Milikapiti is a village on the northern coast of Melville Island,

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

, Australia. At the 2011 census, Milikapiti had a population of 447. It is by air from

Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...

Fly Tiwi Fly Tiwi is an Australian airline based in Darwin, Northern Territory, offering scheduled passenger services between the Northern Territory capital and communities located on the Tiwi, South Goulburn and Croker islands, as well as a number o ...

airlines fly twice daily to and from Darwin servicing Milikapiti. The flight takes approximately 25 minutes. The day-to-day management of the Milikapiti community is the responsibility of the Tiwi Islands Regional Council.

History

Milikapiti was founded in the 1941 as the Snake Bay government aboriginal settlement. In 1942, aboriginals from Snake Bay captured Australia's first

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of ...

, Sergeant

Hajime Toyoshima Petty Officer was a Japanese airman in World War II. His A6M Zero was the first of that type (after those recovered after the attack on Pearl Harbor) to be recovered relatively intact on Allied territory when he crash landed on Melville Isl ...

, who crash-landed on Melville Island after his plane was damaged while bombing

. The

Snake Bay Patrol The Snake Bay Patrol was an auxiliary reconnaissance unit made up of Indigenous Australian residents of Melville Island in the Northern Territory that was raised by the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. After the first bombing raid on Da ...

was also formed from local Indigenous Australians during World War II.

Community services and facilities

* Store and Take Away * ATM facilities * Post Office facilities * School and Pre School * Recreation Hall * Basketball court * Football oval * Library * Centrelink agency * Women's Centre * Health Centre * Club (open 4.30pm – 7.30pm 4 days per week) * Public Garage * St Monica's Catholic Church * Museum * Jilamara Arts and Crafts

Notes and references

{{authority control Towns in the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory Tiwi Islands 1941 establishments in Australia