Djiru
The rainforest-dwelling Djiru (alternatively, Jirru) people occupied approximately 260 square kilometres along the Cassowary Coast, around Mission Beach and Clump Point, between Murdering Point and the mouth of the Tully River. They spoke a dialect of the Dyirbal language. The Boolboora and Warryboora noted in William Parry-Okeden's list of Queensland tribes possibly refer to Djiru hordes rather than separate tribal groups.
After the brig Maria was wrecked on Bramble Reef off Hinchinbrook Island, survivors on makeshift rafts reached the coast at various locations north of Cardwell. When Sub-Inspector Robert Johnstone's search party looked for survivors of the wreck, what they found prompted vicious reprisals.
After the short-lived Hull River Aboriginal Settlement opened on Djiru land at Mission Beach in 1914, Aboriginal people from surrounding areas were forcibly relocated there for "protection" or disciplinary reasons. When a cyclone destroyed the mission in 1918, the surviving residents were transferred to a new reserve on Great Palm Island.
