Coen Regional Aboriginal Corporation

Great Northern Mine
circa 1905

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Coen was founded as a log fort beside the Coen River by Robert Sefton in 1876. The River's name, which it adopted, was chosen more than 200 years earlier by a Dutch explorer on the West Coast, after the Governer of Batavia (Dutch East Indies) who was Jan Pieterszoon Coen.
Sefton and William Lakeland had discovered the Batavia/Wenlock River goldfield in 1873. At the same time there had been a gold rush to Palmer River further South, and a track was cut from there to Coen in 1878-80.
At first the gold was alluvial, and of poor quality, but reef gold was found and the Coen field was "proclaimed" in 1892. Additional finds nearby at Ebagoolah, 30 km South of Coen, extended the boom, but it was over by 1910.

The Overland Telegraph was built betwen 1883 and 1887, a few years later than the Adelaide to Darwin line which was opened in 1872. European expansion and settlement were thereby accelerated.
Coen grew in the 1890's with the establishment of the Great Northern Mine, also as a supply point for surrounding mines and cattle stations.
A Post Office was set up in 1893, and a school started in 1895. Chinese merchants and market gardeners who had followed the gold-seekers set up in and near the town. They also cut and exported sandalwood, assisted by Aboriginal people.

The Indigenous peoples of the region comprised several language groups living in separate areas. These boundaries are still recognised by the present generation. The original inhabitants resented the intrusion into their lands. Inevitably, there was conflict with the new arrivals. This began with the early explorers, but was accentuated by the influx of prospectors and miners, and later by cattlemen and telegraph construction workers.
The Aboriginal warriors were no match for well-armed settlers and police (often native police from other regions). In response to attacks on the new arrivals, or to "theft" of their livestock, many indigenous people were also killed in punitive attacks on Aboriginal camps.
Dispossession
Displaced from their traditional lands, food was scarce, and many who came into closer contact with the white men died of introduced diseases. Most of the remaining native people were gathered into Missions or Reserves; the Reserve in Coen was not gazetted until 1940. Forced removals continued even into the 1960s.
But in Central Cape York most adapted by moving onto the newly established cattle stations where they became valued stockmen and domestic labour. Some worked in the mines, and a few were employed in Coen. They provided cheap labour, but even mandatory low wages and child endowments were often witheld or diverted.
Moves towards better or equal pay forced most out of work and into Reserves and later onto Welfare. Missions and Reserves were slowly run down by limiting funding. Indigenous people only moved out of Reserves in the last 30 years and now make up over 80% of the town population. Others live in Outstations on their traditional lands (also called Homelands) which were acquired for return to the Traditional Owners. More

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