mission

The children at the mission learned to read and write in Guugu Yimidhirr (which had been transcribed earlier by the missionaries), and the girls helped in the missionaries’ houses and in the garden. It was routine for the girls to be confined to a dormitory each night and to have limited access to their families. Initially, the missionary Wilhelm Poland supervised them closely at Elim while the senior missionary, Georg Heinrich Schwarz, attempted to establish a second station at Hope Valley. This arrangement was altered in 1890 after the older girls, including Mulun, secretly invited Guugu Yimidhirr boys into their dormitory at night. Thereafter the older girls were periodically sent to Hope Valley to stay with Schwarz. Source: ia.anu.edu.au/biography/mulun-magdalena-29712

Lutheran involvement in the Cooktown area began in 1885 when missionary Johann Flierl stopped off at Cooktown on his way to New Guinea. He later received government permission to start a mission station. The original mission sites were at Elim and Cape Bedford. Elim became known as Hope Valley, and later Hope Vale. The Immanuel Lutheran Synod in South Australia supported work amongst the Gungu Yimidhirr people by sending missionaries C.A. Meyer, George Schwarz and Wilhelm Poland. At the outbreak of the Second World War the people, along with missionary Schwartz, were interned at Woorabinda, near Rockhampton, in Queensland. In just one month twenty eight people lost their lives with nearly a quarter of the people dying over the next eight years. In 1986 the community became the first to receive a Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) and formed the Hope Vale Aboriginal Council. In 1997 a Native Title determination was made concerning the lands of the Hope Vale. Source: aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/catalogue_resources/MS...

The Guugu Yimithirr people like all Aborigines in Australia have been here for approximately 100,000 years. The Guugu Yimithirr first came to prominence in 1770 when they engaged with Captain James Cook and his crew on the good ship Endeavour. As is well known in history the Guugu Yimithirr hosted Captain Cook at present day Cooktown (Gungarr) for 7 weeks. During this time he not only had to repair the Endeavour he also met the Guugu Yimithirr people and engaged in dialogue along with Joseph Banks and Sydney Parkinson. They gathered a word list of the Guugu Yimithirr language and from this encounter the Guugu Yimithirr have been immortalised in the English language by giving the name to that giant hopping marsupial-Gangurru-Kangaroo. Hope Valley Mission was founded in January of 1886 by the Lutheran Missionary John Flierl. He was on his way to establish a mission in New Guinea but was held up in Cooktown and during the idle time he began work amongst the Guugu Yimithirr clans in Cooktown. He established himself as missionary on the Cape Bedford Aboriginal Reserve, choosing a spot on the bay north of Cape Bedford which he called Elim. Source: www.hopevale.qld.gov.au/history

The Hope Valley Mission, at Hope Valley, was run by Lutheran Church Missionaries. Previously known as the Cape Bedford Mission, it was established around 1896 and closed in May 1942 when the site was taken over by the Australian Army and its residents were removed to Woorabinda, near Rockhampton. It reopened as the Hope Vale Mission in around 1950. The Hope Valley Mission was established when the administrative centre for the Mission at Elim moved to Hope Valley. Before the second world war, the Mission consisted of a number of hamlets or settlements at Springhill, Bridge Creek, and Elim with the administrative centre located at Hope Valley. Hope Valley was known as 'the school station'. This was where the Superintendent's house, the church, the school and the dormitories were situated. All of the Mission children of school age were sent to live in the dormitories at Hope Valley as this was where the Mission school was situated. The Hope Valley dormitories were also used to house orphans or children whose parents were not living on the Mission. The Mission's policy in 1939 was that it was better that Mission children were institutionalised rather than be with their parents. In 1941, 131 children were registered as inmates of the institution. In May 1942, residents of Hope Valley Mission were removed to the Woorabinda Aboriginal Reserve, over 1,000 kilometres south. The Mission site was subsequently taken over by the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Air Force, United States Army and the Civil Construction Corps. The mission reopened in around 1950, with the new name of Hope Vale. Source: www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/qld/biogs/QE00828b.htm