Editing Kakadu National Park (section)

==History==

===Aboriginal history===
The name ''Kakadu'' probably originates from the mispronunciation of [[Gaagudju language|Gaagudju]], which is the name of an [[Australian Aboriginal languages|Aboriginal language]] spoken in the north-western part of the park. Explorer [[Walter Baldwin Spencer|Baldwin Spencer]] had incorrectly ascribed the name "Kakadu tribe" to the people living in the [[Alligator Rivers]] area<ref name=aussietowns>{{cite web |title=Kakadu National Park, NT |url=https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/kakadu-national-park-nt |website=Aussie Towns |date=13 May 2015 |access-date=14 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Spencer |first=Baldwin |author-link=Walter Baldwin Spencer |title=Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hrNDYY9iKz4C |publisher=Library of Alexandria |year=2020 |access-date=14 March 2021 |isbn=978-1-4655-7998-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

[[Aboriginal Australian|Aboriginal peoples]] have occupied the Kakadu area continuously for around 60,000 years.<ref name=handback2022/> Kakadu National Park is renowned for the richness of its [[Aboriginal sacred site|Aboriginal cultural sites]]. There are more than 5,000 recorded art sites illustrating Aboriginal culture over thousands of years. The archaeological sites demonstrate Aboriginal occupation for at least 40,000 and possibly up to 65,000 years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Clarkson |first1=Chris |last2=Jacobs |first2=Zenobia |last3=Marwick |first3=Ben |last4=Fullagar |first4=Richard |last5=Wallis |first5=Lynley |last6=Smith |first6=Mike |last7=Roberts |first7=Richard G. |last8=Hayes |first8=Elspeth |last9=Lowe |first9=Kelsey |last10=Carah |first10=Xavier |last11=Florin |first11=S. Anna |last12=McNeil |first12=Jessica |last13=Cox |first13=Delyth |last14=Arnold |first14=Lee J. |last15=Hua |first15=Quan |date=20 July 2017 |title=Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22968 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=547 |issue=7663 |pages=306–310 |doi=10.1038/nature22968 |pmid=28726833 |bibcode=2017Natur.547..306C |issn=1476-4687}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Arnold |first=Lee |date=20 July 2017 |title=Kakadu site shows 65,000 years of human occupation |url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news93602.html |access-date=12 April 2025 |website=University of Adelaide}}</ref>

===The arrival of non-Indigenous people===

====Explorers====
The [[China|Chinese]], [[Malaysia|Malays]] and [[Portugal|Portuguese]] all claim to have been the first non-Aboriginal explorers of Australia's north coast. The first surviving written account comes from the [[Netherlands|Dutch]]. In 1623 [[Jan Carstenszoon]] made his way west across the [[Gulf of Carpentaria]] to what is believed to be Groote Eylandt. [[Abel Tasman]] is the next documented explorer to visit this part of the coast in 1644. He was the first person to record European contact with Aboriginal people. Almost a century later [[Matthew Flinders]] surveyed the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1802 and 1803.<ref>{{Cite web |last=State Library of New South Wales |date=2018-03-15 |title=Matthew Flinders: Australia on the map |url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/matthew-flinders-australia-map |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=www.sl.nsw.gov.au}}</ref>

[[File:Aboriginal Art Australia(6).jpg|thumb|right|The [[Ubirr]] Aboriginal rock art site]]
[[Phillip Parker King]], an English navigator entered the Gulf of Carpentaria between 1818 and 1822. During this time he named the three Alligator Rivers after the large numbers of [[Saltwater crocodile|crocodiles]], which he mistook for [[alligator]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alligator Rivers {{!}} Aboriginal, Wetlands, Mangroves {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Alligator-Rivers |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

[[Ludwig Leichhardt]] was the first land-based European explorer to visit the Kakadu region, in 1845 on his route from [[Moreton Bay]] in [[Queensland]] to [[Port Essington]] in the Northern Territory. He followed Jim Jim Creek down from the [[Arnhem Land]] escarpment, then went down the South Alligator before crossing to the East Alligator and proceeding north.<ref>{{Cite web |last=National Museum of Australia |title=National Museum of Australia - Leichhardt expedition |url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/leichhardt-expedition |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=www.nma.gov.au |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Aboriginal Art Australia.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Indigenous Australian art|Rock art]] painting at Ubirr]]

In 1862, [[John McDouall Stuart]] travelled along the south-western boundary of Kakadu but did not see any people.<ref>{{Cite web |last=baschiera |first=dan |title=On Leichhardt's Path Kakadu 1845 : Reflections walking a time tunnel |url=https://territorystories.nt.gov.au/10070/927468/0/147 |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=On Leichhardt's Path Kakadu 1845 : Reflections walking a time tunnel}}</ref>

The first non-Aboriginal people to visit and have sustained contact with Aboriginal people in northern Australia were the Macassans from [[Sulawesi]] and other parts of the [[Indonesia]]n archipelago. They travelled to northern Australia every wet season, probably from the last quarter of the seventeenth century, in sailing boats called ''prau''s. Their main aim was to harvest trepang ([[Sea cucumber (food)|sea cucumber]]), turtle shell, [[pearl]]s and other prized items to trade in their homeland. Aboriginal people were involved in harvesting and processing the trepang, and in collecting and exchanging the other goods.

