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AN ACCOUNT OF THE ABORIGINALS OF SUNDAY ISLAND, 
KING SOUND, KIMBERLEY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
By 
W. D. Campbell, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., Licensed Surveyor and 
W. H. Bird. 
(Read April 13th, 1915.) 
The following account is the outcome of a visit to Sunday 
Island in June, 1908, by Mr. W. D. Campbell, who was the geologist 
member of the survey party from the Mines Department, Perth, on 
its way to survey mining leases and inspect the magnetic iron ore 
deposits at Yampi Sound. It has been written with the assistance 
of Mr. W. H. Bird, who was for several years a resident of Sunday 
Island in the capacity of schoolmaster to the Mission Station that 
had been founded by Mr. Sydney Hadley for the benefit of the 
aborigines. 
Sunday Island, or “Ewenu,” is about 8,000 acres in extent, 
and is situated at the entrance to King Sound, and about 70 miles, 
in a direct line, from the town of Derby, which is at the head of the 
Sound; it is the largest of the islands forming the Buccaneer Archi- 
pelago, but is divided into three parts by water channels. Between 
Sunday Island and the western side of King Sound there are 
several small islands, and there is a deep channel, known as Escape 
Pass, between them, which is used by the coasting steamers calling 
at Derby; there is always a fierce current running through this 
channel, and the water eddies and swirls in a violent way that is 
dangerous to small craft ; this current is caused by the great rise and 
fall of the tides along this coast, and it makes communication be- 
tween the mainland and the island difficult, which fact has tended 
to the preservation of the islanders. On the eastern side of the 
island, there is a stretch of about seventeen miles of more open 
water, see Plate I., which is reproduced from Nautical Chart No. 
1052. Most of the islands are more or less mountainous and have 
a very picturesque appearance. Sunday Island and those ad- 
jacent are flatter than the others. The outlying portions of the 
coast throughout are mostly bare granite and gneiss rock. 
The Sunday Islanders are the furthest north-westerly branch 
of the “Barda” tribe that live on the western side of King 
Sound, while further south-westerly are the “Nyool Nyool” of 
Beagle Bay. The islanders are known as “Ewenu; ” they are 
smaller in stature than the inhabitants of the coast north and east 
