MINJILANG, CROKER ISLAND AND GARNGI RANGERS

- September 27, 2020

It has been nearly three weeks now since I arrived here at Minjilang.

Some may ask, where is Minjilang or Croker Island? From Darwin, Minjilang is 240 kms north east lying just a couple of kms off the Australian mainland, which at this point is the Coburg Peninsula. Minjilang is the most northerly community in the NT and apart from the Torres Straight Islands and Bamaga in near the tip of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland it would be the most northerly community in Australia. It is just 350 kms to the nearest Indonesian island. See map below.

Long before Europeans came to this part of the planet, Crocker Island was hone to Iwaidja, Mawng and some Kunwinjku people.

The Dutch explorer Tasman travelled along the north Australian coast in 1644 long before the English explorer James Cook. Some place names from Tasman's voyage remain today such as Groote Eylandt and Coburg Peninsula. The Dutch were not suitably impressive with Australia so sailed off to later establish a colony in Indonesia.

English settlement attempts of northern Australia were initially very disappointing. There were four failed attempts from 1824 before final success at what we now know as Darwin in 1869. Two of these failed attempts were on Coburg Peninsula just to the west of Croker Island. Fort Victoria located in Port Essington lasted around 11 years before the English abandoned this site.

In 1941 during WW2 the Methodist Overseas Mission established a mission on Croker Island. In line with the Government policy of that day, stolen generation children from other parts of northern and central Australia were sent to many places including Croker Island. After Darwin was first bombed in February 1942 the authorities decreed that all non-military people had to leave northern Australia - this included the stolen generation children (but not the local Indigenous people. They would have to wait 25 odd more years until they would be counted in the census and be given a vote). Ms Sommerville led a group of stolen generation children from Croker Island, to the mainland and then across country to Oenpellie, driving to Darwin and then down the Stuart Highway to Adelaide and eventually Sydney. The link below tells more about this event.

https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2018/03/16/croker-island-exodus-documentary-telling-remarkable-adventure-story-1

My work here at Croker Island is coordinating the Garngi Rangers in land and sea care. Garngi is the name of Brahminy Kite pictured below. Garngi looks a little like the larger Sea Eagle. The rangers do a wide range of work including feral animal and weed control, fuel reduction burning, bio-security work, beach and sea patrols.

Many year ago a well meaning person brought some Timor ponies to the island. Their numbers have increased to the extent that they are now causing significant environmental damage. The photo below was taken on the floodplain. As the Top End is now in the late dry season, this is the only place on the island where green grass can be found. In a few months time this area will be again under water.

Feral pigs also spent a lot of time out on the flood plain during the dry season. Their digging activities can turn large areas of flat grass covered flood plain into very rough blog holes which then dries like concrete making vehicle travel a very slow affair!

Mimosa is Class 1 weed which, if left uncontrolled will result in large and dense infestations. During the weed survey below we discover another area amongst the paperbark around the edge of the floodplain. Mimosa seeds prolifically making it important to quickly get on top of new infestations.

Garngi ranger, Adam spraying mimosa.

Newly recruited ranger 'PK' has made some new friends - Adam, Sabrina and Eslyn.

This Fly Tiwi, Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft provides a five day per week service from Darwin. Remote air travel is not cheap - the 45 minute flight to Darwin will set you back $370 ..... that's one way! Then again, considering the alternative of walking and swimming crocodile infested rivers, $370 represents good value.