Bigge Island

Named by Phillip Parker King in 1819 after The English Judge and royal commissioner John Thomas Bigge, Bigge Island is known as Wuuyuru to the Wunambal people of the Kimberley Coast. Wuuyuru is a significant site for Aboriginal people and is the resting place of the boss Wandjina Aarwarrndju. The easily accessible galleries are also home to more recent images of sailing ships and what appears to be figures smoking pipes. Some have suggested that this is evidence of first European contact with Aboriginal people on the Kimberley coast. Whether it was Dutch or English sailors of the 1600s, French sailors of the Baudin expedition or New South Wales surveyors such as Philip Parker King or John Lort Stokes of the early 1800s, we will never know. Join your expedition team ashore for a guided walk to a number of rock art galleries depicting the Wandjina style.