A Part of Buderim's History

Picture Show at Buderim Hall

 By Maurie and Edna Richards

We (Maurie and Edna Richards) bought the Picture Theatre at the Buderim Memorial Hall on 23 July 1955 and ran it until March 1962.  It was bought from C.A. Paroz for £1,000.

The equipment consisted of  two Gaumont British (GB) 35mm Projectors with AC Arc Lamps, optical sound, two Sound Amps, Speakers, Screen, Glass Slide Projector with Arc Lamp, turn Table, Rewind and film joining equipment.  Fire proof film storage steel box, etc.

The Hall belonged to the Buderim War Memorial Community Centre and we paid rent for the use of the Hall for each Saturday night.  This theatre had been running for many years before, but because of ill health of Mr Paroz, was decided to close down or sell.  As I was a trustee of the Hall and also a HHajjjjjmember of the BWMCC, we decided to take over the show rather than see it closed.

Edna and I bought the show in July 1955 and ran it until 1962.  By this time TV was in, and most farms around the area had been sold with the ground cut up for development.  As the local population changed so the local picture show lost many patrons who were regulars each Saturday night. 

Also the Hall Library opened each Saturday night.  This was the local meeting place for most of the locals.

Some alternations were made after we took over the show – new sound system, new stage curtains (ex Regent Theatre, Brisbane), new projection screen and lighting were purchased. 

The screen was mounted on a roller track, as the screen was on the stage and the stage would be needed for other functions during the week.  The screen would be run back to the back wall and covered, then run forward to near the front of the stage for screening films.  The new screen was almost the full width of the stage, as we now had altered the projectors to show Cinescope, VistaVision and all wide screen films.

After closing the show in 1962, the projectors were donated to Hans Wensel Movie Museum to be stored in the Canberra Historical Museum.

To assist with the maintenance of the Hall and grounds, we ran two benefit shows each year, with all door takings donated to the Hall Committee, as well as our rent for the Hall.

Films for a night’s showing were – God Save the Queen, cartoon, newsreels, trailers for coming films, a support film until interval then the main film.  The films were supplied from various film companies in Brisbane, such as Warners, Universal, MGM, Paramount, Columbia, BEF, Fox, etc.  The film company provided a contract for 13 full nights’ programs at a time.  The rental fee was based on the quality of the programs.  Some more popular films required a percentage of the door takings.

The films arrived by road transport two days before.  All spools of the film had to be checked and often rewound.  A night’s program would have up to 15 spools of film, each spool containing about 2000 feet of film each.  The films returned to Brisbane the next day by road transport.

Advertising was by paper posters displayed in various places around the town and supplied by the film companies for a fee.  Advertising on the screen was by film or glass slides projected by a large slide projector using glass slides about 3 inches square.  Most slides were in colour and clear slides were used to hand write on with Indian ink.

The Picture Show returned very little profit, but provided a benefit to the town.  Many people gave their time and assisted in running the show.  Names that come to mind are:  Col Zerner, Ron Bryers, Heather Weakley, Shirley Peters, Bill and Peg Ecuyer, Ollie Ashby, Dick Healy, Harry Adamson, just to name a few.

The Picture Show was on a Saturday night, and with the Library open, this provided a meeting place for many of the locals.  Trying to start the night’s showing and getting the people to stop talking and take their seats often meant running “God Save The Queen” at full volume to get their attention.

Our thanks go to many people over the years for helping to provide a service to the Buderim township, with many memories, good fellowship and a lot of friends.

In these early days Buderim was mainly a farming area and to lots of families, going to the pictures on a Saturday night, changing some library books and having a yarn, made their week.

Thank goodness for the good old days.

A Part of Buderim's History

THE WILLSON'S OF BUDERIM

By Brian Willson

My great grandmother Mary Hamilton who was a cousin of William Pettigrew married Henry Willson in 1862 and in 1866 Henry was employed by Pettigrew as a storekeeper on Pettigrew's land at the mouth of the Mooloolah River ( Heap 1966). Although Heap does not mention the name of this storekeeper, family records show that Henry was this storekeeper. The diaries of William Pettigrew make many mentions of  Willson.

