nationalportraitgallery

"In the 1920s nothing fundamentally changed about the lot or the rights of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders removed from their homelands, but the sheer scope of the segregation policy meant that rough camps had to be turned into permanent settlements. Work stepped up at Barambah, and by the end of the decade more than 40 family cottages, girls’ and boys’ dormitories, a shop, a proper ration shed, a two-roomed school and a hospital had been built. And the settlement had a new name. After complaints from nearby Barambah Station that their mail was being wrongly directed, authorities renamed the community Cherbourg, not for any romantic French connotation but for the parish in which it sat. This is the Cherbourg that the community’s Ration Shed Museum, established in 2004 to mark the settlement’s centenary, commemorates, if not quite celebrates. And yet, despite the dark history of oppression and cruelty that surrounds it, there is much to celebrate in the heroic and uplifting stories of those who survived, and some that thrived." Source:https://noosatoday.com.au/news/21-12-2020/the-people-of-the-settlement/

A Salvation Army officer at Nanango, William Thompson, secured the severance of 7000 acres from the Barambah pastoral station in 1901. The allotment was gazetted as a mission station and known as the Barambah Industrial School. Its establishment predated the beginnings of Murgon township by three years. Thompson gathered local Aborigines onto the mission station and was superintendent until 1904. Conditions were rudimentary, worsened by drought and lack of finance. Control of Barambah passed to the state government in 1905, but the superintendent allowed Aboriginal residents to be forcibly hired out for casual labour in the rapidly growing local agricultural economy. Despite this, the settlement became substantially self-sufficient in food (goats, poultry, vegetables), a hospital was built and a sawmill opened in 1917. Improved housing was built with locally milled timber." Source:https://queenslandplaces.com.au/cherbourg-aboriginal-shire-council

Talking about The First Nation we can not escape historical facts and consequences of colonisation.

Vesna Verencevic At the State library we hold the Cherbourg Tindale genealogical [family history] collection. For more information please visit. www.slq.qld.gov.au/research-collections/family-history/ab... and more.

In 1871 on 1 July representatives from the London Missionary Society arrived on Erub Island (Darnley Island) accompanied by South Sea Islander evangelists and teachers. Clan Elder and Warrior, Dabad greeted them on their arrival. Ready to defend his land and people Dabad walked to the water’s edge when the Rev Samuel McFarlane dropped to his knees and presented The Bible to Dabad. Dabad accepted the gift, interpreted as the ‘Light’, introducing Christianity to the Torres Strait Islands. The people of the Torres Strait Islands adopted the Christian rituals and ceremonies and continued to uphold their connection to the land, sea and sky, practicing their traditional customs, and cultural identity referred to as ‘Ailan Kastom.’ Each year on 1 July, ‘The Coming of the Light’ or ‘Keriba Lagaw Buiya’ in traditional language is a day of celebration, performance, oral tradition and reverence. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/coming-light-celebrating-150-year...