Qualla: Crocodile Islands https://qualla.com/crocodile-islands en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:40:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/b/h/crocodile-islands-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Crocodile Islands https://qualla.com/crocodile-islands Crocodile Islands: Introduction https://qualla.com/crocodile-islands/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. Laurie Baymarrwangga was born on Murrungga Island around 1917, in a chain of islands so dense with crocodiles that the Dutch who glimpsed them from a distance simply called them the Crocodils Eylandt. For most of a century she watched her world change, and she answered with a single unwavering purpose: that the language and knowledge of these islands would outlive her. When she was named Senior Australian of the Year in 2012, she was the last fluent speaker of Yan-nhangu. The Crocodile Islands are the saltwater country of her people - the Yan-nhangu, the saltwater people - and her story is woven into theirs.

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/b/h/crocodile-islands-wp/rjbh-crocodile-islands-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Crocodile Islands: The Saltwater People https://qualla.com/crocodile-islands/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. The Crocodile Islands belong to the Yan-nhangu, whose very identity is bound to the sea. Strung off the coast of Arnhem Land in the Arafura Sea, the islands took their modern shape around five thousand years ago, when rising seas finally steadied. Milingimbi Island - Yurruwi in l...

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/b/h/crocodile-islands-wp/rjbh-crocodile-islands-the-saltwater-people.mp3 0:06 2 full Crocodile Islands: A Lake Full of Crocodiles https://qualla.com/crocodile-islands/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. The islands earned their name honestly. On Murrungga, enormous freshwater lakes - Garratha, Riyanhuna and Ganbuwa - hold a large population of saltwater crocodiles, the apex hunters that give the archipelago its character and its caution. But the same wetlands and mudflats make t...

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/b/h/crocodile-islands-wp/rjbh-crocodile-islands-a-lake-full-of-crocodiles.mp3 0:06 3 full Crocodile Islands: The Woman Who Saved a Language https://qualla.com/crocodile-islands/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. Laurie Baymarrwangga spoke Yan-nhangu, Djambarrpuyngu and several other languages of north-east Arnhem Land, and she devoted her long life to passing that inheritance on. With the anthropologist Bentley James she built the Yan-nhangu Atlas and Illustrated Dictionary of the Crocod...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/b/h/crocodile-islands-wp/rjbh-crocodile-islands-the-woman-who-saved-a-language.mp3 0:06 4 full Crocodile Islands: Their Own Country, Recognised at Last https://qualla.com/crocodile-islands/ Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. Baymarrwangga did not quite live to see her dream made official, but it came. In 2023 the islands were declared the Crocodile Islands Maringa Indigenous Protected Area - twenty islands, more than 78,000 hectares of land and over 730,000 hectares of sea country, brought into the N...

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/j/b/h/crocodile-islands-wp/rjbh-crocodile-islands-their-own-country-recognised-at-last.mp3 0:06 5 full