Mungalla Station

Mungalla Aboriginal Business Corporation is an incorporated body set up by the traditional owners to run sustainable enterprises, training, and education projects as well as manage the 2000 acre cattle property owned by the Nywaigi Aboriginal Land Corporation which holds title to the property. Both incorporated bodies’ memberships are made up from the seven Nywaigi traditional owner family groups or clan groups in the Nywaigi nation. The Mungalla Aboriginal Business Corporation recognized the potential for a tourism enterprise on our property and began to plan to establish the tourism project as a viable enterprise through a Property Management Plan.

Mungalla Aboriginal Tours was created to share with the broader community the timeline of the property’s history from its pre-contact days as the traditional lands of the Nywaigi people through to the recent return of the land to the traditional owners. Throughout the tour physical sites on the property are incorporated into the telling of stories relating to the property’s mixed Aboriginal, Kanaka and European heritage. As a property recently returned to the traditional owners the stakes are high as emphasised passionately by one Nywaigi traditional owner: “what we’re trying to do by doing this, is leave a legacy for our children and their children, so they can pick up where we leave off when we’re not here any more”. The tour provides a contemporary insight into indigenous culture which seeks to break down stereotypes through a powerful, tragic, but ultimateley uplifting story of Indigenous cultural identity.

Mungalla Station is located approximately 12 kilometres east of the sugar cane township of Ingham in North Queensland. Ingham is on the Bruce Highway 1.5 hours drive north of Townsville and 3.5 hours drive south of Cairns.

How to get to Mungalla Station

Mission Statement of Mungalla Station and Mungalla Aboriginal Corporation

“Mungalla is a resource owned by the Nywaigi Traditional Owners for the purpose of fostering Aboriginal cultural values by building economic and cultural opportunities through the careful use of our country as a legacy for our children”
Nywaigi Traditional Owners 2004….

Current Tour Offerings

Mungalla Aboriginal Tours is a 3 ½ hour tour set on the 880 hectare property that focuses on telling the unique stories of the cultures, the history and the legacies of the people’s associated with grand Mungalla Station. Features of the tour include Interaction with Aboriginal Traditional Owner Guides who provide a tour of the property including storytelling, artifacts & boomerang throwing. They provide a bus service to ferry guests around the property and we can do pick-ups from Ingham tourist information centre. We have a grand homestead that houses the amazing captive lives exhibition. They have a country kitchen that enables them to provide tea, coffee and homemade scones. Also with notice they can cater BBQ’s and traditional style underground cooking called “Kup Murri”. The homestead had two toilets and bathrooms for their guests to use. They also have a gift shop retailing authentic aboriginal art, T shirts and caps & souvenir’s.

The tour provides a unique story of the people, the history and the cultures associated with this grand old property. The tour begins at the old Mungalla Station homestead where they introduce you to Nywaigi Aboriginal culture under the canopy of an old rain tree, where tourists can view our traditional artifacts and try their hand at throwing a boomerang. Guests then board a bus for a short trip to the original homestead site where stories are told of the pioneering history including James Cassady and his family who were the first European settlers on Mungalla. As you view the remnants of the “old Mungalla site” in its heyday, hear the pioneering stories of these first white settlers and view old pictures of this historic site and let your thoughts drift back in time and imagine how it was in its glory days. Here you will discover Cassady’s role in the development of large areas of Queensland and visit the gravesite of James Cassady and his son Frank. They also explain the often brutal confrontation between European settlers and Nywaigi Aboriginal people and the role the Cassady family played in protecting the Aboriginal people.

One of the unique features of Mungalla Aboriginal Tours is the Captive lives Exhibition first created as a National Exhibition by the National Library in Canberra. Mungalla have been fortunate to receive this professionally curated exhibition which is housed in the newly renovated top floor of the grand old homestead. Captive Lives tells the story of the Aboriginal people from Mungalla Station and surrounding areas that were exhibited before 27 million people as boomerang throwing cannibals and savages in the nineteenth century circuses such as Barnum & Bailey’s greatest show on earth in Europe and America. The story of these poor individuals who were portrayed as cannibals who “gorge themselves upon each other’s flesh” is a tragic one which touches all who are invited to hear it. The Captive Lives exhibition has travelled all over Australia and was seen by over 300,000 people.

Visit their website www.mungallaaboriginaltours.com.au