Before European contact In Mackay and its surrounding areas, six peoples have been identified: other than the Yuwibara, these were the
Wiri,
Biria,
Jangga,
Barna and
Barada, with each group estimated to have consisted of 500 members. The Yuwibara people are said to have been the most dominant group in the area, occupying what is now Mackay City, the coast from St. Helens to
Cape Palmerston and further inland to the Connor's Range. Boundaries were marked by natural features and punishment for incurring on other groups' territories was severe. What is now known as
Cape Hillsborough was and remains of particular significance for the Yuwibara people. Firstly, it was a hunting and gathering ground for food, which is still apparent in
archeological remains today. For instance,
shellfish were collected from the
mangroves, roasted over fires and the shells discarded in piles over the course of many years, forming
middens, the oldest of which are up to 500 years old. Other remains include a stone
fish trap, stone fireplaces, pieces of
ochre from other areas as well as stone
axe heads. Secondly, Cape Hillsborough is significant because boys were trained and initiated into manhood at the stone fish trap. Thirdly, the ground adjacent to Cape Hillsborough Resort is a
burial ground, not only for the Yuwibara, but also for
South Sea Islanders, and is thus
sacred ground. Other locations of significance to the Yuwibara people include, for instance, the Kommo Toera Trail, a
Melaleuca forest located in wetlands where food was gathered. Special ceremonies are also said to have been performed on the ocean-side of Mount Blackwood, which would later be a vantage point for spotting the
Native Police. Stone fish traps can also be found at Slade Point, Reliance Creek, Ball Bay, Woodwark Bay, Adelaide Point, Hay Point, Llewellyn Bay as well as on West Hill Island, Green Island, Rabbit Island, South Repulse Island and other places. Trade with the
Ngaro people in the nearby islands has also been documented. Billy Moogerah, who was the last Aboriginal person to live in the
Whitsunday Islands, used to
canoe from the islands to Cape Palmerston, making stops along the way for trade in Cape Hillsborough and Freshwater Point. However, Moogerah was removed from the islands when
Bowen township was first settled.
European contact The Mackay area began to be occupied by the British around 1860. They failed to recognise the tribal boundaries and hunting rights of the local groups. Faced with starvation, the local Yuwibara started hunting the settlers'
livestock, which resulted in
deadly conflict. It was estimated by contemporary local observers George Bridgman and
Pierre-Marie Bucas that in the decade from 1850 to 1860 roughly 50% percent of the original Aboriginal population of the Pioneer Valley had been killed. The
Native Mounted Police were considered the major cause, shooting down the local population in the ongoing
frontier wars, but introduced diseases also played a key role. The general trend in the Mackay area was described lightheartedly by the aristocratic
Harold Finch-Hatton: Alas for the greediness of the savage ! alas for the cruelty of his white brother ! The rations contained about as much strychnine as anything else, and not one of the mob escaped. When they awoke in the morning they were all dead corpses. More than a hundred Blacks were stretched out by this ruse of the owner of the Long Lagoon. In a dry season, when the water sinks low, their skulls are occasionally to be found half buried in the mud. As a rule, however, few people are ambitious of indulging in such wholesale slaughter, and, when the Blacks are troublesome, it is generally considered sufficient punishment to go out and shoot one or two. Writing in 1908, the early ethnographer
Henry Ling Roth stated that: "in the Mackay district at any rate, the aborigines, if not all exterminated, have at least, through European influence, lost all knowledge of their old laws and customs". ==Language==