y separately published work icon Queensland Review periodical issue   peer reviewed assertion
Issue Details: First known date: 2002... vol. 9 no. 2 November 2002 of Queensland Review est. 1994 Queensland Review
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) is an icon of the natural and cultural heritage of Queensland and one of an elite group of trees that is admired and studied around the world. Endemic to Queensland, the bunya's majestic height, unique silhouette and dark green foliage set it apart from other trees of the Australian bush. Revered as sacred by its Indigenous custodians, the bunya's prolific seasonal harvests of edible nuts provided the catalyst for ceremonial gatherings of thousands of people, many of them from hundreds of kilometres away. To this day the tree retains a significant place in the spiritual life of Queensland's Indigenous peoples. Early colonists were entranced, by these spiritual connections and they wove together tales of mystique and romance that still shape our imaginings and continue to inspire novelists, artists and historians. The bunya's ancient lineage, with links going back in time to the age of the dinosaurs, adds to its air of mystery. A host of treasured personal and community memories envelope the tree. The nuts have provided a novel seasonal treat for generations of Queenslanders and the heavy seed-bearing cones are the subject of countless yarns about narrowly missed injury to persons sheltering beneath its branches.' (Introduction) 

Notes

  • Special edition: On the Bunya Trail

  • Contents indexed selectively.

Contents

* Contents derived from the 2002 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Boobarran Ngummin : The Bunya Mountains, Paddy Jerome , single work oral history

'Good morning. I am very pleased to be here to discuss the Bunya Mountains with you.

The Bunya Mountains, that means our Mothers' breast - Boobarran Ngummin. This is a very sacred place. To us it is equal in status to Uluru. To all the tribes of South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales it has been very significant, in fact for thousands of years, perhaps 60,000 years and that's a long, long time. Our people would gather at the Bunya Mountains from these areas. It is very important that we get the right perspective on these gatherings. Some people think, it was just to gorge on bunya nuts. No, it was very deeply spiritual arousing of ceremony. We went to suck the breast of our Mother, who gave us this, the spirituality that was so intense that it was a part of our bearing in this country, our Mother Australia, the Earth. We 'are sucking the breast, sucking the milk, the bunya nut, from her. All around the Bunya Mountains is very, very spiritual country. There are indicators speaking to Murris, telling them where to go, what to do, what ceremonies to perform. Southwest of the Bunya Mountains is where spiritu~l stones to make axes, knives, whatever were found, all from specific areas. I was just up there for the last month rejuvenating.' (Introduction) 

(p. 1-5)
Against the Grain : Colonialism and the Demise of the Bunya Gatherings, 1839-1939, Raymond Evans , single work essay

'Idyllic accounts of South-East Queensland's triennial bunya festivals - invariably written by Europeans - seem to float like beckoning mirages above a relative historiographical desert. The story of the bunya gatherings in the coastal Blackall Ranges or in the Bunya Mountains, at the north-eastern periphery of the Darling Downs, is largely cut adrift from the intricate race relations history of these districts, its aura of ‘romantic reminiscence’ conveniently unsullied by surrounding patterns of colonialism, racism and violence which punctuate the extended process of European intrusion and displacement.'

Source: Abstract.

(p. 47-64)
Literary Imaginings of the Bunya, Belinda McKay , Patrick Buckridge , single work criticism
'By the time that Europeans became acquainted with the bunya, the gum tree was already well established as the iconic Australian tree. The genus Eucalyptus, with all its locally specific variants, was both distinctive to the continent and widely dispersed throughout it. In contrast, the bunya tree (classified as Araucaria bidwillii in 1843) grew in a small area of what is now South-East Queensland and was seen by few Europeans before the 1840s, when Moreton Bay was opened to free settlement. The physical distinctiveness of the bunya tree, and stories of the large gatherings which accompanied the triennial harvesting ofits nut, aroused the curiosity of early European explorers and settlers, and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the bunya tree achieved a special status in local civic culture. Although heavy logging had largely destroyed the great bunya forests, the tree was planted extensively in school grounds, around war memorials and in long avenues in parks.' (Introduction) 
(p. 65-79)
Bunya Pine Treei"Bunya Pine Tree", G. J. Bacon , single work poetry

'Bunya Pine Tree
Aesthetic visual forms. Breezed crown;' (Extract)

(p. 81)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 25 Jul 2019 15:21:06
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