Hopevale, (or "Hope Vale"), Queensland, Australia (.) is an Aboriginal community on Cape York Peninsula about 46 km west of Cooktown, and about 10 km off the Battlecamp Road that leads to Lakefield National Park and Laura. The population (in 2005) is approximately 1,200.
It was established as the Cape Bedford Mission by the Lutheran Church in 1886, with the settlement at Elim on the beach.
Due to worries that the Aboriginal people might cooperate with the advancing Japanese in World War II, the total population was evacuated south to various communities by the military. The German Lutheran missionaries were sent to internment camps. Most of the people were sent to Woorabinda , near Rockhampton, in Queensland. In just one month, 28 people lost their lives, with nearly a quarter of the people dying over the next 8 years.
Hope Vale was established as a Lutheran Mission in September, 1949. Aboriginal people from the Hope Valley and Cape Bedford Missions were settled there. A work crew was allowed to return in 1949 and the first families came home in 1950.
Hopevale is home to several clan groups who mostly speak Guugu Yimithirr and other related languages, as well as English.
Due to a lack of reliable water supplies at Elim, the community was shifted about 20 km inland to its present site.
References
- Haviland, John B. with Hart, Roger. 1998. Old Man Fog and the Last Aborigines of Barrow Point. Crawford House Publishing, Bathurst. ISBN 1-86333-169-7.
- Pohlner, Peter. 1986. gangaurru. Hopevale Mission Board, Milton, Queensland. ISBN 1-86252-311-8
- Roth, W.E. 1897. The Queensland Aborigines. 3 Vols. Reprint: Facsimilie Edition, Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, W.A., 1984. ISBN 085905-054-8
- Sutton, Peter (ed). Languages of Cape York: Papers presented to a Symposium organised by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. (1976). ISBN 0-85575-046-4
- Wynter, Jo and Hill, John. 1991. Cape York Peninsula: Pathways to Community Economic Development. The Final Report of The Community Economic Development Projects Cook Shire. Cook Shire Council.
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