Focus on the Antipodes: Questions about the murdering point

[Kyriakos]

I recently came to read of a bit of land near the northern coast of the coral sea, and also close to the Australian town of Cairns, in Queensland.

It appears that at the end of the 19th century a small shipwreck, the demise of the ship "The Riser", caused the English crew to look for food and shelter in the land, which was a bit further from their regular ports on the continent. The result was their murder by some local tribes, and the subsequent display on the coast of their partially eaten bodies.

The tribe was one of many names, and apparently a group of the northern aboriginals known from their Mamu language, and the obvious aboriginal exonym of "northern people", Irukandji.

That this name is used mainly for a particularly lethal (and very small) australian jellyfish, was the reason i started reading a bit on that whole affair. I might try to use it as part of the symbolism in a new story, and so i have a few questions to ask about the tribe:

-What was their original name?

-Any relation between them and a mythology of the eponymous jellyfish?

-How near the town of Cairns is the "Murdering point", and to what direction? (also what about the location of the old camp of that tribe?)

The only pic of that medusa the Wiki has:

Thanks for any help

 

[Perfection]

You theif!

 

[Borachio]

The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is to let him steal out of your company.

Dogberry

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, not sure what that was all about

Maybe some of the local galactic australiens can be of more use

 

[warpus]

It's impolite to do what you did, which is why that STOP image popped up. I'd upload the image to imgur or some other place like that and link from there instead.

You're lucky they didn't goatse us!

 

[Borachio]

If you don't want people stealing your photos, why put them on the Internet? (Not that I condone stealing in any shape or form, btw.)

That's a bit like going outside and expecting people not to look at you.

Hey! Is that why people wear burqas?

 

[Kyriakos]

Hmmm... Actually the image showed up fine on my screen, but yeah it does seem others saw a sign, so i took it out...

NSA seems to have pawned your connections

 

[Borachio]

Ha! I had to look up what a goatse is.

I remember the image from somewhere, though. And I have no desire to see it again.

 

[warpus]

Sorry everyone, please do not google that word

 

[peter grimes]

What happened? What was impolite? Who would have goatse'd us? what did I miss?!

I see an image (hosted by Wikimedia) of a test tube held between a couple of fingers.

 

[Kyriakos]

^ In that test-tube lives a jellyfish which can kill humans with one sting

 

[Kyriakos]

Sorry for the 4 day bump, but is there anyone who can help with the questions about the tribe and the Murdering point?

I think it could make a good setting for some work.

 

[Camikaze]

I have never heard this story, and I doubt anyone else not from Cairns or thereabouts would've heard it either. Wikipedia and google will likely provide better answers than CFC.

 

[sanabas]

I have never heard this story, and I doubt anyone else not from Cairns or thereabouts would've heard it either. Wikipedia and google will likely provide better answers than CFC.

Yep. Never heard of it either. Google/wiki says:

-What was their original name?

Take your pick: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yirrganydji_people

Any relation between them and a mythology of the eponymous jellyfish?

Nope. Simply named after the local tribe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irukandji_jellyfish I expect anyone who got stung would be extremely unlikely to realise exactly what got them, especially having seen footage of people who have been stung.

-How near the town of Cairns is the "Murdering point", and to what direction? (also what about the location of the old camp of that tribe?)

~100km south: http://www.dusink.net/blog/tag/murdering-point/
http://www.murderingpointwinery.com.au/the-murdering-point-story.html
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/19776192
https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=kurrimine+beach+qld&ie=UTF8&hl=en&z=12&iwloc=addr

As for writing about the actual event, I'd say you may as well just make it up, since those 3 links tell 3 somewhat different stories, and I'd expect any 1878 enquiry into how a couple of white men came to be found dead in an Aboriginal camp would quickly come up with murder, even if they'd died in the shipwreck.

 

[Kyriakos]

Thanks a lot, Sanabas!

Btw, i won't be writing about the actual event, it will be used as a sort of backdrop to the story. I usually have this sort of historical back-story, which most of the time appears to allow for specific delusions of one of the characters. Ie the story won't be set in Australia, nor (of course) in the 19th century. It likely will be set here, or in London, but probably here anyway (if it gets written).

The jellyfish will play a far larger role in the story, although itself will be part of some imagination as well.

 

[sanabas]

Incidentally, google also seems to say that Innisfail, murdering point, etc were further south than the Irukandji tribe, so not sure why/how you've come up with the tribe involved being the irukandji, nor why you say the name means 'northern people'.

*edit*found one reference that the name *might* mean 'of the north'. But not exactly definitive. Just had an interesting wander through the same site, which includes a map done in the 1970s about the distrubution of Aboriginal tribes/language groups in the late 18th century: http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tribalmap/html/map_L3_C2_B5.html

Irukandji are #6 on that map, Murdering point is on the border of #14 & #16

*/edit*

 

[Kyriakos]

Thanks again

Iirc i read the wiki article on that coral sea lethal jellyfish, and it mentioned the name as one of a tribe of aboriginal people in the general area. I read about the (disputed) "northern people" or "people of the north" definition of that term in some other article (not really a very trusted one, i think it was some sort of local australian lore site), where the term was compared to a similar one (Irikandji?) which supposedly was known to mean another direction for the origin of those tribes, and iru turned it to "north" instead of the original one (which iirc was east, as in towards the coral sea, past the dividing mountain range in Queensland).