New Mapoon Aboriginal Community
New Mapoon is a small Aboriginal Community located approximately 1000km north of Cairns and 30km from the tip of Australia and can be found between Bamaga and Seisia. The town has historical and relational ties to Old Mapoon just north of Weipa from where it was relocated to its present site in 1963/64.
The community was granted land in a Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) on 27th October 1986 which covers an area of 9,390 hectares
In recent times older members of the community who grew up in Old Mapoon (which received Aboriginal Council Status in March 2000) have tended to return there. As a consequence of this the population of New Mapoon tends to be relatively young.
The New Mapoon Council administers most normal local government services and due to the remote location, the Council has taken over a number of other functions.
Two full time rangers and a number of part-time rangers are employed to monitor and protect native flora and fauna and coastal areas. It is these Rangers who have been trained in ghost net processing and who are responsible for the continued effort to remove and identify ghost nets and to free and record any marine wildlife that wash up in these nets along their coastline.
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