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Reminiscences of Fraser Island by Rollo Petrie

Presented in appreciation by John Sinclair on behalf of the Fraser Islander Defenders Organisation on the occassion of the launching of the Eliza Fraser Sesqui-Century

22nd May 1986

Last edit over 2 years ago by Rose Barrowcliffe
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MOONBI 41, Page 1 THE PETRIES AND FRASER ISLAND The pioneering Petrie family headed by Andrew Petrie first came to Queensland during the early days of the penal settlement, where Andrew was superintendent of Works. During the time the Petrie family played a prominent part in pioneering Queensland, leaving the Petrie names in several parts of Brisbane and suburbs and Queensland. In 1842 when the penal settlement closed and Queensland was being opened up for free settlement, Andrew Petrie led a party to explore and discover the Moonaboola River (The Mary) which they had heard aborigines talk about in Brisbane. They wanted to see if it was suitable for free settlement, particularly grazing. They picked up WANDI (escaped convict Bracefell) at Noosa, and he showed them the way across the Wide Bay Bar into Great Sandy Strait. They camped one night at Stewart Island (adjacent to Fraser Island) where they made their way up to North White Cliffs where WANDI, who had lived for years with the blacks and visited Fraser Island, found a local aborigine to guide them up the MOONABOOLA RIVER on 10th May 1842. Petrie named the river the Wide Bay after the name of the Bay into which they thought it emptied. After exploring as far as Tiaro. where they collected another escaped convict "DURUMBOI" (James Davis) and after discovering the fine timber of the Kauri Pine at Mary River Heads, Petrie returned to Fraser Island and camped near Snout Point. Before leaving he unsuccessfully unattempted to recover the bones of Captain Fraser which were still then believed to be carried around in an aboriginial "Dilli" bag. Twenty years later in 1862, Andrew's son Tom Petrie a timber pioneer, explored Fraser Island, Tin Can Bay and The Susan River with Pettigrew, who started a sawmill at Dundathu, and who milled the first Kauri Pine logs to be brought from Fraser Island in 1863. However, although Tom Petrie did not sustain an interest in Fraser Island, his son Walter Petrie did move to Fraser Island 50 years later to establish the first permanent Forestry operations. (see History of Early Forestry Work). During the period from 1913-1922. Rollo Petrie grew up from a young boy to a teenager on Fraser Island. He grew to love the island and has visited the island many times since. Rollo Petrie has provided FIDO with a wealth of reminiscence which we propose to serialise in MOONBI. In this installment 'Rollo recalls some of the aborigines he remembers (as a boy) at Bogimbah, where his father established the Deepuying Camp only 8 years after the Mission Station about five miles downstream had closed ROLLO PETRIE'S REMINISCENCES History shows blacks who had been herded on Fraser Island first by Protector of Aborigines, Archibald Meston, and his son Harrold and later by several missionaries, were rounded up with help of Native Police and shipped to the mainland to various settlements. This was done after the majority of blacks in the settlement at Bogimbah had died of malnutrition, disease and violence. After forming the Bogimbah Penal Settlement, Meston collected blacks from the mainland whenever they were deemed undesirable by the whites. They were brought from afar and near and, of course were tribal enemies. Apparently Meston thought the will of the waddy would cure all differences, poor fool. He handed over to missionaries of three different denominations. Some only stayed a short time, I feel. One in particular was responsible for the large death rate and misery towards the closing chapters of the settlement. They were unscrupulous, cruel and dominating. When blacks were taken away, some escaped, some jumped into water etc., but in 1913 a small camp lived in Bogimbah from there some followed us down to Woongoolbva. Others finished up at Urangan. Old Gindy, wife of Frank Simpson, who worked for Mum was a young lubra during missionary times and bore the brand of the cat-of-nine-tails on her back; She was flogged for refusing to join the harem of one white missionary She escaped from the Mission when the aborigines were moved from the Island. Gindi had a "benjamin" (husband) called Frank and a little piccaninny boy about my age called Kenny. It was a missionary name. They were all named after white men. Gindy was a mighty gin and she was very devoted to my mother, but at the same time she used to tell my mother: "Never, never walk front of me, Missy No More." She couldn't trust herself. In those days they couldn't trust themselves not to hit you on the back of the head with a hammer or a tomahawk when you were r looking, because they had been treated so bac by the missionaries. I have often thought, through the years. Mum us to quite often mention that she knew Gin couldn't be trusted but she used to say: "l love y Mrs. I love you Missy"

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MOONBI 41, Page 16 This happened especially when mum would give her a roast duck or swan to take home. She couldn't keep it until she got home, she used to eat it on the way. She would come back next day and when asked if Kennyand Frank liked the duck she would say: " Oh Missy, missy, too nice missy. I just had a little bit; Lordy, just a little bit - no more - no more."

