Tiwi Islands
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
's Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
, north of Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
where the Arafura Sea
Arafura Sea
The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea.-Geography:The Arafura Sea is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda and Ceram...
joins the Timor Sea
Timor Sea
The Timor Sea is a relatively shallow sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor, to the east by the Arafura Sea, to the south by Australia and to the west by the Indian Ocean....
. They comprise Melville Island
Melville Island, Northern Territory
Melville Island or Yermalner Island lies in the eastern Timor Sea, off the coast of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is west of the Cobourg Peninsula in Arnhem Land and north of Darwin....
and Bathurst Island
Bathurst Island, Northern Territory
Bathurst Island is one of the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory off the northern coast of Australia along with Melville Island.-Description:...
, with a combined area of 8320 square kilometres (3,212 sq mi).
Inhabited before European settlement by the Tiwi
Tiwi people
The Tiwi people are one of the many Indigenous groups of Australia. Nearly 2,500 Tiwi live in the Bathurst and Melville Islands, which make up the Tiwi Islands....
indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
, there are approximately 2500 people on the islands.
The Tiwi Land Council
Tiwi Land Council
The Tiwi Land Council was established following requests by the Tiwi people for recognition of their distinct geographic and cultural identity. These representations were a consequence of the which came into operation on 26 January 1977....
is one of four in the Northern Territory. It is a representative body with statutory authority under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and has responsibilities under the Native Title Act 1993
Native Title Act 1993
The Native Title Act of 1993 provides for determinations of native title in Australia. The Act was passed by the Keating Labor Government in response to the High Court's decision in Mabo v Queensland...
and the Pastoral Land Act 1992.
Geography and population
The Tiwi Islands lie 80km to the north of Australia's Northern Territory in the Arafura Sea, and are part of the Northern Territory. Bathurst Island is the fifth-largest island of Australia and accessible by sea or airBathurst Island Airport
Bathurst Island Airport is located at Wurrumiyanga, on the south east coast of Bathurst Island, Australia. The airport has a sealed runway, which is 4770 ft in length, making it unsuitable for commercial jets. However, there are regular, smaller commercial tours to the Island. Bathurst Island...
. Melville Island is Australia's second largest island (after Tasmania).
The islands are separated by Apsley Strait, which connects Saint Asaph Bay in the north and Shoal Bay
Shoal Bay (Darwin)
Shoal Bay is a shallow bay lying adjacent to, and north of, the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. Encompassing Hope Inlet at its eastern end, it is characterised by extensive areas of intertidal mudflats and mangroves and is an important site for waders, or...
in the south, and is between 550 metres and 5 km wide, 62 km long. At the mouth of Shoal Bay is Buchanan Island, with an area of about 3 km². A car ferry at the narrowest point provides a quick connection between the two islands.
Tiwi people
The Tiwi people are one of the many Indigenous groups of Australia. Nearly 2,500 Tiwi live in the Bathurst and Melville Islands, which make up the Tiwi Islands....
, as they have been since before European settlement in Australia. The Tiwi
Tiwi people
The Tiwi people are one of the many Indigenous groups of Australia. Nearly 2,500 Tiwi live in the Bathurst and Melville Islands, which make up the Tiwi Islands....
are an Indigenous Australian people, culturally and linguistically distinct from those of Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land
The Arnhem Land Region is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500 km from the territory capital Darwin. The region has an area of 97,000 km² which also covers the area of Kakadu National...
on the mainland just across the water. They number around 2500. In 2006 the total population of the islands was 2129, of whom 91.3% were Aboriginal. Most residents speak Tiwi
Tiwi language
Tiwi is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken on the Tiwi Islands, within sight of the coast of northern Australia. It is one of about 10% of Australian languages still being learned by children....
as their first language and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as a second language. Most of the population live in Wurrumiyanga
Wurrumiyanga, Northern Territory
Wurrumiyanga , formerly Nguiu , is a community on the southern coast of Bathurst Island, Northern Territory, Australia.In 2010 Nguiu was renamed Wurrumiyanga, meaning the place where the cycads grow, by the Tiwi Land Council....
(known as Nguiu until 2010) on Bathurst Island, and Pirlangimpi (also known as Garden Point) and Milikapiti (also known as Snake Bay) on Melville Island. Wurrumiyanga has a population of nearly 1500, the other two centres around 450 each.
