The Gove Peninsula is at the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The peninsula became strategically important during World War II when a Royal Australian Air Force base was constructed at what is now Gove Airport. The peninsula was involved in a famous court case known as the Gove land rights case, when local Yolngu people tried to claim native title over their traditional lands in 1971, after the Australian Government had granted a mineral lease to a bauxite mining company without consulting the local peoples. Today the land is owned by the Yolngu people.

Location

The Gove Peninsula is on the west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria within Arnhem Land, a vast tract of Aboriginal-owned land on the Northern Territory coastline. The township of Nhulunbuy is the main commercial and service centre of the Peninsula and is 600 kilometres east of Darwin.

History

Modern As Europeans started land exploration throughout the Northern Territory and subsequently settled closer to Yolngu homelands, conflicts with the Yolngu became more frequent. In 1931, an area of was proclaimed as an Aboriginal reserve, named Arnhem Land Aboriginal Reserve.

Land on the peninsula was famously part of the 1971 Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd, aka the Gove land rights case, a milestone in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia. The plaintiffs, elders of various clans of the local Yolngu people, claimed they enjoyed sovereignty over their land, and sought the freedom to occupy their lands. The ruling went against them, as native title in Australia had not yet been recognised, but the principles on which the case were based were overturned in the Mabo case 21 years later.

Today the Land Trust holds about as Aboriginal freehold land (with the exception of mining leases).

The Gove Peninsula was heavily involved in the defence of Australia during World War II. Three operational air squadrons were based there at an airfield on the site of the present Gove airport and at a flying boat base at Drimmie Head. The Peninsula derives its name from a RAAF navigator who died in a mid-air collision.

Geography Topography The Gove Peninsula is nearly pristine, apart from Nhulunbuy, along with the bauxite mine and associated alumina refinery which brought the town into existence and closed in 2014. There are savannah woodlands, wetlands, monsoon forests and rocky escarpments stretched across its huge area, as well as many beaches, bays and islands.

Melville Bay () is the large bay between the peninsula and the mainland, and there are many unnamed beaches both within the bay and on the western side of the peninsula, as well as named beaches (such as Ski Beach and Wallaby Beach). Other popular locations around the peninsula include:

Nanydjaka (Cape Arnhem) Lurrupukurru (Oyster Beach) Rangura (Caves Beach) Baringura (Little Bondi) Ngumuy (Turtle Beach) Garanhan (Macassan(s) Beach) Binydjarrŋa/Daliwuy (Daliwoi) Bay

There are three coastal walking trails: Daliwuy to Garanhan (), Garanhan to Ngumuy () and Ngumuy to Baringura (). Informative signposts explaining Yolngu culture's relationship to the land is provided on these marked trails.

Ecosystem and coastal waters

Ecosystems on the Gove Peninsula and in its coastal waters are of great conservation significance, being largely undisturbed due to isolation, huge area and sparse population. The waters provide a shallow-water tropical marine ecosystem, with varying habitats for marine and estuarine wildlife, and include mangroves, beds of seagrass, tidal flats, salt pans and saltmarshes.

Place names Some place names were assigned to various places on the northern coast of Australia by the Macassan traders and Dutch and English explorers, including Matthew Flinders before the 20th century, including Arafura Sea and Arnhem Land (early alternative spelling: "Arnheim Land"). Flinders named Point Dundas, Drimmie Head, Melville Bay and Mount Saunders. However, an increasing number of non-Aboriginal people started arriving in the 20th century and assigning names. The airstrip constructed during the Second World War was the first place to be named Gove, after Pilot Officer William Gove, who was killed on 20 April 1943 in an air accident on the peninsula.

In the late 1960s and through the 1970s, many Yolngu people objected to the renaming of many places with English names, including Nhulunbuy. They presented a bark petition was to the Commonwealth Parliament in 1968 about the renaming of Nhulunbuy. Linguist Raymattja Marika and Melanie Wilkinson have recorded the origin and meaning of the Yolŋu place names, many of which relate to the stories of ancestral beings known as Wuyal (aka Birrinydjalki or Gandjalala), the "Sugar Bag Hunters", who had originally been Wäwilak and then Mandhalpuy. Eventually the Yolngu prevailed and the name Nhulunbuy was retained, but within the town, there are only two other Yolngu-derived names: Wuyal Road and the Rotary Marika Lookout, named after Dr Marika's father, Roy Marika.

Climate Situated just 12 degrees south of the Equator, the Gove Peninsula has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw). The non-Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory tropics recognise two distinct seasons, the dry season from mid-May to mid-November, and the wet season from mid-November to mid-May.

Yolngu seasons

Yolngu however recognise eight seasons derived from changing behaviours and patterns apparent in the land, flora and fauna, as follows: Dhuludur ('the Pre-wet season', October–November) when the weather is erratic, 'female' thunder and lightning storms are frequent, turtles and Threadfin Salmon are hunted, and the 'male' thunder shrinks the waterholes. Bärra'mirri ('the season of Heavy Rain and Growth', December–January) when there are heavy rains and prolific plant growth, the Magpie Geese arrive and shellfish are harvested. Mayaltha ('the Flowering season', February–March) when there are bright sunny days but little bush tucker, flies arrive and mosquito larvae are abundant in the pools. Midawarr ('the Fruiting season', March–April) when the east wind signals a time of abundant bush foods, including fruits, nuts and barramundi. *Ngathangamakulingamirri ('a two-week Harvest season', April) Dharratharramirri ('the Early Dry season', May–July) when the trade winds (south-southeast) arrive, the bush is fired, magpie-lark flocks arrive and sharks and stingrays give birth. Burrugumirri ('the time of the Birthing of Sharks and Stingrays', three weeks in July to August) Rarrandharr ('the Main Dry season', August–October) when warm southeast winds blow, the soil is hot, young sharks and stingrays are hunted, and the stringybark flowers.

