Major Island Off Queensland Coast Could Be Given New ‘Indigenous Name’

A photo taken on Sept. 22, 2014, shows fish swimming through the coral on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The 2,300-kilometre-long reef contributes A$5.4 billion (US$4.8 billion) annually to the Australian economy. William West/AFP via Getty Images

A move by the Queensland government to potentially rename a tropical paradise to reflect its Indigenous ownership has sparked debate about whether the change is unnecessarily divisive.

The 1,300-hectare Great Keppel Island off the coast of Rockhampton could be renamed by the Queensland Labor government should a development proposal be upheld, however, Labor has made no official announcement that the plan will go ahead.

The original inhabitants are the Woppaburra people, the name change to Woppa (some sources say Wop-pa) reflects their traditional ownership and comes after the popular Fraser Island was renamed K'Gari in 2023.

The project’s website states, “The department acknowledges Woppa—Great Keppel Island the Traditional Woppaburra Land and Sea Country of the Keppel Islands.”

The trend to redress the “imbalance” of European-inspired place names in Queensland gained significant traction after the Fraser Island proposal was green-lit into law last June 7.

The island’s hotels are set to be revitalised from their current dilapidated state to maximise tourism which has been in statistical decline since 2008. In 2023, the government took over its stewardship of the island and its assets after its former owner Tower Holdings, was unable to pay $878,000 in rent.

After the acquisition, the Queensland Minister for Resources Scott Stewart said the condition of the resort was “disappointing.”

“Our islands are natural assets that we want Queenslanders to be able to enjoy as part of our great lifestyle. As a government, we are committed to the responsible development of our island resorts for the jobs and business opportunities they create in regional Queensland,” Mr. Stewart said.

The Queensland Department of State Development said the cash injection includes a $30 million commitment towards common-user infrastructure.

One Nation leader and Senator Pauline Hanson, often outspoken on issues pertaining to race relations, voiced her objections to the Island’s name change, saying it could become a source of division within the community.

In a statement on One Nation’s website, Ms. Hanson cited legislative sources who made it clear that “Labor plans to rename Great Keppel Island, a tourism icon known around the world, with ‘Woppa’, a local Indigenous word.”

Ms. Hanson added that the name change was an example of the Queensland Labor government being underhanded with the public.

“Labor continues to sow this division in Queensland ... with the disastrous Path to Treaty, land transfers without community consultation and sneaky attempts to discard traditional place names in favour of unknown Indigenous language words,” Ms. Hanson said in a petition that has collected over 10,000 signatures from objectors to be tabled on March 1.

“There are already countless places in Australia with names derived from Indigenous languages including Canberra, the national capital itself. One Nation supports keeping names like Goondiwindi, Toowoomba, and Mareeba because those are the names those communities chose,” Senator Hanson said.

Commentators have speculated that, given the precedent set by the switch to K'Gari, the petition brought by Ms. Hanson will have little effect on the government’s decision to go with the Woppa name.