There are other smaller settlements, including Wurankuwu (Ranku) Community on western Bathurst Island.
History
Indigenous Australians have occupied the Tiwi Islands for centuries, with creation stories suggesting they were present at least 7000 years before presentBefore Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
.
Tiwi islanders are believed to have had contact with Macassan
Makassar
Makassar, is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the largest city on Sulawesi Island. From 1971 to 1999, the city was named Ujung Pandang, after a precolonial fort in the city, and the two names are often used interchangeably...
traders, and the first historical record of contact between Indigenous islanders and western explorers was with the Dutch 'under the command of Commander Maarten van Delft who took three ships into Shark Bay on Melville Island and landed on 30 April 1705'. There were other visits by explorers and navigators in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including by Dutchman Pieter Pieterszoon, Frenchman Nicholas Baudin and Briton Philip Parker King
Philip Parker King
Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN was an early explorer of the Australian coast.-Early life and education:...
.
A Catholic mission was established by Francis Xavier Gsell in 1911, and the islands were proclaimed an Aboriginal Reserve in 1912. A timber church built in the 1930s is a prominent landmark in Wurrumiyanga. The catholic mission thrived until 1972 and provided invaluable education to the Tiwi people
Tiwi people
The Tiwi people are one of the many Indigenous groups of Australia. Nearly 2,500 Tiwi live in the Bathurst and Melville Islands, which make up the Tiwi Islands....
. This including the provision of agricultural skills and the Tiwi people successfully sold crops such as bananas to the main land. With self-determination declared in 1972, the mission activities effectively ceased. However, a continuing catholic presence of Brothers, Sisters and Priests was requested by the Tiwi people of Nguiu to assist with education and health services.
Control of the islands was transferred to the Indigenous traditional owners through the Tiwi Aboriginal Land Trust, and the Tiwi Land Council that was founded in 1978. The Tiwi Islands Local Government Area was established in 2001, when the previous community government councils in the three main communities of Wurrumiyanga (Bathurst Island), Pirlangimpi and Milikapiti
Milikapiti, Northern Territory
Milikapiti is a village on the northern coast of Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia. It is by air from Darwin.Tiwi Travel fly twice daily to and from Darwin servicing Milikapiti.The flight takes approximately 25 minutes...
(Melville Island) were amalgamated with the Wurankuwu Aboriginal Corporation to form a single local government. The Tiwi Islands Local Government was replaced in 2008 by the Tiwi Islands Shire Council as part of a Northern Territory-wide restructuring of local government.
Politics and administration
The Tiwi Islands are part of the Federal electorate of LingiariDivision of Lingiari
The Division of Lingiari is an Australian Electoral Division in the Northern Territory. It was created in 2000, out of the former Division of Northern Territory. It covers almost the entire Territory , an area of , making it the second largest electorate in terms of area in Australia...
, for which the current member is Warren Snowdon
Warren Snowdon
Warren Edward Snowdon is an Australian politician. He is an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives. He represented the Division of Northern Territory from July 1987 to March 1996, and from October 1998 to November 2001.Since November 2001 he has represented the...
. The islands are within the Northern Territory electorate of Arafura
Electoral division of Arafura
Arafura is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1983, and takes its name from the Arafura Sea, which adjoins the electorate. The electorate is predominantly rural, encompassing in western Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands, and...
. The current Member for Arafura is Marion Scrymgour
Marion Scrymgour
Marion Rose Scrymgour is an Australian politician. She has been a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2001, representing the electorate of Arafura. She was the Labor Party Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from November 2007 until February 2009, and was the...
.
The administration of the Islands is divided between the local Tiwi Islands Shire Council, and the Indigenous landholder representative organisation, the Tiwi Land Council. Representatives on the Shire Council are elected from four wards, and include 11 councillors;
- Milikapiti Ward (northeast Melville Island, largest)
- Nguiu Ward (south Bathurst Island, Buchanan Island)
- Pirlangimpi Ward (west and southwest Melville Island)
- Wurankuwu Ward (north Bathurst Island)
In 2005–06, the operating budget of the Tiwi Islands Shire Council was A$27.7 million.