The Willson's third child Margaret, was born in 1867, and was the first white girl to be born in the area on the coast.

 In 1875, a Mr Ballinger of Mooloolah Plains wrote to the Board of Education to try and have a school built in the area. His letter dated May 3rd, 1875 read in part “there are nineteen children in the Mooloolah district and there is no school for them”. He also added that “it was possible to guarantee the attendance of only 12 of these children”. The Board replied that “an average attendance of 15 children was required before a school could be built”. Later that month a Mr Dixon advised the Board “that 15 children could be guaranteed” and added “that a weatherboard building 20ft by 12ft with a desk and seating would be built”. The Board replied “that if a building and furniture were provided they would pay a teacher 70 Pound a year and would supply books and school requirements”.

A committee consisting of farmers, C Ballinger, D Cogill, J Lindsay and C Chalmers, a timber-getter G Traill, a sugar manufacturer, J Dixon and storekeeper, H Willson was formed, and they recommended to the Board that Mr. Robert Grant, 35, single, educated in Old Aberdeen and with teaching experience in Missouri, U.S.A, be appointed teacher.

The Buderim Mountain Provisional School as it was known  was opened on July 5th 1875 with an enrolment of 12 children with Mr Grant as teacher. It is amazing that a school could be built and opened only 2 months after the first approach to the Board. The school attendance register for 1875 gives the following names:-

1. MacDonald, Ernest

2. Cogill, John

3. Ridley, George

4. Traill, Alfred

5. Traill, Arthur

6. Traill, Anna Bella

7. Traill, Anne Jemi

8. Ridley, Lily

9. Cogill, Elizabeth

10. Ballinger, George Fred

11. Ballinger, Henry

12. Ballinger, Charles

13. Willson, Mary

14. Willson, Sarah

15. Willson, Margaret

16. Burgess, Sam John

17. Chambers, Mary Anne

18. Chambers Catherina

The three eldest Willson children commenced school in September 1875. A son Henry Hugh Willson started in late 1876.

The school on Mt Buderim was  a long walk from their home on the coast and Margaret was to later recall this daily trek to school in her poem “Memories” the last line of which reads “As we trudged that league to school”. Presumably they used horseback for this trip.

Henry Willson was voted Chairman of the first elected school committee on July25th, 1876

In 1878 after the collapse of the timber industry, Henry applied to the Department of Lands for a lease over 160 acres of land on the banks of the Mooloolah River on which he erected a humpy dwelling 9ft. square. Almost immediately the site proved useless, as it was covered in water following a fresh in the river, and was abandoned.

The family then decided to move to Brisbane and the children left the Buderim school in late September 1878, thus ending their connection with Buderim.

References

Heap 1966 “In the Wake of the Raftsmen” Part11

Buderim School correspondence in Qld State Archives

A Part of Buderim's History

Building on Buderim

by Shirley Reynolds (nee Stollznow)

Our family arrived on Buderim from Toogoolawah in June 1947. Our Dad, Alwyn Stollznow, had a holiday at “Seaspray” Guest House in Maroochydore, and he fell in love with Buderim. Farm land was being cut up by the Foote Brothers for house blocks. Being a builder by trade, he decided to buy a block and move the family here.

We moved into a very small old shed (7 of us) on the Foote property while Dad built the first house in Eckersley Ave. It was while here we met up with our close friends the Eggmolesse family of 7 children.

Dad and his brother Ernie employed local men and gradually built most of the homes on that estate. Later, Dad purchased 10 acres of land on King St, and called it ‘Panorama Farm’.  In 1954 we experienced a massive cyclone, destroying our banana plantation and most other farms on Buderim.

