jabirr Jabirr/Ngumbarl; NyulNyul; Nimanbur; Bardi and Jawi and Yawuru each ‘with a little bit different tongue’.
- Placename
- Coastal route
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-17.41 Longitude122.1825 Start Date End Date
Description
The earlier route was probably closer to the coast. It was used it for trade; shells, coastal boomerangs and shields came south and white ochre and shovel spears went north.
- Placename
- Baragon (Cygnet Bay)
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-16.465 Longitude122.9927778 Start Date1699 End Date1699
Description
Pirate and explorer William Dampier (1651-1715) landed on Bardi country. Local Aboriginal people tend to describe their area as the Peninsula, Dampier being superfluous to their requirements.
- Placename
- Doonjurut Beagle Bay
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-15.97611111 Longitude122.59 Start Date1836 End Date1836
Description
Newdumbrue, who was also called Uncle Albert Kelly, told this story many years ago about Darwin’s visit on the Beagle in 1836. Darwin saw kids on the beach huddled over. He gathered up some ship’s biscuits and tinned meat and came ashore. The kids were playing a game like marbles, using black and white pearls. He swapped the pearls for the biscuits and tinned meat and took news of his find back home.
- Placename
- Roebuck Bay
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-17.97027778 Longitude122.2911111 Start Date1885 End Date1890
Description
Pearlers arrived in the 1880s. They did terrible things, they cleared the mudflats of oysters, they took young men to use as divers and young women to use as sex slaves. One of the very young men they took was Ngoordinyboor, also called Felix. Along with others on the boat Felix became sick and died, the pearlers landed somewhere on Ninety Mile Beach to bury them. That night Felix’s special spirits the possum and crow called out for him and woke him up. He started walking back to his people. He saw the boat returning and called out, people were afraid thinking he was a ghost. The boat picked him up and took him back home and he became a leader of his people. He married Madelene, a Jabirr Jabirr woman from Winawal (Sandy point).
Details
Latitude-17.30527778 Longitude123.6280556 Start Date End Date
Description
In 1890 small group of monks came from Derby across the Peninsula on packhorses. Felix was the first to help the monks and was later converted.
- Placename
- Nileribanjen (Broome)
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-17.95472222 Longitude122.2452778 Start Date End Date
Description
After the various missions came there was more regular travel up and down the Peninsula from Nileribanjen (Broome), to Djarindjin (Lombadina) and through to Ardyaloon (One Arm Point). At first they used a donkey and cart. When it arrived at Ngarlan boys from the school had to take it to the presbytery at Djarindjin. This took a long time and the boys often did not get back until two o’clock in the morning, they still had to get up for school.
- Placename
- Djarindjin (Lombadina)
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-16.51444444 Longitude122.8930556 Start Date End Date
Description
After the various missions came there was more regular travel up and down the Peninsula from Nileribanjen (Broome), to Djarindjin (Lombadina) and through to Ardyaloon (One Arm Point). At first they used a donkey and cart. When it arrived at Ngarlan boys from the school had to take it to the presbytery at Djarindjin. This took a long time and the boys often did not get back until two o’clock in the morning, they still had to get up for school.
- Placename
- Ardyaloon (One Arm Point)
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-16.44472222 Longitude123.0597222 Start Date End Date
Description
After the various missions came there was more regular travel up and down the Peninsula from Nileribanjen (Broome), to Djarindjin (Lombadina) and through to Ardyaloon (One Arm Point). At first they used a donkey and cart. When it arrived at Ngarlan boys from the school had to take it to the presbytery at Djarindjin. This took a long time and the boys often did not get back until two o’clock in the morning, they still had to get up for school.
- Placename
- Broome/Cape Leveque Road
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-17.88839167 Longitude122.2784306 Start Date End Date
Description
A little later on a big red International Dodge truck was used. During the Second World War, Aboriginal and Asian people in Nileribanjen were trucked up north and the white people were trucked south to safety. The road begins just outside Broome.
- Placename
- Beagle Bay Mission
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-16.98361111 Longitude122.6647222 Start Date End Date
Description
After the war the truck took cattle and garden produce to Nileribanjen to be sold and brought supplies and Stolen Children to the missions. The truck drivers and mechanics were often the boys who had taken the mail to Djarindjin. After the referendum in 1967 when we were allowed to use services the drivers used to take the pregnant ladies to Nileribanjen for their appointments and to have their babies.
- Placename
- Broome/Cape Leveque Road
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-16.44988889 Longitude123.0486083 Start Date End Date
Description
The road finished at Ardyaloon. It has been improved over the years, but it was always a very uncomfortable ride and hard on vehicles. It was finally sealed in 2020.
