Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda

Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda or Tuckiar (c. 1900 – c. 1934) was a Yolngu man and a leader of the Dhudi-Djapu clan from the Blue Mud Bay region in the Northern Territory of Australia. In 1934 he was charged with the murder of Albert McColl, a police constable, at Woodah Island (Guwanŋarripa) and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. His sentence was later quashed by the High Court of Australia in the case known as Tuckiar v The King, which found this to be a serious miscarriage of justice. Wirrpanda then disappeared within days of his release and foul play is suspected.

Life Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda, also known as Tuckiar, was born near Blue Mud Bay, south of Caledon Bay, in north-east Arnhem Land around the early 1900s. He spoke the Dhuwal language and received a traditional education from his people and went on to have three wives with only one, Djaparri (Japari/Yapparti) being identified in written records.

Conviction and aftermath Background In September 1932 five Japanese trepanging crew were killed at Caledon Bay, an event known as the Caledon Bay crisis. After the deaths, a party of police led my mounted constable Ted Morey were commissioned to investigate the circumstances. As part of this investigation the police party ended up at Woodah Island (Guwanŋarripa), some 100km to the south of Caledon Bay. The reason why the police went to Guwaŋarripa to investigate events at Caledon Bay is unclear. However, as Mulkun Wirrpanda recounted in the film Dhakiyarr vs the King the police officer Albert McColl chained himself to Mulkun's mother, Djaparri, a wife of Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda. McColl also shot at Wirrpanda and the pistol misfired.

Impact The killing of a white policeman caused a national sensation. The NT administrator, Robert Weddell, said the federal government needed to counter with a “strong demonstrative force”, making “casualties amongst these Aboriginals inevitable”. In front-page news in the Melbourne Herald, he argued that a punitive expedition was required to “teach the natives a lesson”. As this was only four years since the Coniston Massacre, also in the Northern Territory, where national demonstrations were mobilised to protest against the possibility of military operations designed to massacre Indigenous Australians. The outcome was a missionary 'peace expedition' led by the Rev HE Warren and Rev Alf Dyer who were with the Church Mission Society, tasked to convince the perpetrators of the killing of the Japanese trepangers and policeman to face trial in Darwin.

Wirrpanda was ultimately convinced by Dyer and others to surrender himself and submit to trial in Darwin, in April 1934 in Darwin at the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. To get there they set sail on 10 April, on the Oituli, and were surprised, on their arrival, to be placed in Fannie Bay Gaol.

Supreme Court trial During the trial there were a series of procedural irregularities and few witnesses were called, none of which were for the defence, and the accused themselves were not allowed to testify; additionally the police tracker acted as an interpreter. As a result of this trial, on 5 August 1934, the judge TA Wells found Wirrpanda guilty of murder and sentenced him to death by hanging.

High Court appeal

This caused a national outcry and was then appealed at the High Court of Australia in the case Tuckiar v The King, heard between 29 October and 8 November 1934. Wirrpanda's conviction was quashed and his immediate release from jail was ordered. The court found that the original trial had been a serious miscarriage of justice.

Release and death Wirrpanda was then released from jail and taken to the Kahlin Compound on 12 November 1934. Wirrpanda, who had made plans to attend the cinema with Dyer, then disappeared from the compound and was never seen again. Many explanations have been made for the disappearance, including that he was murdered by friends of McColl, but this has never been established. There is no record of him after this date and it has remained one of Australia's oldest missing person cases. with its findings published in March 2025. These found that there was not enough evidence to hold an inquest as it was unlikely to locate additional information and emphasis was placed on the lack of information that were available on the “exact circumstances of death” or “remains.

In film

Warriors and Lawmen (1984) In 1984 documentary filmmaker and artist George Gittoes released Warriors and Lawmen about Wirrpanda. In December 2025 Gittoes stated that, 40 years earlier during the course of making the documentary, a family friend who was a former NT police officer, Joe Doyle, had told him that he had personally witnessed his colleagues taking Wirrpanda into Darwin Harbour to shoot him after his acquittal.

These logs are designed to symbolise Dhakiyarr's ancestral stories and mark his presence in a court where he was once made 'invisible'.

Still seeking Justice Following this new information the NT police have re-opened their investigation. A NT Police spokesperson confirmed that the force was pursuing new lines of inquiry uncovered by the ABC's investigation.

They stated:

As part of his desire to seek justice, Wirrpanda's grandson, Dhukal Wirrpanda, has asked for the establishment of The Dhakiyarr Centre for Makarrata and Reconciliation. This educational centre would employ experts in Yolngu law to teach the principles of Yolngu justice and be located in the homelands adjacent to Dhakiyarr's homelands.