Queensland State Archives 2533 Joe Rotumahs house on Darnley Island with India rubber planted in 1890 1898

Darnley Island, or ''Erub'' in the native Papuan language of Meriam Mir, is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

formed by volcanic action and situated in the eastern section of the

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, �zen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It is one of the

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their tot ...

and is located near the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

and just south of the Bligh entrance. The town on the island is also called Darnley, but the locality is called

Erub Island Darnley Island, or ''Erub'' in the native Papuan language of Meriam Mir, is an island formed by volcanic action and situated in the eastern section of the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the Torres Strait Islands and is loc ...

, both being within the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

Torres Strait Island Region The Torres Strait Island Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia, covering part of the Torres Strait Islands. It was created in March 2008 out of 15 autonomous Island Councils during a period of statewide local gove ...

. In the , Erub Island had a population of 326 people, with 292 (89.6%) identifying as

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

. The effective community language is Brokan (

Torres Strait Creole Torres Strait Creole (), also known as Torres Strait Pidgin, Brokan/Broken, Cape York Creole, Lockhart Creole, Kriol, Papuan, Broken English, Blaikman, Big Thap, Pizin, and Ailan Tok, is an English-based creole language (a variety of Pidgin ...

), though many people also still speak

Meriam Mir Meriam (; also ''Miriam, Meryam, Mer, Mir, Miriam-Mir'', etc. and ''Eastern, Isten, Esten'' and ''Able Able'') or the Eastern Torres Strait language is the language of the people of the small islands of ''Mer'' ( Murray Island), ''Waier'' and ...

, the traditional language.

History

The island was named by Captain

William Bligh William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was a Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Royal Navy vice-admiral and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New South Wales from 1806 to 1808. He is best known for his role in the Muti ...

in 1792 during his second breadfruit voyage to the Pacific, after his distant relative, the

Earl of Darnley Earl of Darnley is a hereditary title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of Scotland and once in the Peerage of Ireland. The first creation in the Scots Peerage came in 1580 in favour of Esme Stewart, 1st Earl of Lennox, ...

. In 1871 representatives of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

(LMS) arrived in the

Torres Straits The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( ">�zen̪ad̪ kes/nowiki>), is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost e ...

on the vessel ''Surprise'', a ship owned or chartered by the LMS, after the

French Government The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

had demanded their removal from the

Loyalty Islands Loyalty Islands Province (, ) is one of the three top-level administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia. It encompasses the Loyalty Islands () archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located northeast of the New Caledonian mainland of Grande Terre. ...

and

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

in 1869. They decided to expand into the Torres Straits and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. They were represented by two Englishmen, Reverend Samuel Macfarlane and Reverend A.W. Murray, and eight Lifu (Loyalty Islander) evangelists: Tapeso, Elia, Mataika, Guchong, Kerisidui, Wauaded, Sevine and Josaia, and their wives. The missionaries reached Erub on 1 July 1871, an event that came to be known as the "

Coming of the Light All Saints Anglican Church is a heritage-listed church (building), church at Darnley Island, Queensland, Darnley Island, Torres Strait Island Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1919 to 1938. It was added to the Queensland Heritag ...

". One of the tribal elders of the island, Dabad, met them at Kemus (or Kernus) Beach after which he introduced them to Amani, another tribal elder, and the rest of the Erub Islanders. His role in the bringing of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

to the Torres Straits is memorialised by Dabad's Monument at Badog. The inscription reads "In loving memory of Dabad 1871: A man who denied his tribal laws and accepted the good news of salvation". All Torres Strait Island communities celebrate the Coming of the Light annually on 1 July. Pearlers and

beche-de-mer Sea cucumbers are marine animals of the class Holothuroidea. They can be used as food, in fresh or dried form, in various cuisines. In some cultural contexts the sea cucumber is thought to have medicinal value. The creature and the food product ...

gatherers visited the island. Over many years, these industries attracted an influx of seamen from the Pacific Islands, the Philippines, and Malaya, many of whom married local women and settled on the island. In the early 20th century, the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

started installing various facilities such as a school, medical aid, post office and an Island Industries Board store. In 1919, the All Saints Church was constructed at the former site of the original London Missionary Society mission house and school. Locally produced lime from burnt coral and basalt was used and the work was done under the direction of Manai, an Erub Islander, and Ware, a

South Sea Islander South Sea Islanders, formerly referred to as Kanakas, are the Australian descendants of Pacific Islanders from more than 80 islandsincluding the Oceanian archipelagoes of the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Gilbert Islands ...

