Why Tjapukai Park to be sold by Djabugay Aboriginal Corporations

The board of the Djabugay Aboriginal Corporations has explained the reason why they have decided to sell the famous Tjapukai Cultural park after an “extensive review”.

Djabugay Aboriginal Corporation chairman William Duffin, Tjapukai dancers Andrew Duffin, Rodrick Newbury, Tristan Brim (in front) and Jeffrey Hunter, and Djabugay Aboriginal Corporation's Dennis Hunter. Picture: Supplied

The board of the Djabugay Aboriginal Corporations has explained why they have decided to sell the famous Tjapukai Cultural park after an “extensive review”.

The Tjapukai Cultural Park has been placed up for sale by expressions of interest being marketed by Colliers in Cairns.

Chair of the Djabugay Aboriginal Corporations board William Duffin said the placement of the park on the market “has been both necessary and sad for Budadji and the Djabugay mob”.

“For several years our agenda for self-determining strategy has not aligned with the use of the park in its current form,” he said.

Mr Duffin said the decision came after extensive review.

“We have found that the emotional attachment the majority of us have around the park is not about the facility, but the traditions, cultural knowledge and experiences shared with people at the site historically.”

Barron River MP Craig Crawford said it was a shame to see the park up for sale.

Tjapukai dance troop performing traditional dances and demonstrate how to start a fire with a fire stick. Mya Healey gets a fire started after creating hot embers with a fire stick. PICTURE: STEWART MCLEAN

“I had a bit to do with Tjapukai when I was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister through Covid and coming out the back end of the pandemic,” he said.

“They certainly expressed an intention of relaunching the facility in a tourism capacity similar to what it was before but they had a lot of different ideas about they wanted to do.

“Clearly they have had a change of direction.”

Mr Crawford said that there was still a lot of potential in the site for anyone who may take over.

“This doesn’t mean that nobody else can buy the building and still use it in a First Nations tourism capacity,” he said.

“Maintaining it as a cultural centre would be the easiest conversion for it, it has been built to take a tourism crowd through a First Nations experience.”

Mr Crawford said Tjapukai was known around the world for offering travellers a First Nations experience, and it would be a shame for Cairns to lose it.

“It’s a shame they have gone down this road but it doesn’t mean that another organisation couldn’t take it up, that would be nice to see,” he said.

The Duke of Edinburgh talks to Aboriginal performers after watching a culture show at Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Park, Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The Duke surprised the aborigines when he asked them "Do you still throw spears at each other?" (Photo by Fiona Hanson - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

“I would hate to see it sitting there as a white elephant gathering dust.”

Mr Crawford said it is unlikely there would be any appetite from government to purchase the park.

“I don’t think it would fit with any purpose that we want to do, so hopefully someone out here has the money,” he said.

Tjapukai started as a dance troupe in a basement theatre founded by Don and Judy Freeman alongside artist David Hudson and traditional owners in Kuranda in 1987.

The business was then shifted to a multimillion-dollar facility in Smithfield in 1996 becoming an internationally renowned drawcard for the Far North.

The Freemans were bought out of their interests in the business by Indigenous Business Australia in 1999 who also bought out the Indigenous co-owners of the facility.

The business faced financial difficulty in the lead up to the Covid pandemic with the loss of international visitors signifying the death knell of the facility.

The park was purchased by the Djabugay Aboriginal Corporation in 2021 after it was closed.

Originally published as Why Tjapukai Park to be sold by Djabugay Aboriginal Corporations