Mer Island: A Thumbnail Portrait The 20th anniversary of the
Mabo ruling, which brought our nation out from a dark period of
denial, is a good reason to look at Eddie Mabo’s homeland. Mer
or Murray is a tiny island just 4 km² on the far geographical
margin of Australia, in the eastern Torres Strait. Before it
became famed for legal and political reasons, Mer was renowned
for its valiant people and their vibrant, resilient culture. It
was admired and feared by the European sailors during the 18th
and 19th centuries. There are direct connections between Mer and
the Australian Museum. In 1836, Philip Parker King, a marine
explorer and one of the Museum Trustees, visited the island and
not for the first time. He brought back to the Australian Museum
a collection of about 50 artefacts from the island and wrote the
first extended description of the Meriam people and their
culture. In 1907 a marine biologist, Charles Hedley and his
assistant Allan McCulloch from the Australian Museum, went on a
collecting expedition