Ella Bay - History

History

The Ella Bay area was originally inhabited by the Bagirbarra clan, the recognised Traditional Owners of the Ella Bay land and one of the Mamu speaking clan groups of the Innisfail region (PENTECOST 2007). The richness and diversity of the Wet Tropics lowland rainforest environment, would have allowed for a population density of approximately 2 km2 per person and a 'band' of approximately 50 individuals.

Ella Bay lies within the traditional country of the Mamu peoples, an Australian Aboriginal tribe with a number of distinctive clan groups. These clan groups have cultural and spiritual ties to coastal lowlands, coastal lands and waters within what is now known as the northern part of the Cassowary Coast region of north eastern Queensland, Australia. Before colonisation, Mamu people moved seasonally within their traditional country, accessing and using important food sources including seafoods, freshwater fish, game animals, rainforest fruits and roots. Certain plant species used by rainforest Aboriginal tribes in this area on a regular basis are highly toxic, and careful preparation using time honoured methods were employed to make these food sources safe for eating. During particular seasons, these toxic foods would form a staple of the tribes' diets. In some locations, early European visitors (for example the anthropologist Roth) recorded seeing communal settlements with multiple shelters including long-house type structures, and there is evidence that a taro-type species of yam was cultivated for regular harvest along creeks and rivers. Like so many Aboriginal people in Australia, many Mamu traditional owners were forcibly removed from their traditional lands to other places in Queensland including Cherbourg, Woorabinda, Yarrabah and Palm Island mission settlements. Some have come back to live in the area since the mid-20th century.

First contact with Europeans came with a handful of survivors from the wreck of the brig Maria. On the 26th of February 1872, after astounding escapes from reef and rocks, the brig ran on to what is still known as the Maria reef, some miles off Cardwell. All the men who got ashore via raft north of the Johnstone River owed their lives to the local aboriginals, who treated them kindly, fed and made camps for them, and signaled the rescue boat Basilisk to come ashore.

The first settlers were the "cedar getters" in 1880 during the influx of timber cutters after the local red cedar species (Toona ciliata), quickly followed by becoming a key growing area for bananas and sugar cane. The later industries persist into the present day.