Pine Rivers SHSSchoolHistoryThe North Pine Clan

The North Pine Clan

First Encounters

Aborigines in the Moreton Bay area first encountered Europeans at Skirmish Pt. on the southern end of Bribie Island in 1799 when Matthew Flinders and his crew had put ashore. Bongaree, a Sydney aborigine, had the job of establishing contact with any natives they came across. An altercation ensued over a hat in which a spear was thrown and Flinders fired on an wounded one of the aborigines. Later in his exploration Flinders landed at Toorbul Pt and a much more amicable encounter enabled trading of tools and weapons. It was another 24 years before aborigines were to see Europeans in the area again.

Three ticket-of-leave convicts, Pamphlett, Parsons and Finnegan on a timber getting expedition became hopelessly lost after a storm blew them out to sea. Thinking they had blown south they sailed north to Sydney finally coming to ground on the ocean side of Moreton Island in the vicinity of Blue Lagoon. They would have surely died if it weren't for the assistance from the local aborigines. The local natives fed and watered the lost men for awhile which allowed them to continue their misguided trek back to Sydney. They eventually made there way  to the mainland and stumbled across the Brisbane and Pine Rivers.

The rescue of Pamphlett and Finnegan by John Oxley at Toorbul Pt brought Oxley to the Pine River. Calling it Deception River for its wide estuary Oxley navigated the river as far as North Pine where he encountered a fishing party at 'Mandin'. "The natives are very numerous on the shores of this inlet , and came down in great numbers trying all methods in their power to induce us to land, waving green boughs (and) holding up their necklaces ."

Reference:

1. Bell, J. P. "Moreton Bay and How to Fathom It" Queensland Newspapers, Brisbane. 1988
2. Steele, J. G.  "Aboriginal Pathways"  University of Queensland  Press, St Lucia. 1984

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The North Pine Clan

The early indigenous inhabitants of the Pine Rivers district were of the Turrbul language group. The Turrbul, sometimes referred to the Brisbane Tribe extended from about Logan River in the south, Moggill in the west and Pine River in the north. The coastal strip belonged to the Ninge-Ninge clan from the Kabi group and to the west in the foothills of the D'Aguilar Range were the Garumungar. Numerous clans or groups centred their lives around various locations within Turrbul country as evidenced by numerous Bora Rings that were observed in the early days of white settlement. The Turrbul seemed to be largely river people whose favourite camps and ceremonial grounds were adjacent to their main food source, the rivers.

The North Pine Clan who ranged on the northern edges of Turrbul country and centred their lives on the North Pine River around what is now Petrie (North Pine). Numbering about two hundred at the time of the arrival of the settlers, the clan exploited the Pine River and the surrounding area for its livelihood. Journeys into the Blackall Range or further to coincide with the Bunya nut season were a no doubt relished event which kept them away for weeks at a time. Similar journeys to the coast for Dugong or shellfish were also part of the clan's cycle of hunting and gathering food.

It is no coincidence that Petrie (North Pine) was an important aboriginal site. Tom Petrie grew up with aboriginal children in and around Brisbane. He learned their language and spent a significant amount of time with them on journeys to the mountains for Bunya nuts and fishing trips. His status with the local indigenous population gave him favour and privilege within their culture that other white men could not appreciate. When in 1859 Tom Petrie took up property at North Pine his selection may have been influenced by his position with the Turrbul people. In any case, Tom Petrie's Murrumba was established on the land belonging to the North Pine Clan or the Whiteside Cattle Run depending on which way  you look at it.

Murrumba was only two kilometres from the Old Northern Road which may have been in the first instance a traditional track north for the clans. Nindur-Ngineddo, the North Pine Clan's Bora Ring is located more or les under the traffic roundabout in Petrie. The small ring is on top of Petrie Hill about a kilometre away at the end of the path which heads north east form Nindur-Ngineddo. John Oxley as far back as 1823 reported seeing a 'weir' of bushes blocking an inlet on the Pine River. This fishing hole called Mandin can be seen at the end of Mundin St. Petrie. The 'weir' was effectively a fish trap where fish, mostly mullet or whiting,  were driven in to Mandin to be harvested. The Rain Making Site just a little further up river, along with Mandin and Nindur-Ngineddo belonged to Dalaipi the rain maker.

Reference:

1. Barter, L. "Shire History - Dalaipi"  Pine Rivers Shire. http://www.prsc.qld.gov.au/yourShire/History/Dalaipi.htm [28/09/01]
2. Steele, J. G.  "Aboriginal Pathways"  University of Queensland  Press, St Lucia. 1984

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Dalaipi

Petrie established his homestead, Murrumba (meaning good in the local dialect), near the North Pine River in territory held by the Aboriginal community which he called the North Pine tribe. In the 1840s and 1850s, Dalaipi was an elder and rain maker of this clan. According to Petrie, Dalaipi "was good and very reverent looking and carried himself with an air as though he were some one of importance, as, indeed he was, for his word was law among the tribe, and he was looked up to by every one".

It was Dalaipi, then nearly sixty years of age, who encouraged Petrie, who was searching for good grazing land, to establish his cattle run in the North Pine area in 1858. Dalaipi 's son, Dal-ngang, accompanied Petrie on his first trip to select the land. It has been suggested that, by giving his land to a person he could trust, Dalaipi was in fact protecting his most valuable possession from unsympathetic landholders. Petrie thereafter continued to enjoy the protection of Aboriginal people and never experienced the stock losses and other problems which plagued other landowners whose relationships with local indigenous people were less satisfactory.

To commemorate the memory of Dalaipi and his North Pine clan, which has since become known as the Dalaipi clan, the Dalaipi rainforest nature trail was established near the site of Tom Petrie's Murrumba homestead on land now part of Our Lady of the Way School at Petrie. A Dalaipi Aboriginal Cultural Festival was held as part of the Pine Rivers Heritage Festival on 6 June 1998. The Dalaipi Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) Association has also been named after him.

Reference:

1. Barter, L. "Shire History - Dalaipi"  Pine Rivers Shire. http://www.prsc.qld.gov.au/yourShire/History/Dalaipi.htm [28/09/01] (Reproduced with permission 28/09/01)
   

7th December 2007