First Nation
Stories from our Indigenous People
William and Emily Williams Memorial, Tamrookum
The Williams Memorial Stone pays tribute to William and Emily Williams, local aboriginal pioneers of the district. The plaque also pays tribute to Munaljahli people who survived on the land and contributed to the prosperity of the Logan and Albert valleys. William and Emily Williams, local aborigines, were employed by R.M. Collins and are buried in the ground of All Saints Memorial Church.
Embrace the Beautiful Country
Painted Mural Panels. Acrylic on Aluminium
Rainbow Serpent
Free Standing Sculpture. Helidon Sandstone
Jubilee Park Playground
Vinyl on Plastic Panels erected above the main structure.
Kooralbyn Community Mural
Acrylic on Board
"Moombul Moombul Warrajum"
The Warrajum is one of three disciplinarians of the land of the Ugarapul people, who protects and upholds the laws of the land. The Warrajum is the Disciplinarian of our Waterways. Our paternal Grandmother would say to us, on hearing the rumble along the mountains, " Ah! Warrajum Moombul Moombul".
Warrayum Tunnel
My Warrayum Experience, 1964, by John Long.
Bromelton Lagoon
The Bromelton Bunyip
William and Emily Williams Memorial, Tamrookum
The Williams Memorial Stone pays tribute to William and Emily Williams, local aboriginal pioneers of the district. The plaque also pays tribute to Munaljahli people who survived on the land and contributed to the prosperity of the Logan and Albert valleys. William and Emily Williams, local aborigines, were employed by R.M. Collins and are buried in the ground of All Saints Memorial Church.
A TRIBUTE TO OUR ABORIGINAL PIONEERS, WILLIAM WILLIAMS (1847 -1927) AND HIS WIFE EMILY JACKY (1856 - 1929). WILLIAM AND EMILY WERE MUNALJAHLI ABORIGINES OF THE YUGAMBEH LANGUAGE GROUP WHO LIVED AND WORKED IN THE LOGAN AND ALBERT VALLEYS IN THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT. WILLIAM AND EMILY LIVED OUT THEIR LIVES IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY AND ARE BURIED IN THE NEARBY TAMROOKUM CHURCH CEMETERY. THEIR CHILDREN TEDDY, EVA, ELIZA, WILLIE, CISSY, HENRY, LILLY, CLAUDE, CLARA, KATHERINE AND MARY WERE AMONGST THE EARLIEST STUDENTS AT HILLVIEW STATE SCHOOL, AND LATER WORKED AS CARRIERS AND CONTRACTORS, STOCKMEN AND DROVERS, AXEMEN AND HAULIERS, HOUSEKEEPERS AND FARMERS AT TAMROOKUM, TABOOBA, MAROON, KOORALBYN, DULBOLLA AND OTHER PLACES IN THE VALLEYS. THE PLAQUE ALSO PAYS TRIBUTE TO ALL MUNALJAHLI PEOPLE WHO SURVIVED ON THIS LAND AND CONTRIBUTED TO THE PROSPERITY OF THE LOGAN AND ALBERT VALLEYS. NAHLI WAHLU YANBALEHLA YI-U JAGUN GALI YABRUMA YOU AND I WILL GO BYE -AND - BYE. THE EARTH WILL ALWAYS REMAIN. Erected By The Descendants Of William And Emily With The Support And Assistance Of The Tamrookum Hall Committee And The Beaudesert Shire Council, August 24th, 1991.
Embrace the Beautiful Country
Painted Mural Panels. Acrylic on Aluminium
Artist: Derek Fogarty
Commissioned by Peter Tillney of the Scenic Rim Regional Council with the intention to beautify Davidson park during its redevelopment. During the design stage of the development, a new fence was proposed and Derek was commissioned to create artworks to adorn each panels of the fence. Created on aluminium, Derek was inspired by the wildlife of the region, his country and stories of his childhood that had been passed down to him . Each panel tells a story of the Beaudesert shire.
