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Pronunciation: Noo-yoo
Alternative place name: Bathurst Island
Nearby communities: Wurankuwu, and Pirlangimpi, Milikapiti on Melville Island
Location: 70 km north of Darwin in the Arafura Sea
Patrol area: 2070 sq km
Police in the community: The Nguiu Police District is Bathurst Island, the smaller of the Tiwi Islands of Bathurst and Melville. Nguiu members are responsible for the day-to-day policing of Bathurst, with general duties, traffic campaigns and fisheries enforcement.
Bathurst is a is an Alcohol Restricted Zone under the Liquor Act, however police still deal with alcohol related incidents as liquor is permitted at licensed clubs or by permit. Police also deal with substance abuse in the community.
Other police duties include motor vehicle registration and Courts, the collection of court fines, civil debts and civil document service. Members often help with illegal fishing patrols search and rescue and coordinate counter disaster operations.
Police and community interaction is strong, with a number of community based initiatives in place to moderate alcohol consumption.
Services: Murrupurtiyanuwu Catholic School, Xavier Community Education Centre, Julinamawu Health Centre, childcare centre, Centrelink agency, EFTPOS, Commonwealth Bank agency, post office, social club, church, community transport and workshop facilities. There are regular daily flights to and from Darwin and a daily ferry service.
Housing: There are two three-bedroom houses located near the station.
Recreation activities: Fishing, swimming pool, sports and recreation hall, football ovals, golf course. The Tiwi Islands Football Grand Final attracts national coverage each year.
Nearby attractions: Tiwi Design - arts, textile production and workshop, Nguiu Church and cemetery, Tumwirripi Falls, Rocky Point and remote beaches.
Population: Community about 1582
Description:
Nguiu is on the south-eastern tip of Bathurst Island, on the Apsley Strait. The island is scenic with many sandy beaches and surrounded by blue seas. Nguiu began as a Catholic mission and that influence is still strong in the community.
Nguiu is the main settlement in the district, with about 1500 residents, of whom about 100 are non-Aboriginal. An outstation at Wurankuru, about 50 km west of Nguiu, has a population of about 60. The Aboriginal people speak Tiwi, although English is spoken as a second language by most people on the islands. There are four skin groups. The land is held in an Aboriginal Land Trust administered by the Tiwi Land Council. The weather is sharply divided between wet and dry seasons. The wet season temperature ranges between 24oC overnight and 34oC during the day. The dry season is about 16oC overnight and 33oC during the day. The monsoon wet season starts in earnest in January with often continuous heavy rainfall for days at a time and lower day and night temperatures.
History:
Bathurst Island, the home of the Tiwi people for thousands of years was first sighted by Europeans in 1644 when Abel Tasman passed by on his way from Batavia. In 1818 Phillip Parker King, the son of NSW Governor Philip Gidley King, explored the island and named it after Lord Bathurst. The influences on Bathurst Island’s development took a new turn with the arrival of German missionary, Bishop Francis Xavier Gsell in 1910.
Gsell was a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. In 1906 Gsell was the Apostolic Administrator of the Northern Territory and persuaded the South Australian Government to give him about 4 000 hectares of land on Bathurst Island to build a mission in 1911. He gradually earned the Islanders’ trust, particularly through improved health care.
In World War II the mission sighted the Japanese bombers on their way to bomb Darwin on 19 February 1942 but the warning was dismissed as a mistaken sighting of allied aircraft. In 1978 the ownership of Bathurst Island was formerly handed back to the Tiwi people and today the island is run by the Tiwi Land Council.
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