Culture of the Tiwi Islands
Indigenous Art
The creation of Indigenous Australian art is an important part of Tiwi Island culture and its economy. There are three Indigenous art centres on the islands: Tiwi Design, Munupi Arts & Crafts, and Jilamara Arts and Craft, and these collaborate through a cooperative venture, Tiwi Art. Apart from Tiwi Art network there are two independent operations: fabric design, printing and clothing business Bima Wear, operated by Indigenous women since 1969, and Ngaruwanajirri, also known as 'The Keeping Place'.Tiwi artists who have held international exhibitions or whose works are held in major Australian collections include Donna Burak, Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, and Fiona Puruntatameri.
A lot of wood carvings of birds are made by Tiwi people. Some of these are displayed in the Mission Heritage Gallery on Bathurst Island. The carvings represent various birds from Tiwi mythology, which have various meanings. Certain birds tell the Tiwi people about approaching monsoonal rains whilst others warn of impending cyclones. Others, depending on the totem of the people, alert the Tiwi people that someone has died in a particular clan. There are others that represent ancestral beings who were, according to mythology, changed into birds. Carved birds are sometimes at the top of pukumani poles, which are placed at sacred burial sites.
The Tiwi People also create many of their designs on fabric. The main method uses wax to resist dying similarly to Indonesian batik
Batik
Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.Javanese traditional batik, especially from...
prints. Various fabrics are used ranging from sturdy, woven cotton to delicate silks, from which they create silk scarves.
The creation of their artwork is usually a social activity and consists of groups of people sitting together and talking whist they work in a relaxed fashion. Often these grouping are segregated by gender.
Australian Rules Football
Australian rules footballAustralian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
is the most popular sport on the Tiwi Islands, and was introduced in 1941 by missionary John Pye. There has been a Tiwi Islands Football League competition since 1969.
Tiwi Islands Football League
The Tiwi Islands Football League is an Australian rules football competition in the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia.Australian Rules football is the most popular sport on the Tiwi Islands....
Grand Final is held in March each year and attracts up to 3,000 spectators. The Tiwi Australian Football League has 900 participants out of a community of about 2600, the highest football participation rate in Australia (35%).
Tiwi footballers are renowned for exquisite one touch skills. Many of the players have a preference for playing barefoot. Many of the male players also play for the St Mary’s Football Club
St Marys Football Club
The St Marys Football Club, nicknamed, Saints, formed in 1952 is a member club of the Northern Territory Football League. It is famous for its record of success, with 28 NTFL premierships and 55 out of 57 possible final appearances....
in Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
, which was formed specifically to allow Tiwi soldiers in the 1950s to play in the Northern Territory Football League
Northern Territory Football League
The Northern Territory Football League is an 8 team Australian rules football semi-professional league operating in Darwin in the Northern Territory.The premier grade is the largest Australian rules football league in the Northern Territory...
.
The Tiwi Islands Football Club
Tiwi Islands Football Club
The Tiwi Islands Football Club, nicknamed, Bombers, began as a representative club competing in the Northern Territory Football League 2006/07 season.The club is notable as being the first all-Aboriginal team to play in a major competition....
(Tiwi Bombers) fielded a team in the Northern Territory Football League
Northern Territory Football League
The Northern Territory Football League is an 8 team Australian rules football semi-professional league operating in Darwin in the Northern Territory.The premier grade is the largest Australian rules football league in the Northern Territory...
from the 2006/07 season.
Notable footballers from the Tiwi Islands include Ronnie Burns
Ronnie Burns (footballer)
Ronnie Paul Burns is a former indigenous Australian rules footballer for the Geelong Football Club and Adelaide Crows in the Australian Football League ....
, Maurice Rioli
Maurice Rioli
Maurice Rioli was an Australian rules football player best known for his time spent with the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League...
, Cyril Rioli
Cyril Rioli
Cyril Rioli is a professional Australian rules footballer currently playing with the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League...
, Dean Rioli
Dean Rioli
Dean Rioli is an indigenous former Australian rules football player who spent his whole professional career with the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League....
, Michael Long, Malcolm Lynch
Malcolm Lynch
Malcolm Lynch is an Australian rules footballer who last played with the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League .Originally from the Tiwi Islands, he has played football in the Northern Territory where he grew up....
