Numbulwar

Numbulwar is a small, primarily Aboriginal community of around 700 on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Permanent settlement began at Numbulwar in 1952 with the founding of the Rose River Mission by local Aboriginal communities and the Church Missionary Society. The Mission operated until the 1970s when community control passed to the Numbulwar Numburindi Community Council.

The community today consists of a general store, a police station, a community school, an engine repair shop, a post office and about 700 residents. Mission Aviation Fellowship has a base in Numbulwar which provides air services for the community.

Location: Numbulwar is approximately 400 km east of Katherine, 570 km south east of Darwin and 250 km south west of Nhulunbuy, at the mouth of the Rose River on the western coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and adjacent to the extreme SW coast of Groote Eylandt.

Getting There

During the dry season the community can be accessed by road. Travel time from Darwin via Katherine along the Roper Highway is approximately 10-12 hours via the Roper River and Ngukurr communities. Travel time from Nhulunbuy via Walker River and Harris Creek is approximately 4-6 hours. In both cases a 4wd is essential. Numbulwar is also accessible by air and has an all weather, sealed airstrip.

A regular air transport service “Numburindi Air´ is operated by Mission Aviation Federation (MAF). The service is provided 4 days per week i.e. Tuesday & Thursday Nhulunbuy (Gove)/Numbulwar (which also delivers the mail); Monday & Friday Numbulwar/Groote Eylandt return (Which connects with Vincent Aviation services to Darwin). Numbulwar has resident pilots, employed by MAF and charters are also available.  Many other services operate to surrounding communities.

Travel time to Alyangula, Groote Eylandt, is 30 min, and 1 hour to Nhulunbuy. There is a fortnightly freight barge service from Darwin to Numbulwar.

As with almost all remote communities in the region, visitors need a permit to enter the community.

Surrounding Areas

Wumajbarr, about 12 km from Numbulwar, is the nearest community and belongs to the Nunggumajbarr clan. Malagayangu, about 50 km north and a good fishing spot, belongs to the Murrungun clan. "Ownership" is determined by the existence of sites of significance, associated with ceremonies and song cycles, belonging to each clan.


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These ceremonial activities are still very important and boys' initiations and other men's rituals are performed regularly. The Nunggubuyu language, however, is in serious decline; although the school had a bilingual program, most young people don't speak it anymore, but use "Kriol", an Aboriginal Creole based on a mainly English vocabulary, instead, like in Ngukurr and other communities in this region. Apart from Nunggubuyu clans there are, directly to the west, a number of other groups: Ritharrngu, Ngandi, Wandarrang and Mara; but their languages are virtually extinct too.

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