The facade of the RS Exton and Co premises at 333 Ann Street.
Brisbane’s Shrine of Remembrance, dedicated on Armistice Day in 1930.
The Story Bridge, spanning Brisbane River, was built between 1935 and 1940.
The Masonic temple at Barcaldine was constructed in 1901.
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In the late 1990s, land subdivision at Yeronga changed the surroundings of heritage-listed Rhyndarra, a two-storey mansion that had variously served as a grand house.
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Heritage listing for former Aboriginal settlement
The remains of the former Taroom Aboriginal Settlement, off Bundulla Rd outside Taroom, have been entered in the Queensland Heritage Register.
Queensland Heritage Council (QHC) Chair, Professor Peter Coaldrake, said the site had potential to contribute new knowledge about Queensland’s history, particularly a greater understanding of government-run Aboriginal settlements in Queensland.
“The Taroom Aboriginal Settlement was established as a government-operated reserve on a site on the Dawson River, east of the township of Taroom, in 1911,” Professor Coaldrake said.
“The settlement housed a population of Aboriginal people from different language groups and regions of Queensland who lived within a highly regulated and tightly controlled institutional environment.
“It is significant because, from the outset, it was established and run by the Queensland government. Prior to this, settlements were run predominantly by missionaries.
“Taroom demonstrates the growing belief by the Queensland government of the time that they should be managing the settlements.”
The site of the Taroom settlement is associated with the establishment of new legislation that enabled direct government control over the lives of Aboriginal people in Queensland.
“The new laws gave the government the power to forcibly move Aboriginal people to and keep them within designated reserves,” he said.
“The realities of ‘living under the Act’ were to profoundly impact upon the lives of Queensland’s Aboriginal people.
“Queensland’s legislation became the model for similar legislation adopted in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia, the three places with the highest Aboriginal populations at the time.”
Professor Coaldrake said the site and archaeological remains of the former Taroom Aboriginal Settlement are important to Aboriginal people, groups and families across Queensland, particularly those groups removed from their own lands to the reserve.
“While no former inmates of the settlement are alive today, the relatives and descendants of those who lived on the reserve retain a strong and special association with the place, in particular, the two cemetery areas,” he said.
“The archaeological remains that can be found on the site relate, and may potentially be used, to illustrate events which have had a profound effect on their lives and those of their communities.”
The settlement came to an end when the Nathan Dam was proposed and the residents and all of the buildings were relocated to Woorabinda in 1927.
Following closure of the Reserve, the area has been primarily used for pastoral and agricultural purposes, and is currently owned as a pastoral and cropping property known as Bundulla.
“The current owners of Bundulla, which includes the site of the former Aboriginal Settlement, have played an important role as custodians of the place,” Professor Coaldrake said.
The Queensland Heritage Council is the State’s independent peak body and advisor on heritage matters and determines what places are entered in the Queensland Heritage Register.
Places that are entered in the Heritage Register are considered of importance to Queensland’s history and are protected under heritage legislation.
Fast Facts:
- In 1995 the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage, in collaboration with former inmates of the reserve, produced a monograph called Living Under the Act: Taroom Aboriginal Reserve 1911-1927, which depicted the layout of the settlement.
- The settlement was divided into two sections, one where official buildings were located and another where the Aboriginal camps were established. The official buildings were laid out formally along a tree-lined main street, from which roads went to other places on the reserve. This area included the office, staff residences, hospital, schools, court house, girls’ dormitory, gaol, store, cattle and horse yards and machinery sheds. There were five Aboriginal camps, located on a rise above the reach of river floods.
- While operating, the settlement housed an average population of about 250-300 Aboriginal people.
- There were two cemeteries, a total of 268 deaths being recorded between 1911 and 1927.