Last days on Pabaju: A stone arrangement on Albany Island Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia

Abstract

This paper describes a stone arrangement on Pabaju (Albany Island) near the tip of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. The island is part of the traditional lands of the Gudang Aboriginal people. The site ‘Tarrungi’ is one of a number of stone arrangements in this area, which we interpret as the tangible evidence of ritual exchange within a regional cosmo-political landscape. The site on Pabaju is important as it has not suffered the same degree of disturbance from tourists as similar sites on the nearby Australian mainland. The presence of buttons, flaked glass and other artefacts on the site are suggestive of rituals enacted just after European settlement. This was at a time of significant social and political upheaval for the Gudang people who bore the brunt of the impact of European settlement in the region as the settlement of Somerset was located in the heartland of their traditional lands a mere 3 km south south-east of Tarrungi. In this paper we explore the relationship between ritual, cosmological re-working of contested landscapes and colonial settlement through the lens of an archaeological site on one of Australia's most northerly islands.