Rainbow Serpent
Free Standing Sculpture. Helidon Sandstone
Created during Sculpture for an Ancient land International Sculpture Symposium " Beaudesert 2008. Organised by Beaudesert and District Community Arts Project Inc. Sponsored by the Australian Government Regional Arts Fund, former Beaudesert Shire Council and Scenic Rim Regional Council
Jubilee Park Playground
Vinyl on Plastic Panels erected above the main structure.
Artist: Waylene Currie
Commissioned by Matthew Creedy as part of the Jubilee park Playground development
Kooralbyn Community Mural
Acrylic on Board
Artist: Sarah Sculley
"Moombul Moombul Warrajum"
The Warrajum is one of three disciplinarians of the land of the Ugarapul people, who protects and upholds the laws of the land. The Warrajum is the Disciplinarian of our Waterways. Our paternal Grandmother would say to us, on hearing the rumble along the mountains, " Ah! Warrajum Moombul Moombul".
Warrayum Tunnel
My Warrayum Experience, 1964, by John Long.
It was winter 1964. I was 9 and we were staying at the Top Hut at the time. About 9am, Granny was sitting around the fire and I was at the tank stand getting a drink of water. I heard a rumbling sound behind me like thunder, coming from the north. The sound was following the mountain range that surrounded us. I didn't see any clouds so got a fright and ran over to Granny. I asked her what it was and she said to me, “Don't be frightened grandson, its woonbool-woonbool spirit thunder, the Warrajum travelling.” I said “Granny I can't see him”, and she said to me, “he's got a tunnel in the mountains and tunnels all over the place, so he doesn't scare anyone.”
Then 2010 came and they built Wyaralong dam, building a new Boonah-Beaudesert Road and exposing the ancient Warrajum tunnels that our Grandmother was talking about. It makes you think hey.
Image Credit: Mark Paddick 2021
Bromelton Lagoon
The Bromelton Bunyip
Two kilometres west of Beaudesert, lies the Il-bogan lagoon, a narrow winding billabong that is rumoured to be the home of a bunyip, a creature that hides in its murky depths and appears only occasionally.
The idea of the ‘bunyip’ as a mysterious and mythical water creature was well established in non-Indigenous Australian lore by the time the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement closed in 1842. For decades sightings of strange unidentified freshwater animals were recorded across the country. New arrivals moving into Aboriginal lands around Brisbane provided early non-Indigenous ‘bunyip’ sightings.
The first recorded sighting of a bunyip, in Queensland, was reported in the Moreton Bay Courier in 1850 when strange creature was sighted by a woman staying at the house on the 'Bromelton' property of Thomas Murray-Prior. However, the local Mununjali clan have told stories of a creature that moves through underground tunnels and waterways across their lands for millennia.
The Moreton Bay Courier article wrote: ‘The head appeared to be elongated and flattened, like the bill of a platypus. The body, from the place where it joined the head, to about five feet backward, seemed like that of a gigantic eel, being of about the ordinary thickness of a man's body. Beyond this it was of much larger apparent size, having the appearance of being coiled into innumerable folds. Beyond those coils was what seemed to be the tail of the animal, which had somewhat the shape of the tail of a fish, but is described as having the semi-transparent appearance of a bladder. The head, which was small and narrow in proportion to the size of the body, was furnished with what seemed to be two horns, which were quite white. Under the circumstances it was, of course, difficult to judge accurately of the whole length of the animal, but, by comparison with other objects, it is supposed that the parts visible above the water must have been thirty feet in extent.’
One of the dominant features of the Bromelton property was a large and deep lagoon measuring up to thirty metres deep. The local Mununjali people believed that an underground passage connected this waterhole to the Il- bogan one.
The article went on to explain that the lagoon ‘has long enjoyed the reputation of being the home of a monster answering the above description, and which is stated to have been seen more than once by men on the station'.
Image Credit - Mark Paddick 2022
Image Credit - Bromelton Lagoon