The Coen area is the traditional homeland of the
Kaanju people. In 1623,
Jan Carstensz, the navigator of the ship
Pera of the
Dutch East India Company, named a river on Cape York Peninsula after
Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the Governor-General of the
Dutch East Indies. Today that river is known as the Archer River and the name Coen River is given to one of its tributaries. Coen Provisional School opened on 6 May 1895. On 1 January 1909, it became Coen State School. It closed in 1929 but reopened circa 1948. In January 2010, it became a campus of the
Western Cape College. In January 2012, it became a campus of the
Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy. In 1897, the
Queensland Parliament passed the
Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897, which granted the Home Secretar the power "to cause every aboriginal within any District, not being an aboriginal exempted from the provisions of this section, to be removed to, and kept within the limits of, any reserve situated within such District, in such manner, and subject to such conditions, as may be prescribed". Over 300 Aboriginal people were removed from the Coen district to Aboriginal reserves. Almost half of those removed were sent to
Palm Island. Included in this number were the
Lama Lama people of the Stewart River area who had been dispossessed of their lands by European pastoral expansion into their country in the late 19th century. They formed a community at the Stewart River on what is now Silver Plains Station, near the site of the Moojeeba township. In the 1930s, they were removed to
Lockhart River Mission but later returned to Port Stewart. In May 1944, 14 acres were gazetted near Coen as an
Aboriginal reserve. The reserve was located south of the town on the Coen River between Oscar and Spring Creeks. Over time, more buildings were erected on the reserve and a market garden established. In 1961, the reserve between Oscar and Spring Creeks was closed and a new Aboriginal reserve established. The new reserve was located closer to the town on the Coen River, opposite the cemetery. In 1961, the owner of the Silver Plains Station falsely accused the Lama Lama people of harassing stock. The accusations came as a response to the Lama Lama people refusing to work on the station at under-award rates of pay. The Lama Lama were removed to
Cowal Creek, after being tricked into believing they were going to
Thursday Island for a medical check-up. Some families walked back to Coen. Eventually, the majority resettled themselves at Coen. == Demographics ==