The Yaegl and Bundjalung people are traditional custodians of the coastal areas around Yamba, Iluka and Maclean. The ancestors of the present day Yaegl people lived around the mouth of the Clarence River and spoke the language Yaygirr which was closely related to Gumbaynggirr. 

Yaegl country is a bountiful place based on its ocean and rivers, and the land’s richness. This meant the Yaegl people were less nomadic then surrounding groups, moving infrequently between a few main camps.

There is evidence the Yaygirr had permanent settlements and a developed material culture. Matthew Flinders (1799) described large bark huts with rounded passageway entrances which protect dwellers from wind and rain. Similarly Captain Perry (1839) described canoes of a superior construction. (See Eleanor H McSwan’s ‘A history of Yamba and Iluka’). 

Ulgundahi Island on the Clarence River, and its surrounding waters, is highly significant to the cultural, social, spiritual and heritage values of the Yaegl people, and other First Nations people who have a strong association with the island.

The Island is a heritage-listed First Nations site, formerly an occupational settlement, with ongoing usage as farmland and as a site of ongoing significance. for First Nations people.  The Island is approximately 14 hectares in land size and approximately 1.5 km long. 

The Island has been a site of occupation since 1880 when many First Nations people retreated to the island as British colonial settlers had introduced diseases and the land had been taken up as settler farms. 

In 1904, a portion of Ulgundahi Island was gazetted as an Aboriginal reserve under the control of the Aboriginal Protection Board (APB) and in 1907 the whole of the island was included in the Reserve.

To read the history of how the Island was managed, click here. It makes fascinating reading