Five of us attended school on Buderim. (Later, we moved to a cane farm at Maroochydore.) School days were very carefree, walking to school, lots of times with no shoes. The boys had a few fights every so often along the way. Sometimes we ate big ripe guavas on the way home, and sometimes mandarins.

My first job after leaving school was at the Ginger Factory, pouring strawberry jam. Roads were unsealed, and when I worked back late, my means of transport home was my bike with no lights, in the dark. No memories of falling off, a few house lights were my guide.

Later I worked at Middy’s store and Fielding’s store. I met my future husband, Cecil Reynolds, at a school fancy dress ball. Cecil bought four shillings worth of petrol so that he could ask me out.

For Buderim history information, email Buderimhistory@gmail.com

A Part of Buderim's History

Meet the History Detectives Part 1

by Sue Pitt

There are many kinds of history. There are many kinds of historian. I am fascinated by how different they are, and by how many different techniques they use.

Alex Bond is very quiet. I visited the DERM Map Museum at Wooloongabba with Alex last year. We looked at the scrappy old hand drawn map of the Sunshine Coast that William Pettigrew used to carry in his pocket when he travelled here in the 1860’s. Alex is well known at the museums. He is searching out information about his Aboriginal heritage. His DVD Songlines Into Brisbane (2011) recounts what his mother told him about Aboriginal life in early Brisbane. He is working on a second DVD about the Sunshine Coast area, including Buderim.

We don’t know very much about Constance Campbell Petrie. She must have been fascinated by stories. She was 28 years old in 1900, and lived with her parents near the North Pine River. Her father Tom was 69 years old. Constance carefully recorded her father’s memories of his amazing life in early Moreton Bay. Thanks to her we have a very readable record of the life of the man who first came to Buderim in1862 with a team of Aboriginal workers. Constance’s  account first appeared as articles in the Queenslander, and in 1904, it was published as a book: Tom Petrie’s Reminiscences of Early Queensland.

Librarians are nearly invisible. But if you’re looking for history, every Sunshine Coast library has a Local Studies section. It’s worth looking patiently through the titles, because our librarians diligently collect local stories, and maps, and photos, and press clippings! They must be our quietest historians! And if you’re into new technology, don’t miss the great pictures at Picture Sunshine Coast.

More historians to come in Part 2.

A Part of Buderim's History

Camphor Laurels in Buderim

By Meredith Walker

Camphor laurels are part of the familiar street scenes of Buderim. Self-sown trees are many times more numerous than planted. The Camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora) is a native to China, Taiwan and Japan and was introduced to Australia c1822 and to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in 1861. It was first promoted as an ornamental tree; and from use for shade and shelter on farms, it has spread along the eastern coast of Australia from Nowra to Cooktown.

The first plantings on Buderim are unknown, but the oldest surviving planted trees date from the first decade of the 20^th century. The most prominent are the avenue in the school grounds planted c1910 by children born in 1900, including Fred Mead and Ivy Chadwick.  Opposite, in front of St Marks church (now the hall) two trees were planted by churchwarden John Waters in 1923. The Foote family planted camphors along King Street/Mooloolaba road frontage c1908 of which 7 remain: including at the entrance to Foote Avenue.  In 1911, Bert Fielding planted two weeping figs and a camphor laurel in front of his house (now the Aveo office) in Lindsay Road and later the Fergusons planted camphor laurels in their farm (date unknown) off Gloucester road.

Planted camphor laurels have an unintended legacy in the large number of self-seeded trees. They fruit prolifically in autumn and winter with birds spreading the seed.  Camphor laurels have overtaken and diminished the native vegetation along Martins Creek near Lindsay Road, as shown by comparing the present vegetation with aerial photos from 1920 and 1940.   Places that had few trees of any kind in 1958 now have self-sown camphor laurels, including alongside St Marks carpark. – where natives regenerate,  but their growth and sustainability is inhibited by camphors.

