Skills & methods
Hooks and lines
Fishing with badur, 'hook and line', was a year-round Kuku Yalanji method that worked even in muddy water, when spearing could not[1][2]. At Bloomfield it was mostly women's work. In salt water the line was twisted from the bark of the beach hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus) and the hook was cut from pearl shell. In fresh water the line came from the bark of Sterculia quadrifolia, the hook was a lawyer-cane thorn, and the bait (mandurr) was grubs, small freshwater prawns or small frogs[2]. Upriver, on the Palmer, hooks had a wooden shank and a barb of bone or catfish spine[3].
Hann River Cape York
Possum People's country on the upper river and Thaypan (Kuku Thaypan) country downstream: stringybark and bloodwood woodland and a spring-fed sandy river that runs north-east from the Great Dividing Range, past the Peninsula Developmental Road, into Rinyirru (Lakefield) and the North Kennedy. Not Kuku Yalanji country: the Kuku Yalanji words on this page are the dictionary's, not the Hann's own languages. Place guide
The Hann is a fishing river. The Court recorded a Possum man's evidence of 'fishing for barra, jewfish, catties and spotties' on his country around the upper Hann[8]. Around 1900 the people of Princess Charlotte Bay and 'the rivers flowing into it' made hooks of hardwood with a bone barb, on lines of cabbage-palm fibre[3]. The Hann is not Kuku Yalanji country, so the Kuku Yalanji words on this page are not its words.
Where and when here
The river never stops. The Hann is fed by springs in the sandstone and has not had a single day without flow since its gauge was put in in 1968[9][10]. It runs highest in February and March and lowest from September to November, when it is a low, clear run between deep holes[10]. In the late dry the fish are in those holes, and so are the crocodiles; see crocodiles.
The wet. From December to March the rivers flood out over the plains[11], and the park roads are usually closed from December to May[12].
What bites. Anglers surveyed in Lakefield (now Rinyirru) from 1986 to 1991 caught barramundi, fork-tailed catfish, archerfish, tarpon, sooty grunter, sleepy cod, jewfish (eel-tailed catfish), eels and long tom[13]. See barramundi, catfish, sleepy cod and eels. The Possum man's 'spotties' and the cherabin he finds are on the spangled perch and cherabin pages[8].
How people fished here
The Princess Charlotte Bay hook (Roth, around 1900)[3]. 'At Princess Charlotte Bay, and along the rivers flowing into it', the hook was called terwa by the Koko-warra and tarubal by the Koko-rarmul (Roth's spellings):
- The shank: 'a tapering pencil of hard wood, usually Erythrophleum', the ironwood.
- The barb: 'a pointed slip of bone' from the emu, the native companion (brolga) or the kangaroo, fixed to the thin end 'at a very acute angle'.
- The fixing: kangaroo-tail tendon (sinew) and grevillea gum-cement.
- The line: Roth only saw it made there from the fibre-twine of the cabbage palm, Livistona australis, fixed on the same way.
On the Palmer, the next river south, the hook had the same wooden shank and a barb of kangaroo bone or catfish spine[3].
Kuku Warra law (from the Laura country, whose people share the land between the North Kennedy and the Hann with the Thaypan under a customary agreement)[14]. A Kuku Warra man told the Court: 'before I pull my line out if I'm fishing I'll sing out to the old people and say "Hey old people, I'm coming to take some fish"'. And: 'If we do get a good catch, we must always leave three or four fish on the banks after we leave to show appreciation for the people of the country'[14].
Kuku Thaypan Elders stressed 'the burying of fish remains from the banks of where they were consumed' as part of not wasting what country gives[15].
Staying safe here
Both crocodiles live in this country. In Rinyirru: 'When fishing, always stand a few metres back from the water's edge and never stand on logs or branches overhanging the water'[16]. Clean fish away from the water. See crocodiles.
On country today
In Rinyirru, 'Recreational fishing is permitted at all camping areas', and 'Fisheries regulations apply'[17]. The Hann runs to Princess Charlotte Bay on the east coast, not to the Gulf, so the east-coast fresh-water closed season for barramundi applies: 1 November to 31 January[18].