There is no evidence that the [[Macassan contact with Australia|Macassans]] spent time on the coast of Kakadu but there is evidence of some contact between Macassan culture and Aboriginal people of the Kakadu area. Among the artefacts from archaeological digs in the park are glass and metal fragments that probably came from the Macassans, either directly or through trade with the [[Cobourg Peninsula]] people.

The [[Great Britain|British]] attempted a number of settlements on the northern Australian coast in the early part of the nineteenth century: [[Fort Dundas]] on [[Melville Island (Northern Territory)|Melville Island]] in 1824; [[Fort Wellington, Australia|Fort Wellington]] at [[Raffles Bay]] in 1829; and Victoria Settlement ([[Port Essington]]) on the Cobourg Peninsula in 1838. They were anxious to secure the north of Australia before the French or Dutch, who had colonised islands further north. The British settlements were all subsequently abandoned for a variety of reasons, such as lack of water and fresh food, sickness and isolation.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-12-02 |title=In 1838, the British came to colonise northern Australia. They returned forever changed |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-03/port-essington-worlds-end-failed-british-colonial-settlement/11730570 |access-date=2025-04-12 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}</ref>

====Buffalo hunters====
[[File:Buffalo.jpg|thumb|right|[[Domestic water buffalo|Water buffalo]] in the wetlands]]
[[Domestic Asian water buffalo|Water buffalo]] had a large influence on the Kakadu region as well. By the 1880s the number of buffaloes released from early settlements had increased to such an extent that commercial harvesting of hides and horns was economically viable. The industry began on the Adelaide River, close to Darwin, and moved east to the [[Mary River (Northern Territory)|Mary River]] and Alligator Rivers regions.

Most of the buffalo hunting and skin curing was done in the dry season, between June and September, when buffaloes congregated around the remaining [[billabong]]s. During the wet season hunting ceased because the ground was too muddy to pursue buffalo and the harvested hides would rot. The buffalo-hunting industry became an important employer of Aboriginal people during the dry-season months.

====Missionaries====
[[Missionaries]] also had a large influence on the Aboriginal people of the Alligator Rivers region, many of whom lived and were schooled at missions in their youth. Two missions were set up in the region in the early part of the century. Kapalga Native Industrial Mission was established near the South Alligator River in 1899, but lasted only four years. The [[Oenpelli]] Mission began in 1925, when the Church of England Missionary Society accepted an offer from the Northern Territory Administration to take over the area, which had been operated as a dairy farm. The Oenpelli Mission operated for 50 years.<ref>{{Cite web |last=National Archives of Australia |date=2010 |title=Aboriginal men, women and children at Oenpelli Church of England mission. |url=https://www.naa.gov.au/students-and-teachers/learning-resources/learning-resource-themes/first-australians/history/aboriginal-men-women-and-children-oenpelli-church-england-mission |access-date=12 April 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Saltwater croc kakadu.jpg|thumb|[[Saltwater crocodile|Salt water crocodile]] in Kakadu]]

====Pastoralists====
The pastoral industry made a cautious start in the [[Top End]]. Pastoral leases in the Kakadu area were progressively abandoned from 1889, because the [[Victoria River (Northern Territory)|Victoria River]] and the [[Barkly Tableland]]s proved to be better pastoral regions.

In southern Kakadu, much of Goodparla and Gimbat was claimed in the mid-1870s by three pastoralists, Roderick, Travers and Sergison. The leases were subsequently passed on to a series of owners, all of whom were unable for one reason or another to make a go of it. In 1987 both stations were acquired by the Commonwealth and incorporated in Kakadu National Park.

A sawmill at Nourlangie Camp was begun by Chinese operators, probably before [[World War I]], to mill stands of cypress pine in the area. After World War II a number of small-scale ventures, including dingo shooting and trapping, [[brumby]] shooting, crocodile shooting, tourism and forestry, began.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water |title=History of the park. |url=https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/national-parks/kakadu-national-park/culture-and-history/history-park |access-date=12 April 2025}}</ref>

Nourlangie Camp was again the site of a sawmill in the 1950s, until the local stands of cypress pine were exhausted. In 1958 it was converted into a safari camp for tourists. Soon after, a similar camp was started at Patonga and at Muirella Park. Clients were flown in for recreational buffalo and crocodile hunting and fishing.

