Qualla: Vanderlin Island https://qualla.com/vanderlin-island en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/1/q/vanderlin-island-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Vanderlin Island https://qualla.com/vanderlin-island Vanderlin Island: Introduction https://qualla.com/vanderlin-island/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. The island is named after a ship that never quite saw it. In 1644 the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman crossed this corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria, mistook the largest island for a piece of the mainland, and labelled it Cape Vanderlin after Cornelis Van der Lijn, the VOC councillor who had sponsored his expeditions. The name outlived the error. But the people who actually knew this land had been here for some eight thousand years before any Dutchman sailed past, and they are here still — a few families, on a few stretches of west-facing coast, holding the largest island in the Sir Edward Pellew Group.

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/1/q/vanderlin-island-wp/rj1q-vanderlin-island-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Vanderlin Island: An Island of Deep Time https://qualla.com/vanderlin-island/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. Vanderlin covers 264 square kilometres, the biggest of the Pellew Islands by a wide margin. Its size is matched by its depth in time. Archaeologists led by Robin Sim excavated sites here and on neighbouring Centre Island and found evidence of human occupation reaching back roughl...

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/1/q/vanderlin-island-wp/rj1q-vanderlin-island-an-island-of-deep-time.mp3 0:06 2 full Vanderlin Island: Trade Winds and Tamarind Trees https://qualla.com/vanderlin-island/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. For centuries, the Pellew Islands sat on a trade route that linked northern Australia to Asia. Each year, with the monsoon winds, fishermen from Macassar in Sulawesi sailed down to harvest trepang — the sea cucumber prized in Chinese cooking — and they kept coming until early in ...

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/1/q/vanderlin-island-wp/rj1q-vanderlin-island-trade-winds-and-tamarind-trees.mp3 0:06 3 full Vanderlin Island: Four Outstations on the West Coast https://qualla.com/vanderlin-island/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. Today Vanderlin's people live in family outstations strung along the western shore — Mooloowa, Babungi, Yulbara and Uguie, from north to south. These are small places by design, each typically home to a handful of people, and the island's whole population has hovered around twent...

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/1/q/vanderlin-island-wp/rj1q-vanderlin-island-four-outstations-on-the-west-coast.mp3 0:06 4 full Vanderlin Island: The Sea That Made It Home https://qualla.com/vanderlin-island/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. To understand why people stay, look to the water. The shallows around Vanderlin and its neighbours hold seagrass beds that feed dugong and sea turtle, the animals at the centre of Yanyuwa sea-hunting culture and song. The Dugong Hunter songline runs through these waters, and the ...

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/1/q/vanderlin-island-wp/rj1q-vanderlin-island-the-sea-that-made-it-home.mp3 0:06 5 full