Tiwi Islands
Eighty kilometres north of Darwin, the Tiwi Islands cover 7460 square kilometres. They are home to the Tiwi people, whose ancestors have managed the land and the adjoining waters for thousands of years since the islands became separated from the mainland. There are eight Tiwi landowning groups and about 2500 people live on the islands.
In 2003, the Tiwi Land Council produced the Tiwi Islands Regional Natural Resource Management Strategy. The two underlying thrusts of this Strategy are to create an independent Tiwi economy not reliant on welfare, and to provide long-term protection of Tiwi natural resource and cultural values.
20 years ago, Tiwi leaders decided that they would use up to 10% of their land to create an economy, with real jobs for their children and grandchildren, and to remove Tiwi people from reliance on welfare and its associated poverty.
FIRST SHIP
The 1st woodchip ship carrier, Daio Papyrus, arrived at Port Melville on Monday 23 November, 2015. It was loaded with 31,000 green metric tonnes of Tiwi woodchip.
