from the Nabarlek Uranium Mine in recent years. The Kunwinjku live in Gunbalanya and Maningrida. Modern history Exploration The explorer Phillip Parker King was the first English navigator to enter the Gulf of Carpentaria. He made a number of explorations in the area between 1818 and 1822 and named the rivers after the crocodiles which he mistook for alligators as his journals note. "On our course up and down the river, we encountered several very large alligators and some were noticed sleeping on the mud. This was the first time we had seen these animals, excepting that at Goulburn Island, and, as they appeared to be very numerous and large, it was not thought safe to stop all night up the River." Ludwig Leichhardt was the first European explorer to visit the area in 1845 en route to Port Essington. Leichhardt followed a creek down from the Arnhem Land escarpment before crossing the South and East Alligator Rivers. John McDouall Stuart also visited the area in 1862. Settlement See Kakadu National Park for more information on settlement. The settlement of the area by Europeans was slow and sporadic as it was very remote and illnesses were also a problem. The commercial harvesting of water buffalo hides and horns had begun by the 1880s. Paddy Cahill, who came to the area to set up a cattle station, was the first buffalo hunter to operate in the region. The buffalo industry lasted around 70 years until the late 1950s until the development of synthetic substitutes. Crocodile hunting was also operating in the area until the hunting of freshwater crocodile was made illegal in 1964 and estuarine crocodiles in 1971. Paddy Cahill had established his cattle station at Oenpelli by 1906, and by 1913, it had become successful. Indeed, Cahill's success at Oenpelli was often cited as an example for others to follow. Other stations were set up, but did not always enjoy the same success. Goodparla operated as a cattle and buffalo station and operated with mixed success until the federal government acquired the land as part of Kakadu National Park. Missionaries provided much of the schooling for the Aboriginal people for much of the 20th century. The Kapalga Native Industrial Mission was established in 1899 near the South Alligator River, but only lasted four years. The Church of England Missionary Society established a mission station in 1925 at Oenpelli which lasted