Gunbalanya Kunbarlanja (Gunwinggu) | |
|---|---|
 A view of Gunbalanya from nearby Injalak Hill | |
  Gunbalanya | |
| Coordinates:12°19′S133°03′E / 12.317°S 133.050°E /-12.317; 133.050 | |
| Country | Australia |
| State | Northern Territory |
| Region | Arnhem Land |
| LGA | |
| Location |
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| Government | |
| • Territory electorate | |
| • Federal division | |
| Population | |
| • Total | 1,153 (UCL2021)[2] |
Gunbalanya (also speltKunbarlanja, and historically referred to asOenpelli) is a town in westArnhem Land in theNorthern Territory of Australia, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) east ofDarwin. The main language spoken in the community isKunwinjku (a dialect ofBininj Kunwok). At the2021 Australian census, Gunbalanya had a population of 1,177, of largelyAboriginal Australian[3] identity.
Only accessible by air during thewet season, Gunbalanya is known for itsAboriginal art, in particularrock art andbark painting. It has a range of services, including apolice station, school and community arts centre,Injalak Arts.
It is the nearest town to theAwunbarna, also known asMount Borradaile, anAboriginal sacred site and the location of significantIndigenous Australian rock art.
The area now known as Gunbalanya was originally called "Uwunbarlany" byErre-speaking people, who were its original inhabitants.[4] Oenpelli was the wayPaddy Cahill (c. 1863–1923),[5] the founder of the originalcattle station in the area, pronounced the local word.[6] The presenttoponym is an anglisation of the wordKunbarlanja[7] current inKunwinjku, the language of the people who now live there, who began moving into the area from the east following the Cahill's establishment of his cattle station there in 1909.[citation needed]
Oenpelli, as it was known then, was established by the Rev. Alfred Dyer as a mission in 1925 by theChurch of England'sChurch Missionary Society, on the former cattle station.[8] Dyer and his wife Mary established a typicalmission station, with church, school, dispensary, garden, and store, to which they added pastoral work with feral cattle and horses.[citation needed] Among those who attended the mission school was the celebratedGagudju elder and interpreter of culture,Bill Neidjie.[9]
The eldest son of the seniortraditional owner of the land, Nipper Marakarra, Narlim, was born in 1909 and grew up at the mission. He continued to stay there as he wanted to have his children taught English, and also saw it as a way to stayon Country as traditional custodians. However, when a visiting policeman in the late 1930s found that Narlim had an infectious disease, hehandcuffed him in order to chain him up with a group of others who were being sent to Darwin. Narlim was sent away under police escort, with his baby daughter on his shoulder. He never returned, but his daughter, Peggy did, and later became a community leader.[10]
In 1933, Nell Harris, a young woman of 29 years old, was taught Kunwinkju by the local people, and, along with Hannah Mangiru and Rachel Maralngurra, translated theGospel of Mark into the language.[10]
Oenpelli remained a mission until 1975, when responsibility was transferred to an Aboriginal town council and the name was changed to Gunbalanya.[citation needed]
The1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land visited Oenpelli for three months and collected a large array of local artefacts, art, and specimens. Leader of the ExpeditionCharles Mountford returned to Oenpelli in 1949, when the AdelaideAdvertiser reported his ‘new’ discovery of cave paintings at Obiri—a shelter 18m long and 2.7m high which contained tens of thousands of figures. Mountford proposed that the site be made a national reserve.[11]
The large and uncommon Oenpellipython,Morelia oenpelliensis, shares the historic name of this community,[12] as does Oenpelli bloodwood,Corymbia dunlopiana.[13]
Ageological event known as the OenpelliDolerite intrusive event occurred about 1,720 million years ago.[14][15]
The local people speak Kunwinjku (a dialect ofBininj Kunwok), and are a grouping of theBininj peoples. At the 2016 Australian census, Gunbalanya had a population of 1,116.[16] 88.6% of the population identified asAboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.[17]
Gunbalanya is the largest town in the area and the nearest population centre to Awunbarna.