One punishment meted out by the missionary was to tie the black to be punished to a tree, then put a length of fuse starting at his feet and laid out several feet. The far end would be lighted. One can imagine the terror it could cause. The blacks had seen dynamite used to blow out stumps, but would at that time not understand the mechanism. Gindy said: " Him bin see same close up die, him eyes cranky like." No doubt some would die or be jibbering idiots afterwards. When we moved to Woongoolbver, another to us. One missionary's daughter who was a teacher at the missionary school, ran off with one of the pupils. They eloped in a dingy belonging to the mission. After being caught they were married by the missionary and then cut adrift from white society.

This chap was an educated boy, so of course, they used to say once they were educated they were no good. However, he was a smart worker. He was able to do any type of work that a white man could do, and do it well. He was a bitter man and a cruel husband by white man's standards. He gave his wife a pretty rough time. They lived on Woongoolbva Creek about a mile and a half from the forest station where he worked. Not long after this in 1917, this chap was moved from the island because he threatend white women. He became very aggressive. All missionary trained blacks were unreliable from my experience, in the west and north. Maybe they are better now. I think he eventually moved to Palm Island but his wife and four children remained behind on Fraser Island and in the district. While this chap lived on the Island. Jerry Jerome came to live there. He was an aboriginal boxer who went to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They pensioned him off and he settled on Fraser Island. A little hut was built for him. He promptly chopped it up for firewood and built himself a gunya. He worked for the forestry and Dad used to give him a job every now and then, particularly when he wanted Cypress seed picked. Jerry was very good at that. He picked the seed on contract at so much a pound. He was a very lazy worker otherwise. Old Nugget was a happy, outgoing, very fine specimen of humanity. He worked for the teamsters in early days, looking after the bullocks. There was very little feed for stock and they couldn't work them for long periods. After a few weeks work they would let the bullocks go to forage for themselves. They would go to the ocean beach. Some would go north and some south. As Nugget was always on the move, he could tell the teamsters where every bullock was. He knew every one of them. Nugget was a loner. To the best of my knowledge he never had a wife. He lived on the ocean beach in a little hut. He only visited the mainland from time to time, to spend the money earned from the teamsters. He would come back from the mainland looking sick and miserable. He would ask Mum for a bit of flour, tea and sugar and off out to the beach he would go to live on wongs and be fat and shiny the next time we saw him. Nugget would spend hours writing characters or sand and showing us kids where and how to get wongs at low tide and how to catch and cook fish he also showed us how to catch yabbies in the creeks with sharpened sticks. Later at Imbil we used to frond of lawyer vine trimmed off with one barb that acted as a hook. Blacks there used this method and Dad used a little bait instead of his fingernail. Teddy Brown, I think, but won't swear was the coloured sand artist who could make anything in a bottle. Dad engaged him often to tail horses. He was an artist with a fishing line and could dive overboard and catch a turle [sic] and bring it to the surface very easily. So could Banjo and many more. Teddy was one of the blacks who buried cases of pickles etc from the "MARLOO", on a trip to Indian Head and Middle Rock. Some time after the wreck we had Teddy, and he promised he would get us plenty of pickles. However he dug for hours in many places with no luck, so we didn't have pickles but we did have plenty of fish and oysters. Although we always talked of going to Indian Head, it was Middle Rock we always camped at and would be very careful on arrival to be quiet and not show ourselves to the sea until low tide. Otherwise fish in the Aquarium would be frightened out to sea. A rock hole, I think it is called the Aquarium now, had only a narrow channel leading out of it. By sneaking round and planting our bodies in the channel, all the fish in the pool would be trapped. That was where I first saw blacks spearing fish: Snapper, Squire, Emperor, Bream etc. Nugget and Teddy Brown would be in their element. Dad always took a pronged spear, but our efforts were on the breadline, while the piles of fish would mount along from Teddy Brown and Nugget. They showed great glee each time we would miss. Oysters we would catch up with and hold our own! (see MOONBI 42 for more of Rollo's reminiscences.)

