Good afternoon Hivians I hope you're having a wonderful week, apologies for being late to post another awesome destination but I had to get a bit of cleaning done of our old property.
Today I venture back a few years ago when we were up exploring the beautiful tropics of far north Queensland. Today we showcase the beautiful country of the traditional people the the Eastern Ku-Ku and Yalanji people. The people of the Yalanji mob have been in the media over the past few years for completely disconnecting from mainstream government and attempting to form their own. Inclusive of passports.
With lands like the Mossmon Gorge it makes you want to disengage and throw in your own passport/citizenship and do the same!.
This beautiful tourist destination with crystal clear water rushing past large granite boulders. Water so clear you can reach in and pick up a fish to eat!
Now an ecotourism destination with suspension bridges and walkways showcasing some of the most beautiful Australian natural environment and becoming one of Cairn's most visited tourism destinations.
However, this beautiful land has not always been so pristine and beautiful and it home to some of the most bloodiest of conflict between English settlers and Indigenous people.
In 1872 an expedition was sent to locate minerals and once stumbling across gold lining river beds on Palmer River English settlers quickly flocked to collect their easy wins.
Lands were cleared and the Cedar forests were lumbered to be used in construction. When English settlers came across Indigenous people their first action quite often was to kill on sight.
This led to confrontation between English settlers and Indigenous people, that land was cleared so badly that all native wild life and plants the food source for the Indigenous communities was driven out and many were left starving.
This caused Indigenous people to raid settlers camps for food or risk starvation. One night as an Indigenous man Scavenged the camp of a Chinese gold miners confrontation broke with the Chinese man being speared to death.
The English settlers mounted on horse back rode into the forest rounding up all the Indigenous people they could and flushing them out to see where a barrage of bullets met those who became visible.
Sub-Inspector Douglas was dispatched to the area to flush out and kill the remaining Indigenous people. In 1889 Selector Daniel Hart wrote to the then premier of Queensland highliting what had been occurring which led to the establishment of an Aboriginal Mission and the protections Act.
Indigenous people were rounded up and placed on 64 acres of land.
Indigenous people were not allowed to leave the mission or risk being murdered.
The mission has now been transformed to the Mossmon Gorge where Indigenous residents take turns working which sustains the financial economy of the local community.
