On 3rd Feb 1988, the Cape York Space Agency (CYSA) was awarded the contract for a feasibility study for a space port on Cape York. This was under the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government.
Rumours abounded but it appeared that Temple Bay was the ideal spot.
Aboriginal people, the Wuthathi and Kuuku Ya’u were vocally against the proposal. Many other groups and people condemned the idea, including the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, and the famous science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke.
This saga, which was opposed (but rarely reported) from the beginning by the Kuuku Ya’u and Wuthathi people, had begun in about 1986 when the then premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen claimed to have thought of the idea.
For the next decade or so the idea of the space port floated here and there, with grand plans and sometimes grander costings.
The Koori Mail’s article (CAPE YORK ABORIGINES SLAM SPACE PORT PROPOSAL ‘The area is a fighting ground where Aboriginal people died and where their spirits remain’.) was about the only media outlet to give a fair aboriginal viewpoint.
The article states: “At a land rights meeting held recently at Lockhart River attended by representatives from all Cape York Aboriginal and some Torres Strait island communities, representatives voted to support the Wuthathi and Kukuy’au (sic) tribes stance of no space port in Cape York Peninsula.
Aboriginal representatives say the main reasons for this stance are that it infringes on traditional lands, it is not a viable enterprise that will benefit the rightful owner, it is merely an excuse to open up Cape York to massive tourist and unaboriginal development, and that the development of such a project will have a catastrophic result on the environment.”
The space port saga eventually ended, but probably more for financial reasons than aboriginal rights or environmental reasons.
Chapter 4 of Michael Meadows’ book “Voices in the Wilderness – Images of Aboriginal People in the Australian Media” gives a very good account of the bias in the media of this issue.
Many of the hippies at Chili beach and residents at Portland Roads were against the idea too.