, Austin Wonaeamirri
Austin Wonaeamirri
Austin Wonaeamirri is a professional Australian rules football player of indigenous origin. He previously played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League .-Early life:...
and David Kantilla
David Kantilla
David Kantilla was an Australian rules footballer who is recognised as the first Indigenous Australian to play in the South Australian National Football League. Throughout his footballing career he was known by his 'Anglo' name David Kantilla but also had his tribal name of Amparralamtua.Kantilla...
.
The Tiwi Islands Football Club was the subject of a series on ABC's Message Stick in 2009, called In A League of Their Own.
Cricket
As reported in The Weekend Australian, in 2010 Australian Cricketers led by Mathew Hayden raised $200,000 for cricket development in the Tiwi Islands. With former internationals Allan BorderAllan Border
Allan Robert Border AO is a former Australian cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test matches in his career, a record until it was passed by fellow Australian Steve Waugh...
, Michael Kasprowicz
Michael Kasprowicz
Michael Scott Kasprowicz is a former Australian Test cricketer. He is a right arm fast bowler, effective outfielder and useful lower order batsman, and has enjoyed a successful career both in Australia and in the English county scene since making his debut for Queensland as a seventeen year old in...
and Andy Bichel
Andy Bichel
Andrew John Bichel is a retired Australian cricket player and was the bowling coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders for the 2009 Indian Premier League....
, the match between Hayden XI and Border XI had a turnout of 1000 people, nearly half the islands’ population.
Transport
A commercial flight operator, Fly Tiwi, connects both islands to each other and to Darwin. Formed as an association between Hardy Aviation and the Tiwi Land Council, Fly Tiwi has daily flights to all three communities on the islands.The Arafura Pearl ferry connects Wurrumiyanga and Darwin, and makes the two hour trip each way on three days a week.
In 2008, local government maintained 925 kilometres of roads on the islands.
Environment, conservation and land use
The islands' climatic and geographical extremity means that they have distinctive vegetation and special conservation values:because of their isolation and because they have extremely high rainfall, the Tiwi Islands support many species not recorded elsewhere in the Northern Territory (or in the world), and some range-restricted species. The Tiwi Islands contain the Territory’s best-developed (tallest and with greatest basal area) eucalypt forests and an unusually high density and extent of rainforests.
Climate
The Tiwi Islands have a tropical monsoonal climate, with 2000 mm of rainfall on northern Bathurst Island and 1200 to 1400 mm on eastern Melville Island. The wet season from November to April brings the islands the highest rainfall in the Northern Territory. The Tiwi people describe three distinct seasons: the dry (season of smoke), the build up (high humidity and cicadas songs) and the wet (storms) The seasons frame the lifestyle of the Tiwi people, dictating the food sources available and their ceremonial activities.Flora and fauna
The islands have been isolated from the Australian mainland since the last ice ageIce age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
. They are covered mainly with eucalypt
Eucalypt
Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...
forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
on a gently sloping lateritic
Laterite
Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...
plateau. The extensive open forest, open woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
s and riparian vegetation are dominated by Darwin Stringybarks, Woollybutts
Eucalyptus miniata
The Darwin woollybutt is a eucalypt which is native to Australia's Top End, found from Cape York in north Queensland across through to the Northern Territory into the Kimberley Region of northern Western Australia. It is a medium-sized tree which can reach 15–25 m in height. The bark is soft and...
, and Cajuputs
Melaleuca leucadendra
Melaleuca leucadendra is a tree belonging to the Melaleuca genus. The common name, Cajuput Tree, is derived from the Malay word kayu putih - meaning "white wood".-Description:...
. There are small patches of rainforest occurring in association with perennial freshwater
Perennial stream
A perennial stream or perennial river is a stream or river that has continuous flow in parts of its bed all year round during years of normal rainfall. "Perennial" streams are contrasted with "intermittent" streams which normally cease flowing for weeks or months each year, and with "ephemeral"...
springs
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
, and mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
s occupying the numerous inlets.