In Buderim Forest Park and Buderim Nature Reserve, the spread of camphor laurels is a constant problem especially at the edges and along watercourses, where seeds can travel considerable distances.  Camphors also invade protected vegetation in private ownership- the areas that contribute so much to the treed look of Buderim.

Camphor laurels have attractive qualities, but they are also a declared Class 3 pest plant in Queensland. Careful planning is needed reduce their adverse impacts and at the same sustain and support the growth of trees in Buderim.

Buderim Tree History – a project of the Buderim Historical Society, support by a Sunshine Coast council community grant and an endorsed B150 project.

A Part of Buderim's History

Love at Guy’s Siding 

by Mark Murtagh

Bill Parker.   My grandfather, William Ernest Parker, was an American, born in Missouri or Kansas, we think, in 1879 we think.  He was raised on a farm, and then as a young man drove large herds of cattle from the prairies to market, was a lumberjack in Canada during winter when the muskeg was frozen, and worked on railroad construction at other times.  He found himself in San Francisco sometime around 1910.

It seems that at that time the (Australian) Victorian State Government dreamed up a plan, “The Closer Lands Settlement Scheme” to open up the Shepparton district for apple orchardists, and recruited 64 Americans in San Francisco to be the pioneers. Bill was one of these. They brought them across, by ship of course, landed in Sydney thence by rail to Melbourne.  Here they received a lavish civic reception.  Shortly thereafter they were taken to the area of the proposed orchards.  It was immediately obvious to the recruits that this was not a viable proposition, so, Bill and his buddies, all disappointed, branched out looking for other opportunities.  The government wasn’t going to pay to send them home.   I am guessing that some of them would not want to go home for various reasons.

Bill made his way to Queensland.  He had worked on railroad construction in America so with all the railroad action in Queensland at that time he picked up a few earthmoving contracts. There was a big one on the line to Aramac.  George Phillips was the Engineer in charge of that project.  George later took on the Buderim Tram Line and was keen for Bill to do the work too.   Various sections of the line earthworks were being offered for tender.  Bill’s bids were successful for the bulk of the work from the Glen up to Telco Road.  You can, and should, walk along that line to see what was achieved with hand tools, explosives and horse drawn equipment.

Of course, everyone knows about William Henry Guy.  He was on Buderim with a survey party in 1869, and was among the very first settlers when the land was opened up for selection.  Soon after he built his primitive shack he found a lovely bride, Susan Hamilton.  It took more than a week on horseback to get her home after the wedding ceremony, and she wasn’t impressed when she arrived!  Nevertheless, they persevered, and made a fabulous family.  One girl and 5 boys.  They also built a grand old Queenslander home.

Jessie Guy.  My grandmother, Jestina Catherine Guy, was the firstborn of the Guy’s, and in fact, was the first white female born on Buderim.  She was a student at the Buderim State School, enrolled in 1884.  Quite active in civic and social activities as were most of the Quakers and Methodists.  Like everyone on Buderim, she took an interest in the tramway construction which crossed their place, and made the acquaintance of Bill Parker, the cavalier man in charge of earthworks further down the line.  Hey, have a look at what these men did without powered machinery, and you will be in awe too.   She was obviously enraptured, and Bill and Jessie were wed in 1914. 

They started married life on a farm at Tingoora, near Kingaroy.  Their wheat crops were a failure due to adverse seasons but one thing of note was that Jessie took peanuts from Buderim. They flourished, and that lead eventually to the start of the famous Kingaroy peanut industry. My mother, Maud, was born there.  Maud Street in Maroochydore is named after her.  They subsequently had 3 more girls, May, Ella and Rose.

Bill and Jessie returned to Buderim.  Mr. Guy gave them a slice of his land where they got back on their feet.  He was a kind and generous man.

Interestingly, Bill sold out to Arthur Parker, (same name, no relation), whose daughter Monica later married Jessie’s youngest brother Harold.  This is the same Monica Guy, the Buderim 150 ‘Living Legend’ who turned 105 years old in November 2011.  My Great-Aunt.

