Yirrkala Mission

The Methodist Overseas Mission established the Yirrkala Mission in north east Arnhem Land in 1935. Aboriginal people from 13 different clans in the surrounding area came to the Mission. A Mission school operated at Yirrkala from 1936. Child endowment was paid to the Mission for every Aboriginal child at the Mission. It appears no dormitories operated at Yirrkala. In the mid-1970s the church handed control of the mission to the Yirrkala Dhanbul Community Association and Yirrkala ceased to operate as a Mission.

The Methodist Overseas Mission established the Yirrkala Mission in north east Arnhem Land on the east coast of the Gove Peninsula in 1935. At that time the Methodist Overseas Mission was running two other Missions at Goulburn Island and Milingimbi and receiving government subsidies for all three.

Aboriginal people from 13 different clans in the surrounding area came to Yirrkala. The Mission began to run school classes for children in 1936. Lessons were held in the open under a tree, and later beneath the Mission House. It appears no dormitories operated at Yirrkala.

During World War II a Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF) airbase operated near to the Mission. All ‘white women’ were evacuated in 1942. Many of the residents of the Mission worked at the airbase, as boat pilots for the RAAF and the Royal Australia Navy or assisted the War effort in other ways. It appears that the school did not operate during WWII.In 1951 a new school building was constructed and the following year 47 children were regularly attending. The teacher at the time, Miss Proctor, was not a trained teacher but had been working at the Methodist Mission on Goulburn Island for three years.

Child endowment was paid to the Mission for every Aboriginal child at the Mission whether they attended the school or not.

In the mid-1970s the church handed control of the mission to the Yirrkala Dhanbul Community Association and Yirrkala ceased to operate as a Mission.