The History Under Your Feet

The History Under Your Feet

Maurice Serico

The Western Echo is thrilled to present a short series of articles featuring local First Nations stories, history, and culture. This has been made possible through a generous grant received from the Local & Independent News Association (LINA). This story is the second in the series by local Aboriginal man Maurice Serico. 

For most people, The Gap is all about the trees, pleasant spaces and the creek. It was thus the same for the First Nations people who camped here and passed through. These people were predominantly the Turrbul people with others including the Jagera and some Wakka Wakka people.

Despite the lushness people in The Gap may see today that same diversity of resources paled in comparison to the riches available in Meanjin, the Turrbul name for the area that we know as central Brisbane and the Brisbane River. With both freshwater and saltwater fish and shellfish available, plus easy access to Moreton Bay to dugong and turtle and fertile wetlands and associated birdlife, the people of Meanjin were spoilt for food and other resources.

The Gap was predominantly an area for passing through to the bunya festivals held in Baroon Pocket, north of Maleny in the Blackall Ranges. As a result of this passing through the track from Meanjin (Brisbane), towards Mount Nebo and then to Baroon Pocket was an important component of The Gap. This track followed Enoggera Creek very closely. In the 1860s when a new dam for the growing city of Brisbane was needed, a dam high on Enoggera Creek became the chosen project. The site sits at the junction of three creeks and was a popular stopping point on the bunya festival walks. Because many other First Nations people would be on the same walk, rest points along the walk became good places to conduct meetings.

Traditional Aboriginal meetings on the east coast of Australia typically would take place in bora rings, and there are many bora rings reported to have been in The Gap.  

Image: the above image was taken at the Samford Museum – the diarama shows the bora ring at Wight’s Mountain (diarama owned by the Queensland Museum) 

Bora rings are unique to eastern Australia, with South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales being the areas where they are concentrated. They have important sacred functions including the initiation of young men into full manhood, community ceremonies and non-sacred community meetings. 

A traditional bora ring comprises two circles, a larger one and a smaller one, connected by a straight path, generally less than 500m long. The circles and paths would be marked usually by raised soil ridges or less frequently by large stones. Despite common belief, the raised circles were often decorated with sticks or plants and a central plant or pole. Most activities took place in the larger circle with only the initiation ceremony taking place in the smaller circle. 

In many cases only one bora ring could be seen. The smaller, sacred circle was often erased after use in initiation ceremonies. 

Bora rings are connected to the heavens. In Aboriginal astronomy the dark nebulas that can be seen dotted along the Milky Way form the Dark Emu. You can see the Coalsack nebula in the Milky Way at one end of the Milky Way without a telescope. There is a larger dark patch that covers the bulge at the centre of the Milky Way. Those two dark patches represent the head and body of the dark emu and a thin line of darkness along the middle of the Milky Way represents the neck of the emu, connecting the two parts of the emu.

The two rings and paths of the bora ring mimic that dark emu shape, even if the dreaming stories and lore of south east Queensland do not reference the emu.  

Locally, bora rings, a Kamilaroi (NSW) name, were known as kip, derived from the Gubbi Gubbi (Kabi Kabi) term “kippah” meaning an uninitiated young man, giving us the suburb names, Kippa-Ring and Keperra.

The early settler, Tom Petrie (1831-1910), who grew up and played with local Aboriginal children in Brisbane, noted several bora rings in and around Brisbane. From his reminiscences, it seems that the bora ring at Samford was used by Turrbul and Wakka Wakka people, another bora ring at North Pine was used by the Kabi Kabi, Joondaburri, and Yagembah peoples, and yet another bora ring at Redcliffe, presumably the one formerly found at Kippa-Ring was used by the Kabi Kabi and Wakka Wakka peoples. 

Currently, the best-preserved bora ring near The Gap is the Samford or Wight’s Mountain bora ring which was preserved by the local property owner and then handed over to a trust for further preservation. Another well preserved bora ring lies in Nudgee. 

Jeff Hilder recalls that his brothers knew of two bora rings near Mount Nebo Road. That road was part of the bunya festival trek, and the bora rings would have been a convenient place to meet. They were halfway between the plentiful fresh water of the high reaches of Enoggera Creek and fertile wetlands beside Fish Creek. Sadly, those bora rings were demolished in the 1960s when the area was prepared for housing. They were located where Moygara Street is now.

There are signs of spear sharpening in Fish Creek with a series of sharpening grooves on a rock platform in the creek, suggesting that spear fishing may have taken place there. As the name suggests, fish were plentiful in this tributary of the Enoggera Creek. 

Where Fish Creek flows into Enoggera Creek was, and still is, an important social gathering place. We know it today as the Walton Bridge Reserve. For the First Australians walking out to the bunya festivals it was one of the major resting points. Being flat, shady, cool in summer, with food and shelter in easy reach it became an important and popular place for rest, recreation and meeting.

Recreation is even in the name of the creek, Enoggera. This word should really be the Turrbul word, “Euoggera” but the “u” was mistaken for an “n” in an early printing and the error stuck. Euoggera means “sing-dance” or “sing-play”. This spot was one of many along Enoggera Creek that were used for impromptu corroborees, where groups would sing and dance in good natured competition and feasting. It is quite likely that the nearby O S Twist Oval was also a dancing ground.

The best-known dancing and ceremonial ground on Enoggera Creek was at Sedgley Park in Alderley. Much more elaborate corroborees took place that included invitations being published in the local newspaper. The last of these corroborees took place in 1902. 

Above and to the south of the Walton Bridge Reserve lies Jevons Street. It has been reported that bora rings were located here, but they were destroyed when housing in the area was developed. 

Although bora rings are almost completely removed from The Gap their history has remained. Perhaps modern society can learn to value other cultures more in the future and be more caring and less destructive with cultural material like the bora rings.

Even though the bora rings are no longer here the path that connected them, Enoggera Creek, or should I say, “Euoggera Creek” still flows strongly and while people don’t walk along it to get to the bunya festivals any more their spirits are still flowing too. 

Editor’s note: many thanks to Samford Museum who generously provided their time and access to information and archives about the local bora ring site at Wight’s Mountain. If you’re looking for further information about the bora ring near Samford, I suggest a visit to the Samford Museum; open Wednesdays and Sundays from 10am to 4pm. 

Thanks to LINA for the financial support to feature this story: www.lina.org.au  

Image credits: Colin Bushell Photography and Melanie Grevis-James