1905

Mr Alfred Searcy, sub-Collector of Customs at Darwin, writes that all the coastal natives speak Macassar, indicative of a very long association between Yolngu and Macassan peoples

1906

Permits for the harvest of trepang by Macassans not renewed by SA
Government

14 April 1931

Arnhem Land Reserve declared

December 1934

Yirrkala Mission established by the Methodist Church of Australasia. Rev. Chaseling was Superintendent for 8 years

WWII

Gove air strip built with the assistance of local Yolngu men.  Gove Peninsula named after a British airman, William Gove, who was killed in action in 1943

1948

American Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land

1952

Australian Aluminium Production Commission finds good deposits of bauxite on the western side of Melville Bay. Geologists report extensive deposits of bauxite in the Gove area.

1956

British Aluminium applies for mining rights and additional prospecting rights in the Melville Bay / Gove area

1956

Australian Government decides it wants a processing plant built to provide jobs for Australians and form the basis for a town

1958

British Aluminium and Consolidated Zinc form a partnership to assess the central mining lease, called SML 1,which includes the Gove air strip

1961

Duval Holdings granted prospecting rights on the perimeter leases

1962

Reverend Edgar Wells appointed as Superintendent of Yirrkala Mission

1963

Pechiney company acting through Gove Mining and Industrial Corporation Limited undertakes to develop the perimeter area prospected by Duval Holdings when the mining rights are transferred

18 February 1963

Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, announces that Pechiney has been granted mineral rights

19 February 1963

Rev. Edgar Wells, Superintendent of Yirrkala Mission, sends telegrams to Central Methodist Mission, Opposition Leader, Stan Davey, FCAATSI and press protesting the excision of 140 acres of land

9 April 1963

Paul Hasluck, Minister for Territories, announces the excision in Parliament

16 July 1963

Gordon Bryant and Kim E Beazley visit the Yirrkala Mission and meet with Elders.  The idea of a petition is discussed

14 August 1963

Petitions from the people of Yirrkala presented to Parliament by Mr Nelson (a bark petition) and Mr Wentworth (a paper version of the bark petition)

20 August 1963

Mr Hasluck, in answer to a question about the bark petition presented to the Parliament the previous week, states that the petition could not be regarded as “having been signed by twelve persons who were in a position to speak on behalf of the whole of the people at Yirrkala”

28 August 1963

Petitions from the people of Yirrkala presented to the Parliament by Mr Calwell (a bark petition) and Mr Beazley [snr] (a paper version of the bark petition)

12 September 1963

Parliament voted to hold an inquiry into the grievances of certain Aboriginal people in Yirrkala

1965

Swiss Aluminium and a group of Australian companies form Nabalco Pty Ltd and begin a new feasibility study on the central lease

1966

Gove Mining and Industrial Corporation Ltd surrender the perimeter leases

1968

A formal agreement between Nabalco and the Commonwealth is approved. Nabalco will build a bauxite mine and treatment plant

1968

Mining (Gove Peninsula Nabalco Agreement) Ordinance passed

8 October 1968

Bark painting by Dundiwuy Wanambi (dec.) depiciting Wuyal with petition on back presented to Parliament by Gough Whitlam on 8 October 1968. Petition requests that the area known as Gove be given the  name Nhulunbuy (see photo of this petition on Resources page of this online collection)

1969

Mathaman and Others v. Nabalco Pty Ltd and Another

1970-1971

Milirrpum v. Nabalco Pty. Ltd. and the Commonwealth of Australia (Gove Land Rights Case) : a claim by Aborigines that their interests in certain land had been invaded unlawfully by the defendants : judgment of the Honorable Mr. Justice Blackburn