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The story of the Marranbala Land and Sea Country Plan

The story of the Marranbala Land and Sea Country Plan

This plan is for all Marra Country. It is our custodial responsibility to care for all of our country.

We have been wanting to develop our Marranbala Land and Sea Country Plan for a long time. For many years we wanted to tell our story about our custodial responsibilities to look after country. We saw many of our neighbours make their own plans, start their own ranger groups, carry out healthy country work, and form partnerships with other organisations who are helping them meet their land and sea management aspirations.

In 2018 when the Northern Territory Government and the Australian Government developed plans for the marine parks on Marra Country, we were consulted in the planning processes but not as much as we wanted. In 2019 the NLC supported a process to develop sea country access and use plans for three areas in the Northern Territory, including Marra Country. This was to help sort out commercial and recreational use of the intertidal zone. The planning supported by the NLC was the first time we did contemporary planning for Marra Country. In 2018 and 2019 we stressed the need to have our own plan for all of Marra Country and to have our own land and sea management organisation and our own ranger group.

Unfortunately we did not get support to implement our Marra Sea Country Access and Use Plan. However, in 2020 the Northern Territory Government provided financial support for us to meet and do healthy country planning for all of Marra Country. Our planning process involved workshops at Nathan River Ranger Base in late 2020 and in 2021 (see photo page 15). Some of our scientist partners came along to the planning workshops to give us modern information about some of the really important things about country and the problems that these things face. We then did two ‘roadshows’ where we took our ideas from the workshops to Marra who couldn’t come to the workshops, so they could also participate. During these visits we set up a working group to guide the final stages of developing the plan. We had meetings in 2022 to set up our Namultja Aboriginal Corporation and to discuss how best to get our Marranbala Ranger Group set up. Conservation Management facilitated the healthy country planning process and Roeger Consulting facilitated the governance discussions. The planning and governance processes took longer than expected because the COVID 19 Pandemic made it hard for us to get together to make decisions during this time. A timeline showing these different plans and processes for our country is at Figure 3.

Our Marranbala Land and Sea Country Plan 2023-2032, this plan, will guide our Namultja Aboriginal Corporation in our land and sea management, including the establishment and running of our proposed Marranbala Ranger Group. This plan will also strengthen regional Indigenous conservation, as our plan area, Marra Country, ‘connects up’ a large area of Aboriginal land managed for conservation in the western Gulf of Carpentaria, with links to Yanyuwa (Barni-Wardimantha Awara), Laynhapuy and South East Arnhem Land Indigenous protected areas (see Figure 2).

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Our country and our people

Marra Identity

Marra People, Marranbala, identify as saltwater people as the sea and the rivers that flow into it provide a point of interactive connection that results in a true spirit of place and profound sense of being.

In functional terms this is a social environmental connection and may be read as a metaphor for a rich practical ecological knowledge, but for Marra it means much more as it is a conceptual anchor point for Marra social organisation a unique cultural identity.

Non Marra people may separate Country to names like geography, landscape, sea scape or a spirit scape, to Marra they’re all related and people, Country and ancestral beings including plants and animals are all emotionally connected.

All these places and Country aren’t separate but rather they are points on Country that the dreaming and ancestral beings are known to still reside and it is to these places that Mara social memory can be anchored.

The place names and dreaming paths and song lines that can be seen as forms of dissent lines that are part of a system that seeks to include all people and nonhuman entities within a kin centric order that creates the political understanding of the traditional ownership of Minirringi, Jungkayi and Darlyin.

Our Country

The land parts of our country stretch from the Gulf of Carpentaria between the Roper River in the north to Rosie Creek in the south, and inland to the headwaters of the Cox and Towns rivers.

Our sea country includes Kurrulinya (Maria Island) and Yumunguni (Beatrice Island) and their reefs, and extends offshore with our songlines. Our neighbours are the Warndarrang, Yanyuwa, Alawa and Gudanji peoples. We share responsibility for old Ngalakan Country and Wilangarra Country with our neighbours.

The land parts include rivers, tidal flats, creeks and other freshwater places, plateaus, rocky areas and gorges, and low hills and plains. The vegetation includes forests on the banks of the freshwater places and in the gorges, savanna woodlands on the low hills and plateaus, and mangroves in the tidal areas.