From Buderim, Bill and Jessie moved down towards Mooloolaba to a block adjacent to the Cemetery, then eventually to Maroochydore.  At one stage they were the biggest landholders there with their 400 acre dairy along the south side of Aerodrome Road.  Bill was very active in the community and it was he who put a motion to the Progress Association in 1947 to rename the shire the ‘Sunshine Coast’.  This predated the push by the REIQ by many years.  Bill would be happy to know that his idea has finally been adopted.

Bill and Jessie are buried at the Buderim Cemetery, but their progeny and their memories live on along the Sunshine Coast and hinterland.

A Part of Buderim's History

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

Ray Kerkhove

1930s – Now:  Here we move into the epoch of “living memory.”  The 1930s brought a gradual easing of restrictions around Aboriginal people – usually in the form of ‘exemptions’ (allowing individuals to permanently leave the Reserves, if they lived and worked in the white community and promised to not associated with any Aboriginal people). In 1948, some three exemptions were granted for individuals who had hailed from Buderim. This quest for conformity often led to deliberate suppression of Indigenous language and customs even by Aboriginal/ Islander families, as some Buderim families still recall (Lindsell 1995-6).

Gradually as elsewhere in Australia, the Aboriginal/Kanaka families gained equal rights to voting and better jobs and education than they had been permitted before. They continued to school their children at Buderim. Older members of the current community recall walking to Buderim’s springs – and their work in farming, fishing, water-carrying and washing (LIndsell 1995-6). They also recall the frequent long walks to and from school and work, but they also note that starting in the 1930s – and more so after the 1960s – their once tightly-knit Indigenous community was fairly shattered. It had started to disperse, with various individuals following up new opportunities and living and working elsewhere on the Sunshine Coast (such as Nambour and Bli Bli) or even in Central Queensland (Lindsell 1995-6).

However, there are still scores of Aboriginal people living in Buderim today, as there were also 15 years ago , according to the 1996 Census (McGarvie 1999:2).  Moreover, in recent years, families whose roots lay in Buderim (though they themselves may have grown up elsewhere) produced unforgettable figures, including footballer Arthur Beetson, contemporary artist Bianca Beetson, and dancer/artist Lyndon Davis.  Thus the Buderim Indigenous community is still with us, and has made a proud contribution to all Australia.

*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.

SOURCES

Abbreviations re/ Archive materials (unpublished letters etc.)

COL = Colonial Secretary’s Department

CPA = Child Protection Agency

HOM = Home Secretary

JUS = Justice Department

Other works

Adams, R J. L., 2000, Noosa – Gubbi Gubbi: The land and the people Tewantin: Ultreya

Blyth, A., 1994, John Low’s House and Family Yandina (Koongalba 1894-1994), Yandina: Audienne Blyth

Donavon, V., 2002, The Reality of a Dark History (Brisbane: Queensland Heritage Network/ Arts Queensland)

Heap, E.G., November 1966, ‘In the Wake of the Raftsmen – Part.1,’ Queensland Heritage Vol.1:3

Jackson, G.K., 1937, ‘Aboriginal Middens at Pt Cartwright District,’ Annals of Queensland Museum 11 (1936-1939)

Johnson, M & Kay Saunders, 2007, Wild Heart, Bountiful Land – An Historical Overview of the Mary River Valley (Runconrn: Qld State Archives/ Cooloola Shire Council)

Jones, E., 1938, Jottings from My Notebook (mss folio F8019 – Fryer Collection, Uni of Qld)

Lindsell, H., 1995-1996, South Sea Islanders Research (audio recordings – Buderim Historical Cottage)

Maddock, E., 11 June 1965, Early History of Mooloolah (mss folio FA432 - Fryer Collection, Uni of Qld)

Melton, C.,  1909-1924, Cuttings Book (Brisbane Courier) – mss Royal Qld Historical Society

Meston, A., 25 August 1923, ‘Early Incidents,’ Daily Mirror (OM72-82/4 Fryer Collection)

