The Empty Valley

The Empty Valley

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 third in the series by local Aboriginal man Maurice Serico. 

I have written in previous articles stories about First Nations people in The Gap and included many reminiscences in those articles. Behind those stories is a truth that was not glaring but somber in its silence: there was no presence of First Nations people in The Gap in the early twentieth century despite there being thriving communities in Spring Hill, Petrie Terrace, and Keperra. The increasing, though still modest First Nations population in The Gap only started arriving after the second World War.  

In this more serious article, I try to present what I think the reasons for our limited presence were. I should state from the outset that some of my ideas are supposition based on my experience in Indigenous affairs over the decades, so they are not tested. I welcome discussion about them. 

Aggressive settlement 

Settlement in The Gap began slowly but with Darby McGrath being the first person to be granted a lease in the area, still called Enoggera at that time. It was slow, but there was a catch. Land and water use practices by the British farmers were drastically different to those of the First Nations people. Land and water use for the British was exclusive and where it wasn’t, as in areas called “commons” the shared usage was exploitative and disastrous, resulting in the problem known as “the tragedy of the commons”. Land and water use among the First Nations people passing through The Gap was different. All the fruits of the land and water were to be shared and done so responsibly.  

These clashing ideologies of course led to physical clashes, and this resulted in a coordinated series of attacks by First Nations people throughout south east Queensland under the leadership of Dundalli. One such raid took place in The Gap and I have written about that in a previous article (see references to “Shepherds Pool”). The defeat of First Nations people around these times was highlighted by the public execution of Dundalli in 1855. 

Gold Mining 

The discovery of gold in Gympie in 1867 helped Queensland out of the depression of the 1860s. Also in the 1860s, gold was found in smaller quantities in areas of the D’Aguilar Range, namely, Bellbird Grove and Gold Creek. The Gympie discovery brought a huge increase in population and placed pressure on the area. The competing activities of miners and First Nations people led to a reduction of traditional activities. 

Mining in the D’Aguilar Range was on a far smaller scale; in the decade after the first mine in the 1860s, only 18 kilograms of gold was recovered, mostly from panning rather than from the mines there. 

It is possible that at all these goldfields extreme measures to protect mining leases may have been taken including use of firearms. Such use was well documented in the Palmer River goldrush on Kuku Yalangi country in Far North Queensland in 1872. More limited use of firearms may thus have taken place in the D’Aguilar Range gold areas. 

The effect of the use of firearms against First Nations people lead to a sudden and extreme reduction in the presence of First Nations people in those areas. Further, in the D’Aguilar Range, the gold fields coincided with pathways leading to the tracks to the Bunya Mountains and the bunya festivals. It would have been unwise for First Nations people to try to push through dangerous areas to get to the festivals. This would have contributed to less presence of First Nations people in The Gap and at the bunya festivals. 

Creation of Enoggera Dam 

Of course, one of the most significant events in the history of The Gap was the construction and opening of the Enoggera Dam in 1867. This dam was the main supply of reticulated water to the burgeoning city of Brisbane. It lay at the confluence of three creeks in the Taylor Range, a spur of D’Aguilar Range, an ideal location for maximising the catchment of water but also it coincided with an important gathering point for First Nations people on their trek northwards to the bunya festivals.   

Following the original path of Enoggera Creek to the northwest would take someone walking from Brisbane via The Gap and Upper Kedron directly to Wights Mountain, where the Wights Mountain (Samford) Bora Ring is located. Conflict must have arisen as the two competing uses of the area battled for supremacy. It is worth noting that as a policy for water collection in state dams the entrance of unauthorized people was prohibited for many decades. This policy therefore reduced the passage of First Nations people through the area and contributed to the reduced presence of First Nations people in the Bunya Mountains for the bunya festivals which would disappear in 1869 through Queensland government policy.  

It is worth noting that an article in The Queensland from 1914 records that the Wights Mountain Bora Ring had not been used for “some forty years” approximating the period just after the opening of the Enoggera Dam. 

Revocation of the New South Wales Bunya Proclamation (1842) by Queensland in 1860 

The colonial government of New South Wales, which covered the area of Queensland as well, declared Baroon Pocket to be protected from settlement and timber getting due to the presence of the Bunya Bunya. Thus, the Aboriginal people who travelled from hundreds of kilometers in all directions to attend the Bunya Bunya festivals every three years (on average) could attend. That allowed people to trek through The Gap and other points to attend the festivals. The following quote hints at the vast catchment for the Bunya festivals. 

From the vicinity of Goondiwindi and the New South Wales border … some 1,500 natives (arrived for the bunya bunya) …. the Dalby police force is totally inadequate to cope with such overwhelming odds.” – Dalby Herald, 24/5/1866 

Once Queensland was declared a separate colony in 1859 and with that revoked the Bunya Proclamation in 1860, allowing the Baroon Pocket to be divided into settlements and to allow harvesting of timber there. This dispossessed the local Aboriginal people. At least one settler family was granted a lease in Baroon Pocket, the Laverick family, who settled there in 1886. This ended the Bunya festivals and thus people no longer needed to travel through The Gap to get to the festivals. 

It’s worth noting that corroborees did take place in Brisbane after that date. A public corroboree in Alderley took place in 1900, and tickets were sold to the public to attend. That was the last recorded corroboree in Brisbane. 

Flooding of Baroon Pocket by Baroon Pocket Dam in 1989 

As if to add insult to injury, after the leasing of Baroon Pocket in the 1890s, the pocket itself was flooded in 1989, resulting in the destruction of the forest and pastoral lands and threatening the last natural habitat of the Mary River Cod in Obi Obi Creek. 

The Bunya Festival was revived in 1990s and still takes place in Baroon Pocket beside the dam that floods the history of that place. 

Author: Maurice Serico 

Author background: Maurice Serico has a BA in philosophy and English literature from University of Queensland, completed in 1979. He is an Aboriginal man with Gubbi Gubbi, Jiman and UK Australian heritage. Maurice has worked in a variety of positions across Aboriginal health, TAFE, education, and human resources; and in Aboriginal Affairs including in the office of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Maurice is currently the Chair of Balaangala Community Group in The Gap. Maurice has a chronic kidney condition and participates in supporting the kidney health community. 

Thanks to LINA for the financial support to feature this story.