Nunukul The Nunukul, also spelt Noonuccal and known also as Moondjan, are an Aboriginal Australian people, one of three Quandamooka peoples, who traditionally lived on the northern portion of Minjerribah, North Stradbroke Island in the area of Amity Point, Queensland. Language The Nunukul spoke Mundjan (also known as Nunukan), a variety of Yagera that had close affinities with the dialects of Turrbal and Jandai, though some prefer to use Janday as the generic term for this dialect cluster. Unlike the other dialects, it used mundjan instead of the standard dialect word jandai for the concept of 'no', and this was a marker of their tribal difference. Social groups On North Stradbroke Island and the mainland opposite there were 2 or perhaps 3 clan divisions of the Quandamooka: the Nunukul around Amity Point, the Goenpul on the west at Dunwich and the Koobeenpul at Cleveland. History In the early period of contact with Europeans, the Nunukul took in castaways and fleeing convicts, such as the cedar cutters Thomas Pamphlett, Richard Parsons and John Finnegan who in 1823 lived for some 230 days among them, the Ningy Ningy and the Ngugi. It appears that the natives of the area believed that the white-skinned people were the spirits of their ancestors who had returned to their homes. These spirits were called duggai on Stradbroke Island, targan on Moreton Island, and mogwi on the coastland opposite. The British set up manned pilot station in their territory in 1825. Initially they continued to show themselves hospitable to the newcomers, but gradually relations soured over frictions arising from possession of indigenous women, some of whom, according to Nunukul oral history traditions, suffered abduction. On 10 July 1831, Nunukul warriors at Dunwich killed James Wood, a convict, in retribution for 'injuries suffered from Europeans'. Around this time they also killed a soldier stationed at Amity Point. The Nununkul injured Corporal Robert Cain, Private William Wright and a third man, the Thomas Kinchella sometime in 1832. Squads of soldiers were despatched to deal out summary justice to the islanders encountered. William Reardon, convict hutkeeper, known to the Nunukul by the sobriquet of Chooroong is said to have lured a tribal elder out on a fishing expedition, and, once the crew had killed him, to have cut off his head. On the 25 November of that year Reardon was surprised near his hut at Pyrrnn-Pyrrnn-Pa (the little sandhill), entangled in towrows (fishing nets) and beaten to death with waddies. In 1837, a tall (6 foot 2) 17 year-old Nunukul, subsequently named Toggery, and a kipper or adolescent initiand called Peermudgeon stowed away on Captain F. Fyan's schooner as it left Amity Point bound for Sydney. On his arrival there, he was hailed as a second Bennelong and was awarded a uniform of military fashion replete with spurs. Fyan himself had a brass crescent made for his Nunukul stowaway, with inscribed images of a kangaroo and emum together with Toggery's name. In an expedition to recapture runaway convicts, which was led by Chief Constable McIntosh, he was wounded on landing and two of his men, a Charles Holdsworth and James O'Regan, were captured. Their bodies were recovered on 20 December 1832. Several natives were killed and wounded in a clash soon after. It is estimated that as a result of the escalation in fighting between the islanders and the British military units over the period between July 1831 and December 1832 something like thirty and forty Ngugi and Nunukal died or were wounded. In March 1835 the whaling ship Elizabeth anchored at Amity, and during the sojourn of the sailors,