Barron River Electorate

Palm Cove Jetty

Kuranda Rainforest

Barron River, Kuranda

Palm Cove Jetty

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Photography commissioned from local Kuranda photographer www.stevennowakowski.com

The Barron River Electorate runs North of the Barron River encompassing the Northern Beaches of Cairns covering Freshwater, Stratford, Redlynch, Caravonica, Smithfield, Machans Beach, Holloways Beach, Yorkeys Knob, Trinity Park, Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Ellis Beach, Kuranda, Koah, Speewah, Barron and Mona Mona.

Acknowledging Traditional Owners

It is important that we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Barron River electorate, those who lived on this land for tens of thousands of years before us - the Djabugay and the Yirrganydji peoples.

The Djabugay peoples’ traditional lands include the Barron Gorge National Park in Queensland’s world heritage listed Wet Tropics. The Barron Gorge National Park is an internationally renowned natural icon, and the Barron Falls (Din Din) an all powerful symbol of the significance of the area to the Traditional Owners. For the Djabugay people, a Native Title determination in 2004 recognised their connection to country as Traditional Owners, and gave an opportunity to have a say on the management of the park. The Corporation recently launched the Djabugay Bulmba Bama Plan which aims to guide the development of a joint management model towards social, cultural and economic benefits for the Djabugay people.

Yirrganydji traditional country lies along the coastal plains from Cairns to Port Douglas. The Yirrganydji people are one of the 18 Aboriginal tribal groups whose country lies within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. This country is internationally recognised and is partly within the Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef World Heritage listed areas. The Yirrganydji Traditional Owners run a Land and Sea Ranger program which focuses on protecting and conserving the environment, resources and heritage. In March 1998 the Yirrganydji people were handed tenure to seven hectares of their traditional lands at Wangetti Beach. The Wangetti Land Trust manages the land to this day. This was the first time Aboriginal people had been given back their land in the Wet Tropics region – a very significant step towards reconciliation.