The Whitsundays is a very popular tourist destination, with many local and international visitors every year. However, before Airlie Beach’s permanent settlement in the 1970s it was for thousands of years Ngaro country. The Ngaro, the traditional owners of the Whitsundays area, were a seafaring Indigenous tribe. As a people they relied entirely on living by the sea. Their nomadic lifestyle was determined by various maritime environmental changes and seasons. Their domain was the sea, the Great Barrier Reef and the mangroves of the area. If people are interested in gaining more information about the Ngaro people the Whitsunday Regional Council suggests a visit to Proserpine Historical Museum. However, upon inspection of their Indigenous exhibit, the Ngaro people are not named as the tribe that occupied the land and a very simplistic interpretation is provided about how they used the land. The Ngaro people’s connection to the sea, as their prime signifier of identity, is not mentioned and a map of significant Indigenous sites is not provided. No chronology of events is attempted pre or post European settlement. Unfortunately, a black mannequin doll is provided as the only relationship to the Ngaro tribe as people.
