Oombulgurri, Western Australia

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Oombulgurri (postcode: 6740, [15°10′52.39″S, 127°50′44.93″E]), also written as Umbulgara, is an Aboriginal community in the eastern Kimberley, with a population of 300. The nearest town is Wyndham, which is 45 km to the southeast; the nearest major town is Kununurra, which is 120 km to the southeast.

The Anglican Forrest River Mission for Aborigines was founded in 1896-1897 by Harold Hale but was abandoned after a few months. A permanent mission, known as the Forrest River Mission, was established on the site in 1913 by the bishop of the north west, the Rt. Rev. Gerard Trower. In December 1913, Anglican priest Ernest Gribble took charge, three years after he was forced to resign as superintendent at Yarrabah. Gribble remained as superintendent until the early 1930s.

The mission was plagued by an influenza epidemic in 1926. Also in that year, there was a massacre where a police party killed several Aboriginal people. However, the exact events of the massacre are uncertain.

The mission was closed in 1969, after the 1967 Aboriginal referendum.

In 1973, fifty Aboriginal people decided to resettle their abandoned tribal land and rename it Oombulgurri. Within a year, the population had grown to 200. Infrastructure and welfare programs were set up in the 1970s and 1980s to provide the residents with basic amenities and to allow the town to become self-sufficient.

Oombulgurri is only reliably accessible by boat or by air, as the unsealed road leading to the town is washed out most of the year due to the wet season. There is an airstrip nearby for light aircraft.

References

[Book review of related books], accessed 9 November 2005
[Western Australian education records summary (pdf)], accessed 9 November 2005
[Guide to indigenous records(pdf file)], accessed 9 November 2005
[Wyndham/Oombulgurri parish], accessed 10 November 2005
[Aboriginal Lands trust estate (pdf file)], accessed 10 November 2005
[Community development program]], accessed 10 November 2005

External links

[More information about massacre]

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