Native title. The upper Hann is the Possum People's country and the middle and lower Hann are Thaypan country. Both November 2023 determinations recognise rights to hunt, fish and gather on the land and waters[8][19]. Section 211 of the Native Title Act 1993 covers their fishing for personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs[7]. Everyone else fishing outside the park needs the Traditional Owners' permission.
Upper Mitchell Western Yalanji
Western Yalanji country west of the Great Dividing Range: dry open woodland cut by the sandy, paperbark-lined upper Mitchell River, around Karma Waters and Mount Carbine. Place guide
The upper Mitchell is a Gulf river, so Gulf fishing rules apply. The nearest hook in the old records comes from the Palmer[3].
Where and when here
The nearest recorded hook is the Palmer River one, a wooden shank with a bone barb[3]. Karma Waters' river holds black bream and freshwater prawns, so bait is close at hand[20].
On country today
Closed season. On Gulf rivers such as the Mitchell, barramundi are closed from 7 October to 31 January, and you can't target them even for catch-and-release[18].
Native title. The Western Yalanji determinations recognise rights to fish for personal, domestic and non-commercial communal purposes[21], and further country was recognised in August 2026[22]. At Karma Waters, ask the station too.
Eastern coast Eastern Kuku Yalanji
Eastern Kuku Yalanji country: rainforest, beaches, mangroves, reef and the short steep rivers from the Daintree to the Bloomfield and the Annan.
On the Bloomfield, hook and line was fished in the river and the estuarine creeks all year, mostly by women. Old shell hooks have been found on this coast, but by the late 1970s nobody remembered how they were made[2].
Shell hooks on the Bloomfield
In the late 1970s nobody at Bloomfield knew how the old shell hooks had been made. Rowan found one on the banks of the Bloomfield River in 1892. In 1821, in a deserted camp just south of Bloomfield, Phillip Parker King found 'a fishing rod, and a line five or six fathoms long', about 9–11 m, 'with a hook made from a shell'[2]. At the Endeavour River, Cook's party saw hooks 'very neatly made, and some of them … exceedingly small'. By Roth's time hooks were unknown there[4].
On country today
By the late 1970s, Bloomfield people fished with plastic hand reels and lines and metal hooks, 'with no sinkers or floats'[2].
Everywhere
Names
Badur is 'hook and line'. The dictionary's example is ngayu badurriji bundanday, 'I'm fishing (sitting with hook and line)'. Another runs ngayu baduriji dungaka, yinya bubu babanka, 'I want to go fishing to try the place out'[1].
Bait is mandurr 'bait (any kind)', and ngarruy is 'shellbait'. Kuyalin is a 'small conical shellfish, used for bait', and one definition of bikarrakal is 'a kind of grub used for bait'[1]. A mala-kuyu is a 'good fisherman', and wuwu-damaji means 'to go back all the time to the same place, as a good place to fish'[1].
Description
Anderson lists hook and line as the second of three Bloomfield fishing methods, after spearing and before plant poisons. 'Spear fishing could only be done in relatively clear water', but a line could be fished in the river and estuarine creeks 'year-round even when the water was muddy'[2].
Hooks in North Queensland came in several kinds[4][3]:
- Thorn hooks: a lawyer-cane thorn, used on the Bloomfield. Roth notes the cane's 'hook' sometimes took the place of the natural tendril hook.
- Tendril hooks: the hardened tendril of Hugonia jenkinsii (lower Tully River).
- Crescent shell hooks: pearl shell (Cape Grafton, lower Tully, the Bloomfield coast).
- Wood and bone hooks: a hardwood shank with a bone barb (Palmer River, Princess Charlotte Bay).
- Bent-pin hooks of tortoise shell (Batavia and Pennefather Rivers, on the Gulf side).
Roth found that 'weights or sinkers are never used'[3].
