Mapping Australian history and culture
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. First Australians...
| Name | Bunya Attendees |
|---|---|
| Description | The Bunya festival traditionally occurred about every 3 years, when the time was right. Colonists noticed the movements of people to the Bunya festival and sometimes recorded where people had come from to attend. There were two main locations for the festival. One around Mt Mowbollun in the Bunya mountains, and one in the Blackall Ranges, in particular around Baroon Pocket, near the coast. This map layer shows places people travelled from to attend the festival according to colonists. People would travel weeks across vast distances to attend. |
| Type | Other |
| Subject | history, Indigenous, Aboriginal, Journey Way, bunya |
| Linkback | https://www.academia.edu/8244371/The_Great_Bunya_Gathering_Early_Accounts |
| Image | |
| Content Warning | Colonial accounts of Indigenous people. |
| Number of places | 89 |
| Contributor | Dr Bill Pascoe |
|---|---|
| Creator | Ray Kerkhove & Bill Pascoe |
| Publisher | |
| Contact | bill.pascoe@unimelb.edu.au |
| DOI | |
| Source URL | |
| License | Copyright, Ray Kerkhove |
| Allow ANPS? | No |
| Citation | |
| Usage Rights | Permission granted for inclusion in TLCMap by Ray Kerkhove. In his preface Kerkhove writes, "The purpose of this little document is to help raise awareness of the amazing event that was and is the Bunya Gathering. I am grateful to Beverly Hand for her interest in, and support for, this work, and Alex Bond and Ian Smith for their comments and advice. Special thanks must be extended to the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, John Oxley Library and Hayes Library (University of Queensland) for use of their resources, and to the many Brisbane City Shire, Moreton Regional Shire and Sunshine Coast Regional Shire libraries (too many to list) that I have visited to examine Local Studies/ Local Histories collections." |
| Language | EN |
|---|---|
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| Added | 2024-01-27 16:11:24 |
| Updated | 2024-01-27 16:49:27 |
"The bunya pine tree fruits every year to a certain extent, but in every third March it gives forth a prolific crop of Bunya nuts. This fact was known to the black man, and from all points of the compass he came, from the Downs, Moreton Boy, the Burnett, the Dawson, and from, far down the Condamine river. In fact, I heard my father say that on one occasion he saw a tribe of Barcoo blacks arrive. A lean, gaunt miserable lot they were, but they went away happy, and with skins as sleek as mice. The Bunya festive season used to last about six weeks, and, strange though it may seem, the blacks would arrive almost simultaneously on the mountains. By what means they measured time over a period of three years, and calculated with such precision the exact month in every third year when the bunya pines would be in full fruit is somewhat difficult for us to understand. We knew that the black man measured time by moon periods, but how he calculated the number of moons that would occur between one season and another, and kept a correct record of them is one of those things known only to themselves."
Bennie, J.C. 'The Bunya Mountains – Early Feasting Ground of the Blacks' The Dalby Herald 14 February 1931, p 6