Black Star Radio Atherton Tablelands

Frequency: 96.7 FM

Site Location : Tolga

Black Star Atherton commenced broadcasting on 27 March 2013 and was part of the Black Star Network from the start.

The Service covers a number of large and small towns across the Atherton Tablelands. including the major centres of Mareeba, Yungaburra, Malanda, Atherton, Speewah, Tolga and Kuranda as well as the Lotus Glen.

There are a total of 18 rainforest Aboriginal tribal groups with 20,000 Aboriginal people living in the region which include the Mullunburra people, a clan of the Yidinji nation. Their country extended from the Mulgrave River where they lived during the winter months to the uplands of the Atherton Tablelands around Ravenshoe in the summer months. Other Indigenous traditional owners are the Ngadjon-jii.

Yamani Country: A Spatial History of The Atherton Tablelands North Queensland is a research paper by Sandra Pannell from James Cook University in Cairns with input from the Traditional Owners. The paper is available here: www.rainforest-crc.jcu.edu.au/publications/yamani_country_prelim.pdf

The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area extends from Townsville in the south to Cooktown in the north and covers 900 000 hectares. Although it represents 0.1% of the land surface of Australia, it has the highest diversity of species on the continent. The Wet Tropics has the world’s oldest, continually surviving tropical rainforests. Inseparable from the natural heritage, the area is also recognised as a series of living cultural landscapes being the homelands of rainforest Aboriginal people. Their lives, customs and beliefs are intricately entwined with the plants, animals, waterways and seasons of the tropical rainforests which have provided food, shelter, medicine and a way of life to the rainforest Aboriginal people since time immemorial. The aborigines lived in harmony with the country for over 40,000 years before white invasion. It is still a living culture and accessible for all to experience if they choose.