Stage Number: MBNH.09.01.11
Group: Old Town & River
Local Study Area: Brisbane City (CBD)
Epoch: Early 19th Century
Street Address: GPO, Queens Street, City
Latitude & Longitude: -27.46802778,153.02811111
Time Link: 1855
Map Link: 1864
Image Time Point: 1864
Former prison and court site, where some 40 Aboriginal persons were sentenced and – in some cases – incarcerated and executed. Here in 1855, Dundalli, the Aboriginal resistance leader, was kept during his final months. He was hanged just outside on 6th January 1855. The event was heavily guarded by police and armed civilians on account of the pronounced protestations of Aboriginal groups. The event was pivotal in Brisbane history, marking a transition in the treatment of Aboriginal people and the growing power of the squatters in determining that treatment. A decade later, this same area served as the site for annual distributing blankets to Aborigines on the Queen’s Birthday.
Ray Kerkhove, 2015, Aboriginal Campsites of Greater Brisbane (Salisbury: Boolarong), 102-106.
QSA. QSA Series ID 2043 City of Brisbane and Suburbs Maps – A1A Series. 8 chains to the inch. City & environs of Brisbane County of Stanley shewing the electoral districts of North Brisbane South Brisbane and Fortitude Valley. 8 chains to 1 inch. Negative photostat. 634487
