Three locations on the Sunshine Coast are known for their infamous history. Murdering Creek, Murdering Creek Rd and Murdering Creek Park, on the southern side of Lake Weyba near Noosa, are tranquil locations today, surrounded by trees and bushes. But these locations remember a massacre orchestrated by settlers in the 1860s which led to the deaths of at least 25 Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi men.
During the mid-1800s the area was known as the Yandina Run. The earliest account of the location’s history can be found in a letter dating back to 1944. Historian Ray Kerkhove discovered the letter written by William Low in the archives of the Queensland Royal Historical Society. During the 1860s, the Yandina Run experienced a massive scale of cattle killings. The letter describes the Kabi Kabi people gathering in large groups to spear cattle, defending their land.
According to Low’s letter, the Yandina Station manager, William Chippendal, organised a party of eight to go down to the creek between the Maroochy River and Lake Weyba. One of the men walked to the edge of the lake “dressed as a traveller” while the others hid on the other side of the lake. The Kabi Kabi men, out in their canoes, came near to the mysterious man.
They only made it “50 yards from the mouth of the creek” before the other seven men fired their guns. Very few got away as they “tumbled out into the water”. The exact number of casualties is unknown, but most people agree it was 25 men. Historian Ray Gibbons told the Courier Mail it was no less than 70.
Today, Murdering Creek can only be found by travelling down a dirt path which sometimes fills with tea tree-soaked water when it rains. Murdering Creek Rd is full of upmarket houses that stretches into a gravel road known as Murdering Creek Park.
Local artists have used songs, paintings and re-enactments to tell the truth about the history of Murdering Creek. Recently, sculptor Shane Christensen carved a monument to remember those who survived the massacre. It depicts a woman mourning the loss of the men in her mob. “The sad part about history is sometimes it gets rewritten or forgotten about,” he said.
Mr Christensen said it was a “heavy” piece to take on, but it would be a great shame if history gets forgotten. “I’m just a guy holding a chainsaw, channelling a story and that story is hopefully a good representation of what the local mob want,” he said.
Mr Christensen said if the Traditional Owners collectively want a name “more relevant for local mob” then it should change. He said it “would be sad” if it was changed for the sake of wiping out history and increasing sales of local houses. Gibbons says residents would prefer to re-name the creek “because they believe it distracts from property values”.
The Founder of Beulah Community, Heather Johnston, said her understanding is that the Traditional Owners “think the name should remain, in the interest of truth telling”. She said it provides opportunities to educate the local second people who are generally “not very well informed” about the region’s early history. Ms Johnston would like to see the monument at the entrance of the creek to help educate the wider community.
The Beulah Community have the support of the Traditional Owners, and several local groups behind the monument. The next step is to seek permission from the Sunshine Coast Council to install it at the creek’s entrance. “I think with that body of support behind it, it should be possible,” Ms Johnston said. “Most people still don’t know what Murdering Creek is about.”
Most of the information about the massacre was hidden because what happened was illegal, so the name Murdering Creek Rd is helpful in ensuring the story was never forgotten. “The people who want it removed seem to be people who don’t want the history acknowledged,” she said.
Dr Kerkhove said the Sunshine Coast Council and Noosa Council heritage staff have received numerous requests from local residents to change the name of Murdering Creek Rd. The Courier Mail reported in 2017 that a formal application to rename the road was rejected in 2001.
Former resident Roselys Blaich called for the name to be changed in 2017, saying it applied stigmatisation and blame rather than reconciliation. She suggested a plaque be allocated at the creek instead. Traditional Custodian Lyndon Davies told The Courier Mail that plaques come and go but the sign will always be there.
Dr Kerkhove said the general feeling of the Council is that the name is better “retained as it is”, acting as a “solemn and unavoidable reminder of what happened”. He said “offensive” names should remain, acting as “museum pieces” that tell us about the attitudes of those times. Despite opposition, Murdering Creek, Murdering Creek Rd and Murdering Creek Park have continued as a way of remembrance for those lost during Australia’s colonial past.
This article is part of a larger project called Where What Why. You can find the whole collection of stories about places and their names here.
