Australia – Aborigine Influence

I have noticed most place names here are Aborigine although the native people are hardly visible and where they are, seem virtually ignored by the rest of the population. According to the Australian Government website the indigenous people are 2.8 of the entire population and increasing slightly. They are very much on the periphery of society.
At Mossman a particular tribe own the Mossman Gorge and have a slick little business running there, much like the Maori in New Zealand but other than that our only real encounter was at Mareeba.

It makes me sad that the indigenous population has not been so accepted and as integrated like the Maori obviously are!

At Mareeba we stopped on a grassy bit by a river where a family (Aborigine) were picnicing. There was a table a little away from a younger group with two older (probably my age) people sat at it. We said ‘Hi’ and the woman asked what we we doing and then directed us to a park if we wanted to see birds. The man smelled very strongly of drink. Later the same woman asked us for money, needless to say she didn’t get any but we were polite about it.

I can’t say this is representative of the Aborigine but so far they are all we’ve seen to actually engage with.

I love the names of places we’ve visited or passed and they are clearly not European. Places like Wonglepong, Bennoble and Biddaddaba. Most of them I cannot pronounce and I wonder what they mean.