Murray Island, Queensland - History

History

Murray Island has been inhabited by the Meriam people for thousands of years prior to European exploration and settlement of Australia. Regular contact between the inhabitants of Torres Strait (including Murray Island, known by the Meriam people as Mer Island) and Europeans began once the Torres Strait became a means of passage between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in the 19th Century.

The inhabitants of the Torres Strait, including the Meriam people, gained a reputation as fierce warriors and skilled mariners. Warfare (both inter-tribal and against European ships in transit through the Coral Sea) and head hunting were part of the culture of all Torres Strait islanders. The account of Jack Ireland, a surviving cabin boy from the barque Charles Eaton that was wrecked in 1834 at Detached Reef near the entrance to Torres Strait is of interest in this respect. He spent much of his time on Murray Island before being rescued. A large ceremonial mask was recovered in 1836 from a neighbouring island following his rescue and that of young William D’Oyley, the only other survivor of the Charles Eaton, and their return to Sydney. The mask was made of turtle shells surrounded by numerous skulls, seventeen of which were determined as having belonged to the crew and passengers of the Charles Eaton who were massacred when they came ashore following the shipwreck. The mask was entered into the collection of the Australian Museum after the skulls were buried on 12 November 1836 in a mass grave at Bunnerong Cemetery, Sydney.

Westerners began to settle on the island in 1872 when the London Missionary Society founded a missionary school there. The Queensland Government annexed the islands in 1879. Tom Roberts, the well-known Australian painter, visited the island in 1892. He witnessed a night-time dance and depicted it in a painting.

In 1936, a maritime strike fueled by Islander dissatisfaction with the fact that their wages and boats were managed by the Protector of Aborigines allowed islanders to assert control and reject government controls. In 1937, the inaugural meeting of Island Councillors on Yorke Island resulted in the "Torres Strait Islander Act" (1939), giving Islanders more authority in their own affairs and established local governments on each island.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, over 700 Islanders volunteered to defend the Torres Strait. This group was organised into the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion. The migration of Islanders to mainland Australia as jobs disappeared in the pearling industry. A call for independence from Australia in the 1980s was due to the government failing to provide basic infrastructure on the island.

Murray Island's most famous resident was trade unionist Eddie Mabo, whose decision to sue the Queensland Government in order to secure ownership of his land, which had been removed from his ancestors by the British colonial powers using the terra nullius legal concept, ultimately led to the High Court of Australia, on appeal from the Supreme Court of the State of Queensland, issue the "Mabo decision" to finally recognise Mabo's rights on his land on 3 June 1992. This decision continues to have ramifications for Australia. Mabo himself died a few months before the decision. After vandalism to his grave site, he was reburied on Murray Island where the islanders performed a traditional ceremony for the burial of a king.