On one of the Great Barrier Reef’s remote islands, a stone beacon, built by convicts, stands tall after weathering nearly 200 years of tropical extremes.
But the structure, made from rock quarried from the island, tells a much older story.
“A lot of our people go out there, spend the weekend or go hunting and mainly collecting turtle eggs,” says Wuthathi man Johnson Chippendale.
Wuthathi legend has it the island was formed in the Dreamtime when the body of a tiger shark drifted there after it drowned trying to help carry a crocodile.
Mr Chippendale, deputy chair of the Wuthathi Aboriginal Corporation, says his people first began travelling to the island thousands of years ago, when the mainland’s coastline stretched much further east.
The Meriam people of Mer Island in the Torres Strait have also been travelling there for thousands of years to collect turtles and guano.
The two groups share traditional owner status of the island recognised for being the world’s largest green turtle rookery and known to the Wuthathi and Meriam as Thukuruu and Bub warwar kaur respectively.
“We are part of the coral at Raine Island, we are part of the seabird at Raine Island, and we are also part of that island,” says Falen Passi, chairman of the Mer Gedkem Le (Torres Strait Islanders) Corporation.
Meriam people have stories of their ancestors coming across white people on the island, 620 kilometres north-west of what is now Cairns.
A recorded history
In 1844, a group of convicts was taken to the island and over four months, quarried and built the tower from phosphate rocks on the island and wood from nearby shipwrecks.
Alexander Hoffman, a ranger with Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science, says the relatively rare phosphate rock has been “created by turtle bones and sea life and guano”.
The beacon, intended as a lighthouse, was used for navigation, as the reefs around had caused many shipwrecks.
In and around the beacon, about 900 carved or painted inscriptions have been carved into the tower, dating back to the late 1800s.
Some of the names include famous Indigenous people and names from multiple Indigenous Nations from the mainland and Torres strait, including Erubam Le, Meriam Le, and Ugarem Le.
Mr Passi says it is part of their tradition to leave messages and notes for other seafarers on coral and other parts around the island.
He says his name and his great-grandfather’s name has been carved on the beacon.
“That’s the message that I believe I will pass to my great-great-grandson; to say that I was there on that island.”
Preserving the stories
Rangers and traditional owners have now completed a $1.13 million project to restore the beacon, which has been ravaged in the island’s windy, volatile environment.
“As incredibly environmentally sensitive and remarkable as the island is, it’s actually an extremely harsh place at times, with winds that can exceed 45 knots … on a fairly regular basis,” Mr Hoffman says.
He says the restoration team also had to be conscious to cause minimal disruption to the natural environment.
“At times, all of a sudden, you’ve got a bird that’s right next to your eyes squawking at you, or, definitely making a mess of the area when you’re trying to work around it.”
Mr Hoffman says descendants of some of the people whose names are inscribed on the beacon are also part of the restoration team.
“[I was] looking at these names and thinking, ‘Wow, this history is incredible’,” he says.
“We’re trying to maintain [it] as best we can.”
While the Wuthathi don’t have a cultural connection to the beacon, both they and Miriam nations were consulted on the restoration process.
“The working group have talked about it and said, ‘We need to do something to try and save the tower itself’,” Mr Chippendale says.
An uncertain future
Both traditional owner groups support the beacon’s restoration but they’ve also expressed concern about the island’s long-term future.
“It’s uncertain because of climate change … we don’t know how long it’s going to be there,” Mr Chippendale says.
“We can only do so much. There might be a cyclone through one day and wipe the tower down and kill all the seabirds.”
Mr Chippendale also called on state and federal governments to increase their support for protecting the vital turtle rookery.
“One day, we’re only going to see photos,” he says.
Mr Passi says traditional knowledge and western science need to “work together” to address the problems.
“You’ve got to lean on your history, your language, your songs, lean on the history and you will survive,” he says.