Lillimooloora

Lillimooloora Homestead was the place where the battle for Bunuba lands in the 1890s first began.

As pastoral lands were taken up in the Kimberley, Aboriginal people were deprived of traditional hunting areas and forced to work on pastoral stations. Livestock made matters worse by trampling spiritually important sites. If Aboriginal people speared sheep they were chained around the neck and walked to Derby, where they worked off their sentence in chains.

Jandamarra, a Bunuba man from the Napier and Oscar ranges was jailed for spearing sheep, which interrupted his tribal education. On his return home, he was banished from Bunuba society because of having broken strict kinship rules. Cast out by his own people, Jandamarra befriended a shepherd called Richardson, who was subsequently appointed police officer at the Lillimooloora outpost near Bandilngan Windjana Gorge.

Jandamarra almost always accompanied Richardson on patrol. During one patrol with Richardson, Jandamarra helped capture 17 of his kinsmen and women but his tribal loyalties gained the upper hand. While resting at Lillimooloora Police Post, Jandamarra shot and killed Richardson, stole some guns and set the captives free. This subsequently led to an armed insurrection against the Europeans that lasted for three years.