Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council

Mapoon community is situated on the traditional lands of the Tjungundji people.  A church mission commenced near Trathalarrakwana (unconfirmed spelling of a Tjungundji word meaning ‘Barramundi story place’) or Cullen Point on 28 November 1891.  Mapoon Mission was established under the name Batavia River Mission by Moravian missionaries on behalf of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, with Queensland Government financial assistance, on land reserved by the Government under the Crown Lands Act of 1884.   Within a few years the mission became known as Mapoon, a Tjungundji word meaning  ‘place where people fight on the sand-hills’.   Mapoon is also known as Marpuna.  As the influence of the mission widened in the surrounding lands, the reserve was extended south to the Mission River near Weipa.  Some of the traditional owner groups who eventually came to live at Mapoon included the Mpakwithi, Taepithiggi, Thaynhakwith, Warrangku, Wimarangga and Yupungathi people.