Crocodile hunters often made use of the bush skills of Aboriginal people. By imitating a wallaby's tail hitting the ground, Aboriginal hunters could attract crocodiles, making it easier to shoot the animals. Using paperbark rafts, they would track the movement of a wounded crocodile and retrieve the carcass for skinning. The skins were then sold to make leather goods. Aboriginal people became less involved in commercial hunting of crocodiles once the technique of spotlight shooting at night developed. [[Freshwater crocodile]]s have been protected by law since 1964 and [[saltwater crocodile]]s since 1971.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Department of the Environment |title=Crocodylus porosus - Salt-water Crocodile, Estuarine Crocodile |url=https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=1774 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241226034802/http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=1774 |archive-date=2024-12-26 |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=www.environment.gov.au |language=en}}</ref>

===Mining===
{{further|Uranium mining in Kakadu National Park}}
[[File:Ranger Uranium Mine in Kakadu National Park.jpeg|thumb|right|The [[Ranger Uranium Mine]]]]
The first mineral discoveries in the Top End were associated with the construction of the [[Overland Telegraph]] line between 1870 and 1872, in the [[Pine Creek, Northern Territory|Pine Creek]] – [[Adelaide River]] area. A series of short mining booms followed. The construction of the [[North Australia Railway]] line (1889–1976) gave more permanency to the [[mining]] camps, and places such as Burrundie and [[Pine Creek, Northern Territory|Pine Creek]] became permanent settlements. Small-scale [[gold]] mining began at Imarlkba, near [[Barramundi Creek]], and Mundogie Hill in the 1920s and at Moline (previously called Eureka and Northern Hercules mine), south of the park, in the 1930s. The mines employed a few local Aboriginal people.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ellwood |first1=Galiina (Kal) |last2=Wegner |first2=Janice |date=October 2019 |title=Shared history forgotten: the neglected stories of Aboriginal miners, prospectors and ancillary workers in the north Queensland mining industry . |url=https://www.mininghistory.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/1.-Ellwood-Wegner-compressed-1.pdf |journal=Journal of Australasian Mining History |volume=17 |pages=1–19}}</ref>

In 1953, [[uranium]] was discovered along the headwaters of the [[South Alligator River]] valley. Thirteen small but rich uranium mines operated in the following decade, at their peak in 1957 employing over 150 workers. Early in the 1970s large uranium deposits were discovered at Ranger, [[Jabiluka]] and [[Koongarra]]. Following receipt of a formal proposal to develop the Ranger site, the [[Commonwealth Government]] initiated an inquiry into land use in the Alligator Rivers region. The Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry (known as the [[Russell Walter Fox|Fox inquiry]]) recommended, among other things, that mining begin at the [[Ranger Uranium Mine|Ranger]] site, that consideration be given to the future development of the Jabiluka and Koongarra sites, and that a service town be built.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water |title=Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry final report 1977 |url=https://www.dcceew.gov.au/science-research/supervising-scientist/publications/ranger-uranium-environmental-inquiry-report-final |access-date=12 April 2025 |website=}}</ref>

Gold mining was proposed in the late 1980s at [[Coronation Hill]] (Guratba).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Allam |first1=Lorena |title=No ordinary piece of bush: the high price of Coronation Hill |date=4 April 2010 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/hindsight/no-ordinary-piece-of-bush-the-high-price-of/3112040  |publisher=ABC |access-date=4 Nov 2023}}</ref> This site had initially been excluded from the park but was added as part of stage 3. Its mining was blocked following environmental and social campaigns. Despite internal disagreement the then Prime Minister, [[Bob Hawke]], vetoed mining in a Cabinet Meeting<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chan |first1=Gabrielle |title=Cabinet papers 1990-91: Hawke's fight to keep mining out of Kakadu helped unseat him |newspaper=The Guardian |date=31 December 2015 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jan/01/cabinet-papers-1990-91-hawkes-fight-to-keep-mining-out-of-kakadu-helped-unseat-him |publisher=Guardian News & Media Limited |access-date=4 Nov 2023}}</ref> in May 1991.

In the mid 1990s a similar debate over additional uranium mining at [[Jabiluka]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hamilton |first1=Clive |title=Mining in Kakadu: Lessons from Coronation Hill |journal=Parliamentary Library 'Vital Issues' Seminar Series Parliament House |date=19 July 1996 |volume=Discussion Paper Number 9 |issue=9 |pages=1–18 |url=https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/DP9_8.pdf |access-date=4 Nov 2023}}</ref> was prevented by a campaign and blockade initiated by the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation.<ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |date=2019-03-28 |title=Jabiluka Fight for Country |url=https://commonslibrary.org/jabiluka-fight-for-country/ |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>
The Ranger uranium mine closed in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |last=Blair |first=Kirsten |date=2020-03-10 |title=The Jabiluka Blockade – 22 years on |url=https://commonslibrary.org/the-jabiluka-blockade-22-years-on/ |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>