A Part of Buderim's History

Where Did they Go? The Story of Buderim’s Indigenous Residents
Part Three

Ray Kerkhove

1860s - 1870s:  In 1862, Tom Petrie became the first white man to officially cut timber on Buderim Mountain. His work team consisted of 25 Gubbi Gubbi people (men and their wives) from Brisbane and Bribie who knew (and indeed took him to) the site (Petrie 1904).

Two years earlier, the Bunya Bunya Reserve had been scrapped as one of the first acts of the new Queensland Parliament.  What we now call the Sunshine Coast became a timber reserve. White visitors recall seeing thousands of logs rafting down the streams and rivers, which were so often clogged with timber that they jammed the Mooloolah, Maroochy and Mary Rivers and one could walk across them without getting wet (Steele – Article 12). 

Buderim was the main focus of this intense activity. This was because, by all accounts, it held the finest and biggest specimens of red cedar, beech, kauri etc. Thus the Gubbi Gubbi were now constantly running up the mountain, cutting and dragging timber.  At this time there were only seven settlers (some with wives) on Buderim Mountain (Jones 1938: 5), so it was largely the Gubbi Gubbi  who did the pioneering work of clearing bushland, stripping bark, carrying supplies, building fences and working the stock (Taiton 1976: 183).

However, within six years (in 1868), the heads of these pioneering timber ventures - Pettigrew, Gregor, Low and Petrie - had utterly exhausted the forest reserves of the Buderim/ Mooloolah region. They decided to move their operations elsewhere (Heap 1966: 18).

In the process, they apparently abandoned their Gubbi Gubbi work teams. Deprived of income, the Aboriginal workers extracted’rent’ (flour) from settlers’ stores. Faced with this problem, William Pettigrew came up with the idea of flattering one of their headmen and his wife - King Bingeye and Queen Sarah - with breastplates, which were duly delivered by Ronald Coghill (a Buderim pioneer). Pettigrew enlisted the couple to help him halt the robberies. They proved very effective, but Bingeye was no mere puppet - he made a deal with Pettigrew to employ the Gubbi Gubbi teams in another paddock, cutting more timber (Heap 1966: 18). Bingeye's breastplate can still be seen today in Buderim's Pioneer Cottage.

As this shows, Buderim Aboriginals were starting to rely on employment with white pioneers - even if it entailed destroying their environment. As far as possible, they also tried to maintain their independence with traditional hunting-gathering, which is why they preferred casual and seasonal work - 'disappearing' from time to time on 'walkabouts.' Ewen Maddock witnessed the Mooloolah/ Buderim Aborigines hunting possums, scaling trees for honey (even to heights of 80 feet), eeling in the creeks - happily sharing these activities with white children such as him (Maddock 1965: 3).  However, less and less natural resources were now available. Work for the white man was increasingly the only option - apart from begging or stealing.

Begging and stealing - especially hassling travellers or spearing cattle and sheep - upset the settlers, who vented their anger in complaints to the police. It is no coincidence that as soon as the Bunya Bunya Reserve was terminated, Ltnt Fred Wheeler launched "immediate" patrols from his Sandgate base to "disperse" (which he explained meant shoot) blacks in Imbil and Kandanga Creek (COL/A44/63/2144, Z5671). This was at the request of local settlers.

Between 1862 and 1863 - in the midst of the early timber-getting - Wheeler reports he was constantly "patrolling... the Mooloolah, Maroochy, Ubi Ubi (Obi Obi)... districts" (COL/A32 from Col. Secretary Correspondence 62/2186; ID 846772 63/ 1511). Ironically, Wheeler also used his patrols as an occasion to "recruit" additional black police.  Not surprisingly, he was unsuccessful. He reported that sometimes the groups had not yet assembled for the bunya festival. Other times they told him they were too busy preparing for the bunya festival. Still other days, they were too busy washing sheep to join his bloodthirsty group. In apparent frustration, Wheeler "dispersed a large mob... near the sea coast" - presumably somewhere between Mooloolaba and Maroochydore (COL/A47/63/2889, Z5680). Wheeler also chased the Gubbi Gubbi around other parts of the countryside – for instance, having a confrontation with them when they were visiting Esk. During this, he states: “at last I was obliged to fire upon them in self defence” (ID 846761 62/ 1897 Z5605).

Throughout the 1860s and 1870s, at Murdering Creek by Lake Weyba, Imbil, Teewah, Tuchekoi, Manumbar, Ninderry/ Yandina Station, Amamoor, Kenilworth, Cooloothin Creek, Caboolture River and – oral history suggests - at many other sites, sizable groups of Aborigines were slaughtered (Monks 2000:81, Adams 2000: 140; Pedley 1979: 19, Heap 11, Brisbane Courier 1 Sept 1862).  The aggressors were as often vigilante settlers as Native Police.  Many of the victims would have been persons who frequented Buderim. Combined with epidemics, deaths through European-introduced intoxicants (rum often being the main currency of payment to Aboriginal labourers) and malnutrition, the war rapidly reduced the Aboriginal population of the Mooloolah/ Maroochy region. In just twenty years (by the early 1880s) it fell to about 40 - 50 to judge from the requests for blankets by Mooloolah and Didillibah residents at this time (McGavrie 1999: 2).* 

*Local populations fluctuated with work and movement, but most records of this time describe small groups of 12 to 20 persons at various locations – a far cry from the 200-600 inhabiting many camps twenty years earlier.