Our Community

Our Community - Yarrabah

Yarrabah Shire lies to the East of Cairns and by road is placed approximately 60 kilometres from Cairns CBD. 

The coastline runs east from False Cape around Mission Bay, past Cape Grafton and Kings Point and then south to Palmer Point. It has an area of approx. 158.8 square kilometres and a population of approx. 2,559 (according to the 2016 census) and unofficially - due to a known deficit in accuracy in census reporting - of up to 4,000 people. 

Yarrabah is Queensland's largest indigenous community.

Yarrabah's past

Yarrabah was established on the traditional lands of the Gunggandji people at Mission Bay on the Cape Grafton Peninsula, just south of Cairns, in 1892 when European influence began in earnest with the establishment of an Anglican Mission.

The township has a complex history, stemming from the early state administrations which forcibly relocated Aboriginal and some South Sea Islanders from many different groups to Yarrabah.

In 1960 the Queensland Government officially took over control of the mission from the Anglican Church including health care.

In 2005, the Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council came into being under the Local Government (Community Government Areas) Act 2004.