Demographics On the night of the 2001 Census there were 13,080 people living in the East Arnhem region, which covers most of the Gove Peninsula. Of these 60.7% were Aboriginal people. Population Percentage Total Persons 13,080 - Total Indigenous persons 7,940 60.7% Males 3,905 49.2% Females 4,035 50.8%

On the night of the 2001 Census there were 3,766 people living in the "Urban Centre" of Nhulunbuy. Of these 7.3% were Indigenous.

Population Percentage Total Persons 3,766 - Total Indigenous persons 275 7.3% Males 2,135 56.7% Females 1,631 43.3%

Based on a 2004 NT Government Socio-Economic Snapshot, there is a population of 14,115 within the Gove Peninsula (East Arnhem Region), of which almost 64% are Indigenous people, and a population of nearly 4,000 in Nhulunbuy, the majority being non-Indigenous people. Those people not living in Nhulunbuy live in surrounding communities and traditional homelands. In the five years to 2004, the population declined in Nhulunbuy and Groote Eylandt and increased in the non-urban areas.

At the 2016 census, Nhulunbuy SSC (urban area) had a population of 3,240, with a median age of 32. Only 2.8% were Indigenous. Nhulunbuy Indigenous region had 9,559 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander residents, with 97.7% of these Aboriginal, 0.5 Torres Strait Islander, and 1.9% both.

Yolngu people

Owned by the traditional Aboriginal owners, the Yolngu people, it is a place rich in culture with Yolngu maintaining strong ties with their land, religion and traditions.

Rather than the name of a clan or family group, Yolngu is the word that Aboriginal people from East Arnhem Land, including the Gove Peninsula, use to refer to themselves. The main five clan groups of the region are Gumatj, Rirratjingu, Djapu, Madarrpa and Dhalwangu.

The prominent Marika family, many from Yirrkala, includes a number of artists and land rights activists, including Banduk Marika (13 October 1954 – 12 July 2021); Roy Dadaynga Marika (c.1925– 1993); and Wandjuk Marika (1927–1987). Educator and linguist Raymattja Marika (c.1959 – 11 May 2008) was NT Australian of the Year in 2007.

Yingiya Mark Guyula is the only independent Indigenous member of parliament in the Northern Territory , representing the electoral division of Mulka, formerly the electoral division of Nhulunbuy.

The Yolngu people call white people "balanda" (probably derived from the word "Hollander" – Dutch person).

Communities Yirrkala lies south-east of Nhulunbuy. It comprises a predominantly Aboriginal population of about 809 people (2016 Australian Census). Gunyangara, also known as Marngarr or Ski Beach, has a population of around 280, mostly people of the Gumatj clan, with family names Yunupingu, Burarrwanga and Munungirritj. It is situated on Drimmie Head in Melville Bay, west of Nhulunbuy and adjacent to Gove Port. It has an airstrip and full-time doctor and health clinic. There are Makassan historic sites on the island, which is joined to the Gove Peninsula by a causeway built during World War II to provide access to the Catalina flying boat base. Since silting has occurred, Drimmie Head is also sometimes referred to as a peninsula. Drimmie Head was named by Matthew Flinders on 14 February 1803 as he sailed around the island and it reminded him of a place in Scotland. Birritjimi, also known as Wallaby Beach, comprises a stretch of beach in Melville Bay. The north-facing part of beach is Birritjimi Beach, and as it curves around to face northwest, the stretch beyond the creek mouth is known as Wallaby Beach. There is a group of homes constructed in the 1970s to provide accommodation for Rio Tinto mining executives, inhabited mainly by members of the Gurruwiwi family and other members of the Galpu clan. Some healthcare is provided by mobile units operating out of clinics in Nhulunbuy and Gunyangara. Birritjimi is the home of yiḏaki master and elder of the Galpu clan, Djalu Gurruwiwi. Rio Tinto handed over the homes to traditional owners represented by Rirratjingu Aboriginal Corporation in 2008. the houses are in very poor condition and are facing demolition, as they are no longer deemed safe. The Northern Territory Government is providing emergency repairs and assistance, but says that the Northern Land Council is responsible for the maintenance of the homes. Rirratjingu has applied to the Commonwealth Government for funds to help move the residents to Nhulunbuy, Gunyangara and Yirrkala, but Djalu and his son Larry Gurruwiwi are reluctant to leave Birritjimi.

Governance

There are 10 local councils in the region which administer the townships of Nhulunbuy and Angurugu and a number of local communities that primarily service Indigenous people.

Economy

Mining Nhulunbuy is a purpose-built town developed by the former owner of Alcan Gove (Nabalco), a huge bauxite mine and now closed alumina refinery . The town is built on a Special Purpose Lease on Aboriginal land and as of 2007 was the largest town in East Arnhem Land, the fourth largest town in the Northern Territory and the administrative centre for the region.