Wellesley Islands
Sighted by Abel Tasman in 1644 and charted by Matthew Flinders in December 1802, the Wellesley Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria's southeastern corner are home to the Lardil and Gayardilt people. Flinders probably named the islands while working on his charts and journals during his lengthy captivity on Mauritius between 1803 and 1810. Marquess Wellesley (Richard Colley Wellesley, governor-general of Bengal) and Lord William Bentinck, Governor of Madras had both tried unsuccessfully to secure his release; Wellesley was also the second Earl of Mornington.
Before the sea levels rose to their current height at the end of the last ice age around 6,500 years ago, the low-lying islands with their intertidal flats and fringing reefs were a peninsula that was part of the mainland. Stories about rising sea levels inundating coastal lowlands in the area are preserved in the Lardi people's oral tradition.
The islands can be divided into two main groups:
Approximately twenty-five kilometres from the mainland, Mornington Island (648 square kilometres in area) and around a dozen smaller islands make up the North Wellesley Islands, traditionally owned by the ardi people. The town of Gununa, established in 1914 as Mornington Island Community and renamed in January 1982, is the island's main population centre.
To the southeast of Mornington, the South Wellesley Islands — Bentinck Island, Sweers Island and four smaller islands) were home to the Gayardilt people.
The four West Wellesley or Forsyth Islands to the southwest of Mornington and the 442-hectare Bountiful Islands east of Mornington are also part of the Wellesley archipelago.
Missing links:
Gununa
Mornington Island Community
