Cape Upstart is a national park in the locality of Guthalungra in the

Whitsunday Region The Whitsunday Region is a local government area located in North Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by two previous local government areas with a history extending back to the establishment of regional local governmen ...

local government area of North Queensland, Australia, 1,016 km northwest of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

. The ''Juru'' Clan of the ''Birri-Gubba'' Tribal Group lived on Cape Upstart for thousands of years.

Cultural Importance of Cape Upstart

There are numerous middens in the sand dunes of Cape Upstart to demonstrate the connection of the ''Juru'' People to Cape Upstart.Small, M. (1992) 'Gulumba's Land': A study in ethnoarchaeology at Cape Upstart, North Queensland. BA (Hons) thesis, JCU. There are also several sacred sites, like the women's area at Worrungu Bay, and the stone arrangements near Mine Island, which the senior elder always stated were never 'fish traps' but an important ceremonial ground used for initiation. The ceremonial ground laid out the paths taken by ''Gubulla Munda'' (the Carpet Snake) when creating the land and islands inhabited by the Juru people and the paths followed by ''Gubulla Munda'' (the totem of the ''Juru'' Clan) in the ''Gubulla Munda Dreaming'' (the creation story of the ''Juru'' and ''Birri-Gubba'' People).Renarta Prior (Gootha), Personal Communication to Aaron Small, 25–26 July 2012 Cape Upstart was named by Lieutenant James Cook on 5 June 1770 during his voyage along the eastern coast of Australia in

HM Bark Endeavour HMS ''Endeavour'' was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Australia and New Zealand on his First voyage of James Cook, first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771. She was launched in 1764 as the Coll ...

. Europeans, mostly from the nearby Burdekin farming community, began - in the early twentieth century - building semi-permanent huts on the Cape's western foreshores. By the start of the twenty-first century these had mostly been replaced by permanent structures used mostly for recreational purposes, a small permanent population having also taken up residency by then.

Native Title

In 2011 Justice Rares of the Federal Court of Australia recognised that the ''Juru'' People retained Native Title over Cape Upstart National Park.. This decision was the culmination of a twenty-year struggle by the ''Juru'' People to get their Native Title recognised over Cape Upstart National Park. The Process was originally started by Peter Prior (Gulumba) in 1992 and was completed by his daughter, Renarta Prior (Gootha) in 2012.

References

{{authority control National parks of Queensland North Queensland Protected areas established in 1969 1969 establishments in Australia

Cultural Importance of Cape Upstart

Native Title

See also

References