McGarvie, N & J., December 1999, History of the Aborigines in the Buderim Area (Buderim: Buderim Historical Society)

Monks, C., 2000, Noosa – the way it was and the way it is now (Tewantin: Monks)

Pedley, I., 1979, Winds of Change: 100 Years in the Widgee Shire (Gympie: Gympie Times)

Petrie, C.C., 1904/ 1983 (3^rd edition), Tom Petrie’s Reminiscences of Early Queensland London: Angus & Robertson

Pitt, S., 9 November 1999, Chronology of events involving Aborigines and Pacific Islanders in the Buderim area (unpuplished pamphlet)

Robertson, A. (ed.), 1962, Buderim – 100 Years of History Reviewed (Buderim: Centenary Celebrations Committee)

Steele, T. n/d, ‘When the River was Jammed with Logs,’ Article 12 Gympie Times (compilation – John Oxley collection, State Library of Queensland)

Taiton, Rev., 1976, Maruchti (mss – Nambour Local Studies)

A Part of Buderim's History

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

Ray Kerkhove

1900s - 1920s: The predicament of Buderim's Aboriginal population grew more dismal with the introduction of the 1897 Aboriginals Protection & Restriction of Sale of Opium Act. State and local governments were being pressured to permanently remove or deport non-Anglo-Saxons from town and country alike, complying with community vision of an all-white Australia. Now Aboriginals could be removed everywhere in Queensland and permanently contained in prison-like Reserves or similar forms of incarceration such as hospitals, leper colonies, nursing homes and prisons. Their only reprieve was to be employed in work contracts at specified homesteads, but even this often meant being moved anywhere around Queensland, and years of absence from family and loved ones (Donovan 2002: 259). 

To add to these difficulties, by 1910, almost all Reserves of the South-east Queensland were closed and their lands opened to settlement. Gubbi Gubbi people from Buderim and elsewhere who had been living not too far away in these Reserves were now dumped much further afield - usually at Taroom Reserve or Cherbourg (near Murgon) or even Palm Island in North Queensland.  The reserves forbade Indigenous custom and language and effectively cut people off from their families. 

Some of the Buderim Chillis were sent to Taroom Reserve, and despite their efforts to return, individuals like Henry Chilli ended their days there. In 1920, Charlie Brown – an Aboriginal working in Buderim – was removed after complaints about his affiliation with non-Aboriginal women (CPA Correspondence 40/744). That same year, Alice – a Gubbi Gubbi woman - was removed to Deebing Creek, simply for having married Jack Sandwich (a Kanaka). Their child was left in Jack’s custody.

Local Sunshine Coast farmers became unexpected allies to the Indigenous community in these difficult times. They pestering the authorities to permit the Chillis, Muckans and others to return to live and work in Buderim under their employ (HOMJ2150-370). Others hid their Aboriginal workers whenever ‘authorities’ turned up to remove them.  A good instance of this was the ten or so Aborigines and Aboriginal-Kanaks (some from Buderim) who managed to keep working and living near the Lows in Yandina during the 1900s – 1910s (Blyth 1994: 13, 32).  Thus "removal" - despite its finality - was a slow and at times ineffective process, with individuals and families escaping the system in fits and starts right up to its demise in the 1960s.

Ironically, the Act also brought ‘fresh blood’ (non-Gubbi Gubbi Aborigines) into Buderim and neighbouring areas during the 1910s-1920s.  Farmers of the district requested the services of Aborigines from the Reserves as farmhands and domestics. At Mooloolah, Aboriginal youth were employed to clear lantana and peach (for instance, at Paget's and Smith's) (HOM J2150-370), whilst the Buderim Aboriginal community saw new members such as Jimmy Blackboy ('Blackie'). Evidently he was hardly alone, as reports speak of his fights with “other coloured men" at Buderim (JUS/n619/16/609).

