Coconuts on the Daintree and Douglas Shire Coast

By Dr. André Leu D.Sc., BA Com., Grad Dip Ed

Captain Cook, Joseph Banks, and Sydney Parkinson recorded the first coconuts in the Endeavour River, nearby beaches, and Lizard Island in June 1770. On May 28, 1789, Captain Bligh found coconuts on Restoration Island and later on Saunders Island. Captain Matthew Flinders found a relatively fresh coconut husk on September 3, 1802, on Aken's Island. Captain Phillip Parker King found a fresh green coconut that had been tapped for its milk on June 16, 1819, in an Aboriginal village at Cape Cleveland. Nearly every captain who published a journal found coconuts. They hadn’t found palms, just numerous nuts. From 1848 onwards, as the colonists explored the tropical coast more closely, coconut palms were regularly found growing from Yeppoon, central Queensland, to Somerset at the tip of Cape York.

George Elphinstone Dalrymple led the first colonist’s expedition into the Daintree River on December 6, 1873, naming it after Richard Daintree, the Queensland Gold Commissioner. The Kuku Yalanji called it Julay.

Dalrymple wrote in a letter to the Queenslander, Saturday 26 December 1874:

“Huge cedars at places reared their lofty heads above the dense jungle around, while numerous varieties of lofty trees of hard and soft timber filled the background. The lofty palms and the kauri pines stood out in bold relief against the sky; bananas, cocoanuts, and spices grew in the jungle; beautiful shrubs and trees, covered with flowers, perfumed the air;”

The Guugu Yimithirr word for coconut, keremande, was recorded by Parkinson in the Endeavour River, now Cooktown, in 1770. The dictionaries produced by the Australian Society for Indigenous Languages have multiple words for coconuts and coconut trees. The Tiwi Islanders used Arlipwa for coconut palms and Pirimajirripuwa for coconuts. The Iwaidja people of the Cobourg Peninsular and Croker Island used the word Kaluku for the coconut palm and the nut. The Maung people of nearby Goulburn Island also used Kaluku. The Djinang of Arnhem Land used Gurlwirri for coconut palm. Warraba was used for coconuts at the tip of Cape York, Kunga around Lockhart River, and Cooreemboola around Mackay. The diversity of Indigenous words for the palms and nuts shows that coconut palms grew in Australia before European colonization.

Most Aboriginal languages became extinct along the Queensland East Coast before their words were recorded, resulting in the loss of most words, including those for coconuts. However, the Eastern Kuku Yalanji, the traditional owners of the Daintree Coast, are an exception. Their language was first documented by Norman Baird, who had a Kuku Yalanji mother and a Scottish father. Baird was fluent in both languages, well-educated, and literate in English.