Please note these slides from my Congress 2015 presentation are copyrighted to me. They are not for general use and should not be reproduced without permission. My authorship should be acknowledged if referred to. Many thanks.
The marriage of family and local history. Pauleen Cass Email: cassmob@yahoo.com.au Blog: www.cassmob.wordpress.com Twitter: @cassmob
Tamamareen: where the fishing nets were burnt in a grass fire. Country of the Cateebil people.
Murphy s Creek Cemetery, Queensland
Rejuvenation In Decline Town and industry Railway Squatters Indigenous Life
Indigenous persons should be aware that the next slides contain images of people who are deceased, and use language typical of the era. Indigenous Life
C1892 Believed to be coastal Aborigines at Cressbrook, Toogoolawah, travelling to the Bunya feasting on the Darling Downs. Image State Library of Queensland oai:bishop.slq.qld.gov.au:12 4243
The corroboree was a sight worth seeing. There were over 200 blacks armed with long spears, boomerangs and nulla nullas and they were a pretty formidable looking gathering but a corroboree to them was what a sports gathering would be to us. A narrow space was cleared in the bush just up on the bend of the creek from the railway station and it was lit up with big wood fires. The men marked with red and white stripes, made out of gum from trees, ranged on one side of the fires, danced, sang Women and children on the other side of the fires kept beat an accompaniment. Everyone was impressed with the marvellous voices. Win Davson, In our Land: Gatton Centenary, 1855 1955, Job Stone, Toowoomba 1955. UQ Hayes Collection. DU280.G37.D3 1957, p. 19. Similarly reported in the Queensland Times, 5 April 1948 on Mr Burgess s death. Henry Chapman used to supply them (the Aborigines) with tobacco and flour, and in return they would catch white cockatoos which were taught to talk..and swear! Interviews with Murphy s Creek residents by Cameron McKee circa 1980.
Squatters
A photo of an unidentified washpool on the Darling Downs c1877. It s likely that the old Turner sheep station and the washpool at Murphy s Creek looked a lot like this. Unidentified (1877). Men washing sheep in a washpool on a station in the Darling Downs, Queensland, ca. 1877. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Image: oai:bishop.slq.qld.gov.au:299390
Railway There were four railway camps near Murphy s Creek: Gibbon s, Crowshaw s, Fountain s and Ballard s.
Fountain's Camp in the bush, Queensland. Pubs, bakers, butchers, church, stores, school, soirees, sport. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Image copyright expired: oai:bishop.slq.qld.gov.au:47280
LIFE ON THE LINE At Fountain's Camp there were about 200 families, and a Sunday school had been established, and divine service held once a fort night. Mr. Willcox had also promised to do his best to forward the establishment of a circulating library. Darling Downs Gazette, 12 Dec 1865. (Fr Dunne) had seen too much of their social misery to feel that slaving long term in the heat and fly pests of the railway construction camps was a means of social improvement. Extracted from Robert Dunne, Bishop of Brisbane, Neil J Byrne pp117, 138
A steam train travelling through a cutting between Murphy s Creek and Highfields. The extent of excavation in the construction is clear. Queensland University of Technology, Dr Wilton Wood Russell Love Album. Image oai:digitalcollections.qut.edu.au:2096. Copyright expired.
The water tower, listed in the State s Heritage Register, is a remnant of the days when the trains took on water and an additional engine at Murphy s Creek. Photos: Pauleen Cass, 1987 (right) and 2015 (above) State Heritage Register: https://heritage-register.ehp.qld.gov.au/
INDUSTRIES: The Broader Context Between 700 and 800 cases of oranges will be sent from Toowoomba to form part of the trial shipment of 6000 cases, to be despatched to London. The following have contributed towards the shipment : Messrs. Joseph Handley, G. Kunkel, and Mrs. Lord (from Murphy's Creek). GENERAL NEWS." The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866-1939) 16 Jul 1904: 40. <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22266786>. "THE SHIELD BRAND OF HAM AND BACON." Queensland Country Life (Qld. : 1900-1954) 1 Aug 1904: 2. <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97516311>.