A Part of Buderim's History

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

Ray Kerkhove

1880s - 1890s:  By the 1880s, the survivors were living in a very different world from their parents. Buderim’s large pastoral and timber leases had been minutely subdivided. Farming dominated the plateau. Scores of Kanaka (South Sea Islander) cane workers inhabited a village in the centre of Buderim.  Most of the Kanaks were single males. In their free time, they often mixed with local Aboriginal people at their camping grounds (Mooloolaba, Cottontree, Nambour etc.), so it is not surprising that many married Gubbi Gubbi women.

Unfortunately, government authorities took a dim view of such liaisons.  Aboriginals were now a minority group to be controlled rather than feared.  It became commonplace for settlers to request that particular Aboriginal individuals or families be placed "for their own good" into benevolent institutes or Aboriginal Reserves. A number of the latter had been formed: at White Patch (Bribie Island), Durundur (Woodford), Myora (Stradbroke Island), Fraser Island, and Deebing Creek (Ipswich). 

Thus when it was reported that at least 16 Buderim Kanakas had married Gubbi Gubbi women, the Immigration Agent (Mr Brennan) was sent to Buderim to investigate. Finding the reports correct, the Queensland Protector of Aborigines, Archibald Meston, ordered tracker Willie Gordon to "muster the women and their children for transport to a home in Brisbane" (COL/143).  Though Meston later regretted the forcible manner in which this was carried out - particularly how the three children of Sam Gee Gee (Wageegee) and Annie Lawrtie were seized by police on their way home from school, the Gee Gee children, Robert Wassemo, Alice Sandwich and Mary Ann Brown and others were removed from Buderim. As might be expected, their Kanaka/Aboriginal parents (and some of the Buderim settlers such as George Jones) wrote letters of protest, but with no result (COL/ 143, 02/14989).

Despite such obstacles, Aboriginal/ Kanaka families took great pride in the fact that they were - unlike most Aborigines of south-east Queensland - able to school their children. In 1887 a school opened in Buderim and Aborigines and Islander families were amongst the students (Pitt 1999). Their dedication is seen in the fact that many of the Indigenous mums chose to camp very near the Buderim school (McGarvie 1999: 5-6).

The Aborigines of Buderim were now, as photos show, increasingly “Western” in their lifestyle and mode of dress (see John Oxley Collection Neg. 57015), yet they simultaneously tried to maintain traditional social and ritual obligations such as bora initiations and inter-tribal gatherings.  This was another reason for their sudden 'disappearances' or 'walkabouts.’ Charlotte Kuskopf, recalling the 1890s, states that groups still conducted "walkabouts from the Blackall Ranges, Hunchy and Buderim" during the bunya season, camping overnight at Woombye and giving bunya nuts to her family when they left (Taiton 1976). 

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.

A Part of Buderim's History

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

Ray Kerkhove

1840s - 1850s:  For local Aborigines, the start of 'free (non-convict) settlement' was marred by the Kilcoy massacre (1842 – Meston 1923). Some 60 of their people (Gubbi Gubbi) from Mt Bauple perished in that event (Johnson & Saunders 2007: 6). In response, many amongst the Gubbi Gubbi and neighbouring groups met at the bunya lands (near Maleny) and declared war on white people. Thus began a sporadic, guerrilla conflict that lasted till c.1855 – what Chas Melton recalled as “the fighting Fifties” (Melton 1919).  It mostly consisted of economic sabotage – depleting or driving away the herds and crops that fed the settlers (Adams 2000:137), and trying to disrupt their lines of transportation or inflict revenge killings on particularly bothersome whites.

The very same year (1842), the entire 'North Coast region' (today's Sunshine Coast - mostly Gubbi Gubbi territory) was declared a 'Bunya Bunya Reserve' by Governor Gipps.  This halted settlers moving into the area and made it an important ‘hide out’ for resistance leaders like Dundalli and Yilbung.

