Remembering Reserves

The Deebing Creek Aboriginal Mission and Cemetery in Aboriginal History and Memory

Authors

  • Bill Thorpe Griffith University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1017/S1321816600002993

Keywords:

Deebing Creek Aboriginal Mission, 1892-1915, Aboriginal reserve

Abstract

Eight kilometres south-east of Ipswich, along the banks of Deebing Creek, lies the site of a former Aboriginal mission reserve which, from 1892 to 1915, accommodated Aboriginal people from across Queensland, displaced from their lands by encroaching white settlement and government intervention. Some came from faraway places – Normanton, Burketown, Cooktown, Townsville, Barcaldine, St George, Alpha, Mitchell, Cunnamulla, Roma, and even New South Wales. Others were from regions adjacent to the mission such as Logan, Beaudesert and Boonah and from nearby Ipswich, Purga and Deebing Creek itself.

Author Biography

  • Bill Thorpe, Griffith University

    Bill Thorpe is a visiting. Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Griffith University and Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Australian Studies in the School of Humanities, Hinders University. Bill studied history at the University of Queensland and in his honours year undertook collaborative research with Murri man, the late Les Davidson, on the Aboriginal history of Deebing Creek Aboriginal mission, a project that continues. Since moving from Queensland to Adelaide in 1983, Bill has taught Australian History, Australian Studies and Aboriginal Studies at Flinders University and the University of South Australia. He is the author of Colonial Queensland: Perspectives on a Frontier Society UQP 1996.

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Published

2002-11-01

How to Cite

Thorpe, B. (2002). Remembering Reserves: The Deebing Creek Aboriginal Mission and Cemetery in Aboriginal History and Memory. Queensland Review, 9(2), 95-113. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1321816600002993

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