Awunbarna, also known asMount Borradaile, a mountain about 120 metres (390 ft) above sea level about 34.9 kilometres (21.7 mi) from Gunbalanya.[18][19] Awunbarna is asacred site and the location of a significant number of rock paintings.[20][21] A study published in 2020 recording theMaliwawa Figures describes paintings at 87 sites across western Arnhem Land from Awunbarna westwards to theWellington Range.[22][23] Its former name was in recognition of the surveyorEdward Sidney Borradaile.[24]
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The sealed Arnhem Highway links Darwin toJabiru, the town withinKakadu National Park. About 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) before Jabiru, the sealed road turns off toUbirr, the Border Store, Cahill's Crossing on theEast Alligator River, and Oenpelli. The road is dirt from the East Alligator to just before Gunbalanya, a distance of about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi). While this road is generally navigable byfour-wheel drive vehicle, the river crossing is acauseway which is closed by flooding during thewet season (November to April) and at high tides.[citation needed]
Dry season travellers are able to drive the 300 kilometres (190 mi) from Darwin in about three hours and 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Jabiru in under an hour.Northern Land Council permits are required to cross the East Alligator River, the western boundary of Arnhem Land, and travel east to Gunbalanya, obtainable from offices in Darwin or Jabiru. These may take up to two weeks to finalise, and many visitors prefer to see Arnhem Land through an organised tour operation.
Oenpelli Airport is a sealed all weather airstrip located in Gunbalanya, and a number of companies offer charter flights to and from this airport.
The town is regarded as one of the major Aboriginal towns in Arnhem Land, and includes a school (pre-school to Year 12), health clinic, service station, police station, aged care, recreational clubs, community arts centre (Injalak Arts), and various stores.
The Stone Country Festival (formerly Gunbalanya Cultural Open Day) is usually held in August and access for this is allowed without permit. Though an annual event, it is sometimes not able to be organised in a given year.
The local radio station is called "RIBS" for Remote Indigenous Broadcasting Service.[citation needed]
Western Arnhem Land is home to some of the most significantrock art in the world.
Local artistic traditions are continued and adapted by the Injalak Arts Centre.Injalak Arts is named after nearby Injalak Hill, which has many rock art galleries and is the main tourist attraction in Gunbalanya.
In the 1960s the mission at Oenpelli encouraged traditional rock painting artists topaint on bark. These painted barks were sold toanthropologists and travellers. This soon became acottage industry, and several important Aboriginal artists, including LoftyBardayal, Mick Kubarrku[25] andDick Murramurra[26] transferred their rock art skills to bark. These bark paintings are now held in art galleries in Australia and across the world. Exhibitions of bark paintings include "Old Masters"[27] at theNational Museum of Australia and "Crossing Country"[28] at theArt Gallery of New South Wales.
Parts of the 2020 filmHigh Ground was filmed in the area, and the story reflects some of the history of the region, including a fictionalised version of theGan Gan massacre.[10]
In the Anime filmMobile Suit Gundam Hathaway, the town features as a rally point of an assembling group of "rebel" supporters, of the Group "Mafty", with over 30,000 supporters of the group having amassed at the time of the events in the film.
The in world name of the town is spelled as "Oenbelli" due to a computing error during the town's registration in the space emigration era.
| Climate data for Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) (1991–2013) | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 37.8 (100.0) | 36.7 (98.1) | 36.7 (98.1) | 38.2 (100.8) | 36.3 (97.3) | 35.7 (96.3) | 36.0 (96.8) | 37.7 (99.9) | 39.4 (102.9) | 41.1 (106.0) | 41.6 (106.9) | 39.9 (103.8) | 41.6 (106.9) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 33.1 (91.6) | 32.7 (90.9) | 33.2 (91.8) | 33.7 (92.7) | 33.0 (91.4) | 31.9 (89.4) | 32.0 (89.6) | 33.5 (92.3) | 36.0 (96.8) | 37.4 (99.3) | 37.2 (99.0) | 35.0 (95.0) | 34.1 (93.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 24.8 (76.6) | 24.7 (76.5) | 24.7 (76.5) | 24.0 (75.2) | 21.9 (71.4) | 19.8 (67.6) | 18.6 (65.5) | 18.3 (64.9) | 20.1 (68.2) | 22.5 (72.5) | 24.1 (75.4) | 24.8 (76.6) | 22.4 (72.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 20.8 (69.4) | 21.0 (69.8) | 21.4 (70.5) | 17.2 (63.0) | 14.4 (57.9) | 10.4 (50.7) | 10.0 (50.0) | 9.8 (49.6) | 12.1 (53.8) | 14.4 (57.9) | 18.0 (64.4) | 20.7 (69.3) | 9.8 (49.6) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 384.9 (15.15) | 402.3 (15.84) | 268.1 (10.56) | 111.3 (4.38) | 10.6 (0.42) | 0.6 (0.02) | 0.1 (0.00) | 1.5 (0.06) | 4.3 (0.17) | 18.8 (0.74) | 108.0 (4.25) | 237.4 (9.35) | 1,537.4 (60.53) |
| Average rainy days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 18.6 | 18.0 | 16.8 | 7.4 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 7.1 | 15.0 | 86.9 |
| Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology[29] | |||||||||||||
...licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
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