Where and when
What it caught
- Coast and estuary (Bloomfield): various bream, trevally, mangrove jack, sea perch and barramundi[2].
- Fresh water (Bloomfield): turtle, eelfish, catfish and perch[2]. See freshwater turtle, eels, catfish and black bream.
How to make and fish a line
- Choose the bark. At Bloomfield, beach hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus) was used for salt-water lines and Sterculia quadrifolia for fresh water. Roth adds that Hibiscus tiliaceus lines were also used on the lower Tully, to fish and to tie bait onto hooks.
- Smash, twist and twine the bark. In Anderson's words the line was 'made from the smashed, twisted and twined bark'.
- Roth's general method: split the cleaned inner fibre into fine shreds and dry them in the sun. Roll each shred forwards on the outer thigh, fold it in two, and roll it forwards and back to twist two plies together. All fibre twine was two-ply. See string and twine.
Hooks:
- Thorn hook (Bloomfield, fresh water). Use a thorn of the lawyer cane, Calamus australis[2]. How it was shaped and tied is not recorded.
- Pearl-shell hook (Cape Grafton, 1898; Roth watched one made)[4]:
- Chip a fresh pearl shell (Perna) between two stones into a rough plate about 2 inches (5 cm) across.
- Char the centre: hold two smouldering hardwood points against it and blow hard.
- Break through the weakened centre with a pencil of white coral.
- File the hole into an oval with the coral, dipping it often in water.
- Grind the outer edge to the width of the hook.
- Grind one side of the ring on a sharp rock edge until it breaks, and finish the crescent with rock and coral. On the lower Tully the hole was started without fire.
- Bone-barbed hook (Palmer River, Kuku Mini): a wooden shank with a barb of kangaroo bone or a catfish spine[3]. At Princess Charlotte Bay the barb was fixed at a sharp angle with kangaroo-tail tendon and grevillea gum[3].
Bait and fishing:
- Fresh-water bait: grubs, small freshwater prawns (cherabin) or small frogs. Coastal bait: pieces of less-liked fish such as a small grunter or shark, small crabs, frogs or small shellfish[2]. Small grubs, and grubs from certain 'poison' trees, were kept for bait[2]. See witchetty grubs.
- On the lower Tully (Mallanpara country), bait was 'always tied onto the hook, never transfixed', and chewed first[3].
- Hold the line in your hand, or tie it to a stick pushed into the sand or the bank[2].
For bobbing for eels with a bunch of worms and no hook at all, a lower Tully method, see eels.
Safety
Lawyer cane is armed with hooked thorns, so wear gloves to collect them; see lawyer cane. Pearl shell and coral cut. Don't fish from the water's edge in crocodile country; see saltwater crocodile.
On Country today
Recreational rules (Queensland fresh waters). You may use up to 6 handheld lines, each with one hook, fly or lure, and you must stay within 50 m of them. Set lines are not allowed[6].
Native title. Section 211 of the Native Title Act 1993 frees native title holders from licence and permit requirements when they fish for personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs[7]. Everyone else needs permission from the Traditional Owners. Each place below has its own determinations and rules.
Language
Kuyu 'fish'; dawal 'trevally'; karra 'rope, cord, string'; murnil 'twist, stir'; kajal 'to tie'; babal 'try, taste'[1].
