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10 unusual facts about Arnhem Land


Argus monitor

There are at least two Australian subspecies: the one in Western Australia is Varanus panoptes rubidus (rubidus referring to its reddish coloration), while the subspecies from Arnhem Land, the Kimberley and Cape York Peninsula is Varanus panoptes panoptes.

Dzamalag

Dzamalag was a form of ritualized ceremonial exchange or bartering practised by the Gunwinggu people of Western Arnhem Land in Northern Australia.

Electoral division of Arnhem

It was first created in 1974, and takes its name from Arnhem Land, the region encompassing much of the northern part of the Territory.

Eric Jolliffe

During the war he served as a camouflage officer with the RAAF and spent time in Arnhem Land.

Gulumbu Yunupingu

Gulumbu Yunupingu (c. 1943 – 10 May 2012) was an Australian Aboriginal artist and women's leader from the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Message stick

Donald Thomson, recounting his journey to Arnhem Land after the Caledon Bay Crisis, writes of Wonggu sending a message stick to his sons, at that time in prison, to indicate a calling of a truce.

Mudginberri dispute

The country itself is mainly low-lying black soil country between the East Alligator and South Alligator Rivers with the Arnhem Land escarpment to the east.

Santalum

Indian sandalwood (S. album) is found in the tropical dry deciduous forests of India, the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, and Arnhem Land of northern Australia.

Trepanging

To supply the markets of Southern China, Muslim Makassar Indonesia trepangers traded with Indigenous Australians of Arnhem Land from at least the 18th century or likely prior.

Yolŋu languages

Yolŋu Matha is a cover term for the languages of the Yolngu (Yolŋu), the Indigenous people of northeast Arnhem Land in northern Australia.


King Expedition of 1817

Continuing north-east along the coast, the Mermaid eventually passed the northernmost tip of Arnhem Land, reaching a point on Cobourg Peninsula that King named Port Essington.

Knut Dahl

The new birds were the Chestnut-quilled Rock-Pigeon, the Arnhem Land subspecies of the Banded Fruit-dove, and the Hooded Parrot, all described by R. Collett in 1898 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London.

Nabarlek

The nabarlek is found in three distinct population areas: in Arnhem Land (including Groote Eylandt); between the Mary and Victoria Rivers in the Top End; and the coastal Kimberley region of Western Australia, including some islands in the Bonaparte Archipelago.

Roper River

It is navigable for about 145 km, until the tidal limit at Roper Bar, and forms the southern boundary of the region known as Arnhem Land.

Social stratification

Another example is the Indigenous Australians of Groote Eylandt and Bickerton Island, off the coast of Arnhem Land, who have arranged their entire society, spirituality, and economy around a kind of gift economy called renunciation.