[Image on right of this information]

MOONBI - A JOURNAL OF FRASER ISLAND Subscription $5.00 p.a. Available from FIDO Ltd P.O.Box 420 Maryborough 4650 (Picture: Man starting a camp fire)

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MOONBI 41, Page 10 TWENTIETH CENTURY HISTORY The only interruptions to the tranquility of the splendid isolation of the Top End in the Twentieth Century until it was shattered in the 1970's was the war. During the war an airstrip was constrcted near Rooney's Point although there is now no obvious evidence of it. There was a radar station near the Sandy Cape Lighthouse. During the 1970's the isolation of the Top End has been broken down - a little to the chagrin of the light keepers who enjoyed the quiet serenity of the lofty, remote homes. The first inroads came with the sandmining leases. Much exploration was done but although much heavy mineral was located on the Eastern side of the Island, the western side in the Krambruk Dune lands was so lacking in any heavy minerals or other impurities that two separate Mining Companies, Thiess Brothers and later Dillingham Constructions, sought leases of up to 2000 hectares to mine and extract silica sand for industrial purposes. Although both companies relinquished their claims, it is thought that this is one of the largest deposits of pure high grade silica sand in the world. Fortunately however in December 1971 this area was proclaimed a National Park, except for the eastern coastal strip one kilometre wide which is still covered by rutile-zircon leases as far south as Indian Head. The influx off road vehicles still probes the legacy of the sand mining exploration tracks put in about 1970. However despite the increasing number of visitors, the Top End still enjoys more wilderness than any other part of Fraser Island or South East Queensland.

ANOTHER MARYBOROUGH The MARYBOROUGH CHRONICLE needs little excuse for editorials on the subject of resuming Fraser Island sandmining. The recent visit of the City fathers of MARYBOROUGH Victoria was reason for yet another echo. Apparently the Chronicle hasn't yet realised that no matter how often Premier Joh says that he can safely drill for oil near the Great Barrier Reef 74% of Queenslanders don't believe him. It also ignores that 77% of Hervey Bay voters elected FIDO Vice President Ronda Cook to the Hervey Bay Town Council. (Picture Cartoon of the MOHA MOHA) (Picture Photograph of Rollo Petrie) Rollo Petrie (above), inspecting the ol Deepuying Nursery which his father established i 1913, only 8 kilometres from the old Bogimba aboriginal "mission" during the Easter Safar (See Reminiscences page 15) (Below) The MOHA MOHA

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MOONBI 40, Page 12 [left column] There the turbulent history of McKenzies may have subsided but within a few years it was to assume a new role. The outbreak of World War II in the Pacific saw McKenzies developed as a Commando training camp for one of Australia's most famous and heroic units — Z Force. Two camps were developed — one at the coast in the bush surrounding the old lead lights, just north of Foulmouth Creek, and one on the North western end of Lake McKenzie which was used for some of the canoe training.

One of the exploits of Z Force related by Mr Allen Russell, former manager of Dillingham Mining Company, who had trained on Fraser Island, was that a unit had to leave the camp, sneak into Maryborough by canoe and mark the shipping in the Mary River with a cross where they could have planted and detonated explosive charges.

This very successful raid was carried out despite the security surrounding the shipboard installation of Maryborough and aroused at first incredulity and finally a furore, when the exploit was revealed to the Maryborough authorities.

Following the war the Z Force Installation was offered to the Queensland Government as a going concern, complete with lighting plants, etc. to be used as a Forestry Headquarters for Fraser Island. The offer was curiously refused and now the area is largely overgrown. Little evidence remains of the Z Force occupation except for one small hut and a lot of cement slabs. Only the ghosts of those brave men and the memory of it are all that remains. The new camping area at Lake McKenzie is located near the cement slab foundations of the Z Force camp.

