IT is 70 years since a group of 95 Aboriginal children from Arnhem Land’s small Croker Island were evacuated to the Australian mainland during World War II.
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The Japanese attacks on Darwin led to an evacuation of all non-essential personnel for the war effort.
That included a group of Aboriginal children and their carers from the Methodist Mission on Croker Island 260km northeast of the capital.
At first it appeared that the missionaries would be the only ones evacuated in February 1942 after the first attack, and when they refused to leave the children it was April, with food running short, before they actually made it off the island.
Their only route to safety was by boat to Barclay Point, then across Arnhem Land by foot, canoe and truck.
They then began a remarkable journey as the Aboriginal children who had been taken from their families and their missionary care-givers crossed the continent from Darwin to Adelaide.
They caught trains to Melbourne and onto Sydney and then the South Coast before finishing at the small town of Otford near Wollongong where they stayed for the remainder of the war.
They reached their final destination, the Methodist farm, 44 days and almost 5000 kilometres later.
The ABC television program Croker Island Exodus which was screened on Tuesday night, also highlighted their remarkable story.
While books had been written about that amazing trek, including They Crossed A Continent, by one of the missionaries Margaret Somerville, little has been told of their time in Otford.
