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Wujal Wujal is an Aboriginal community located in FNQ, originally known as Bloomfield and later the Bloomfield River Mission. Wujal Wujal, meaning ‘many falls’, is part of the traditional homelands of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji nation. The waterfalls are a women’s place and very sacred to the community. The public can only access one of the waterfalls, which is clearly signed. The first recorded European to visit the Bloomfield River was British Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Frederick Bedwell, who accompanied Captain Phillip Parker King on board the HMS Mermaid on a hydrological survey of the east coast of Australia. Gold was discovered in the region in the early 1870s and resulted in a gold rush with thousands of miners setting up camp in the Palmer River area. A tin mining industry was also established in the area. Tensions between miners and pioneer settlers moving into Kuku-Yalanji territories resulted in violent clashes. The establishment of the Bloomfield River Mission was a Queensland Government initiative. It was announced that a reserve on the Bloomfield River had been set aside, 45 miles south of Cooktown in the mid-1880s. The trigger was the rapid development of the region by settlers establishing sugar cane plantations and cattle stations. The Queensland Government declined to make a financial commitment beyond the first year of the Mission’s operation. Instead, the Queensland Government offered the running of Bloomfield River Mission to the Lutherans. The Bloomfield Mission was considered a failure and government subsidies were withdrawn. In August 1900 it was decided that the Mission be wound down. Source: banayirrijiart.com.au/history/

It seems some angry crocodiles still hanging in the area. Story below: Aggressive 4.2m croc trapped in north Qld An aggressive 4.2-meter-long crocodile has been trapped at a popular fishing spot in north Queensland. Rangers have trapped a 4.2-meter crocodile spotted chasing another croc at a popular fishing spot in north Queensland. The huge reptile was one of two male crocodiles seen chasing a female crocodile near a boat ramp on a river south of Townsville. Rangers laid floating traps in the Haughton River last week and managed to catch the big croc on Tuesday. It will be relocated to a farm or zoo. State Environment Minister Andrew Powell urged boaties to take extreme caution or avoid the area until the other crocs have been trapped. "These are very large crocodiles and they are showing very aggressive behavior," he told reporters on Wednesday. Recently a Port Douglas canoe club, north of Cairns, relocated its headquarters from a croc-infested waterway to a nearby beach. The reptiles considered a threat to people in Townsville, Hinchinbrook, along the Cassowary Coast, and in the Cairns region are relocated. Under the state government's croc removal scheme 56 crocs have been trapped and relocated since early 2013. One of the biggest was a 4.5m croc caught in the Herbert River near Ingham in August last year. Concerns have been raised that the scheme doesn't work because other crocs may take over an area once one is removed. Source: www.sbs.com.au/news/article/aggressive-4-2m-croc-trapped-...

On June 22, 1905, rumours a crocodile had been living in the Logan River, south of Brisbane, were confirmed when local storekeeper Alf Hinds spotted something “floating on the surface of the water, under a willow tree”. Hinds, with the assistance of his brother Jack and publican Charles Rumpf, towed the dead crocodile “down to the ferry landing, and pulled it up onto the bank”. According to the Brisbane Courier newspaper, the 3.83m crocodile had been shot at a few days prior, but not for the first time. Earlier in the year it was reported that William Hammel, an aerated water manufacturer, had sighted “a large alligator” on the bank of the river. He shot at the creature with his rifle, supposedly wounding it, before it “took to the water and disappeared”. The final, fatal shot is generally attributed to one Charlie Goetsch. The discovery of the dead crocodile caused great excitement in Logan Village. Locals posed behind their new trophy and schoolchildren were given an opportunity to inspect this “curiosity”. The Brisbane Courier published a photograph showing a small schoolboy’s head next to the open jaws of the croc, which was later skinned and its stomach revealed to contain corn, several ducks and small turtles. During the crocodile scare some were skeptical. A few weeks prior to the discovery of the dead crocodile a cheeky journalist from the Beaudesert Despatch newspaper attributed sightings to "the bad grog dispensed by the Waterford publicans". The Beaudesert Herald hit back by publishing a letter to the editor saying, "For the benefit of your readers it may not be out of place to mention that the writer of the paragraph referred to was not afraid to sample the "bad grog" on the occasion of the opening of the Waterford Dip. Drinks were free. Nuff sed" The question remained: how did a crocodile end up so far south? Rumour had it that nine years earlier, two well-known Brisbane residents were given a crocodile as a Christmas gift, but the contents of the package mysteriously went missing. If true, it lends credence to the admonition that pets aren’t just for Christmas – they’re for life. Myles Sinnamon - Project Coordinator, State Library of Queensland www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/crocodile-found-logan-river-1905#....