There is a range of threatened and endemic species on the Tiwi Islands. Thirty-eight threatened species have been recorded, and a number of plants and invertebrates are found nowhere else, including eight plant species and some land snails and dragonflies. Threatened mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s include Brush-Tailed Rabbit Rat
Brush-Tailed Rabbit Rat
The Brush-tailed Rabbit Rat is a species of rodent in the family Muridae.It is found in Australia and Papua New Guinea....
s, Northern Brush-tailed Phascogale
Brush-tailed Phascogale
The Brush-tailed Phascogale , also known as the Tuan, the Common Wambenger or the Black-tailed Phascogale, is a rat-sized arboreal carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae, characterized by a tuft of black silky hairs on the terminal portion of its tail...
s, False Water Rat
False Water Rat
Xeromys myoides, the False Water-rat, is a species of rodent native to waterways of Australia and Papua New Guinea.-Description:False water rats have markedly long, flattened heads with small eyes and short, rounded ears. These rats possess just two molars on each side of the upper and lower jaw...
s and Carpentarian Dunnart
Carpentarian Dunnart
The Carpentarian Dunnart also known as the Butler's Dunnart with a puffy brown or mouse grey colour above and the underside of white, similar to its close relative the Kakadu Dunnart. Head to anus length is 75-88m awith a tail of 72-90mm long for a total length of 147-178mm...
s. The islands host the world's largest breeding colony of Crested Terns and a large population of the vulnerable olive ridley turtle; a sea turtle conservation program commenced on the islands in 2007. The seas and estuaries around the islands are home to several species of shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
and saltwater crocodile
Saltwater Crocodile
The saltwater crocodile, also known as estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile, is the largest of all living reptiles...
s.
Important Bird Area
The islands have been identified as an Important Bird AreaImportant Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...
(IBA) by BirdLife International
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
because they support relatively high densities of Red Goshawk
Red Goshawk
The Red Goshawk is probably the rarest Australian bird of prey. It is found mainly in the savanna woodlands of northern Australia, particularly near watercourses...
s, Partridge Pigeon
Partridge Pigeon
The Partridge Pigeon is a species of bird in the Columbidae family.It is endemic to Australia.Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland....
s and Bush Stone-curlew
Bush Stone-curlew
The Bush Stone-curlew or Bush Thick-knee is a large, ground-dwelling bird endemic to Australia...
s, as well as up to 12,000 (over 1% of the world population) Great Knot
Great Knot
The Great Knot, Calidris tenuirostris, is a small wader. It is the largest of the calidrid species.Their breeding habitat is tundra in northeast Siberia. They nest on the ground laying about four eggs in a ground scrape. They are strongly migratory wintering on coasts in southern Asia through to...
s. Other birds for which the Tiwi Island populations are globally significant include Chestnut Rail
Chestnut Rail
The Chestnut Rail is a species of bird in the Rallidae family. The Chestnut Rail is monotypical of its genus.It is found in Australia and Indonesia.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical mangrove forests....
s, Beach Stone-curlew
Beach Stone-curlew
The Beach Stone-curlew, Esacus giganteus also known as Beach Thick-knee is a large, ground-dwelling bird that occurs in Australasia, the islands of South-east Asia...
s Northern Rosella
Northern Rosella
The Northern Rosella , also known as Brown's Parakeet or Smutty Rosella, is found in Australia's Top End. It is unusually coloured for a rosella, with a dark crown and white cheeks similar to its relatives the Pale-headed Rosella and the Eastern Rosella.At 28 cm long it is smaller than all bar...
s, Varied Lorikeet
Varied Lorikeet
The Varied Lorikeet is a species of parrot in the Psittacidae family.It is endemic to northern Australia.-Description:...
s, Rainbow Pitta
Rainbow Pitta
The Rainbow Pitta, Pitta iris, is a bird with a velvet black head and underparts, green upperparts, pale blue shoulder and olive green tail. It has a black bill, pink legs, brown eye and reddish brown streak along each side of its crown...
s, Silver-crowned Friarbird
Silver-crowned Friarbird
The Silver-crowned Friarbird is a species of bird in the Meliphagidae family.It is endemic to Australia.Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.-References:...
s, White-gaped
White-gaped Honeyeater
The White-gaped Honeyeater is a species of bird in the Meliphagidae family.It is endemic to Australia.Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests....
