Australia's First Peoples, including the Turrbal and Yuggera Peoples, lived in the area of Meanjin, the Brisbane area and surrounds, where there were fresh rivers and creeks and rich resources, including timber, flora and fauna. (https://www.visitbrisbane.com.au/information/articles/arts-and-entertainment/aboriginal-culture)
Mount Gravatt was known by local Aboriginal Turrbal and Yuggera Peoples as 'kaggur-madul', meaning place of echidna or echidna mountain or 'caggara-mahbill' echidna rests here. Gubbi Gubbi descendant Barry Malezer interprets the forest as laying as the echidna, with spikes (grass trees) raised in sanctuary. (Forest Voices by Phillips, Sizer and Burden)
The extensive forest provided habitat to echidnas, wallabies, possums, bandicoots, goannas, gliders and snakes, all of which may have been hunted for meat and products, such as echidna quills for sewing, sinew for binding and fur for clothing. Original tracks used by Aboriginal Peoples are now major roads such as Logan Road. There were numerous campsites in the area including in the vicinity of Rocky Waterholes Creek, a favoured hunting ground with plentiful duck, crayfish, turtles and waterlilies as well as home to culturally significant sites such as boras and corroboree grounds. Bulimba and Mimosa Creeks were important food gathering places and the many small surrounding creeks in Mount Gravatt provided fish and crustaceans. The southside was a great resource for ironbark and other valued timbers such as bloodwood, forest oak, stringybark and blue gum. Stringybark was used to fashion canoes and huts and ironbark was important for utensils such as spears and clubs which were sometimes traded. (Mappingbrisbanehistory.com: Indigenous Aboriginal Sites of Southside Brisbane by Dr Ray Kerkhove)
The Turrbal Peoples of the Brisbane region frequently carried beeswax due to its usefulness in many applications. When required, the wax was held to a flame to allow the heat to cause a change in state from solid to liquid. The molten wax was rubbed onto shields and allowed to cool and harden on the shield surface, to preserve the wood. Beeswax was used to attach stingray barbs to spears, fix handles to axes, and to waterproof water vessels carved from the wood of the bat-wing coral tree. Grass trees (Xanthorrhoea spp.) are a culturally important species for many Aboriginal Peoples across Australia and knowledge of the life cycle of these plants, and when components can be harvested for use, is well understood. The plant provides material for many purposes including resin, food, nectar, fibre, and wood to construct implements and weapons, as well as firemaking. (ACARA)
Aboriginal Peoples continued to live in the area after European settlement and continued to use traditional areas whilst trading and interacting with the settlers for a number of years. However as settlement increased, fringe living became increasingly difficult and Aboriginal Peoples were displaced to reserves far from their home. The forest was not only used by Aboriginal Peoples for resources but the land was also extremely important for use in ceremonies and social interactions. The general nature of campgrounds in south-east Queensland were set spaces, with clusters of camps. A main camp extended between Rocklea train station to Moorooka State School, an area safe from floods and in direct sight of the sandstone lookout at Toohey Mountain. Campgrounds seem to have been beside hills with views to hills next to other camps to enable rapid communication through means such as smoke-signalling. (Mappingbrisbanehistory.com: Indigenous Aboriginal Sites of Southside Brisbane by Dr Ray Kerkhove)
Games were a part of life for Aboriginal Peoples in Australia. The game marutchi meaning black swan, was a water game played by Yuggera people in the Brisbane area. It is a swimming and tagging game where the person nominated as marutchi avoids being caught for as long as possible, while three to five people try and 'catch' marutchi signalled by a light tap on the head. Other games mentioned as being played in south east Queensland include buroinjin, a ball game and gurumba, a wrestling game. More information about traditional games can be found at https://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/Experience-Sunshine-Coast/Pathways-tracks-and-trails/Biwathin-Games-Trail
Many camps had their own specific places nearby for ceremony, hunting, dance and burial grounds. A short walk from Nathan campus through the forest towards Tarragindi is the site of a Bora Ring where initiation ceremonies for Aboriginal boys were performed. This 'rite of passage' would see young males taught the laws, customs and traditions of the community and undergo a transition from boyhood to manhood, sometimes undergoing some form of body modification. The traditional funerary processes in the local area were complex and there are sites of significance in Toohey Forest including burial caves. Aboriginal artefacts were found in these caves. (https://mappingbrisbanehistory.com.au/brisbane-history-essays/brisbane-southside-history/first-australians-and-original-landscape/indigenous-sites/)
There are a number of different language groups in south east Queensland. The State Library of Queensland has provided a range of word lists in local languages, including Yuggera and Turrbal, to support communities in their work to revive, document and preserve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. Some language words are still in use today, for example the local word kabul means carpet snake, and the town name of Caboolture means place of carpet snake. A list of language words can be found on the State Library of Queensland website. (https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/discover/aboriginal-torres-strait-islander-cultures-stories/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander ). Many suburbs in Brisbane have Aboriginal names. Among them are Indooroopilly (gully of running water), Bellbowrie (place of the flowering gums), Coorparoo (a ground dove), Enoggera (corroboree place), Moorooka (ironbark), Yeerongpilly (rain coming), Wooloowin (fish), Nudgee (green frog), Woolloongabba (whirling water) and Wynnum (breadfruit tree).(https://www.visitbrisbane.com.au/information/articles/arts-and-entertainment/aboriginal-culture)
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