Many Aborigines from the 'North Coast' were nevertheless curious about the strange white men of the fledgling colony. Melton records that Brisbane’s Indigenous visitors at this time were “mostly from tribes of the North Coast region” (Melton 1921: 85).  The visitors came to trade or sell their wares and sea foods, or take up casual jobs such as water-carrying.  Others simply visited to observe the curious antics of the newcomers or to beg and pilfer what they could of their strange objects, foods and intoxicants.  By such means, the Gubbi Gubbi and other groups rapidly grew proficient in English, horse-riding, shooting, boat-piloting, the use of iron and countless other objects - blending all this as best they could with their traditional lifestyle.

A little more than ten years after the Bunya Bunya Reserve had been proclaimed; two large pastoral leases engulfed the Mooloolah/ Buderim district (Heap 1965: 7). Timber getters such as Richard Jones were already exploring Buderim’s forests (Robertson 1962: 5). They established tiny timber ports at Alexandra Headlands, Mooloolaba, and Maroochydore.

The usual workers for these early arrivals were local Gubbi Gubbi people. It was they who cut and dragged the mighty logs down to what had been their old pathways - down the creeks, to the Mooloolah River and eventually on their way around the world. It was also they who created the roadways to transport the timber (Andison 1997: 3).

A Part of Buderim's History

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

Ray Kerkhove

What became of the Aboriginal (Gubbi Gubbi) people of Buderim? The short answer is: they're still here. Indigenous families whose original country was the Buderim/ Mooloolah area - the Chillis, Muckans, Beetsons and others - mostly continue to live on the Sunshine Coast. Quite a few still live on or near Buderim.  However, the Aboriginal community underwent many changes and is today much smaller than at the dawn of Buderim’s history. To understand how this occurred, we need to follow their story almost decade by decade....

1820s - 1830s: 'First contact' occurred almost 200 years ago - explorers, castaways, escaped convicts and bunders ('wild white men') wandering and staying everywhere between Brisbane to Wide Bay.  Some of them must have passed through Buderim, though this was never recorded, as the area back then was an important Gubbi Gubbi resource and work site, as well as a camping ground (towards Sippy Downs).  The latter, being the "hillside resort” for the Gubbi Gubbi and others engaged in fishing and oyster-diving between Pt Cartwright and Alexandra Headlands, must have been much frequented to judge from the huge middens (shell heaps) that once characterised the area (Jackson 1937).  Smallpox spreading from the penal colonies decimated local populations before the first settlers arrived, but well into the 1860s, there were still some 300 Aborigines inhabiting the Mooloolah/ Buderim region (McGavrie 1999:2).

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A Part of Buderm's History

More memories from Merle Stevens:

About the teachers – there was Beryl Waters and Beryl Crosby.  The former (herself enrolled in 1914) taught Mum (Merle Stevens) piano, but I’m not sure whether she was a school teacher or not.  The latter was one of Mum’s school teachers and in singing lessons, taught Mum and Lizzie Mucken to sing duets.  She was possibly not much older than her pupils and so may have been still teaching (and single) when you and Simon were at school.  Mum’s sister Daph (who wasn’t keen on dentists) says there were sisters, Bell (Beryl?) and Kitty Crosby.  I couldn’t find their names in the Buderim M.S.S. centenary book but they may have moved there after the girls had finished school.  Vince Crosby was enrolled 1918.

When I was school age we drove over Buderim from Glenview to visit Mum’s parents at Mooloolaba.  Vince Crosby lived halfway up the side of Buderim that was referred to as Crosby Hill.  Aunty Daph also remembers that J.J. Simpson bought the coffee mill from Boards.  He had a little girl, Marion, who Aunty Daph accompanied to school.

Aunty Daph is 8 years younger than Mum.  Mum went to live with relatives at Mooloolah so that she could attend high school (Nambour Rural School) by train and after that, she only went back to Buderim for holidays.  Her cousin who does the family tree sent me a sketchy photocopy of the high rail bridge between Telco & Glenmount and it certainly does look high!

From Beris Staveley – 20^th February 2012