Kowanyama

Kowanyama is a town and coastal locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Kowanyama, Queensland, Australia.

Kowanyama is a town and coastal locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Kowanyama, Queensland, Australia.It is the site of the former Mitchell River Mission, founded in 1916, after the nearbyTrubanamen Mission (established not far away on Topsy Creek in 1905) was abandoned.

In the 2016 census the locality of Kowanyama had a population of 944 people.

Kunjen (also known as Koko Wanggara, Ngundjan and Olkola) is a language of Western Cape York. The Kunjen language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of Kowanyama Community Council and Cook Shire Council.

Kowanyama State School opened in January 1904. Since the beginning of 2014, the school has also started to enrol students in a year 11 and 12 pathways program.In 1905, Trubanamen Mission was established inland on Topsy Creek, and Aboriginal peoples of the region were gradually drawn from their ancestral lands into the mission settlement. Later, in 1916, Mitchell River Mission was founded on the present site of Kowanyama and the Trubanamen site abandoned. Some people continued to live on their traditional lands, only moving into Kowanyama in the 1940s.In 1964, a cyclone destroyed the mission.The Queensland government funded the rebuilding.Kowanyama Post Office opened by 1967.In 1967 the Anglican church were no longer able to sustain their activities in the area as a Church Mission. The Department of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs, a government department, under the Act continued running the affairs of the community.In July 1987, the State Government of Queensland implemented legislation for a DOGIT (Deed of Grant in Trust) over the lands in the Mitchell River delta, an area of 250 square kilometres (97 sq mi). The deed covered the traditional lands of the people of Kowanyama. Like other DOGIT communities of the time, Kowanyama had a town Council elected by Aboriginal people living in the community. The newly formed Kowanyama Council assumed responsibility for implementing certain conditions of the DOGIT. Seven elected aboriginal residents hold three-year terms in office.Since the 1990s, many Kowanyama people have been returning to their ancestral lands through the Homelands Movement.Homelands within the Kowanyama DOGIT include Scrubby Bore, Red Lilly, Ten Mile, Shelfo, Stewart Place, Old Rodeo Ground, Kowanyumal, Duck Hole, Wonya Bore, Kokomenjen Island, Wallaby Island, Joe's Lagoon, Yangr Bore, Engkoram, Fish Hole, Robert Demaine great elder and Thilpi.Other homelands, including the Oriners Pastoral Lease and the Sefton Pastoral Lease, were independently purchased by the Kowanyama Council and are located outside the DOGIT boundary.At the 2006 census, Kowanyama had a population of 1,017.In the 2016 census the locality of Kowanyama had a population of 944 people.

Kowanyama experiences a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification Aw). Daytime temperatures generally stay above 30 °C (86 °F) all year round and reach up to 35 °C (95 °F) in the pre-wet season period in October and November. The wet season runs from December to April and is characterized by frequent torrential downpours and high humidity. During the dry season, almost no rain falls and days are warm to hot but humidity is low and the nights can become quite mild.In February 2014, 1,222.4 mm (48.13 in) of rain fell in Kowanyama over a six-day span, including a 24-hour total of 361.2 mm (14.22 in) on 8 February. Residents were confined to their houses for almost two weeks; however no major damage was reported.