Kuku Yalanji (also known as
Gugu Yalanji,
Kuku Yalaja, and
Kuku Yelandji) is an
Australian Aboriginal language of the
Mossman and
Daintree areas of
North Queensland. The language region includes areas within the local government area of
Shire of Douglas and
Shire of Cook, particularly the localities of Mossman, Daintree,
Bloomfield River, China Camp,
Maytown,
Palmer, Cape Tribulation and
Wujal Wujal.
Yalanji (also known as
Kuku Yalanji,
Kuku Yalaja,
Kuku Yelandji, and
Gugu Yalanji) is an
Australian Aboriginal language of
Far North Queensland. The traditional language region is
Mossman River in the south to the
Annan River in the north, bordered by the
Pacific Ocean in the east and extending inland to west of
Mount Mulgrave. This includes the local government boundaries of the
Shire of Douglas, the
Shire of Cook and the
Aboriginal Shire of Wujal Wujal and the towns and localities of
Cooktown,
Mossman,
Daintree, Cape Tribulation and
Wujal Wujal. It includes the head of the
Palmer River, the
Bloomfield River,
China Camp,
Maytown, and
Palmerville. Cape Tribulation was named by British
navigator Lieutenant
James Cook on 10 June 1770 (log date) after his ship scraped a reef north-east of the cape at 6pm, whilst passing over it. Cook steered away from the coast into deeper water but, at 10.30pm, the ship ran aground on what is now named
Endeavour Reef. The ship stuck fast and was badly damaged, desperate measures being needed to prevent it
foundering until it was refloated the next day. Cook recorded "...the north point [was named] Cape
Tribulation because "
here begun all our troubles". In the 1930s, some European
settlers arrived in Cape Tribulation, but they found the rainforest environment an extremely challenging one within which to establish a settlement. Various ventures such as fruit and vegetable farming, fishing, cattle and timber cutting, were started and abandoned over the years, and having weekly barges as the only transport in and out was another limitation. In the 1960s, a rough track was
bulldozed and the first vehicle access created, although the road remained a
four-wheel drive track until the early 1990s. In 2002, the road was finally sealed all the way to Cape Tribulation and, in early 2011, the last bridge was built, creating year round all weather access to Cape Tribulation for the first time. In 1983, Cape Tribulation became widely known because of the
blockade on the
Bloomfield Track. The local government had decided to bulldoze a road through the rainforest north of Cape Tribulation to complete the coastal road to
Cooktown. Protesters tried to stop the bulldozers and occupied trees to prevent their destruction. While wild scenes, with a large police and media presence, ensued at the southern end, the road was completed in three short weeks because the road builders approached from northern end and flanked the protestors. By then, the state and federal governments had started to realise the value of the ancient rainforest and, despite protests from the local council, the forests surrounding Cape Tribulation were given World Heritage Listing in 1988. == Demographics ==