down is a lake called Burcoot where Madjuitmadjuit, Mangarrara's friend, dwells. His function is to regulate the tides. History Postcontact In 1880 it was estimated by Paul Foelsche that the Larrakia numbered around 500 people: 100 men, 120 women, 150 youths and 130 children. Twenty years earlier a smallpox epidemic from the east is said to have decimated so many members of the tribe that they had to leave the bodies unburied. With the passage of the Northern Territory Aboriginals Act 1910, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory was appointed guardian of all Aboriginal and "half-caste" children until their maturity at 18. The authorities were thus empowered to keep in, or remove from, any Aboriginal reserve, any young person, regardless of their parents' or relatives' wishes. In July 1911, on arriving to take up this position in Darwin, Herbert Basedow ordered a survey of Aboriginal conditions in and around the town. The Larrakia were found to be the majority of Indigenous people in the eight camps, occupying in particular two near the shore. The corrugated-hut shanties were tidy and the people in relative good health. The inspectors however reported that removals were in order, to relieve the township of these "eyesores". Basedow resigned after barely a month on duty. Native title As early as October 1972 the Larrakia had begun to assert their rights to land, when a 1,000 Larrakia tried to present a 3-metre long document- arguing their land was taken by British settlers, leaving the Larrakia refugees in their own country- to Princess Margaret with their signatures, on the occasion of her visit to Darwin. After the passage of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act in 1976, the Larrakia presented a formal land claim on 22 March 1979, the first move in what was subsequently described as 'the most complex and hard-fought land claim in the history of Aboriginal land rights.' This Kenbi Land Claim pursued rights, as traditional owners, over the land, waters and islands encompassing the Cox Peninsula. The Northern Territory government fought it for some 21 years, at a cost of $20 million. In December 2000, Justice Gray's report rejected the claims of three of the claimant groups, finding only that six people belonging to the Tommy Lyons family fell within the statutory test of 'traditional Aboriginal owners'. He therefore recommended that approximately 600 km² be handed back to the Larrakia