Melville Island lies off the coast of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. At 2,234 sq mi (5,786 km²) it is just outside the 100 largest islands in the world. It is also known in the aboriginal Tiwi language as Yermalner.

The first European to sight the island was Abel Tasman in 1644. In 1818 a British Naval Officer named it for Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, first lord of the Admiralty, who is also commemorated by the much larger Melville Island in the Canadian arctic. Shortly after this, the British made the first attempt to settle Australia's north coast, at the short-lived Fort Dundas.

The adjacent Bathurst Island (2,100 km²) is named after Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst (who, like Viscount Melville, is also commemorated by a Canadian island).

The two Australian islands are still occupied by the same Aboriginal groups as before the arrival of the Europeans. They were proclaimed an Aboriginal Reserve in 1912, and ownership of the islands was ceded to the Tiwi Aboriginal Land Trust in 1980.

The population of Melville & Bathurst Islands (1996) was 2,033 of whom 93.8% were Aboriginal.

External link

Tiwi Land Council (http://www.users.bigpond.com/tiwilc/)