References
- Hershberger, H. D. & Hershberger, R. (1982). Kuku-Yalanji Dictionary. Work Papers of SIL-AAB, Series B, Volume 7. With Toby Bloomfield, Roy Friday, Billy Roberts, Hector and Doris Sykes, Joe Walker and others. www.sil.org/resources/archives/18038
- Anderson, C. (1996). Traditional material culture of the Kuku-Yalanji of Bloomfield River, North Queensland. Records of the South Australian Museum 29(1): 63–83. Based on fieldwork at Wujal Wujal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. — Environment and seasonal movement; subsistence activities: fishing and gathering; material culture in the late 1970s archive.org/details/RecordsSouthAus29Sout
- Roth, W. E. (1901). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 3: Food — its search, capture, and preparation. Brisbane: Government Printer. — Sect. 15 'Fish' (f), fish-hooks archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Roth, W. E. (1904). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 7: Domestic implements, arts, and manufactures. Brisbane: Government Printer. — Sect. 68 'Fish-hooks' archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Roth, W. E. (1901). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 1: String, and other forms of strand: basketry-, woven bag-, and net-work. Brisbane: Government Printer. — Plant list 'Hibiscus tiliaceus'; sect. 7, manufacture of fibre-twine archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Queensland Government. Fishing equipment rules: fresh waters (web page, last updated 26 March 2026, accessed 6 October 2026). www.qld.gov.au/recreation/activities/boating-fishing/rec-fishing/rules/equipment
- Australian Law Reform Commission. Review of the Native Title Act 1993 (DP 82), ch. 8: Relevant provisions in the Native Title Act (s 211). www.alrc.gov.au/publication/review-of-the-native-title-act-1993-dp-82/8-the-nature-and-content-of-native-title/relevant-provisions-in-the-native-title-act/
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 21) (Possum determination) [2023] FCA 1316 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area (upper Hann and Kennedy rivers); prescribed body corporate; affidavit evidence on hunting and fishing www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1316
- Queensland Government, WetlandInfo. Normanby catchment story: physical features (springs and base flow). wetlandinfo.detsi.qld.gov.au/wetlands/ecology/processes-systems/water/catchment-stories/normanby/norm-physical.html
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online. Station 105001B, Hann River at Sandy Creek: daily and monthly mean discharge 1968–2026 (recent data provisional), retrieved 28 October 2026. No day of zero mean flow in 20,711 days of record; mean flow highest in February–March, lowest in September–November. www.bom.gov.au/waterdata/
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Nature, culture and history: Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL) (web page, last updated 1 July 2024; accessed 28 October 2026). parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/about/culture
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (2013). Rinyirru (Lakefield) Aggregation Management Statement 2013. parks.desi.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/165771/rinyirru.pdf
- Russell, D. J. & Hales, P. W. (1993). A survey of the Princess Charlotte Bay recreational barramundi fishery. Queensland Department of Primary Industries, QI93049. era.dpi.qld.gov.au/id/eprint/6393/1/Survey%20of%20the%20Princess%20Charlotte%20Bay%20recreational%20barramundi%20fishery_QI93049_1993_russell.pdf
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 19) (Kuku Warra determination) [2023] FCA 1314 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1314
- Standley, P.-M. (2019). The importance of campfires to effective conservation. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Records the fire and country knowledge of Kuku Thaypan Elders Dr Tommy George and Dr George Musgrave. researchonline.jcu.edu.au/64274/
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Visiting Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL) safely (web page, last updated 1 June 2025; accessed 28 October 2026). parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/visiting-safely
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Things to do: Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL), 'Boating and fishing' (web page, last updated 20 April 2020; accessed 28 October 2026). parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/things-to-do
- Queensland Department of Primary Industries. Closed seasons in fresh waters: barramundi (web page, accessed 5 and 28 October 2026). Queensland fresh waters except the Gulf of Carpentaria: 1 November to 31 January; Gulf of Carpentaria fresh waters: 7 October to 31 January. www.dpi.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/fisheries/closures/fresh/seasons
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 20) (Thaypan determination) [2023] FCA 1315 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area and waters; prescribed body corporate (Awu-Laya Indigenous Corporation); affidavit evidence on hunting www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1315
- Karma Waters Station. Bush Camping at Karma Waters Station (web page, accessed 5 October 2026). www.karmawatersstation.com/bush-camping.html
- Brady on behalf of the Western Yalanji People #4 v State of Queensland [2013] FCA 958 (Federal Court of Australia, 24 September 2013). www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2013/2013fca0958
- National Indigenous Times (13 August 2026). 'Western Yalanji determination brings Cape York native title to the finish line.' nit.com.au/13-08-2026/25941/western-yalanji-determination-brings-cape-york-native-title-to-the-finish-line
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