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The community of Cherbourg, formerly known as Barambah, is located in the South Burnett district of south-east Queensland. According to research conducted by anthropologist Norman Tindale, Cherbourg is situated on the traditional lands of the Wakka Wakka Aboriginal people.[ In 1843, Barambah station was taken up by the pastoralists J S Ferriter and Edmund Uhr. The arrival of the pastoralists led to the dispossession of local Aboriginal people and widespread frontier violence. In the Wide Bay and Burnett districts, 28 squatters and shepherds were killed by Aborigines between 1847 and 1853. By 1850, the squatters had called for Native Police protection; in the interim, reprisal killings by the squatters continued. By 1853, a report from the Burnett District stated that: ‘this district is looking well, the blacks are perfectly quiet, sheep all healthy, and greatly on the increase…the native police are most efficient.’ [9] After the hand over to the Queensland Government, living conditions and facilities at Barambah failed to improve and the Aboriginal residents of Barambah lacked adequate housing, sanitation, education and medical facilities. They were issued basic rations by the government, but the quality of the food was often poor.[16] As a result of these factors, Barambah suffered a high death rate in its initial decades, and epidemics of tuberculosis, whooping cough, dengue fever and measles were regular occurrences at the reserve.[17 Government control was also increasingly exerted through the establishment of the dormitory system for Aboriginal children at Barambah. The Reformatory Schools (Industrial) Act 1865 authorised the government to remove ‘neglected’ Aboriginal children from their families and raise them in state controlled dormitories. The first girls’ dormitory building at Barambah was built in 1909 and a boys’ dormitory was completed in 1910. The first dormitories at Barambah had no beds or mattresses and the children slept on the floor. Over time, the dormitory system at Barambah was expanded to include older girls and mothers with young children. Source: www.qld.gov.au/firstnations/cultural-awareness-heritage-a...

Huts at Barambah Aboriginal Settlement 1911 Rita Huggins remembers leaving her grandmother in Woorabinda while the rest of the family were transported to Barambah: “We went to Woorabinda to leave her there. She only lived three weeks after that. She went into the bush to die. She didn’t have the will. “Don’t take my gundaberries (children). Don’t take them. I bring them into the world” she said to the policeman but he just pushed her aside.” - Rita Huggins, interview, 1984 The profound trauma of being driven from their traditional country and of having their family networks and culture shattered is still vivid for many of our parents and grandparents. Source: www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryqueensland/51261569244/...

Doomadgee is a largely Indigenous community located in the Gulf of Carpentaria, approximately 140km from the Northern Territory border and 93km west of Burketown. The community is positioned alongside the Nicholson River and provides access to the coast, freshwater rivers, and Lawn Hill National Park, one of the Gulf’s most popular natural tourist attractions. The Waanyi and Gangalidda people are recognized as the Traditional Owners of the region surrounding Doomadgee. The original mission, known as ‘Old Doomadgee’, was established in 1933 by a non-Indigenous family, the Akehurst family, with the support of the Christian Brethren Assemblies and Chief Protector of Aboriginals[2]. The mission was located at ‘Dumaji’ at Bayley Point Aboriginal reserve, on Gangalidda land. Archival records and personal accounts by residents describe the restrictive and difficult conditions at Doomadgee. In 1950, a government report severely criticized practices in use in the dormitory. At the time, mission policy required that all children over 6 years old lived in dormitories[14]. Boys left the dormitory around the age of 14 to take up station work. Girls were trained in domestic duties and often remained in the dormitories until they married. By the late 1950s, many residents left Doomadgee and went to the Mornington Island mission, where the practice of separating children from parents in dormitories had been abandoned. During the 1960s, older, unmarried girls began returning to their parents[16]. The dormitories closed at some point in the late 1960s. Source: www.qld.gov.au/firstnations/cultural-awareness-heritage-a...