. It was originally known as the Ziona church. Darnley Island State School opened on 29 January 1985, replacing the earlier mission school. On 1 January 2007 it became the Darnley Island Campus of the Tagai State College (with its main campus on Thursday Island). Darnley people have been at the forefront of the movement for adequate recognition of Torres Strait Islanders' rights. From the 1960s to the '90s, George Mye (Torres Strait Islander) was an elder and among the most prominent advocates of Islander interests. Carlemo Wacando was among the first to challenge the legal notion of

terra nullius ''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land". Since the nineteenth century it has occasionally been used in international law as a principle to justify claims that territory may be acquired ...

, which Australia had posited to support their annexation of traditional lands. The

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is the apex court of the Australian legal system. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified in the Constitution of Australia and supplementary legislation. The High Court was establi ...

ruled in ''

Mabo v Queensland (No 2) ''Mabo v Queensland (No 2)'' (commonly known as the ''Mabo case'' or simply ''Mabo''; ) is a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that recognised the existence of Native Title in Australia.. It was brought by Eddie Mabo and othe ...

'' (1992) in favor of traditional land ownership of the Torres Strait Islanders, which also applied to Australian aboriginal claims in their territories. The

Native Title Act The ''Native Title Act 1993'' (Cth) is an act of the Australian Parliament, the purpose of which is "to provide a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land management sy ...

of 1993 was passed to administer these changes. Pau Enterprises Indigenous Corporation was established in 2015 to manage and maintain the Pau family native title lands and interests on Darnley Island. It also seeks to create social enterprises on Darnley Island and other locations where its community members have migrated, such as

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

. Darnley Island became better known around Australia in 2015 when the acting school principal asked via social media for donations of books to assist her primary school children and their education. Her efforts resulted in more than 18,000 shares on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

, and hundreds of books were sent to the island.

Demographics

In the , Erub Island had a population of 328 people. In the , Erub Island had a population of 326 people, with 292 (89.6%) identifying as Indigenous Australians.

Flora and fauna

The Kinabalu giant earthworm, ''Pheretima darnleiensis'', is named after Darnley Island, although it is likely an introduced species there.

Heritage listings

Darnley Island has a

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In ma ...

site: All Saints Anglican Church.

Amenities

The

Torres Strait Island Regional Council The Torres Strait Island Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia, covering part of the Torres Strait Islands. It was created in March 2008 out of 15 autonomous Island Councils during a period of statewide local gove ...

operate an Indigenous Knowledge Centre at Madige Village on Erub. There are two stores, one school, and a health centre. Accommodation is available through Norah's Guest House, and the council run 'five star' ''dongas.''

Education

Darnley Island Campus is a primary (Early Childhood-6) campus () of Tagai State College. There is no secondary school on the island. The secondary campus of Tagai State College is on

Thursday Island Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately ...

, over away; it offers some boarding facilities but many children are also sent to mainland secondary schools.

References

External links

Mye on behalf of ''Erubam Le v State of Queensland'' (2004), FCA 1573 (8 December 2004)
*
Passion and Professionalism
' by Dorothy Walker and Lynetee Griffiths; short video about an education project for indigenous students on Darnley Island, 2 min 42 sec, published by

State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...

as part of Storylines:Q150 digital stories
Erub: The Coming of the Light Digital Story
a video complimenting th
Darnley Island Arts Centre linocuts
that were on display at 'The Coming of The Light' festival. Video published by State Library of Queensland as part of the
Islands: Hidden histories from Queensland islands
exhibition
Photographs at 'The Coming of the Light' celebrations, Erub Island, 2009
State Library of Queensland
At Our Table: Erub Island Digital Story
a digital story focusing on the traditional methods of catching, cooking and eating food on the island. Available on State Library of Queensland catalogue
Photographs of Church Service at All Saints Anglican Church, Erub Island
State Library of Queensland
Weaving Exchange: Erub Island and Hopevale
footage of weaving workshop run by a group of weavers from Erub, Torres Strait and Hope Vale, Cape York. Available on State Library of Queensland catalogue
Culture Love 2009
State Library of Queensland {{authority control Torres Strait Islands Torres Strait Island Region Torres Strait Islands communities