Map - Ella Bay (Ella Bay)

Ella Bay (Ella Bay)
Ella Bay is a bay located in the Cassowary Coast Region in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is in close proximity to the town of Innisfail. Innisfail is situated 88 km south of Cairns and 260 km north of Townsville. The bay is bounded by Cooper's point in the north and Heath's point in the south. The land area adjacent to Ella Bay is named Wanjuru.

At the landscape scale, the mountain ranges encircling Ella Bay itself lie mostly within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, recognised for its natural heritage. Parts of Ella Bay are protected within the Ella Bay National Park. The ocean directly offshore at Ella Bay lies within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which is also the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. There are two blocks of private land at the southern end of Ella Bay, a predominantly cleared 470 hectare block and a 65 acre rainforest block named Little Cove by property developer Satori Ella Bay.

The average annual rainfall at Innisfail is over 3,500 mm or 3.5 m according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and the average number of rainy days per year is 150 days.

The Ella Bay area was originally inhabited by the Bagirbarra clan, the recognised Traditional Owners of the Ella Bay land and one of the Mamu speaking clan groups of the Innisfail region. The richness and diversity of the Wet Tropics lowland rainforest environment, would have allowed for a population density of approximately two km2 per person and a 'band' of approximately 50 individuals.

Ella Bay lies within the traditional country of the Mamu peoples, an Australian Aboriginal tribe with a number of distinctive clan groups. These clan groups have cultural and spiritual ties to coastal lowlands, coastal lands and waters within what is now known as the northern part of the Cassowary Coast region of north eastern Queensland, Australia. Before colonisation, Mamu people moved seasonally within their traditional country, accessing and using important food sources including seafoods, freshwater fish, game animals, rainforest fruits and roots. Certain plant species used by rainforest Aboriginal tribes in this area on a regular basis are highly toxic, and careful preparation using time honoured methods were employed to make these food sources safe for eating. During particular seasons, these toxic foods would form a staple of the tribes' diets. In some locations, early European visitors (for example the anthropologist Roth) recorded seeing communal settlements with multiple shelters including long-house type structures, and there is evidence that a taro-type species of yam was cultivated for regular harvest along creeks and rivers. Like so many Aboriginal people in Australia, many Mamu traditional owners were forcibly removed from their traditional lands to other places in Queensland including Cherbourg, Woorabinda, Yarrabah and Palm Island mission settlements. Some have come back to live in the area since the mid-20th century.

First contact with Europeans came with a handful of survivors from the wreck of the brig Maria. On the 26th of February 1872, after astounding escapes from reef and rocks, the brig ran onto what is still known as the Maria reef, some miles off Cardwell. All the men who got ashore via raft north of the Johnstone River owed their lives to the local aboriginals, who treated them kindly, fed and made camps for them, and signaled the rescue boat Basilisk to come ashore.

The first settlers were the "cedar getters" in 1880 during the influx of timber cutters after the local red cedar species (Toona ciliata), quickly followed by becoming a key growing area for bananas and sugar cane. The later industries persist into the present day.

The latest Cyclone to hit the Innisfail region was Cyclone Yasi – making landfall as a category 5 on the 3 February 2011. Yasi was one of the most powerful cyclones to have impacted Queensland since records commenced. Cyclone Larry (Category 4 before striking land) on the 20 March 2006. Major damage to homes and other buildings was caused by Larry as well as extensive damage to local crops (tropical fruits, sugar and bananas) and timber plantations.

 
Map - Ella Bay (Ella Bay)
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7617930 km2, Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
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