Seisia is a coastal town and a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

in the

Northern Peninsula Area Region The Northern Peninsula Area Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia, covering areas on the northwestern coast of Cape York Peninsula. It was created in March 2008 out of three Aboriginal Shires and two autonomous Isl ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. In the , Seisia had a population of 260 people.

Geography

Seisia is the area north of New Mapoon and west of

Bamaga Bamaga ( , ) is a small town and locality about from the northern tip of Cape York in the north of Queensland, Australia. It is within the Northern Peninsula Area Region. It is one of the northernmost settlements in continental Australia and i ...

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupació ...

. Seisia Island Community lies within a small

DOGIT A Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) is the name for a system of community-level land trust established in Queensland to administer former Aboriginal reserves and missions. They came about through the enactment by the Queensland Government of the '' ...

(Deed of Grant in Trust) area granted in 1986 by the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended f ...

at Red Island Point. The community has a permanent population of about 100 people and is situated at the most northerly deep-water port on Cape York Peninsula

Attractions

Seisia is popular as a destination for anglers and a number of fishing charter operators use Seisia as their base. A campground at Seisia is used by about 50 per cent of camping travelers to Northern Cape York Peninsula. The majority of tourist services in the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) are provided under lease arrangements with the Seisia Island Council. Seisia is becoming increasingly well known as the "Gateway to the Torres Strait" and as a base on the mainland to educate and inform visitors about

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often groupe ...

culture. Tours linking Seisia with a number of Torres Strait islands (including the market days on Saibai) have commenced, capitalizing on opportunities to educate visitors as to the historical links between Seisia and the

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...

. A number of recreational fishing guides can be contacted through the Seisia Village campground.

History

European contact

Seisia, formerly known as Red Island Point, is also known as Ithangee in its Aboriginal language. Ithunchi was originally used as a traditional camping site before European contact. The Oiyamkwi clan of the Ankamuti was indigenous to the island. In 1864, a government settlement was established at

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

at the tip of Cape York. The introduction of diseases, exclusion from traditional hunting grounds and the brutality of

Native Police Australian native police units, consisting of Aboriginal troopers under the command (usually) of at least one white officer, existed in various forms in all Australian mainland colonies during the nineteenth and, in some cases, into the twentie ...

under the direction of Somerset's Police Magistrates, decimated the Aboriginal people of the NPA. By 1915, surviving remnants of the Aboriginal population had regrouped at Red Island Point and Cowal Creek.

Yadhaigana The Yadhaykenu, otherwise known as the ''Jathaikana'' or ''Yadhaigana,'' are an Australian aboriginal tribe of northern Queensland. The name appears to be an exonym from the Western and Central Torres Strait (Kalau Lagau Ya) yadaigal (Kaurareg dia ...

Wuthathi The Wuthathi, also known as the Mutjati, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. Anthropologist Norman Tindale distinguished the Mutjati from the Otati, whereas AIATSIS treats the two ethnonyms as variants related to th ...

Unduyamo The Unduyamo (Andooyomo) were an indigenous Australian people who once lived around the northern shore of Newcastle Bay, Cape York Peninsula Queensland. It has been hypothesized that, among other aspects of their life, they functioned as religious ...

and

Gudang The Djagaraga or Gudang (Pantyinamu/Yatay/Gudang/Kartalaiga and other clans) are an Australian Aboriginal tribe, traditionally lived in the coastal area from Cape York to Fly point, including also Pabaju (Albany Island), in the Cape York Penins ...

people from the north and east had established themselves as a single group at Red Island Point. Other Yadhaigana people and Wuthathi had formed a group at

Injinoo The Injinoo were an Indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula, and their name now applies to a tribal aggregation of remnants of various tribes of the Cape York Peninsula. Country The traditional lands of the Injinoo Community ext ...