The sea includes the open sea, currents, islands and reefs. While our country covers both land and sea, we identify as ‘saltwater people’.

We are intrinsically connected to the sea and our cultural identity is shaped by this relationship.

Our Cultural Authority

Under Marra culture, all country, people, animals and plants belong to one of three main semi-moieties, or clans:

  • Budal
  • Mambali
  • Murrungun


Each clan area also has Minirringki (owners of country) and Jungkayi (guardians or custodians of country). 

Darlyin have certain ceremonial responsibilities including checking Jungkayi are doing the right thing, as well as helping protect country including sacred sites. 

Darlyin can be Gagu, who has primary say in these matters or Abuji, who has the next say. 

It is important that Minirringki, Jungkayi and Darlyin are involved in decisions about country. They speak for country

Our country and our people

Our Cultural Authority

Under Marra culture, all country, people, animals and plants belong to one of three main semi-moieties, or clans:

  • Budal
  • Mambali
  • Murrungun

Each clan area also has Minirringki (owners of country) and Jungkayi (guardians or custodians of country). 

Darlyin have certain ceremonial responsibilities including checking Jungkayi are doing the right thing, as well as helping protect country including sacred sites. 

Darlyin can be Gagu, who has primary say in these matters or Abuji, who has the next say. 

It is important that Minirringki, Jungkayi and Darlyin are involved in decisions about country. They speak for country

Marra Identity

Marra People, Marranbala, identify as saltwater people as the sea and the rivers that flow into it provide a point of interactive connection that results in a true spirit of place and profound sense of being.

In functional terms this is a social environmental connection and may be read as a metaphor for a rich practical ecological knowledge, but for Marra it means much more as it is a conceptual anchor point for Marra social organisation a unique cultural identity.

Non Marra people may separate Country to names like geography, landscape, sea scape or a spirit scape, to Marra they’re all related and people, Country and ancestral beings including plants and animals are all emotionally connected.

All these places and Country aren’t separate but rather they are points on Country that the dreaming and ancestral beings are known to still reside and it is to these places that Mara social memory can be anchored.

The place names and dreaming paths and song lines that can be seen as forms of dissent lines that are part of a system that seeks to include all people and nonhuman entities within a kin centric order that creates the political understanding of the traditional ownership of Minirringi, Jungkayi and Darlyin.

Our Country

The land parts of our country stretch from the Gulf of Carpentaria between the Roper River in the north to Rosie Creek in the south, and inland to the headwaters of the Cox and Towns rivers.

Our sea country includes Kurrulinya (Maria Island) and Yumunguni (Beatrice Island) and their reefs, and extends offshore with our songlines. Our neighbours are the Warndarrang, Yanyuwa, Alawa and Gudanji peoples. We share responsibility for old Ngalakan Country and Wilangarra Country with our neighbours.

The land parts include rivers, tidal flats, creeks and other freshwater places, plateaus, rocky areas and gorges, and low hills and plains. The vegetation includes forests on the banks of the freshwater places and in the gorges, savanna woodlands on the low hills and plateaus, and mangroves in the tidal areas.

The sea includes the open sea, currents, islands and reefs. While our country covers both land and sea, we identify as ‘saltwater people’.

We are intrinsically connected to the sea and our cultural identity is shaped by this relationship.

Our country and our people

Our Country

The land parts of our country stretch from the Gulf of Carpentaria between the Roper River in the north to Rosie Creek in the south, and inland to the headwaters of the Cox and Towns rivers.

Our sea country includes Kurrulinya (Maria Island) and Yumunguni (Beatrice Island) and their reefs, and extends offshore with our songlines. Our neighbours are the Warndarrang, Yanyuwa, Alawa and Gudanji peoples. We share responsibility for old Ngalakan Country and Wilangarra Country with our neighbours.

The land parts include rivers, tidal flats, creeks and other freshwater places, plateaus, rocky areas and gorges, and low hills and plains. The vegetation includes forests on the banks of the freshwater places and in the gorges, savanna woodlands on the low hills and plateaus, and mangroves in the tidal areas.

The sea includes the open sea, currents, islands and reefs. While our country covers both land and sea, we identify as ‘saltwater people’.

