Barrambin is the Turrbal name for the wetland that ran across the flats northwest of Brisbane City. The name means “windy place,” an indicator of the weather conditions in that expanse between the ridges, which persist to this day (Kerkhove, 2018). With individuals living close to these waters even before the establishment of the European colony of Brisbane (Kerkhove, 2018), it was known to Turrbal communities as an important place of gathering and cultural contact, where hunting, fishing, and corroborees took place (Brisbane City Council, 2008b; Klaebe, 2006). Today, Barrambin is understood to be among the oldest and most important Aboriginal cultural sites in Brisbane (The Old Museum, 2018).

When the penal settlement moved from Redcliffe in 1824, Brisbane was selected as the site of the new settlement for its ready sources of freshwater, found in the many creeks and swamps forming tributaries of the Brisbane River (Brisbane City Council, 2008a), including Barrambin. The colonial residents then referred to Barrambin as “York’s Hollow,” after the leader of the Turrbal clan whom they had nicknamed the Duke of York (Klaebe, 2006). Even after that colonisation Barrambin continued to be a site of sociality and gathering among the Turrbal people (Kerkhove, 2018).

Colonial Brisbane became a free settlement in 1842, and was declared as a municipality in 1856 (Greenwood & Laverty, 1959). While the creeks and waterways intersecting the central business district were diverted or drained, York’s Hollow was left intact, being the watershed of the Roma Street Reservoir and one of the city’s main water sources (Kerkhove, 2018; “The Water Supply,” 1858). As late as 1861, York’s Hollow continued to be marked as a water reserve (see: Moreton Bay District Survey Office, 1850, 1855; Surveyor General’s Office, 1858; Warner, 1861). 

Tensions between the two communities’ diverging uses of the York’s Hollow water—by Turrbal groups as a gathering place, and by Europeans as a source of drinking water—often became flashpoints for conflict between European and Turrbal communities. As the colonial settlement of Brisbane grew to encroach upon Barrambin, European settlers called for Aboriginal camps to be removed, and for those lands to be policed (“Police Protection for York’s Hollow,” 1865; “The York’s Hollow Water Holes,” 1862; “York’s Hollow Water,” 1862; The Old Museum, 2018). In December 1862, after a decade of raids on Turrbal camps, colonial law decreed that York’s Hollow was to be cleared of Turrbal camps (“York’s Hollow Water,” 1862).

It was as such that the drainage of Barrambin through the 1870s and 1880s (Brisbane City Council, 2008a; “Drainage of York’s Hollow,” 1883) was entangled with violence against Turrbal peoples. This behoves us, then, to understand the colonial enaction of control upon the land, signified by such acts as the drainage of Barrambin, as intrinsically connected to the colonial eviction of First Nations people from those land.

References

Brisbane City Council. (2008a, January). Brisbane Drainage Contract No. 1. Heritage Places. http://heritage.brisbane.qld.gov.au/heritage-places/2007

Brisbane City Council. (2008b). Phase 2—Detailed Feasibility Study (Northern Link).

Drainage of York’s Hollow. (1883, June 16). Brisbane Week, 6.

Greenwood, G., & Laverty, J. (1959). Brisbane 1859 to 1959: A history of local government. Oswald Ziegler. https://digitalcollections.qut.edu.au/6335/

Kerkhove, R. (2018). Aboriginal camps as urban foundations? Evidence from southern Queensland. Aboriginal History Journal, 42, 141–172. https://doi.org/10.22459/AH.42.2018.07

Klaebe, H. (2006). Sharing Stories: A Social History Of The Kelvin Grove Urban Village. Focus Publishing. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/6097/

Moreton Bay District Survey Office. (1850). Blueprint copy of a plan of Brisbane Town, with inset plans and elevations of Mr George McAdam’s Sovereign Hotel [Map]. https://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/items/ITM634476

Moreton Bay District Survey Office. (1855). Tracing shewing the proposed extension of North Brisbane and a design of the principal new streets that will be required [Map]. https://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/items/ITM634477

Police Protection for York’s Hollow. (1865, April 5). Brisbane Courier.

Surveyor General’s Office. (1858). Plan of the Town and Environs of Brisbane, County of Stanley, New South Wales [Map]. https://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/items/ITM634479

The Old Museum. (2018, October 9). Traditional story of the land- Barrambin (York’s Hollow). The Old Museum. https://www.oldmuseum.org/post/traditionalstory

The Water Supply. (1858, March 24). Moreton Bay Courier. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3724281?searchTerm=the%20water%20supply%20york%27s%20hollow

The York’s Hollow Water Holes. (1862, December 19). Courier.

Warner, J. (1861). Map of the City of Brisbane and Environs in Sheets [Map]. Queensland State Archives. https://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/items/ITM634483

York’s Hollow Water. (1862, December 29). Courier.