Mona Mona
Mona Mona – Time for Rebuilding!
The Mona Mona Aborginal Community is situated approximately 25 kilometres north of Kuranda along Black Mountain Road.
The settlement has a remarkable history. Established as a Mission around 1910, for the next five decades Mona Mona was home to hundreds of Aboriginal people transported to the settlement from the surrounding region. In 1960, with the expectation that the surrounding area would be flooded to create a huge new dam, Mona Mona was closed and the inhabitants dispersed around the Kuranda area.
In the event, the dam was never built. A few residents returned to the settlement, but by then it had been wrecked, with most of the building materials cannibalized by scavengers from the surrounding (non-Aboriginal) community.
Notwithstanding its checkered past, many Aboriginal people in the Far North Queensland region feel a strong bond with Mona Mona and have expressed the desire to settle there if community infrastructure is restored.
In the 1990s, promises were made of several million dollars to the Mona Mona community to restore housing and basic community facilities. These promises have not been kept.
Land tenure is in the process of being negotiated with the State government and FoE Kuranda supports the Mona Mona people in their aspirations for a sustainable, prosperous community at Mona Mona.
See http://djabugay.org.au for further information
Below: a photograph of Mona Mona in its Mission heyday, with a great view of Black Mountain in the background. This ‘off the main road” area has spiritual importance to local indigenous people and is one of the few remaining areas in FNQ where Aboriginals remain in the majority. Photo sourced from the Earth Science Australia website about the Ngadjonji people (with thanks)
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