We are intrinsically connected to the sea and our cultural identity is shaped by this relationship.

Our Cultural Authority

Under Marra culture, all country, people, animals and plants belong to one of three main semi-moieties, or clans:

  • Budal
  • Mambali
  • Murrungun


Each clan area also has Minirringki (owners of country) and Jungkayi (guardians or custodians of country). 

Darlyin have certain ceremonial responsibilities including checking Jungkayi are doing the right thing, as well as helping protect country including sacred sites. 

Darlyin can be Gagu, who has primary say in these matters or Abuji, who has the next say. 

It is important that Minirringki, Jungkayi and Darlyin are involved in decisions about country. They speak for country

Marra Identity

Marra People, Marranbala, identify as saltwater people as the sea and the rivers that flow into it provide a point of interactive connection that results in a true spirit of place and profound sense of being.

In functional terms this is a social environmental connection and may be read as a metaphor for a rich practical ecological knowledge, but for Marra it means much more as it is a conceptual anchor point for Marra social organisation a unique cultural identity.

Non Marra people may separate Country to names like geography, landscape, sea scape or a spirit scape, to Marra they’re all related and people, Country and ancestral beings including plants and animals are all emotionally connected.

All these places and Country aren’t separate but rather they are points on Country that the dreaming and ancestral beings are known to still reside and it is to these places that Mara social memory can be anchored.

The place names and dreaming paths and song lines that can be seen as forms of dissent lines that are part of a system that seeks to include all people and nonhuman entities within a kin centric order that creates the political understanding of the traditional ownership of Minirringi, Jungkayi and Darlyin.

Visiting Mara Country

Report an Issue

If you wish to report an issue or provide an advisory, please share the details so regional administrators can be made aware. 

Your input helps ensure timely responses and supports the wellbeing of the community and region.

Contact Us

About Marra Country

Marra Country is in the Limmen Bight, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in the eastern part of the NT.  Marra people described the coastal extent of their Country as from just north of the Roper River mouth, south to around Wardawarra (Rosie Creek). There are many songlines (kujika) which travel through Marra Sea Country and lay out the truth and Daway- Law.

Some of these are shared with visitors and the wider public to deepen understanding of this unique region, while others remain private and are respected as such.

View Maps

Code of Conduct

We are presently working on developing a Code of Conduct and Values framework that will guide and support this Visitor Advisory.

This code-of-conduct will help ensure a shared understanding of expectations, respectful engagement, and the principles that shape how we work together.

Please check again soon!

Visiting Marra Country

Code of Conduct

We are presently working on developing a Code of Conduct and Values framework that will guide and support this Visitor Advisory.

This code-of-conduct will help ensure a shared understanding of expectations, respectful engagement, and the principles that shape how we work together.

Please check again soon!

Report an Issue

If you wish to report an issue or provide an advisory, please share the details so regional administrators can be made aware. Your input helps ensure timely responses and supports the wellbeing of the community and region.
Contact Us

About Marra Country

Marra Country is in the Limmen Bight, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in the eastern part of the NT.  Marra people described the coastal extent of their Country as from just north of the Roper River mouth, south to around Wardawarra (Rosie Creek). There are many songlines (kujika) which travel through Marra Sea Country and lay out the truth and Daway- Law.

Some of these are shared with visitors and the wider public to deepen understanding of this unique region, while others remain private and are respected as such.

View Maps

Visiting Marra Country

About Marra Country

Marra Country is in the Limmen Bight, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in the eastern part of the NT.  Marra people described the coastal extent of their Country as from just north of the Roper River mouth, south to around Wardawarra (Rosie Creek). There are many songlines (kujika) which travel through Marra Sea Country and lay out the truth and Daway- Law.

Some of these are shared with visitors and the wider public to deepen understanding of this unique region, while others remain private and are respected as such.

View Maps

Code of Conduct

We are presently working on developing a Code of Conduct and Values framework that will guide and support this Visitor Advisory.

This code-of-conduct will help ensure a shared understanding of expectations, respectful engagement, and the principles that shape how we work together.

Please check again soon!

Report an Issue

If you wish to report an issue or provide an advisory, please share the details so regional administrators can be made aware. 

Your input helps ensure timely responses and supports the wellbeing of the community and region.

Contact Us