Croker Island is an island in the Arafura Sea off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia, northeast of Darwin. It was the site of the Croker Island Mission between 1940 and 1968.
Indigenous peoples
At the earliest time of European contact, the Indigenous people of Croker Island were the Jaako, an Aboriginal Australian people who spoke Marrgu, a language isolate. The modern Indigenous communities speak Iwaidja (the approximately 150 speakers being the last remaining speakers of the language) and Maung, Kunwinjku and English.
Exploration by the British
Croker Island was charted by the British naval surveyor, Phillip Parker King, in 1818. He named it after the Secretary to the Admiralty, John Wilson Croker.
British trepang stations
British trepangers started coming to the island in 1877 with Captain Francis Cadell harvesting sea-cucumbers using Aboriginal labour. However, his stay was brief as he also blackbirded around 40 Indigenous people from the region to labour on his pearling boats in the Torres Strait.
In 1878, Edward Robinson and Thomas Wingfield established a permanent trepang station at Walka on the western coast of the island. They also utilised local Aboriginal labour and were known for their harsh treatment of their workers who they paid only with alcohol and tobacco. After Wingfield shot an Aboriginal man dead, retribution was swiftly achieved with a local strongman named Wandi Wandi killing Wingfield the same day.
Croker Island Mission (1940 -1968)
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Between 1940 and 1968, the Methodist Overseas Mission operated the Croker Island Mission at Minjilang. Many Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families by the church, part of what is now termed the Stolen Generation. The mission ran a school, and employed several of the male residents who had finished school.
The Pacific theatre of World War II saw the Japanese military aerial bombing Darwin in February 1942. Non-Indigenous children from the island were evacuated. To avoid the bombing, missionary Margaret Somerville led 95 Indigenous children from the island's orphanage, part of the Croker Island Mission, on a journey that saw the party arrive on the Australian mainland. Travelling a distance overland, they boarded a train through central Australia, arriving in Sydney, New South Wales, on the east coast. Over 44 days, the group covered . The children returned to Croker Island in 1946.
A class action was undertaken by 12 claimants against the Uniting Church in Australia for sexual and physical abuse which took place at the mission from the 1940s until the late 1960s. They finally received compensation in May 2023, through a private settlement.
2005: Cyclone Ingrid
Croker Island was severely damaged by Cyclone Ingrid in March 2005.
Geography
Croker Island, which lies about northeast of Darwin,
Geography
Climate
Croker Island has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw) with a wet season from November to April and a dry season from May to October. The following climate data was taken from the airport. Extreme temperatures ranged from on 2 November 2020 to on 11 August 2025. The wettest recorded day was 21 November 2025 with of rainfall.