[right column] Since World War II there have been no permanent human residents in the McKenzie area. The Forestry relocated and despite its better and closer location there has been no further use of the McKenzie jetty, now just a ruin. No houses or other buildings, such as the Picture Theatre, Q. Store, etc. remain. There are some relics of the past for the observant such as the old horse yards, the cricket pitch in the clearing for the navigation lights, where many a memorable game of cricket was played between teams from the Forestry and Urangan, a few fire grids litter the site near the old loco shed and the loading ramparts at the mill site.

There is no evidence to recall the riotous mutiny of the late 1920's, reported in MOONBI 36. There is no evidence to recall the aboriginal occupation. There is no evidence of tragedy and trauma and the happiness experienced here. Yet the McKenzie area has figured more prominently in the history of Fraser Island than any other part.

Now the areas adjacent to both the jetty and the Lake are both gazetted Beauty Spots which are protected from desecration of their flora for logging as a tribute to the memories of the past and their attraction at the present.

NOTE: In MOONBI 49 it is proposed to record some of the history and features of SANDY CAPE. Any readers should feel free to comment on any of these features, correct or enlarge on the information in them to ensure that this history does not die with the present generation.

[end columns] SID JARVIS'S FRASER ISLAND

MOONBI 40 continues the series of reminiscences of Fraser Island's veterans. In this paper Sidney Granville Jarvis ex bullocky of Maryborough recalls his memories of the bullocky days.

[left column] I was born at Granville, a suburb of Maryborough, on the 13th March 1898. I attended the Granville State School, together with two of the Owens.

The Owens were an aboriginal family, and Henry, who later became known as Jo, or Banjo, was one of the brothers, and Maidie was his sister. She was Mrs. Ross. The Owens family has been associated with Fraser Island for up to 75 years.

My own father started punting timber from Fraser Island around about 1908 or 1910. He used to punt timber for Edward Armitage.

Mr. Armitage had a little steamer called the "GERALDINE". He used to tow a barge and a pontoon. The pontoon was very flat, like a ferry punt. They used to put the logs into the barge and they used to tow it up the river, four or five times a month.

Sometimes they did five trips a month. He would take one trip to Harts and one trip to Hynes. These two sawmills used to take most of the timber off Fraser Island as far as I can remember. Although, at one stage Sims did get a bit, but nothing compared with the other two.

I used to travel with my father on the punt, but from 1916 or the later part of 1918, I started working on Fraser Island with bullocks, and I worked there for approximately 11 years. I only took my bullocks off Fraser Island in 1929 because they started to talk about trucks. I was always interested in cattle and horses, not trucks.

My uncle drove the locomotive for Wilson Harts and Hynes and his son worked on the loco for some time, then he bought bullock teams and he pulled timber at Woongoolvber to a tramline too.

My brother also worked in the timber on Fraser Island. As young men we used to camp at a place known as Louisa's Camp. It was a couple of miles further out from where the

[right column] water was. Louisa's Camp is roughly where you would describe the Eastern Break as being now.

Our camp was right amongst the timber - the big [print missing] blackbutt timber, and just on the eastern edge of the rainforest. We named it the Louisa's Camp after the missionary girl who came there to see old Nugget.

Old Nugget was an aboriginal, who must have been over [80?] He never had a tooth in his head, and his hair was as grey as a badger. We all used to go and sit and listen for about an hour. I didn't stop for long, because we had to be out very early in the morning. Louisa came there and used to sit and talk to them.

I don't know if she was any relation to the Ross', but they [??] seemed to be related, the half-casts. But she was a very good person.

She told my brother and I that, because we were batching she would cook a pudding for us if we wanted it. We used [to?] give her the eggs and the rice and stuff and she'd bake a custard rice pudding for us.

There were three aboriginals that I was associated with during my teamster days. One was Old Nugget, there was another one known as Teddy Brown, and of course there was old Roger Bennett. He worked for the Wilchefskis and the Berthelsens at Deep Creek and Yankee Jack.

The timber we hauled was mainly blackbutt and tallowwood. We didn't cut any satinay in those days, nor any box. There was very little pine cut in my day, except for Cypress pine, which was taken down to the Bluff. The Forestrynever let anyone cut kauri until the war started, this last war, and then they started pulling some. A little of the satinay and turpentine was used for piles. I, myself, hauled piles for the Granville bridge. The area which is now known as Pile Valley, at the head of Woongoolvba Creek we used to refer as the "Turpentine Patch".

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