Black Star Radio Yarrabah

Frequency: 92.9 FM

Site Location : Yarrabah

Yarrabah Radio 92.9FM began broadcasting on 24 May 2013 and joined the Black Star network on the same day.

Yarrabah is an Aboriginal community situated approximately 53 kilometres by road from Cairns CBD on Cape Grafton. It is much closer by direct-line distance but is separated from Cairns by the Murray Prior Range and an inlet of the Coral Sea.

The Yarrabah area was originally inhabited by the Gungganydji people.

An Anglican church missionary, Ernest Gribble, began to regularly visit an Aboriginal group who inhabited the Yarrabah area living a very traditional lifestyle. These visits by Gribble were to encourage the tribe to move to a mission settlement he was in the process of setting up. With the help of the tribes’ leader, Menmuny, the tribe moved to the mission now known as Yarrabah Community. The mission was settled in 1893. Over time, many people (including some South Sea Islanders) were relocated from homelands in the surrounding area to Yarrabah.

In 1957, the Yarrabah residents staged a strike to protest poor working conditions, inadequate food, health problems and harsh administration. The church expelled the ringleaders and many others left voluntarily, never to return. A few years later, the Queensland Government assumed control of the mission.

In 1965 an Advisory Council was set up which allowed Aborigines to give “advice” to the Department of Aborigines, but it had no actual power and the government continued to control all aspects of the people’s lives. In 1979, several community members joined a union but were stood down.

Eventually, on 27 October 1986, the community received Deed Of Grant In Trust land tenure, making it subject to the Community Services (Aborigines) Act 1984, which allowed for self-governing Aboriginal Community Councils with a range of powers and controls over the land. With the passage of reforms in 2005, the Council became an “Aboriginal Shire” and gained the authority of a legal local government.

On 23 July 2007, Yarrabah hosted the Cabinet of the Queensland Government in the first ever Cabinet meeting to be held in an Indigenous Australian community. On 1 October 2007, the Howard Coalition Government chose Yarrabah as the first recipient of what was said to be a ‘landmark housing and welfare reform agreement’.