(known then as Small River). The two communities approached the government for land to establish gardens, leading to the creation of an

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...

at Cowal Creek in 1915. An Anglican mission and school took over the administration of the reserve in 1923. In 1942 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

engineers established a military airstrip inland from Red Island Point. The airstrip was known as the Jacky Jacky or Higgins airstrip. A number of

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

bomber, fighter and transport squadrons operated from the airstrip. It is still used today as the airport for the Northern Peninsula Area. A radar station was also established at Muttee Heads in 1943 with local Aboriginal people assisting in its construction and operation. New jetties and wharves were built by Army engineers at Muttee Heads and Red Island Point. At the end of World War Two, the

introduced measures aimed at compensating Torres Strait Islanders for their contribution to the war effort. These were also intended to populate the north as a defence mechanism against foreign invasion. Around 1945, the Director of Native Affairs, Cornelius O’Leary, inspected the North Peninsula Area with a local stockman, Dick Holland, to identify suitable locations for a new settlement. In his opening address to the 1947 Island Councillors’ Conference held at Badu, O’Leary spoke of the government's "wish for the expansion of the Torres Strait Race as a healthy industrial unit in North Queensland". During the war years, enlisted Torres Strait Islander men from Saibai, Dauan and Boigu also discussed the possibility of developing an Islander community on the

Australian mainland Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australian continent, excluding the Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and other Australian offshore islands. The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Commonwea ...

. These discussions continued after the war at Saibai, with the involvement of Island elders and leaders. Saibai elder Bamaga Ginau supported the proposal. He held strong concerns regarding the inadequate supplies of freshwater and firewood on Saibai and the damaging effects of poor drainage, disease and

king tide A king tide is an especially high spring tide, especially the perigean spring tides which occur three or four times a year. King tide is not a scientific term, nor is it used in a scientific context. The expression originated in Australia, Ne ...

s. In 1947, a series of king tides during the wet season caused "serious and in some cases irreparable damage to properties and gardens" on Saibai. Bamaga Ginau called a meeting regarding his concerns for the future of Saibai. After much discussion, a number of Saibai families made the decision to leave the Island and move to the mainland. The first party of Saibai families left the island in May 1947 on the pearl luggers ''Millard'' and ''Macoy''. They arrived at Muttee Heads on the NPA on 1 June 1947. A second party, which included Bamaga Ginau and his family, arrived on 1 July 1947. The new arrivals selected a temporary site at Muttee Heads for their new settlement. The Queensland Government, in July 1948, gazetted an area of 44,500 acres extending from Red Island Point to Kennedy Inlet, south to the boundary of the Cowal Creek mission settlement, as a reserve for the "use of the Torres Strait Islanders". In 1948, Mugai Elu and Tumena Sagaukaz left Saibai with their families and moved to Red Island Point. The families lived in old army huts donated to them by Stan Holland. More families from Saibai settled at Red Island Point in 1950 and 1951. Representatives from the small community approached the Department of Native Affairs to build new housing at Red Island Point in 1955.Bamaga State High School, ''North of the Jardine, A Look at the Five Communities of the NPA'' (Bamaga State High School, Bamaga; 1997) On 14 October 1972, the Anglican Church of St. Francis of Assisi was officially dedicated at Red Island Point. Five years later the name Seisia was adopted by the community at Red Island Point. The name Seisia was taken from the first letters of the names of Mugai Elu's fathers and brothers – Sunai, Elu, Ibuai, Sagaukaz, Isua and Aken.

Local government and Deed of Grant in Trust community

On 30 March 1985, the Seisia community elected 3 councillors to constitute an autonomous Seisia Island Council established under the ''Community Services (Torres Strait) Act 1984''. The Act conferred local government type powers and responsibilities upon Torres Strait Islander councils for the first time. Umagico, Bamaga, New Mapoon and Cowal Creek also elected council representatives at this time. On 29 October 1987, the council area, previously an

held by the Queensland Government, was transferred to the trusteeship of the council under a Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT).Queensland, ''Annual Report of Department of Community Services for 1986'' (1987) 3; Queensland, ''Annual Report of the Department of Community Services for 1987'' (1988). At the , Seisia had a population of 165. In 2007, the

Local Government Reform Commission Local government in the Australian state of Queensland describes the institutions and processes by which towns and districts can manage their own affairs to the extent permitted by the ''Local Government Act 1993–2007''. Queensland is div ...

recommended that the 3 NPA Aboriginal Shire Councils and the 2 NPA Torres Strait Islander Councils be abolished and a Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council be established in their place. The first Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council (NPARC) was elected on 15 March 2008 in elections conducted under the ''Local Government Act 1993''.

References

Attribution

This Wikipedia article contains material fro
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community histories: Seisia
Published by The State of Queensland under CC-BY-4.0, accessed on 3 July 2017.

External links

Seisia Community History

Seisia Indigenous Knowledge Centre
{{authority control Towns in Queensland Coastal towns in Queensland Populated places in Far North Queensland Torres Strait Islands communities Aboriginal communities in Queensland Northern Peninsula Area Region Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Government Localities in Queensland