, Yellow-tinted
Yellow-tinted Honeyeater
The Yellow-tinted Honeyeater is a species of bird in the Meliphagidae family.It is found in Australia and Papua New Guinea....
and Bar-breasted Honeyeater
Bar-breasted Honeyeater
The Bar-breasted Honeyeater is a species of bird in the Meliphagidae family.It is endemic to Australia.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. . Downloaded on 27 July 2007....
s, Canary White-eyes and Masked Finch
Masked Finch
The Masked Finch is a small passerine bird in the estrildid finch family, Estrildidae. It is a common resident of dry savanna across northern Australia, from the Kimberley, across the Top End, the Gulf country and the southern part of Cape York Peninsula, as far east as Chillagoe, but always near...
es. The birds have a high level of endemism at the subspecific
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
level; the Tiwi Masked Owl
Masked Owl
The Australian Masked Owl is a barn owl of Southern New Guinea and the non-desert areas of Australia.-Taxonomy:Described subspecies of Tyto novaehollandiae include:* T. n. calabyi I.J. Mason, 1983,...
(Tyto novaehollandiae melvillensis) is considered Endangered and the Tiwi Hooded Robin
Hooded Robin
The Hooded Robin is a small passerine bird native to Australia. Like many brightly coloured robins of the Petroicidae it is sexually dimorphic; the male bearing distinctive black and white coloured plumage, while the female is a nondescript grey-brown.-Taxonomy:Like all Australian Robins, it is...
(Melanodryas cucullata melvillensis) is at least endangered and may be extinct
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
.
Forestry and mining
Forest products are an important part of the Tiwi Islands economy, but the sector has had a chequered history. Forestry dates back to 1898, with plantations being trialled from the 1950s and 1960s. A native softwood enterprise was established in the mid-1980s, as a partnership between the private sector and the Land Council; however by the mid-1990s, the Land Council was winding the venture down, noting that its investor partner had "various tax driven ambitions which are growingly incompatible with our own employment and sustainable production goals". Despite the setback, it was still considered that forestry was likely to be crucial to the Tiwi economy, and in 2001 the Land Council and Australian Plantations Group commenced a major expansion of Acacia mangiumAcacia mangium
Acacia mangium is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to northeastern Queensland in Australia, the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, Papua, and the eastern Maluku Islands. Common names include Black Wattle, Hickory Wattle and Mangium...
plantations to supply woodchips
Woodchipping
Woodchipping is the act and industry of chipping wood for pulp, processed wood products, and mulch.-Papermaking:Timber is converted to woodchips and sold, primarily, for pulp production used in paper manufacture...
. The operations of Australian Plantations Group (later named Sylvatech) were purchased by Great Southern Group
Great Southern Group
Great Southern Group is a group of Australian companies that is notable as the country's largest agribusiness managed investment scheme business. The company was founded in 1987 and became a public company in 1999. It expanded its MIS business rapidly in the 2000s, supported by favourable tax...
in 2005. In 2006, the operations were reported to be "the largest native-forest clearing project in northern Australia". In September 2007 the Northern Territory Government investigated claims that the company had breached environmental laws, with financial penalties being imposed by the Federal environment department in 2008. Much of the cleared land is used for cattle or monoculture plantations, which the timber company has maintained are an important source of local jobs. Great Southern Plantations collapsed in early 2009, and the Tiwi Land Council has been examining options for future management of the plantations.
The islands have mineral sands on both Melville Island's north coast and the western coast of Bathurst Island. In 2005, Matilda Minerals developed a proposal for mining on the islands, which was assessed and approved in 2006. In 2007 sand mining
Sand mining
Sand mining is a practice that is becoming an environmental issue as the demand for sand increases in industry and construction. Sand is mined from beaches and inland dunes and dredged from ocean beds and river beds. It is often used in manufacturing as an abrasive, for example, and it is used to...
produced the first shipments of zircon
Zircon
Zircon is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates. Its chemical name is zirconium silicate and its corresponding chemical formula is ZrSiO4. A common empirical formula showing some of the range of substitution in zircon is 1–x4x–y...
and rutile
Rutile
Rutile is a mineral composed primarily of titanium dioxide, TiO2.Rutile is the most common natural form of TiO2. Two rarer polymorphs of TiO2 are known:...
for export to China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. A 7,800 tonne shipment was made in June 2007, with a further 5,000 tonnes shipped later that year. Matilda Minerals planned to conduct mining for four years, however in August 2008 its Tiwi operations were halted, and in October it was placed in administration.