Rosewood History

FIRST NATIONS

The Traditional Owners of the the lands in the Ipswich region, including the Rosewood Scrub, are the Clans that identify as being a part of the Yagara/Yugara Language Group, the Jagera, Yuggera and Ugarapul People.

Here is a photo from a newspaper, The Week in 1927, depicting a group of indigenous people who camped around the Rosewood Scrub in the early settlement days.

Useful Links

Indigenous Land Use Agreement– Jagera, Yuggera and Ugarapul People and Ipswich City Council

Indigenous Use and Indigenous History of Rosewood Scrub for Jagara Daran by Dr Ray Kerkhove (Professional Senior Historian) December 2015, Keperra.

Mapping Frontier Conflict in South-East Queensland – Rosewood Scrub 1843-1848 by Dr Ray Kerkhove

Railways map of southeast Queensland showing the Aboriginal tribes in the region – State Library of Queensland.

Local dance group Nunukul Yuggera.

Biography – Multuggerah – Australian Dictionary of Biography

Biography – Old Moppy – Australian Dictionary of Biography

Multuggerah – Monument Australia

Aboriginal Nomenclature

Kunkala meaning running fresh water
Tallegalla meaning scrub turkey
Birru meaning plain-no timber
Thagoona meaning piles
Rosewood is Cowpanby and Boonooroo meaning all brigalow
Grandchester is Goojabilla meaning a place for collecting honey.

The local word for swamp = balimbal/bulimbool while there are also a couple of specific swamps recorded in the Boonah district, e.g. swamp near Bowman’s = wunehrring; swampy place north of Mt Alford = woorangpilla; generally a reference to water includes ‘guhng’ or ‘dabil’ or waterhole = ‘wenel’ while mud = ‘wahbam’.

If a spear was not the correct shape when being made, it could be straightened by heat and then bent properly over the head. The Ipswich, or “Warpai” tribe, made spears from rosewood (“bunuro”), and these were sometimes exchanged for others; the Brisbane tribe valued them greatly. Before a fight, quantities of spears were made ready.
[Tom Petrie’s Reminiscences of Early Queensland. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. 1992. p. 102]

Yaama means hello and Yaluu means ‘goodbye/talk again’ in Gamilaraay language from South-West Queensland.